West Africa

 Friday, May 8 to Sunday, May 17

It took us 30 hours to get from Louisville to Cape Town and that included a 3 hour layover at Dulles, 13 hours to fly to Ethiopia, and another 6 hours to fly to Cape Town.  It was a successful trip in that we made all of our connections, there were no flight changes, and our luggage made it with no complications.  By the end of our journey, however, my whole body hurt: I couldn’t concentrate to read, my eyes couldn’t focus, and I had difficulty with my balance.  Our first two ports were cancelled because of the weather and I was grateful because these two additional sea days gave us a chance to settle in.

Monday, May 18, Day 9: Ghana

Our first stop was to see the Bisa Aberwa Museum.  Bisa Aberwa means “ask the old lady” and the museum features a statue of an old woman instructing children on the ways of her tradition.  Also in the museum are statues of Obama, Lincoln, Muhammad Ali, and WEB Dubois to show the influence of Africans in America history.  Our second stop was to the Second Methodist Church, which was uneventful except for the fact that the church shared a border with a local school.  I grabbed a couple of my U of L coasters and started to give them away.  Right after I flung one to the crowd I could feel a few hands, and dozens of fingers, padding my back to get my attention.  A swarm of kids really wanted those coasters and they surrounded me and pulled on my shirt to get one.  I found their teacher, gave her a couple of coasters, and fled.

Tuesday, May 19, Day 10: Ivory Coast.

It was well over two and a half hours from the time that we met in the gathering space to when the bus pulled out of port.  It was probably the bureaucracy of the Ivory Coast that took so long to clear us.  Their government did provide us with police motorcycle escorts, however.  Sometimes it is the journey and not the destination which is the best part of the trip.  For example, just looking out of the window in the bus was worth the price of admission.  I saw miles of shantytowns where plywood walls and corrugated steel counted for a roof.  Sometimes, in a bow to modernity, there were satellite dishes poking out from the roof..  Otherwise, I saw goats, horses, and cows grazing in the mud and the puddles that passed for streets.  When we drove past the local shops, I noticed that they were built from parts of cargo shipping containers. Meanwhile, we were touring in a luxury bus filled with comfortable seats, air conditioning, and guilt.

When we told our friends that we were going on a cruise to West Africa, the inevitable question was “why on earth would you want to go there?”  My reply was that “if I wanted to be a tourist then I would go to an all inclusive resort in the Caribbean but what I really want is to be a traveler and see how the people in the developing world live.”  In that light, there are two images of the Ivory Coast that will always stick with me.  The first is of a modern church that was being built on the outside of the capital.  The steel girders that made up the frame had collapsed on itself and it was apparent that all new construction had halted.  You can almost hear the people think, as they walk by, “we can’t have anything nice.”  The other image was of three little girls playing by the road wearing nothing but diapers.  They were about four years old and they pointed at our bus and waved as we went by.  It probably never occurred to them that they were poor until they saw the rich tourists in their luxury bus.

Friday, May 22nd, Day 13: Dakar, Senegal

Goree Island is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is famous for its “Door of No Return” where the enslaved Africans were shipped off to the new world.   The main attraction on the island is the “House of Slaves,” a museum with dark cells and exhibits detailing the slave trade.  Our guide said that the first recorded African taken as a slave was in 1502 and, since then, seventy percent of enslaved Africans passed through Goree Island.

Monday, May 25, Day 16: Canary Islands

We took a TukTuk tour of Las Palmas because it made our day special.  It was weird to be in a modern city when our three previous ports showed us desperate people in dismal living conditions.  Forty percent of the income for the Canary Islands comes from tourism so Las Palmas has just finished building a brand new mall, hotels, and an expansive park right outside of the port.  They decorated the park with statues, like the one of a giant blue man that was a gift of friendship from South Korea, and a huge tented area where the old men could play Dominoes and chess.  I don’t ask a lot from our tours, just a good guide and something interesting to see, and Las Palmas filled the bill.

Tuesday, May 26, Day 17: Tenerife, Spain

The members of the crew were just so happy to get off of the ship for awhile.  Cherise, one of the women in sales,j n was so excited that she literally bounced in place while we talked to her.  Our guide for the day was Sophia and she was a pure joy to be with because she was filled with youthful energy.  It was clear that she enjoys being a guide as she used to be a teacher.  “I still get to teach,” Sophia said, “only the people are much nicer.”  It felt good to take a long walk with Sophia because the exercise lifted our spirits.  It was a short tour but Sophia pointed out the Trafalgar, where Admiral Nelson defeated the French Navy in the Napoleonic Wars, is just over the horizon from her island.  She pointed out the statue of a sardine because that is Tenerife’s major export, and we saw the Aquadoro, or the statue of a water women, which was erected to show the importance of potable water to this island.  Finally, Sophia walked ten minutes out of her way to escort us to our gate and this demonstrates that the guides are not always in it just for the money; she was truly interested in us and enjoyed talking with us. 

Wednesday, May 27, Day 18: Funchal, Madeira, Spain

You just have to appreciate it when things go right.  We paid extra money to go on a small group excursion and it was money well spent because we rode in a powerful Mercedes van.  This mattered because we drove straight uphill for miles to get to the church and botanical gardens.  The weather was perfect for a long walk through the gardens because, with the morning sun and dew, we could really smell the flowers.  Our guide was Helena and she knew all about the plantings in the gardens and gave us a detailed description as to why each tree and bush was important.  To end our morning tour, we took a cable car back down the mountain and then our last stop was at a Farmer’s Market where I saw a fisherman carving up a tuna.

Saturday, May 30, Day 21: Vigo, Spain.

The day was a wash in terms of what we were supposed to see.  It was so overcast that we couldn’t see the valley from the church even though we drove an hour and a half to get to that site.  To make up for it, our guide took us to a castle but it was underwhelming.  So I decided that it is the journey, and not the destination, that is important.  I chose to focus in on the fact that Vigo is the official starting point for the final 100 kilometers of the Camino de Santiago Portuguese Coastal Route.  I spent a lot of time looking out the bus window to watch the dozens of walkers who were committed to the Camino out of an act of devotion, to seek penance, or to get off the fast track and do some slow travel.  Most people take five days to complete this route.  Also, because it was a Saturday, there were literally hundreds of bicyclists on the route because even though it was a bad day for tourism, it was the perfect day for a long ride.

At Sea Days

I liked going to the dance classes but I never joined in.  It was just nice to be around the energy that the instructors brought to the floor and I spent the time by working on crossword puzzles.  Black, white, Asian, and Indian women all danced to pop, Motown, and disco.  It was fun to watch the old people shake their butts because they were not self-conscious at all and were happy to let their guard down to shake it in front of a bunch of strangers.  One lady danced while using her walker and another chair danced in her wheelchair.  It is easy to be snarky but they were dancing to get out of their comfort zone and have some fun.

On sea days, Tracey and I start off with two mimosas for breakfast and then I drank strawberry daiquiris for the rest of the day.  Aside from watching the dance classes, we played trivia twice and attended the various activities that were sponsored by the ship, and I went to the casino to watch them play poker.  It wasn’t much but we managed to stay busy.

Monday, June 1, Day 23: Heathrow Airport

We took a bus from Southampton to Heathrow where I saw three things that I have never seen before.  The first was a pod, about the size of a VW minivan, that took up to four people from the parking lot to the terminal.  It ran on its own tram line and was innovative.  The second was that we were continuously being past by Waymo self-driving wheelchairs in the terminal.  Finally, Heathrow built nooks into their walls where people could sleep or work on their computers.

Conclusion

Everything went so well that we signed up for another cruise.  In the spring of 2028 we will do a three week cruise to Chile, Antarctica, Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay.  Also, our cruise for this fall has been modified.  We were supposed to go through the Suez Canal, circumvent the Arabian Peninsula, and then end up at Dubai.  Unfortunately, with the closing of the Strait of Hormuz, we will have to end our cruise at Oman and will miss Dubai and Abu Dhabi.  Norwegian gave us a huge discount and we took it because we still get to see Greece and Saudi Arabia, two places that we have never been to before, at a bargain price.

People

• Guillermo, the idiot savant, who wins every trivia game and has traveled all over the world but who has no social skills.  “Is that all that you wear?  Ironman merchandise?”  He was trying to provoke me but I simply replied that I finished it so I get to wear the t shirt.  Seeing that I was unflappable, Guillermo tried a different tack.  When I said that I no longer compete, he said “I saw that a man in his 90’s completed the Ironman.”  Me: “He was a freak of nature.”

• Brian is a middle aged man with autism.  His parents, Bruce and Kathy, brought him on this cruise because Brian enjoys the attention that he received from the other passengers and he likes to be around the energy of the trivia games.  Bruce and Kathy take Brian on many cruises because he enjoys the excursions and swimming in the pool.  They went to the morning dance class where Bruce got Brian out of his wheelchair and held him up to dance for awhile.  After the cruise this family of three were going to rent a car to drive around England for two weeks.  

• Melody has retinitis pigmentosa, which means that she has lost her eyesight from the inside to the out, and she has a cochlear implant.  Melody has allowed herself to become totally dependent on her husband, David, to the point where he orders for her and he cuts up her food.  She doesn’t want to use a cane because “I still have some pride.”  Tracey said that David probably does all of the laundry and cooking at home.

• Dominick and John were two very old men and complete strangers who decided to share a table at breakfast because the restaurant was so crowded.  Both men had lost their wives to cancer.  Dominick decided to date again but then his girlfriend died.  He is at least eighty but is still keeping his eyes open for a new girlfriend.  John is not interested in dating but instead has directed his energies towards his family.  He is taking 14 of them to Alaska for a cruise.  After a short breakfast where a lot of information was shared, they said goodbye to each other, never to meet again.  Through a glass, darkly. 

• The blonde Asian woman was scantily dressed and clearly on the hunt.  Unfortunately, she chose a cruise that was made up of almost exclusively old people.  It must have been frustrating for her that the pickings were so slim but she continued to work it by changing her outfits several times a day and her wardrobe included a lot of thongs and mesh.  Each new outfit was more seductive than the previous one.  Eventually she hooked up with Ben, one of the few (only?) young, single men on the ship.

Quotes

• “In America, They shoot Black people in the streets.”  Edgar, our Uber driver from Rwanda, on why his friends and family don’t relocate to the U.S.

• “C’mon Buddy.  We’re not out of this yet!”  It took us thirty hours to get from our condo to our hotel in Cape Town.  At the end of the day my whole body hurt, especially my back.  I couldn’t concentrate, my eyes wouldn’t focus on my book, and I had difficulty with my balance.

• “SKI means Spending Kids’ Inheritance.  KING means Kids’ Inheritance Nearly Gone.”

• “I want an open faced salmon bagel but no bagel but instead I want a well toasted English muffin.  I want a sliced tomato.  Are you writing this down?  If you don’t write it then they wont do it.  Trust me!”  The mean old woman was taking out her hostility on the server. She never had so much power.  “And  slices of avocado on the side.  For my entree I want Eggs Benedict but no no ham, take away the sauce, and no English muffin.  And no potatoes.”  Then her friend ordered a bowl of bacon.  “Don’t serve it on a plate.  I want it in a bowl.”

• “Let’s start off with the fact that you are absolutely beautiful!  You should thank your parents for your genes!”  I said this to Bella upon our first meeting.

• “”She is beautiful but evil!”  Jane said this about her dealer for poker.  She put her forefingers out on  her forehead like they were horns, as if the dealer was the Devil.

• “No farting!  The people in the back won’t like it!”  Franscica said this about having to bend over while dancing to “Thriller.”  Of course, the next time that they bent over, they made a farting noise.

• “We are Greek, so we dance!”  I used this line by John Belushi whenever something mild went wrong. It just means don’t sweat the small stuff and go with the flow.  

• “Now that we have turned 70 my husband and I have decided to take care of ourselves.  My doctor told me to throw away all of my medications, put honey into my tea, and to use magnets to take away my pain.”  Victoria on her new health regime.

• “ I would rather take a swift kick to the balls rather that talk about the capital of Bhutan.”  I told Guillermo that I was disappointed that the trivia game would spend a question on Bhutan, but he was undeterred and insisted on telling me all that he knew about Bhutan.  “No, seriously.  A swift kick to the ball with shoes with cleats on them.”  Still, Guillermo continued to talk about Bhutan, so I said “balls, balls, balls,” but he continued with his soliloquy.

Non Sequitar.

• Bella teared up and hugged me when I gave her a U of L coaster.  In a really nice moment, she was beautiful, vulnerable, innocent, and feminine.  She said that she was going to hang the coaster up on her wall.

• Kat led a Chinese inspired dance for the morning stretch class.  She was clearly proud of her culture and integrated Chinese words and philosophy into her routine.

• Tracey and I did a Tango dance together.  It didn’t work because the dance floor was too crowded and we are flat footed.  But at least we tried.

• It is easy to lose track of the days, especially the seas days because one is exactly like the other.

• I like doing the longer cruises because they give us a chance to get to know the crew and we can really settle into the ship.  This cruise was three weeks long so we had to husband our resources including laundry, pod casts, reading material, and online minutes.  The ship gave us 300 minutes for three weeks and they get eaten up more quickly than you would think.

• The NCL Sun is a smaller ship and the oldest in the fleet.  That is fine with us because we like getting to know the crew and a small ship is easier for Tracey to navigate.  Also, the layout of the ships are similar so we feel like we are going on the same ship over and over again.  The Norwegian Cruise Line ships are our home away from home.