The Dating Game – 2 Sea Days

Since leaving Peru, I've managed to totally damage my short 55mm lense by smashing it on the bus seat in front of me – so at this point I’m limited to just 200mm and 300 mm lenses – no more close-ups for the remainder of the cruise.

Last night Deb and I entered Holland America’s version of the Dating Game, only for married couples. Both of us were asked some very suggestive questions about where, what and when things have happened between us during the past 21 years. Going into this we told each other to pick the most obvious answer – alas we came in 2nd place and won a bottle of champagne – better than the cookbook I suspect that was first prize. It’s funny today some of the older grey haired ladies are giving me the strangest smiles – I guess Deb’s answers were just too honest for some. For the last couple of days’ it’s been intense sessions of Texas with the regular crew. We have ten of us that sit at every tournament – twice a day – so we’ve all gotten to know each other pretty well. Today I had a first and a third so it was rather productive. We bombed out on the slot tournament – oh so close for yet another $500.00 but we picked chair number 6 instead of the open chair on #3 which eventually won with high score.

Deb and I had agreed earlier that tonight was laundry night. The strategy was that it’s our fourth formal night – and we were sure that people for the 6:00 p.m. seating would be getting dressed so we decided to head to the one and only laundry (4 washers only) on the boat – eureka – there were two machines available and we got everything done in less than an hour. You have to understand that a trip of close to 50 days takes a considerable amount of clothing particularly when you consider both a cold (Cape Horn) and hot (Rio de Janerio) climate are part of the itinerary. We’re managing quite well.

We’re scheduled to pull into Coquimbo (La Serena), Chile at about 8:00 a.m. and we have tour scheduled with take us to the Elqui Valley, Vicuna City, Villa Seca, La Serena including the University and Art Craft Market and then back to the port of Coquimbo for our 3:30 boarding call. All is well, it’s been an incredible adventure so for with the best part of the trip still ahead. Again, people have been asking me for my photos – the problem here is that wi-fi in theses smaller SA towns and cities is not of the quality in North America. To upload my RAW file photos it takes quite some time for each picture. So until we can get some reasonably fast download speeds, it will just have to be copy over pictures. Sorry.