Another warm and sunny day. The captain told us yesterday that we would be slowing down and speeding up. This was just ‘routine’. It was a bit odd to basically be drifting in the ocean and today’s picture is of the wakeless wake! Aurora is well known for propulsion problems (we missed out on Bora Bora in 2013 because of them). Cynical old me thinks that the extra day in Martinique is to try to fix them if there is a problem. I could be wrong, but...

A milestone today. I have two travel ambitions. To visit 100 countries and to visit 50 Hard Rock Cafes. Colombia is my 100th country. Barbara, Rob, Linda and I went on a walking tour of Cartagena Old Town. Our first stop was at the San Felipe Fort, built by slaves for the Spanish in the 16th century. Then we drove onto Cartagena Old Town and walked! The old town is a maze of small streets with narrow roads, multi-coloured buildings, many with mah...

Today we traversed the Panama Canal. It’s my third time through. For some reason, the last twice I’ve been through, I wore an orange t-shirt. To keep the tradition going, I did the same again. Barbara and I woke up early. Because we were showering and the like, we missed passing under the Bridge of the America’s. We were about as we entered both the Miraflores and Pedro Miguel locks. We passed through the old canal and Windstar ship Star Breeze ...

Day one of week seven and St. Valentine’s Day. A chance for the cruise line to sell overpriced meals in the speciality restaurants. Another ordinary sea day. The weather was overcast all the time. It was windy (force 6) all day and we never saw the sun as such. Despite the wind it was around 26 degrees. We sat on the Promenade Deck in the morning and for a change we sat at the back of the ship on Deck 11 in the afternoon. We know how to live! Up ...

My birthday. Last year I celebrated with Javon in the Philippines, this year with friends in Ecuador. Manta isn’t a particularly inspiring place and our excursion today wasn’t either! Today was the final day of a four day weekend in Ecuador and so Manta was busy with locals hitting the beach and such. We started by visiting the local museum, which had a strange mural depicting life in the area before the Spanish came. There were some paintings and a ...