January 7, 2019: Santa Marta - Columbia

Santa Marta is on the Columbian Caribbean Coast and is situated on a perfect curve of beach, which makes it a popular vacation spot for Columbians. Along the beach is a cobblestone esplanade, and alongside this esplanade are dozens of small tents selling everything from ship models to jewelry to hand carved domino sets.

Santa Marta was founded in 1525 by Roger de Bastidas, Santa Marta is ideally located for visits to the Santa Marta mountain range, second in height only to the Andes that run through Columbia and two National Parks.

Cruise ships dock about a half mile to the centre of town (Puerto de Columbia). The port is a container terminal with no facilities for passengers. A short shuttle will take you to the centre of town by the beach next to the Custom House. It is easy to get around as it feels like a big, small town. Easily walkable. 

Marianne, Marcel, Jan and myself jumped on the 10 o’clock shuttle to take a walk throughout the old part of Santa Marta. There is a little market inside the gate where the shuttle drops you off but a much bigger beach market just on the other side of the entrance gate. Hundreds of tented stalls selling mainly tourist type items, clothes, masks, magnets etc. but also household items, I saw a local person purchasing a fan, so just about everything is available at this market - meaning that it is not necessarily a tourist market. The main malecon (boardwalk/esplanade) is lively and colourful with many larger than life statutes and as you walk along there are plenty of signs pointing you in sightseeing directions. We were looking for the main cathedral and followed a sign but also a friendly local that made sure we were heading in the right direction. A very nice cathedral as far as cathedrals go, we have seen many and this one is nice to visit but not a huge wow factor - not that I am an expert. We then headed over to the Gold Museum (Museo Del Ora Tairona), worth seeing (air conditioning and free) as it has plenty of gold remnants as well as the history of this area and its people as well as the textiles through the ages. Some pieces go back to 1,000 BC, so a good way to spend some time. From here we headed to the Newlywed square, to be honest not a big deal during the day, looks just like a a block square, well, square but in the evening I am sure this is a very special spot as most of the trees have lights as well as many placards that contain lights. With some music playing in the background this would be a special place. There is another indoor market just down the street from this square as you head back to the boardwalk, probably a bit better prices than at the beach. 

Time for a beer and some wifi as we head back to the ship, so we found a nice spot on the main road for a couple buck beer and a coke. Funny, something we never do is purchase from a street vendor but here we are and this guy just caught us at the right time for the right price and we purchased a mask (for our mask wall). $25 countered to $10, countered to $15 settled at $12. Done. We did buy a $2 fridge magnet at that previously mentioned indoor market.

Back to the ship for lunch and then grabbed my laptop to send the first blog postings, trying this out for the first time as we are not that impressed with the packages offered on the ship. We may have to concede depending on how this goes. I had trouble getting on at the terminal because of so any users but at the eleventh hour was able to post before the gangplank was raised as there were only a few diehards left. 4:30 all aboard time, I boarded at 4:20.

Sail away party and we are on our way to the San Blas Islands of Panama, scheduled to drop anchor at noon tomorrow. This will be a few days to post as my next available wifi will not be until Panama City. Until then… Here are a few pics of our day today…

January 6, 2019: Sea Day

Pretty much rinse and repeat of yesterday during the day, different lectures but all good. Seas were a bit rough today as everyone was now forced to find their sea legs, unfortunately, Marcel did not make it to dinner tonight due to just not feeling right. Checked out the Gym onboard, small but very well equipped (smaller ship, fewer people, makes sense). Did a half hour on the cross trainer, so all good. We sat and watched the Adagio duo tonight before dinner, nice room for them to play in. Dinner was Osso Bucco tonight, a specialty followed by a ventriloquist act, Kenny Byrd - a very talented guy who makes it look so easy, haven’t laughed like that in a while. We are visiting our first port tomorrow, Santa Marta, Columbia, looking forward to a great day as we are just going to stroll off the ship and head into town.

Quote of the Day: Travel is about the gorgeous feeling of teetering in the unknown - Anonymous 

January 5, 2019: Sea Day

After a good night sleep we awoke to the calm sea of the Caribbean, nice and warm and sunny to add. 9 o’clock tai chi class was very good as we have an expert Tai Chi master on board. We then attended the Cruise Critic get together at 10 for a little mix and mingle and to discuss any tours that they may be putting on. 11 o’clock was lecture time with Tim Calvert discussing the four voyages of Christopher Columbus, get this he never actually laid foot in America, wow, learn something new everyday. Lunch at noon, followed by Trivia at 1, then another lecture at 2 from one of the Columbian ambassador speakers to chat about our first port, Santa Marta. Let see, then it was dance class at 3 followed by some down time before our first formal night (or gala night) and the welcoming toast by the captain and the main officers on board. Surprising to us but not one familiar face on the stage, now that was a first in a long time. We had a very nice dinner to follow with surf and turf and escargot. Great entertainment tonight with Pianist, Paul Pappas. A great day indeed as we settle into our winter cabin here aboard the beautiful, Prinsendam.

Quote of the Day: We travel not to escape life but for life not to escape us… - Anonymous 

January 4, 2019: Fort Lauderdale, USA

Embarkation day, wow we are actually here. This is a journey we have tried to take a few times but just could not seem to do it and now, here we are on the final Grand Voyage of the Holland America Prinsendam. This ship is leaving the HAL fleet in the middle of this year and will be sadly missed by many, us included. We sailed on her for 30 days back in 2008 on the Baltic and North Seas, so its good to be back on her for her last big adventure as we go around the continent of South America (including Antartica), we are thrilled and blessed.

We stayed at the Quality Inn hotel in Fort Lauderdale, nice inexpensive, clean hotel that offers a shuttle service both from the airport and to the Cruise Terminal. We did have a problem with our booking which I will need to sort out upon my return and depending how things go over the next week I will fill you on my experience. Take note and heed the warning, when using a discount online service where payment is made in advance, be prepared to lose said payment. Lets just say I am glad it is only a one night loss but still we feel we have been conned. Stay tuned to the end of that story in a separate blog entry. Now back to our ship.

Embarkation was quick and easy as well showed up at the designated 1 pm time and pretty much walked onto the ship. We met Marcel and Marianne surprisingly at the hotel (who would have figured of all the many hotels in Fort Lauderdale that we would be staying at the same one) and traveled with them on the free shuttle to the Port. We were lucky to make it to the dining room for the tail end of the Mariner lunch - its just so much nicer to have a sit down lunch in the dining room rather than in the Lido. We ordered, chatted a bit and then noticed a fellow Yaletown neighbour sitting at a close by table, Ingi, wow. Ingi (sp), is a person we have seen on many cruises and is the person that actually got us interested in living in Yaletown, so fantastic. We then began seeing many more fellow guests we have seen on previous longer cruises, about a dozen I would say. We do find that there are only so many people that like the longer cruises so the chances of seeing some familiar faces is always a good one. Further on that is that those would do take the longer Grand Voyages know what an amazing experience it is over a regular cruise that just keeps them coming back. That said, there are some cut back changes already in this GV but not enough at this point to provide too much negative comments. Stay turned as the cruise continues as I identify both the good and the not so good, I know first world problems. lol.

Welcome mariner cocktail hour was very nice in the show lounge with the band playing in the background, nice, complimentary cocktails and appetizers were all very good as this led to the muster drill at 4 pm. After which was another complimentary drinks and appetizers for all guests at the Lido pool as we were getting set to sail away. Again very nice as we continue to meet new and old guests, so nice on this smaller ship, I think we have a great crowd on this voyage. It always nice to have a few beverages before unpacking, makes the job a bit easier. For those new to the Prinsendam, this ship was designed for longer cruising where all cabins have walk in closets, nice again. For us we took a last minute, very well priced, upgrade to a verandah suite, so we are very happy with not only the room size but we now have a good sized balcony right smack in the middle of the ship. 8 o’clock dinner went very well, it did take a few minutes to get our table organized as we like it but it is now all sorted with little difficulty. We retired to our room right after our dinner as not much happens on a first day of a long cruise. The dining room was only partially full as many only arrive on the day of the cruise and it is usually a long travel day for many. So we have a few sea days to find our sea legs and adjust to our sea life. That is it for now, good night from the Prinsendam from out here as we sail into the Caribbean sea…

Quote of the day from Winnie the Pooh - A Grand adventure is about to begin.