February 13, 2023 – Callao, Peru – Cloudy – 85F

Our final day in Callao. I’m certainly ready to get out of here.  Noisy, aromatic, monochromatic, and very industrial.  It was nice, however, to see another cruise ship here this morning – the P&O Aurora, a midsized ship was docked across from us.  There were signs of life on board the Aurora so that’s good.

Did not sleep well at all last night – perhaps was the Strawberry Daiquiri and the Apricot Sours messing with my sleep cycle.  I didn’t even detect excess alcohol in those drinks, so I am confused.

Today’s breakfast involved dealing with many new service staff up in Windows.  Nobody knew anything about sour cream, and I didn’t want to get into the big process of fetching some.  Maybe tomorrow.  Anyhow, I had two pancakes (Sarah was not there for the first time in 17 days), cottage cheese, and jelly.  A single small scoop of scrambled eggs completed the breakfast.  The ship has not taken on any additional provisions because they are still offering the restaurant strawberry jam packets.  The marmalade jars are still available. Guests are still not able to get their own food.  That will probably go on for a couple more days as the Norovirus incubation period runs out.

Now in the Living Room in real time reading my Elvin Cole Novel and watching the activities at the port.  Ellen has a good view of a bland view.

I had another fresh pasta made for me in the Windows Café (again not by Sarah) and it was very good – the key is the not too sweet tomato sauce used.

We watched the Callao sail away from the Living Room

and then I changed clothes and the two of us when to the Cabaret Lounge where the Welcome Aboard Show was being held – this time at 4 PM.  I was the only speaker in attendance and gave a little preview of what we would be seeing over the next couple of weeks.  There are again a little over 500 passengers on this leg with about 400 of those being English speakers.  The crowd was not overly enthusiastic, but we will see.

Tonight is "Taste of China" in the Windows Cafe, and I had freshly made stir fry on rice along with veggie spring rolls.  They were both good especially since Hoisin Sauce was not available as a sauce on the first cruise. The combination of sauces (along with Soy) made all the difference.  

We stayed on the Sunset Veranda for a while – after retrieving my sweater and Ellen’s windbreaker (it was a little chilly).  The view was gray but nice.

Kristian Grey is the Headliner tonight with a different show.  Some card tricks and a trick with a Rubik’s Cube were the keys.  He could not complete the signature trick and a couple of others because the overhead camera malfunctioned and no one could fix it.  He did the “book trick” where he says he memorized (using a duplicate book –blank of course - that the guest can’t or won’t notice). Kristian tried really hard to do a workaround for the wonky equipment, but it didn’t work that well.  Felt sorry for him but he’s a pro.  He probably got everything straightened out for his second show at 9:30 PM.

We went to the room – tired from last night’s sleepless adventure.