Month: March 2024

Lanzarote is the eastern most island of the Canary Islands with unique volcanic landscapes that looks like Mars .. Ship is docking at the capital Arrecife…. we choose to be on our own yesterday with Tenerife because Tenerife is very walkable, not the same scenario for today, originally we were going to join the full day ship excursion but it was canceled due to delayed arrival into port… So we hired a taxi for 5 hours and covered 5 spots that we want to visit

Cesar Manrique foundation…. Really eye opening…. He combines nature with architecture and art…. This foundation was his old home build amongst volcanic chambers… Colorful mid century style modern furnitures combine with nature’s volcanic rocks, trees and water…… They said it looks like a James bond super villains cavehome

Jardin de cactus(Cactus Garden)  Cesar Manriques final master piece, crafted on a quarry of volcanic ash extraction… A surreal garden amongst Mars like landscape with 10000 types of cactus

Mirador Del Rio, Cesar Manrique choose this spot perched on a volcanic cliff to build a restaurant with glass windows set in volcanic rocks overlooking spectacular view…. It was raining while we were there, second rain we experienced in 63 days of travel

Los Jameos del aqua, a water park also designed by Manrique with swimming pool and lagoon build underground amongst lava tunnels

Cueva de los Verdes, 4 mile long Volcanic tunnel right by the sea… The guided tour takes us through around 1/2 mile

Lanzarote is such a surprise for us, never heard of this island, never heard of this artist Cesare Manrique until now… And now we are fans of both…the taxi ride costs, 40 euro per hour, the driver John is wonderful, speaks little English, so P gets to practice Spanish with him…

From Wiki: Tenerife is the largest of the Canary Islands . British, Nordic and German tourists come in there tens of thousands every year to visit its spectacular beaches and lively nightlife. It is also very popular among holidaymakers from the Spanish peninsula, especially during Easter time.

Vibrant port scene with a blue line that leads us straight to downtown

First stop is Tenerife’s opera house, looks a little like Sydney’s, a beautiful architecture in its own right… Gorgeous from every angle

Next we checked out the carnival museum: (carnival is Huge here!! Second only to Rio’s ) la casa del carnaval… There are so many contents, we can only show a few of them… We had experienced Rio’s Carnival parade 5 years ago from sambadrome, super fun… But this is the first time we get to study the costumes up close… Amazing

They even had the special exhibition where  Every year the fashion designer Frank Romero does a Barbie replica from the Tenerife Carnival Queen. It’s an amazing work.

Mercado Ntra. Senora de Africa… A historical market place with fresh flowers, produce, spices meat and seafood… The seafood selections were eye opening…. Never seen Alaska king crab legs that big 😮

Found a great tapas restaurant based on excellent Google review….

We were told that Sangria is a must here… So we ordered it with lunch and it became the highlight of today: ….. It’s delicious, huge, with fresh orange, papaya and banana and it’s only 5 euro (about 5.50 Usd… Impossible to get this quality at the price in Los Angeles)

And then it’s shopping time…. Although they are using euro, but price all around is very reasonable… Last time we were in Europe (long time ago 😅) , 1 euro is almost 2 usd, now it’s 1.08, almost the same now…

The ship also invited a group of locals to come onboard and do folkloric dance and features the traditional clothing and culture of Tenerife… What a treat!!

Santa Cruz de Tenerife is a great stop!! It feels like Europe with a bit of island vibe… Very walkable city with plenty to do and see..we did not get to visit the nature side of Tenerife due to limited time… Hopefully we will be back next time to check out the mountains and beaches…

After today, we are going to have 3 consecutive ports… Two in the Canary islands and one in Morocco….

P starts attending arts and crafts classes on the ship and found his tribe…. Class is unhosted, they provide water color materials… Painting comes very naturally to P and here are what he had painted so far

Today’s also the 3rd captain’s circle party of this world cruise (for every section of the cruise, there’s a party, this is the third section, there are total of 5) we get to have a selfie with Andi, our most favorite cruise director of all time… So happy

Tonight’s production show called Encore where they performed Broadway / IL Divo songs was spectacular!!

As mentioned before, on this day 60 of 111 day world cruise, while we are chugging along, we are shocked to find out a lot of our friends onboard already sign up for the next world cruise…. Part of the reason is Princess offered lots of incentives as compensation for the route change at the red sea on this cruise…. We are not biting as we don’t know if the situation at the red sea is going to improve…

Meanwhile a friend who disembarked in South Africa, returned home to Florida, after getting some rest and precious time with her dog, decided to join the cruise again in Rome… Apparently this is a hop on and hop off cruise ship…. Exciting to see her again!!

Remember the lake like sea we experienced about 1 week ago when we were near the Equater… Back then it’s hot and humid and windless…. Now we are sailing closer and closer towards the Mediterranean it get colder with strong wind and strong waves….

Mauritius was an unexpected stop on this journey. Before arriving here, we’ve never heard of this country. When leaving them, we were deeply moved by the beauty of their beaches. The sun seems to have two dials on that day. On the beach, it’s soft and bright. In the city, it was relentless and piercing.

And we were double-surprised to find Taiwan’s flags were flying proudly there, and Mauritius is almost the antipodes of where we live. The world is really connected in magical ways.

Perth is a big metro. It’s becoming a little bit like Downtown LA, where social and unsocial lifestyles coexist. We didn’t spend much time there as their shops are like in any other big name shopping malls around the world.

Fremantle is an artist colony right at the Cruise port. The petite city packs a huge amount of charm. The lifestyle here also embraces a good amount of “Op stores”, the previous-loved stores. We had a marvelous time strolling around streets and alleys. We love it here!

We spent most of the time in downtown Melbourne. Therefore, we have strong affinity to the city, scenery, foods, museums, the local people, and their bustling lives.

Their Chinatown gives a nostalgia vibe with vintage posters and brand logos. We think it’s cool to feel transported back to various decades in an instance.

Bet everyone is wondering where is Mindelo… We don’t know either until this trip…. It’s the second biggest city of the country of Cape Verde…. Bet everyone is also wondering what country is cape Verde… Haha…. We do not even know this country existed until this trip… It is a country west of Africa compiled of clusters of islands …(amazing..  after almost 10 days of sailing we are still in the continent of Africa region …)

Most famous person from this unknown country is Cesaria Evora ( been listening to her music for ages but never knew where she’s from until now)… I am glad to have the opportunity to find out where the hauntingly beautiful voice  of Cesaria Evora (they call her the bare foot diva) originated from..

A small seaside village town..

Stray cats and dogs every where, we were so happy to see a dog as soon as we disembark since we have not seen one for a while… Later we found out they are everywhere…

It is Sunday…. Most store are  closed except the African market

Also stumbled into a courtyard where they store props for their carnival which we heard is huge and a very important annual event: per wiki “Mindelo is known for its colourful and animated carnival celebrations, with roots in Portuguese traditions later influenced by the Brazilian culture.*

By strange coincidence, we arrived at the country of Cape Verde which in English means green cap on Saint Patrick’s day!!! How cool is that!! Got to remember to toast to that during Happy hour!!!

Today 3/18/24 is Saint Patrick’s day!!

Here is our wonderful cruise director Andi and his side kick Rafa on today’s The Wake show (it is a daily show where they tell people about today’s schedules and events and read out passengers shout outs to their favorite crew member or suggestions) These two had great chemistry and humor and always makes us laugh, great way to start the morning ….. Today, they happened to read the slip that R left, a shout out to Andi for the spectacular job he did (saying he is truly the best cruise director we have ever had.. And his high EQ response is he owe that to his amazing team) .   Andi is super funny, quick and smart and always said he had the best job in the world by being an idiot 😆

Other Saint Patrick’s day scenery on the ship.. Really admire people who planned so far ahead and remember to pack something green for the world cruise in anticipation of St Patty’s day..

7 sea days flies by so quickly this time… We were fully rested and recharged and ready for land tomorrow …. More and more I love this old fashion style of traveling by sea, so lyrical and so “down to earth” like combing each physical inches and circumnavigate it passed 5 continents and 5 seas.

Many passengers we knew love it so much they already booked next year’s world cruise…. Seated next to a lady from Toronto last night at the theater and she told me this is her 8th world cruise and she also already booked the next….. Is there a race to break the Guinness world record for world cruises that we are not aware of?