Heading for the equator

The Panama day was rounded off nicely with a last minute booking for La Terrazza – the first on this voyage. Diva had her usual 9 starters (all tiny).

The butler and the butler manager part-rescued the reading situation by lending TSH some reading glasses from the staff store. He still needs to buy some soon but there is a plan for that.

Early morning Tai Chi on the lifeboat deck, which seems to be the only outside space which doesn’t form part of a thoroughfare or a public area such as the pool.

The first highlight of the day at sea was the sight of a school of dolphins swimming alongside the Silver Spirit, leaping in and out of the water.

The second highlight was another lecture from a Professor of Archaeology. One of the best speakers ever experienced on a Silversea ship. Diva wants to visit all the Peruvian sites and museums he is describing but it will be possible to visit only one.

Excellent sweet and sour pork for lunch made a change from TSH and Diva’s usual choice of lots of salad with fish or cheese.

Diva and TSH have been presented with small holdalls with the Silversea Circle Voyage logo.

Not many other cruise ships spotted so far. Only Celebrity Summit and Crystal Serenity.

This photoblog hopefully gives some impression of the spectacle which is the Panama Canal.

Continental divide

Early morning

Flight of pelicans

Going In

Leaving Panama

The lake

Someone is missing a sock

The previous cruise had more British passengers than TSH and Diva had ever experienced on a Silversea cruise. However, on this leg, there are far fewer and the majority of passengers seem to be American or Australian.  Maybe it’s just a first night thing, but the guest at the next table showed that he was a wine connoisseur by declining the offered white wine after tasting but accepting any provided it was French, without any further tasting.

In Quebec City again, there was the episode of the glasses case and the sock. Whilst visiting a waterfall (higher than Niagara) one of the fellow travellers discovered when she returned to the bus that she had lost her glasses case. Other people in the group said that they had seen the lost case back at one of the waterfall viewing places. After a few minutes and just before the tour bus was due to leave our hero decided to go back and look for the missing case. His wife confidently predicted that her husband would return with the case and whilst every one else waited impatiently, there was much loud speculation about whether or not he would find it. When he returned some while later his comrades applauded enthusiastically as he clambered onto the bus with an object in his hand.  The object turned out to be a sock!

A further walk round the lower old town revealed many more attractive streets and shops.

Because of the unusual itinerary, there have been fewer sightings than usual of other cruise ships. But in Quebec there is a Holland American ship and Celebrity Summit.