Hi ,

We are almost to Manta Ecuador which is roughly 750 NM from Callao Peru.  Traci is off the entire time in Ecuador so we have what is shaping up to be a busy and interesting few days. We were granted the ability to disembark the ship early so we can catch a bus that will take us to a ferry which will bring us to Isla de la Plata sometimes known as the poor mans  Galapagos . We will get to see many of the unique creatures found on the famous Galapagos. Logistically it works for us and w/ the attention span of a child plus the fact we wouldn’t be scuba diving this will be a perfect substitute. We will be able to snorkel and hike.

The dependant children’s program went well this sea trip. Anna did particularly well developing a report on Ecuador. Layne has doing her journal and gathering facts about all sorts of animals. Declan is drawing w/ great imagination. The setting couldn’t be better for interesting subjects.

Traci is engaged w/ clinic and so far nothing she hasn’t been able to handle.  I have been doing my thing on the ship which is watching after a bunch of kids primarily our own, reading , exercising and looking to sea. Yesterday I saw a school of tuna!! We were about 50 miles off shore. I know it was tuna because I’ve seen it. We have also seen whales , Manta rays and flying fish.

Must prepare for port  … have a great day!!

“The valley spirit dies not.”  Tao

Capt Ron

Lat- 4’.39minutes N

Long- 81’. 47 minutes W

Sea depth 10827 feet

Lobos de Mar

Hola,

Yesterday was our last day in Peru, so we decided to go swim w/ Los Lobos de Mar ( Sea Lions ) . For some reason they call them wolves of the sea.

The boat and crew were sadly disorganized but we have that” tranquillo, thing “going so delays and lack of direction are more or less taken in stride. Plenty to see and people to fend off while we wait J

I must say the jellyfish here are huge!! We saw some definitely as long as Anna and they look nasty. We were calling the medusa’s . We were told they don’t sting by the Captain who skin looked like beef jerky and I doubt he could swim or would ever go in the water for any reason so we took his comment under advisement only.

Layne the small and fearless made up her mind she was going in and even racked up a list of ten obstacles most people might consider reason to bail out. They included , jellyfish the size of a kite , aqua mucho freo , dead bird we saw cruising out, the fact no other passengers we jumping in, oh and Sea lions can weight about 600 lbs and swim like torpedoes w/ teeth, there were a few other but who cares, we are going in. 

We arrived at the rock island w/ some 6000 sea lions on it and it smelled something fierce. I forgot to mention we were the only travelers on the boat the rest were locals and earlier  they passed around sea sickness medicine and a glass of diarrhea inducing tainted water to wash it down… we took our chances and passed. They were also offering cotton balls swabbed w/ alcohol for the dence and quite sharp stench of these beasts. The boat pulled up wind and we all jumped in including Declan , it had that strange somewhat vonurable feeling you get when you jump in the open ocean even though we were close to this rock island. We were a few miles off shore and the water was a dark blue and deep. The Sea Lions let us swim right up to them they are very cool looking like the seals off Monomoy Island. Both Anna and Layne were on their way to joining the colony w/ there little wetsuits on.

Hope you all had a memorable Memorial Day!

"Stay within yourself, mind;

Don't go into anyone elses room.

You will get what you need right here.

Search in your own inner chamber."   Sangit

Best

Capt Ron

En route to Manta , Equador

Latitude – 9’ 31 minutes S

Longitude – 79’ 22 minutes W

Seas – 5 ft following

COPRODELI

Hola,

“Even when they are not around anymore, great friends inspire you to do great things”

When I found this quote yrs ago I knew it would continue to be relevant as long as I lived.

I’m not saying here that I/ we have done something great but through my very good friend Gin, who has been a human rights lawyer for the UN for many yrs mainly in Latin America we met w/ a special person here in Peru.

Her name is Ruthie Eisenberg, she works for www.facebook.com/coprodeli.us

www.coprodeliusa.org . It is an organization that builds and runs schools , med clinics, mental health clinics , job training for disadvantaged children and families.

Ruthie was so generous w/ her time and local knowledge. We rode to a part of Callao that was in very tough shape in a “psycho bus”  Picture a mini van that has been tortured and completely stuffed w/ people riding as fast as possible on a track like the Baja 1000 . Noise and chaotic traffic abound, we clipped an 18 wheeler w/ out a thought of tapping the breaks. Anna seemed to love this, she was laughing the crazier it got (a sure sign she is my kid)

We arrived at the school and were treated to a tour and many polite children. The schools coral ensemble about 18 children strong sang two special local songs just for us. 

It was just what we look for in our travels , a chance to see past the tourist spots to a small taste of a real day in a culture foreign to us. The poverty and sanitation in some parts was not unlike parts of  India we walked through. Mind you we have stayed closer to the city (Traci is on call) so we have not seen the rural side of this country.

Ruthie told Traci to get ready for some horrible gastric issues for any student who taketh a sip of water or try the local delicacy if cheviche .

We did try a local dish that was cooked , don’t know the name but the foundation for this creation was a brick of yellow potato like substance followed by a layer of guacamole colored stuff then another brick of the yellow stuff topped w/ octopus and crab all covered w/ a thin thousand island like sauce. It was good, mind you I would not put it in the weekly rotation but once a yr will work J

 If Traci doesn’t have to go to the hospital , she has a few patients in tough shape right now and probably 70% of ships population is away visiting Machu Picchu …

We plan to go swimming w/ Sea lions before departing this evening for Equator .

Best to all Capt. Ron

Still tied to the dock in Callao

Hello,

We made our first destination Callao , Peru at 5:45 am yesterday after travelling 1169 nautical miles. All the buzz on the ship is about Machu Picchu , a magnificent ancient Inca city built and carved into the top of a mountain peak over 11,000 feet above sea level. It is a wonder and an astonishing engineering feat .

We will not be visiting due to the distance & $ it takes to get there from here… just a plane, bus to the train, bus from the train up the mountain for a look see and $1500 per person .

We went for the slightly less strenuous adventure which entailed taking a taxi from outside the port to the city of Lima. The landscape surrounding the port for miles is dirty and poor industrial gloom. To add to that pretty picture there is a preverbal blanket of grey fog that sleeps on this area of the country for 8 months !

The city had it’s old section w/ impressive Spanish architecture (castle/ mansion like structures that house churches and government operations) w/ shanties slapped right next to them. The city also had a section called Miraflores which was right on the coastal cliffs. Very modern and nice …but still the grey fog and something leaching into the ocean giving potential for some wacky ailment they discussed at the pre=port w/ the Medical team (ie Traci and Doc Vince) I wasn’t buying it. The ocean is to big for animal urine to cause much of a problem.

Traci has to deal w/ such a variety of narcosis on this voyage not to mention the real stuff. So far nothing too bad.

Today my old friend Gin ,a UN attorney on the  Human rights commission and long time Latin American resident put us in touch w/ a friend who is taking us to a school . I don’t know much more than that but knowing Gin I’m sure it will prove to be interesting.

Enjoy Memorial day weekend

Love  us

"I arise in the morning torn between desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day."  E.B White

Latitude 12’ 3 minutes S

Longitude 77’ 8 minutes W

Portside along pier #11 Callao , Peru

Happiness is part of the journey,
not some distant destination.

Hi Everyone ,

Today is our third day at Sea. Not too much to report besides Traci’s first cousin TD and his wife Z had a baby girl last night . Both are doing great.

We will be waking up in the port of  Callao , Peru  tomorrow AM.  Exciting stuff.

Many people will be heading to the third highest mountain in the world ,  Machu Picchu in Cuzco , Peru.  The highest mountain is in Tibet, the second highest is in Bolivia.

Today the professor for Global studies will come to give a presentation to kids on Peru. He is amazing so today will be a fact finding day to set some sort of itinerary. Traci is on call while we are here so we won’t be able to travel more than an hour from the ship. It will be just fine , there will be so much new to see and do.

We all made a pact that there will be no eating of Guinea Pigs. On the other hand Iguana are fair game. I will be having one on a stick before we depart… yum

“Wise souls don’t hoard; the more they do for others the more they have, the more they give the richer they are. The Way of heaven profits without destroying. Doing without outdoing is the Way of the wise”

Lao Tzu

Later

Capt J

Latitude  08’ .4.62S

Longitude 080’.55.03W

Course 166’

Speed 15.4 knots

Seas 2-3 ft

Heading to South America by Sea

Hello,

We have travelled nearly a thousand nautical miles since leaving CR. The kids had their 1^st day of “home schooling” . One thing this voyage teaches Traci and I is patience and flexibility. We are working on journals, studying the countries we will be visiting as well as math. We are trying to apply what we are doing to each lesson.

For example:The conversion of $1 to Costa Rican Colones is roughly 500 to 1. 

Declan is to be adapting to Apple technology probably just the way the Apple software engineers developed it. It is so interesting to see. His ability to navigate the touch screen and turn things on an off look like second nature when I watch him. I’m not saying he is solving many problems but he is learning. The alphabet and number games are fun and repetitive.

We met a very nice family , Jenine and Dave w/ their kids Shannah, ella and Nathan. The kids are 13,10,7  two girls and a boy in the same order as ours.

The parents met on SAS 21 yrs ago!

The seas have been calm by most standards and we are all fine . It does effect some people so Traci has had to deal w/ quite a bit of sea sickness and a kid who tripped down the stairs.

“Your wasting your time if what you are is what you have been.” 

I interpret it to mean we have the chance to grow every day , be more caring, less selfish, further reach, better understanding of other cultures, study more of what we enjoy …

Signing off , the kids are waking up

JD

Latitude 01’.37.99S

Longitude 082’.20.42W

Speed 19.4 Knots

Course 168’

We crossed the Equator last night , I guess you could say we have Travelled a bit when our kids have crossed it 4 times already and Traci and I more than that.

First Day at Sea heading to Peru

"What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others." - Pericles

Hi ,

We are at sea! I love this part of the voyage. Its 5:45 am all I hear is wake created by our vessel in a rhythmic splashing of foamy salt water and a low static whisper of the baby monitor we use to make sure the kids are OK across the hall.

The students arrived and are excited. The program gets them involved right away creating teams so groups of students get to know each other and work w/ each other all the way through. They are broken down into Sea’s ; Baltic sea, yellow sea, Black sea, Adriatic sea etc…  Classes start today as well as our dependent children program. Our coordinator is a police officer from San Diego who is in his 30’s and seems like he is going to give it his best. I’m sure we’ll be fine.

Yesterday we started w/ a great breakfast out on the back deck . We then met up w/ a guy I met named Juan Carlos who took us to some foothills to check out the Monkeys. They would yell “MONKEY BAIN” at least it sounded like that J so we were shouting it in the jungle as well. The white faced monkeys showed up and ate right out of our hands, and yes the liked bananas the best.

We then picked up a few cheap boogie boards and headed to the playa . As it happened a mom who works on the ship was taking a walk w/ a couple of her girls at the same time. Guess what the girls saw the potential for some fun w/ Capt Ron and joined our crew. I just asked the Mom if they could swim (they are from Ohio) and did they have sun block.

They waves were more than enough, they sent my crew  tumbling. Declan was great he would hang close so I could help the girls catch the waves and bring them back when the current moved them about 100 yds. down the beach In 5 minutes . Dec was playing on driftwood which was all over the beach because of the rainy season . The water tempeture was 86’ !!!

We are about 250 NM into our run to Callo Peru we should be there in a couple days . Very cool. 

Traci has her 1^st day in the clinic today but I bet I will actually be able to see her more than the last couple days. She has already responded to a couple sea sick patients, covered in hurl .

Later for now

Best

Capt j

Lat 06’9.80N

Long 84’3.55W

Course 168’

Closing in on the equator

Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Hi all,

We made it safely to the ship. It is great to smell the smells of a familiar home away. Our cabin situation is exactly the same as in the same ones 4047 & 4049 !

The kids and I are going to explore a National park near Puntarenas Costa Rica. Traci will be in meetings and training basically until the ship departs for Lima Peru at 1800 on 5-21.

I think the last Voyage we were on it took almost a month to start to feel like you knew how things works. This one will be over in that time frame. We are lucky to know the ropes. We will again make the best of what time we have to explore , dream and discovery about ourselves , new cultures and people we will meet in these  developing Latin American countries.

Ship life will change dramatically tomorrow when the flood of college students arrive. Traci will be even more busy than she already is because she is return sailor.

Wishing you all well

Best

Captain John

Latitude – 9’ 58.23N

Longitude – 084’ 48.82W

Getting Close to departure date

Boy is life busy just now. Thank goodness we kind of know what to expect so we can pack as minimalists. I expect it to be Hot  most of the time as well will be on or a few degrees south of the equator.
Ever wonder if Lake Titicaca exists or if has always been just fun to say for Americans? Well it's in Peru on the boarder w/ Bolivia. Yes the Bolivia where the Famous Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid escaped to.

We are starting to really look forward to this next adventure. Traci has been preparing by taking a refresher course and exam in ACLS or advanced cardiac life support along w./ reading up on the things we should be aware of, snake bites (of course all manner of snakes ) ,spider bites, monkey bites, Jellyfish, Hemorrhagic Dengue fever, flesh eating parasites or perhaps the ever disgusting Bot Fly. Of course we could stumble into heat stroke, dehydration,land slides, sea sickness or even altitude sickness in the Peruvian Andes .  Oh well, the more we learn the safer we will be.

We found out there are a number of other dependent children who will be sailing which is great for the kids.

Our logistics are in place but I have to say we will be kind of figuring out this voyage on the fly. Both Traci and I are working right up to the evening before we depart, This Friday, May 18th.

The kids are disappointed to be missing a few events, classmates and their sports teams but we know this type of education is priceless and it is a relatively short period of time in the grand scheme.

I again will be leaning on my brother and the dedicated intelligent staff at Lehrer & Madden and FishAye Trading co.
Your all tops!
We look forward to writing and sharing pictures during this 2012 Maymester aboard the MV/EXPLORER.

Best always

Capt. John

Lat 42.39 N
Long 71.17W

Dry Land