Pre Guatemala

Alot is going on in the outside world...the world we are shortly to re-enter. Swine 'flu. Health Emergency declared in the USA, 'flu reaches Canada and then on top of all this the dire warnings about travel in Guatemala. As someone remarked tonight 'lets just bunker in Puerto Quetzal and then start off round the world again!' (bunker, meaning to take on fuel). We all have such mixed feelings about 're-entry' and these news flashes are adding to the confusion and reluctance to start living a 'normal' life on terra firma.



On the plus side though, we have just been in the Union listening to our cultural pre-port given by one of the students who has legged it through Central America, loving it. He showed us slides of the country and it looks stunning. Theresa is climbing a volcano (bully for her say I!), students are going surfing and travelling to Mayan sites and like us to coffee plantations and La Antigua (the old capitol) to stay overnight. We shall all be as cautious as possible (I sincerely hope) and should be back on board by 6 pm Friday 30th ready for the last lap of the voyage.

In La Antigua George and I are staying in a 4 bedroomed hotel/guesthouse called Hostal San Nicolas. I found it on the Guatemala Tourist info web site and it looks lovely. Also read a rave review so looking forward to it. We have booked a private shuttle back to the ship on the 30th but are keeping our fingers crossed that we find a secure and good deal for transport going to Antigua from Puerto Quetzal. All this uncertainty adds to the sense of adventure....!

George heard one of the lounge stewards (from Ghana) translating a huge wall plaque hanging above one of the staircases and written in Greek script for one of the students who could be heard squeaking "You read Greek?!" What a lesson... learned right here on the ship....not ever to assume anything about anyone. Certainly not to stereotype....

We have on board the most amazing staff in the dining rooms, cabins and lounges. I watch them doing their jobs courteously and very efficiently day after day after day. They work long hours with few breaks and take an enormous pride in their work. I have 4 favourites; Linda, Joseph, Alan and Mardy.

Linda looks after our cabin and us. It is she who is responsible for making sure in an emergency that we are called out of our cabins, she closing the door behind us. (She has an inflatable dinghy which she says is the quickest safest place to get to (and into) before the life boats are lowered to the ocean...we remain unconvinced but none of us would dare say so to Linda!) She came into the cabin with hands full of cough lozenges when I was ill a few days ago and gave me a huge hug saying crossly "George didn't tell me you were ill!"...he was in trouble I knew and she spoke to him about not keeping her informed. She is a martinet at our boat drills....our section was on deck yesterday 15 minutes before anyone else on the ship! We all think we have the best lifeboat... B6. Beth and George have an ongoing 'discussion' about who is the least use on it...the librarian or the linguist! Needless to say the other potential occupants within earshot all put in their 2 cents worth! I'm not sure who is winning...

Linda comes from Guyana and is a single mum. She is the only breadwinner in her family and has to look after 3 children and her mother financially. The children stay with their father for whom she has little respect or time. If anything ever happened to one of her children she says fiercely "Sorry will not be enough!" I wouldn't want to be in his shoes. Her job is her life in the meantime. She works a very long day and spends her free time mainly relaxing in her cabin and sleeping. She is going home after this trip until December when she'll be back. However she says she will have to find a job in between to tide her over so will only give herself 6 weeks off. She is a truly remarkable woman for whom I have developed enormous respect and affection.

I'll tell you more about the men on my list tomorrow. Their story will inevitably be shorter as we haven't got to know them as well but they are all three delightful characters full of talent and humour.

Till then.......