Sea Days

We have had a few days at sea since Hawaii and have three more to go before Guatemala. I am revelling in these precious days because there are so few left. We go to sleep listening to the sounds of the sea rushing past the ship and awaken to it; it seems to provide a context for our lives and I feel that we shall be rudderless for a week or two when we return to life on land. As someone said at breakfast 'Who am I going to have these great conversations with at breakfast? There will only be.....' and mentioned her partner's name!

Students are more intense; final exams coming up and a few free days to revise and review. They all seem to be feeling tired and stressed but most say that part of that is the thought of leaving the ship and returning home. They have made such close friends, living in small crowded cabins on the lower decks. I have visited them when working on projects but as often as possible suggest we work in our cabin which I think they like: more air, more light, more space...and much quieter with fewer interruptions!

Just had a lovely evening starting, as it usually does, in the faculty lounge at 5 pm for drinks and chat and then tonight ending up with friends in the 5th deck dining room which sells wine with dinner......one Canadian/American, two South Africans, one Italian and us Canadian/Brits....that's the people not the wines! Tonight's red was Californian...

We were discussing amongst other things the dire warnings we have been receiving about travel in Guatemala. Buses are dangerous places: 11 MSU students were hijacked on theirs a month agao and had valuables taken away at gun point; other tourist buses have been stopped and there are drive by shootings from pillion passengers on motor bikes so the government has banned the passengers. A German travel company has just stopped all 2009/2010 tours to Guatemala because of these activities so we were basically wondering whether to get off the ship at all. George and I have booked a room in a guest house in Antigua which is quite beautiful we hear but as yet have no idea how we shall get there. On the first day we're doing an SAS trip up to a coffee plantation in "reliable" transport?!

We lose another hour's sleep tonight as we put the clocks forward, so we may well be grouchy at breakfast. We are back in our cabin, George correcting mounds of papers while I bash away at this computer....then to bed with a book, lovely!