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Cruise Peru to SanDiego—2017: Part 1 Part 2>>  Part 3 >>  Part 4 >>  Part 5 >>  Part 6 >> Part 7>>

This was a different type of adventure. I had applied to to Holland America Line to be a cruise lecturer 18 months previous to my first contact from the agency on Feb. 10th. I'd put together some halfhearted attempts of presentations, but after all that time I figured they'd never call. So they gave me a choice of the first or second leg of the 30-day Inca Empire cruise from San Diego to Lima Peru and back and I'd need 7 destination-oriented presentations.

I chose the second half, which started in Lima Peru on March 9th to give myself 2 more weeks to prepare. Meanwhile, I had 2 book deadlines looming, but everything was put on hold. Instead of our evening movies, we set up a podium next to the TV where I gave my lectures to Dean who served as my acting coach, trial audience, and he researched some of the topics. It was a lot of work, because in order to keep cruisers interested, the presentations had to be entertainment events, not droning lectures.

I wrote about my lectures on my blog, so read "Reaching new audiences" for those details.

A tech guy focuses my introduction slide.

The deal is that HAL pays for my transportation to and from the cruise (but not Dean's) and a promise of an outside cabin (with a window). There is no pay for all this work, only the free cruise. So we flew from Jacksonville to Dallas, where we caught an overnight flight to Lima. A shuttle picked us up at the airport along with a comedian who would be an entertainer for two evenings. It's different being part of the crew.

The ship was the Maasdam (1,250 passenger capacity, but only about 900 were on this trip), a new one for us. She's one step larger than the Prinsendam (830 passengers), which is the smallest of the fleet that we were one for the Grand Mediterranean Cruise, but smaller than the Amsterdam (1,380), which we've been on for the world cruises and the Alaska Cruise. 

The first stop, once we boarded was to the events manager to turn in the list of presentations. The truth was that I only had 6 prepared, but that worked out okay, because there was a conflict on the last sea day anyway. So now a short tour of the Maasdam. It's very much like the other HAL ships.

 
The atrium sculpture extends the typical 3 decks.


The back pool, which is on deck 10--one deck lower than the Lido Deck.


The Lido Pool is mid-ship and has a closable roof. This is the area where I spent most of my time, because it's protected, but not air conditioned and I found a comfortable place near the bar where there was a plug so I could continue my work on the lectures. My being there also made it easy for people who had questions or comments about my lectures to find me and I was pleased that many folks did stop by. I also found out that the gal who was putting together the evening trivia sessions was coming to my lectures to find trivia questions. So that was cool, because then the trivia buffs, who may not have attended my lectures otherwise, came so they'd have the answers.


This onboard sculpture included a bust of a mystic looking up at the pattern on the ceiling--there was a similar pattern on the floor.

 
A glass display near Oceans Bar and a double-high lantern at the stern of the promenade deck.

 
Later in the cruise, most of the band, in their pirate outfits, played on the Lido deck overlooking the back pool for the crossing of the Equator ceremony, where crew who had not been aboard a HAL ship while crossing that line were asked to kiss the giant fish and jump in the pool after being slathered with goop. As usual, we enjoyed the band and their amazing flexibility to back up such a wide variety of acts from opera to pop to blues.

 
Lima is an industrial container port. A group of merchants set up a market on the dock so people could buy Peruvian merchandise. It looked like most people took tours or shopped at this market.


The port city, Callao, did not look inviting and we were tired after our all night flight, so we stayed on the ship after our ride from the airport. We were also working on the upcoming lectures in card/game room with a large screen both early in the morning and during dinner hour. Again, Dean was the audience and the technical guru.


We did like these gulls on our lines and the lines of other ships in port as well. We found out when we got home that they are Franklin Gulls.


A Lima sunset...

  

A fairly simple itinerary compared to our grand voyages. This is the second half of the 30-day Inca Empires cruise. We've been to 4 of the 8 ports, which includes the endpoints of this leg of the cruise. The first stop, just south of Lima is one of new ports. General San Martin, formerly known as Pisco, for which is a strong grape brandy is named.

On to General San Martin... >>

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