Well. Here I sit on the ship. It's Saturday the 7th and we're already at day 4. We're in Santa Marta, Colombia, our first port. It's not the most exciting place, truth be told.
A busy port city, it processes a lot of coal. Sleepy little town. Jim and I got off the ship and grabbed the shuttle out of the port. It is hot and muggy. It took us about an hour to walk around the streets, visit the cathedral, and then stop at an outdoor cafe for a local beer.
We're here till 6:00 PM.
Backing up a bit, our embarkation on Wednesday went off without a hitch. My bus from the hotel arrived virtually simultaneously with Jim's taxi from the airport. We seem to do that a lot when we travel together. Since we live at opposite ends of the country we always arrive separately but seem to manage to meet at the same time.
We got checked in and were soon on the ship. The cabin, a balcony mid-aft, is lovely. Jim helped me unpack and organize everything in a whirling blur. I'll have to memorize where he put everything by the time he leaves in San Diego!
Our dinner table seats 6. With Jim, we've got 5. There's Jack, a 91 year old who sails the world cruise every year - I believe this is his 16th year. Jesus, Mary and Joseph!!! Then we've got Wayne and Patricia. I think they're on their 12th Year. Clearly I am but a budding newbie here.
Last night we ate in the Pinnacle, the ship's very nice steak and seafood restaurant. We enjoyed a delicious dinner and had a nice evening.
When we returned to the cabin at the end of the evening, we got ready for bed and once the lights went out, we started hearing a banging noise. Thump. Thump. The ship was experiencing some wave action but clearly there was something making a noise that began to drive me batty.
Jim started to laugh because he knows how stuff like that makes me crazy. Of course I knew without a doubt that one of our neighbors must have left something out on their balcony. How rude! How inconsiderate! Sheesh.
I went out on the balcony to listen for the source of the noise. Nothing. I came back in. Got back in bed. Soon, thump. Thump. SIGH. Back out of bed. Back out onto the balcony. Nothing. I came back in and said to Jim "I don't hear it outside." He said it must be upstairs or in the walls. I said in an irritated voice "there's nothing inside the walls, Jimmy." Sheesh.
Then, thump. Thump. And at the same time we both realized what it was. We've got a bottle of wine in the fridge. It was rolling around and bumping the side of the fridge every time the ship rolled.
Lots of laughter ensued. Mystery annoyance solved! Bottle came out. And soon we were both asleep, sawing logs, no doubt.
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