Saturday, January 25 - Montevideo, Uruguay - Day 22

I was asleep at 4:30 this morning when someone turned on the florescent light over my head.  You know, the kind that flickers a few times before it comes on.  What the hell?  I was alone in my cabin when I went to bed, as far as I recall.

It only took a second to realize that I'd hit the switch by mistake.  I sleep with my arm over my head and the buttons are right there in the headboard.  I turned off the lights, said a bad word, then scooted down so I wouldn't do it again.  I must have moved the covers because that triggered the motion sensor light that I put at the foot of the bed at night.  After getting up to turn that off, I was awake.  No chance that I'd get back to sleep.  So I showered and got dressed.

After lounging around for awhile my new friend Carole came by and we walked into town.  She wanted to buy a special kind of rosary for a friend of her traveling companion.  We finally found them at the weekly market that I was hoping to go to anyway, so it was a long hot walk but worth it.

After getting back on the ship, I headed straight to the Lido.  I was looking forward to drinking about a gallon of ice water.  The water, tea and lemonade dispensers can be finicky and seem to break down regularly.  On one side of the Lido, the ice dispenser hasn't worked for the 22 days we've been on board.  Then I heard someone say there was no water.  Nope, no water on the ship.

I got a notice last night saying they'd be doing maintenance on the water system in my cabin from 9-noon.  They didn't mention that it affected the whole ship.

And just to whine some more - since we've been on the ship for three weeks, it's time for another mandatory muster drill.  Hopefully it will be much easier than the one in Ft. Lauderdale when at least one woman passed out.

I'm now in my cabin, in the chilly air conditioning, with my hair and clothes sopping wet from the 90 degree heat and high humidity.  Luckily I bought a bottle of water before I came back on board so I just finished that.  If the water doesn't come on soon, I'll have to resort to drinking the pricey bottled water.

Ok, I'm cooling off and feeling positive about how many steps I've already walked today.  Let's talk about Montevideo

I've been to Montevideo before, for a week.  It's a small city but lovely.  One thing to note - we started walking at 9:30 and most places were closed.  As we headed back to the ship at noon things were opening.  Like most of Latin America, things happen much later in the day.  Enrique was shocked yesterday when I told him that most grocery stores opened at 7 a.m.  "But why? Who would want to shop then?"  Me.

FYI I'm having problems getting phone service so am not able to finish this now. Hopefully I'll have better luck in the Falklands.

Here are some photos...

Thursday, January 23 - Punta del Este, Uruguay- Day 20

After Rio, we enjoyed two sea days, my favorites.  I read, played Bananagrams, walked, read some more, played Word Trip on my phone and watched the ocean for hours.  Oh, and I ate.  My stomach seems to have synched with another passenger since 3 times in two days we were in the elevator going to the Lido for food.

In Punta del Este today.  Looks like a modern resort town with lots of beaches.  I wanted to see the Playa de Los Dedos (beach of the fingers), known for the giant statue that appears to be a hand reaching up from the sand.  But, we arrived at 7 a.m. and sail away at 2 p.m.  And because we're anchored so far from shore, it is a minimum of a 45 minute tender ride to shore each way.

Besides, I'll be getting off tomorrow in Buenos Aires and the next day in Montevideo - my two favorite cities in South America.  I'll be buying my fourth antique seltzer bottle in BA - I've bought one each trip there.  Not expensive and I love them.  Here's what they look like.

Here are some photos.  I'll take more as we sail away and add them from Buenos Aires tomorrow.

I can't get a photo that does justice to the small island we're anchored next to.

Punta del Este is larger than I expected, with a lot of highrises and huge beach resorts.

The beautiful island

MSC is stalking us.  I was hoping to see Ioane Asotasi because he's working on an MSC ship and we've been texting but they are doing the same ports here but a day later.  Talofai!

Breakfast of a crepe with lemon and some cantaloupe for breakfast with Punta del Este in the background.

This is why people say never be naked in your cabin.  I'd just gotten up and opened the drapes.  Luckily, I also threw on a robe because that's the roof of a tender that normally sits a couple of decks above me.  They lowered it for tendering.  Could have been a surprise for me and the guys on the boat.

I believe that breakfast delivered to me is one of life's great luxuries.  I order room service sometimes on sea days.  This was breakfast yesterday.  Yum.

Someone asked if I'm ready to go home since it's been 20 days, which for most, is a long cruise.  No.  And I suspect that I'll be no more ready to leave on May 12 than I am now.  I could live this way forever.... (or until they dragged me off because I ran out of money).