Things are a bit hectic with our scheduled port days and excursions in Peru. Today we were to visit Salaverry, Peru. However:

• The waves, which were not too bad at sea, were too high and violent to dock
• The political protest situation, which includes sudden roadblocks and demonstrations, are very random

Yesterday off-ship excursions in Salaverry were canceled. So, it was no surprise when the Captain announced today that we were going to skip Salaverry and go directly to Lima (Callao). Since then, excursions in Lima have also been cancelled. While not a big thing for me, Lima is a major port and a segment divider for our cruise. Over 400 passengers are leaving the ship and need to go to hotels and/or airports to return to their homes. Meanwhile, 400 new passengers have been arriving in Peru and need to board the ship. The Silversea folks must be working hard to set all this up.

From my tiny, personal point of view – this adds 2 or 3 unplanned sea days where we have lectures and classes that were not originally planned. Today I learned about Simon Bolivar and how North and West South America won independence. Today I learned about how well Panama has run the Panama Canal since the US left in 2000 (turn out, very well).

So, my blog plans are also a bit helter-skelter. Here are some tidbits, starting with flowers from previous stops:

Here a kind-of opposite of flowers. A termite nest up in the branches of the chocolate plantation. Seems they build in trees to escape possible flooding. They don’t damage cacao trees, so the plantation folks don’t bother them.