Cruising on the Norwegian Dawn: Dec. 2015

This Christmas cruise starts out great because it departs from New Orleans! What a fun city to tour before you board the Norwegian Dawn!

We stayed at the Hyatt, just 2 blocks from the cruise terminal and about 4 blocks from the French Quarter.  That way we didn't need to rent a car or take a taxi.  We rolled our luggage down the sidewalk between the Hyatt and the cruise terminal.

Guided Swamp Tour:
There are plenty to choose from on Groupon.  Ours put us on a quiet boat with a Cajun tour guide who played Cajun music for us and pointed out some alligators as soon as it got sunny.  We were there on the coldest day of the year!  He even let us hold an alligator.

Guided Bus Tour of New Orleans: 
Again, this is worth it, especially if you look for a Groupon ahead of time.  We saw the flood lines on houses that sort of survived Hurricane Katrina and visited a famous cemetery.  Then it took us through the Garden District and pointed out the houses of famous authors and the like.  On this trip, we learned the history of the French, Spanish and American architecture and how to spot examples of each, often side by side.  They stopped at a cafe where we could get beignets.  It's legal to consume alcohol on the bus, so I brought an Irish coffee with me.

The bus took us to this cemetery.  

Personal Walking Tour of New Orleans
We were quite impressed by the quantity and quality of street performers, from singers to violinists to acrobats to clowns with devil sticks, to magicians.  At one magic show, I won $5 because I took a risk.  My $5 bill turned into a $10 bill.  Visiting the voo doo shops was also fun.  However, what was most memorable for me was sampling the salsa at all the salsa shops.  One night, I took just a tiny sample of Death by Salsa on a pretzel stick.  It was really just a dab, smaller than my pinky nail.  Within seconds, my stomach was hurling.  I tried to vomit into a trash can but ended up just going to the bathroom at a beignet shop.  The scary part was that it caused me to bleed like I was having my period later that night.  We think that a passerby might have put drugs or poison into the salsa sample?

Of course, all the traditional food we tried, such as grilled oysters, gumbo and creole dishes was amazing.  But we had to save room for the cruise ship!

The Norwegian Dawn
I really miss the Norwegian Dawn.  Overall I have fond memories of the ship and the entire staff.  Everyone went out of their way to make us feel comfortable.  When I cruised with Royal Caribbean years later, I realized how great the Norwegian Dawn was.  Dingo Dave, the cruise director, constantly entertained everyone by loud speaker, newsletter or on stage and he made everyone love the Norwegian Dawn.  There was cruise ship spirit!

     The stewards were so cool that ours, Ray, knew all of our names and the names of everyone in all 16 of his rooms.  And he always left us cool towel animals, a different one each day!  My kids had fun going to the restaurants alone.  They could order 3 chocolate lava cakes in a row, and the the waiters would politely bring them!  Once my son asked if he could have a tower of lava cakes, and the waiter said, "absolutely."  My son said he was just joking and the the waiter insisted, "Are you sure?  I can do it."
     We did the 7 day cruise with stops in Cozumel, Belize, Roatan (Honduras) and Costa Maya (Mexico.)  There were 2 days at sea and 4 stops, and we felt this was the perfect balance of cruising and port visiting.  You don't have long to see any of the ports,  just 6-8 hours, so you try to make the most of it and don't expect to visit more than one place.   While you are on the ship, you can attend a schedule of events, from karaoke bar to trivia games to shopping preparation for your island visit.  There were poolside concerts and evening magic shows!  Sometimes you meet the stars of the show in at the buffet!

     Cozumel- our first stop.  We decided to book the cave trekking tour through Norwegian.  It was a good choice, probably the best adventure we booked.  It was very well organized and guided.  They fitted us in wetsuits and helmets with head lamps while we adored their pet coati.   We got to wade in the water and sometimes we had to swim to make our way through the cave, where there were stalagmites, bats and spiders.   The entire trip was beautiful and felt like a rugged adventure.
     Our second stop was in Belize.  We chose to go cave tubing, but we booked it with a group outside of the cruise line to save money.  This trip was not as well organized, so I wouldn't recommend it.  First of all, it takes a long time to get off the ship in Belize; you have to wait for another boat to come get you, and priority is given to people who booked trips through Norwegian!  The cave tubing was fun, but not as much of an adventure as the cave trekking.  The problem was that it took a long time for the organizers to get the bus filled with all the people and get going.  There was a lot of waiting around.  We chose ATV and zip lining in addition to the cave tour, and that's why we chose this company, because they offered all 3, but we quickly learned that that was a gimmick to attract our business.  There was no way we would have time for all three and still make it back to the ship on time.  I don't have any pictures of the cave tubing, because we were in such a hurry to get to the end on time; there was absolutely no time to take pictures of anything!

Taking selfies with monkeys at Roatan

 At every port, there are cultural treats waiting, such as natives to dance with.  Many people spend their port day just by going to a beach party or even just shopping in the cruise ports.  We definitely left plenty of time for shopping after most of our port adventures.

the beach at Roatan.

     At our 3rd stop in Roatan, we chose a tour that let us interact with monkeys and then go to a beach party.    The tour took us through a park and museum where we had to hear a lecture about many artificial things.  We would have rather seen Roatan.   We did see a bug collection and learned about butterflies.  At the very end we got to go in an enclosure with monkeys and hold them.  A bag in my purse was lifted by a monkey.  It ran around with my bag for a few minutes before the staff was able to seize it!  The beach party included snorkeling (but instead of giving you fins, they wanted to take you out in a boat and have you hold on to the boat.  The boat bumped my head!).  Having a monkey drink with kahlua and rum served at your lounge chair felt great, but what I remember is how we were ripped off with the day lockers.  A scam artist offered to return my key for me, but I didn't know that if you returned your key, you got a refund for the locker cost.  Beware!
     At our final stop in Costa Maya, we were supposed to take a catamaran, but the weather canceled the trip, and some of my family chose to stay at the port.  I signed up for the Mexican cultural tour where I got to go to a Mayan village and visit a Mayan pyramid.

Pooldeck chess!

     You need to be stomach strong to fare well on the Norwegian Dawn.  Maybe it needs bigger stabilizers. Other cruisers say other ships dont rock as much.  You really only notice the rocking when you wake up the first day at sea and the rest of that day. If you don't stay busy, you will  feel sicksick. Some employees said their first day on the job was hard. Some passengers spent the day in bed.  I wanted to keep busy, so I went to 7AM stretch, 7:30 abs, and 8AM spin. I felt no rocknroll during spin.  I usually hate spin. The instructor was awesome and distracted me from the rocking.  At least, I didn't abuse the buffet because of my nausea.  Maybe the ship saves money on food when there are no stabilizers.  Dingo Dave said there were stabilizers and showed them on a ship model, but another cruising regular said there weren't.
     Meanwhile, my daughters were stalking Chadley, one of the photographers.  They thought he was so cute.  They learned his schedule and followed him everywhere.  

The pool at the Norwegian Dawn.  My favorite
thing to do was sit in that hot tub and listen to
the band, "Flavors" play Caribbean music at
every sail away party.  I ordered one drink in  the
hot tub, but it was not as relaxing as I had hoped.  I had to get my room card and sign the receipt.
But the receipt gets wet, and then the bubbly water
threatens to jump in your drink

Chocolate delights!

     There are so many ways to stay entertained on the ship.  For a family of 5, you will need two rooms.  It costs more money, but it's really fun for the kids to have their own room and their own key cards.  We let the kids roam the ship freely and do what they wanted.  None of them wanted to go to the kid's club.  Two of my kids were usually at the basketball court playing soccer or other games.  People around the ship starting recognizing my son as the kid who plays 3x3 soccer really well.  My older daughter like to read and sunbathe on the deck.  My husband used the computer lounge with wifi to get some work done.  I played bingo and attended the lectures describing the next port.  We would all decide in the evening after we saw the next day's schedule what we would all do together and where and when we would meet.  The kids even ordered room service to their own room in the middle of the night!  This worked well!  Everyone was happy!

     No one wanted to get off the Norwegian.  Dingo Dave said we'd go home and throw our towels on the floor, but they'd still be there the next day.  My younger daughter said she would grow up to become a magician's assistant and marry her magician and live on a cruise ship.  Years after this cruise, she kept in contact with another kid she met on the ship!   Still we had a good time for a couple more days in New Orleans.    After New Orleans we went on to New York for 5 days to watch Broadway shows.  Somehow the triangular airfare was not that much more than round trip to New Orleans would have been.  This was a trip the whole family looks back on as being one of our best family vacations.

Peru: Cusco - Machu Picchu - July 2017

My son and I decided to spend 3 weeks in Peru, including one week in Cusco and Jungle trekking to Machu Picchu and 2 weeks volunteering in the Amazon.  My husband joined us for the first week of the trip.  I booked the volunteer portion of the trip with IVHQ (blog here), who contracted our trip with Maximo Nivel.   I booked the Jungle Trek from Cusco to Machu Picchu with Lorenzo's Expeditions.

Maximo Nivel picked us up from the airport in Cusco, brought us to the Maximo Nivel Office to check-in and then drove us to our hostel:  no glitches there.  Our hostel was about $17/nt for 3 people, so there wasn't much remarkable to say about it except that the owner said we could store our luggage there for free while in Machu Picchu, if we brought her a bar of chocolate in exchange.  We spent our first day in Cusco acclimating to the altitude, but to be honest, we didn't feel anything the first day.  Maybe it was a little hard to ascend steps toward evening, but that could have been attributed to our red eye flight from Mexico City to Bogota.  All in all, the first day we bought alpaca sweaters and hats,

Alpaca sweaters

 tried coca leaf tea to prevent elevation sickness and sampled assorted empanadas.  We dined on guinea pig and grilled alpaca.

Guinea Pig for dinner

Coca Tea

  We also took a double decker bus tour of the city, which included the inside tour of a church and a visit to the mountains overlooking the city.

Bus tour takes us by archeological ruins above Cusco

Christ overlooks Cusco

   At 3AM, we were started awake by fireworks, which may have had something to do with Cusco's medical worker and teacher strike Cusco.  We had to wake up at 4 anyway to meet our Lorenzo's Expedition tour guide, Dorian and his assistant, Freddie. They set an early departure to avoid morning traffic jams from the strikes.

The regularly scheduled breakfast at Lorenzo's house was cancelled and we were taken to a restaurant instead.

After breakfast, the ascent to 14,000 ft+ finally made me understand altitude sickness.  I didn't realize it at the time, but when it happened again going from the low jungle to high Cusco, in the back of a van, I understood that it was the altitude change that forced me to get out the vomit bag.    Somehow I still mustered up the energy to continue with the much awaited downhill mountain bike ride.

   Once gliding through the crisp morning Andean air, my stomach issues were forgotten and any negative attention focused on my freezing fingers.  Although the morning presented mostly fog, there were occasional majestic glimpses and rivers to cross.  We even encountered a truck accident.

  We moved from freezing fingers to banana trees within a few hours.   Lorenzo's team was amazing at distributing all the gear for so many customers and keeping guides at the beginning and end of the bike group so that we wouldn't fall victim to one of those wide-turning trucks.

We then checked into our hotel and walked to our wonderful Peruvian lunch.  Lorenzo is friends with the restaurant owner's family and wants to support them in sending their children to college.   They give each other the best possible service out of mutual respect.  After lunch, they took us rafting.

Our guides made us splash each other and even pretended they needed help by jumping off boat and pretending they couldn't get back to the boat.  They made us back paddle to save them.
   They made us surf the waves just to get drenched  We all enjoyed their sense of humor but having to constantly take my camera in and out of its waterproof bag became tiresome.

Our guides had told us to put on insect repellant before and after the raft trip, but no one listened to the "after."  Actually, no one brought repellant on the raft, so it was the 2 minute walk from the raft to the van that left us target to so many sand fly bites.   I also found out that American DEET wasn't strong enough.  

Sand fly bites from rafting

Maze for sorting coffee beans

Day 2 was the big hike through the transition between the Andes and the Amazon.  We covered about 14 km that day, including parts of the original Inca trail, built over 500 years ago.  We did not hike the main commercial one where permits are needed, but there are many other original Incan trails that are not part of the permit system.  We stopped at a few farms for tours, where we learned about their organic agriculture, including coffee, coca, banana, papaya, orange, avocado and lime.  We learned about "traditional technology" for coffee production and saw how coffee beans were sorted in a maze.  I was a little jealous when I heard you could buy 100 mangos for only $10.  They charge so little even though collecting them in the rainy season is dangerous; slipping accidents occur.

On this hike we visited farms where we learned about the coca leaf and its traditional importance for the Incans.  Indeed, it was one of their most important products, serving as medicine and food.  Chewing it kept them from getting hungry, thirsty or tired.  It's a natural remedy for elevation sickness  We tried chewing 10-15 leaves for 10 minutes.  We were supposed to feel a numbing effect in our jaws.  My son felt it, but I probably didn't take enough leaves or wait long enough.

We also learned there are 3,000 kinds of Andean potatoes!  We sampled a drink made from purple corn, lemon and sugar, called chicha morada.  We even tried cocoa beans.  Peruvian cocoa is so precious that the Peruvians don't usually eat it themselves; instead, they save it for export, while they eat cheaper imported chocolate, like Nestle.

Our guide talked about all the produce on this table: potatoes, coffee beans, cocoa beans, achiote, and even a salamanca for pouring liquid.

Our guide used the red juice from the achiote fruit to draw tattoos on us.  I received the sun, the center being Cusco, and its surrounding regions.  Cusco was the center of the Incan world.

Petting the farm's pet coati while sporting my new achiote tattoo of the sun.

After leaving the farm, we entered the most beautiful part of our hike, along the Urubamba River.

Sitting on the rock where Incan messengers met to send letters,
(the tambo)

The view around every corner became only more amazing.  Each time I put my camera away, I had to take it out again a few seconds later.  The Jungle Trek let us see the transition from the Andes to the jungle and let us feel like it must have been to be Incan and traveling to Machu Picchu on foot.  The trip is not as demanding as the traditional Inca Trail trip, where everyone has headaches and feels sick and even the guides are not so happy.  This trip gives you honest exercise, fun, culture and amazing views!

At the end of the 2nd day of the Jungle Trek, we had to take a cable car across the river.

Our cable car got stuck at the very end so we had to be pulled back to the starting side and do it all over again!  Lucky us!  Then we passed

Tunnel at the end of Day 2

entrance to Cocamayo Thermal Baths

through a tunnel and hiked a little further to reach the Cocamayo Hot Springs, where we got to hang out for a few hours.  The thermal baths at Cocamayo have 5 different temperatures!  Pick the pool that suits your temperature
or try them all!  This was certainly a backpacker haven, and we heard languages from all over the globe being spoken.  Most everyone was young and fit!  The whole thermal bath experience was great except for the extra bug bites I accumulated there.  Of course, our guides watched our belongings the whole time so nothing would be stolen and we could really relax!

a view of Cocamayo from the end of our full day hiking trail.  What a heavenly sight for the sore backpacker!

     The next day consisted of zip lining and a half day hike along the railroad to the town of Machu Picchu.  The zip lining included a variety of attachments, from Superman, to upside down to tandem. We had suspended bridges to cross as well.

After ziplining in the morning, we started our railroad hike to the Machu Picchu Village.

We walked along the railroad for a few hours to get to Machu Picchu.

This is the restaurant that we all stopped to have lunch in,  The great thing about Lorenzo's Expeditions is that Lorenzo knows all the owners of the restaurants and hostels we visited.  He has close, personal relationships with them.  That makes them want to provide great service to Lorenzo's customers.   We always got fantastic service and food at each place.

Finally, we got to Machu Picchu Village and checked into our hostel:  What a cute village just to walk around!  We had time to explore on our own, but the guides also took the whole group to a really fancy restaurant: Chullpi.  This was no ordinary backpacker's restaurant!  Lorenzo's goes out of their way to make us feel appreciated near the end of the trip, with our final meal together.  We had to go to bed early to wake up before dawn to start the walk up to Machu Picchu to meet our guide.  Unfortunately, our trip fell on the date that Machu Picchu was free for all Cusquenos!   So it was extra crowded!   The walk was steep and tiring, and you can't see anything in the dark, walking in a thick single file line with other hikers, but we made it through the crowds for our 6AM meeting time!  At first we were sad to see all the fog.  It totally obstructed our views.  The fog, however, cleared up by 8 or 9 AM!

Foggy Views

Clear Views!

The traditional Machu Picchu View- but with lots of tourists!

Our guide taught us everything he knew about Machu Picchu.   It was built between 1445 and 1530.   Basically, the rocks were cut, and then water was used to expand the cuts.  The tightest fitting rocks required the most work and were used for royalty, how deserved the best quality construction.   Water came from aqueducts which were built to get water from springs in the mountains.

The Incans used trapezoidal windows for maximum strength and sloped roofs for rainfall.  Notice how the walls incline to fall in one place.  This was so that other places would be safe during an earthquake..

  Here you can see how the Incans build drainage ditches along all the footpaths.  

Mid-day, the guide says "good bye" and we our on own own.  Some stay to hike the mountains and some go back to the village to catch their train home.   We booked our trip several months in advance, so we were able to get tickets to climb to the top of Wayna Picchu and see the ruins there.  

Some of the stairs to Wayna Picchu.  We noticed that the width of each step was made for a very short foot.  Not for my foot!

These are my favorite stairs at Machu Picchu!

This is a steep, heart pumping climb, but well worth it to see the complexity of all the stairs and the views at the top.

You have to do some spelunking to get to Wayna Picchu!   It is absolutely amazing to see the stairs built all the way through the cave.

View as the top of Wayna Picchu.  It's 360!  Don't worry.  We recommend having a snack up here.

Some of our favorite memories at Machu Picchu were petting the alpacas that grace the park.

All in all, this trip was definitely worthwhile; I would have chosen the same trip again!  Our guides explained how they used to guide the traditional Incan Trail, but that they preferred this trip.  It has the best of the hiking but not all the elevation sickness!  Plus we got raft, hike and zipline.  It is still a strenuous trip; you don't see unfit people on this kind of trip at all!  But everyone was healthy most of the time, with the exception of the extreme elevation change at the beginning of the bike trip, and the rafting bug bites!   Taking a train home was picturesque, but I'm certainly glad that I didn't take a train both ways and just make Machu Picchu a 1 or 2 day trip!  Thanks for Lorenzo's for a most memorable trip!

Mud baths and hiking at Calistoga, CA: January 2018

     You go to Calistoga to rejuvenate.  This time I went with my husband and a girlfriend.  The plan was the 11 mile Palisades hike, dinner at Veraison French restaurant, mud baths at Golden Haven Spa and Resorts, soaking in the mineral pools, early morning bike ride, more soaking, checkout, bocce ball, Calistoga window shopping, lunch, St Helena window shopping and a couple wineries.
     As soon as we arrived at the base of the Oak Hill Mind Road trail, we parked along the road and ordered an Uber.  I found out later that Uber sneaks on a $7 far pickup charge, so we ended up spending $30 on our 15 minute ride to Robert Louis Stevenson State Park to catch the Table Rock Trail.  From this essay that I read about the Palisades hike, I thought the hike would be mostly downhill, so we estimated about 4-5 hours and thought starting by 12:30 would let us be done by dark and in time for our 5:45 dinner reservation.  At times the trail was difficult to decipher and ended at a cliff.  We wasted some twenty minutes backtracking and finding the right trail about five minutes after Table Rock.

Table Rock

Right after Table Rock, you'll find the beginning of the Palisades Trail.  8.4 miles to go!

When given the choice between left and right, choose right.  The trail had far more ascents than expected.  Plus, you can only predict how fast you will walk, not how fast other people in your group will walk.  A little worried about the timing, we still immensely enjoyed the hike.

Most of it traverses the edge of mountains with constant amazing views, while meandering in and out of forests and grassy areas, with palisade cliffs hanging overhead.

Probably my favorites scene!  Running slightly downhill through these soft green grasses was surreal! But don't look up, or you'll feel dizzy!  

lush forest waterfall scene

Green grasses with a view.

Rock mazes

Rock balancing!

What's around the bend?

Past rock piles, mazes, creeks, waterfalls, fairytale grasslands and sunny skies,  we reached the 3rd leg, Oak Hill Mine Road, at 5PM  To our dismay, the sign read 4.5 miles to Calistoga.  There was no way we would make it back before nightfall!

Night is coming, and we are still 4 miles away!

 At mile marker 4.0, my husband decided to run ahead to the car to bring the flashlight back to us.  We worried for his safety running in the dark alone, but our plan was to walk extremely slowly after dark and just wait for him.  But at mile marker 3.5, we saw our godsend.  A man on a mountain bike with a  bike light was coming down from the lookout point.  I greeted him, and he asked if we had enough water and a flashlight.  When I said no to the flashlight, he offered to guide us down.  I said I didn't want to ruin his evening, but he said he didn't want to leave us alone up there because mountain lions were known to roam those parts.  He was great company going down, and we found out he was a United Airlines pilot; he was used to saving people's lives in emergency situations.  His wife, who owns Kara cupcakes, called asking where he was, and I felt bad.  But to assure us he was being useful, a couple times he turned off his light so we could see the trail in pitch black.  You could see nothing!  After running in pitch black with the sounds of mountain lions over his shoulders, my husband and the flashlight caught  up with us at mile marker 1.5, and we parted with our pilot and made it to the car by 6:40 with no injuries!  We were only one hour late to our dinner reservation!  

Oysters at La Vraison after 11 mile hike!

    Veraison was not busy. so we sat down and asked the waiter what items could be made quickly and ordered all of those:  oysters, cheese and meat plates, salads, French Onion soup and wine.  It was all perfect for a post-11 mile hike dinner!  We made it just in time for our 8PM mud bath appointment.
     I had been to Calistoga with my whole family a few years prior, and we thought we were booking the same mud bath again, but when we arrived at Golden Haven, we realized we had never been there before.  Many places in town have mud baths.  Who knows which one we were at before.  In the end, we were pleasantly surprised with the very different atmosphere and services provided by a Golden Haven couples mud bath, as opposed to the one we had received at the unremembered location a few years prior.  Both were great, just different.
     Golden Haven has private room with two mud baths for couples.  You only get to stay in the mud bath for 15 minutes.  You really wish it was longer.  It is absolutely delightful to sit in warm soft mud.  Don't touch the bottom! It's hot.  Just sink in and cover yourself with that warm thick mess.  Your attendant then tells you it is time to shower, sit in the jacuzzi for 15 minutes and then go to an aromatherapy room for a 25 minute warm blanket wrap.  When I inquired about the mud bath on the phone, I learned it was 1 hour long.  Now I know not to ask how long the mud bath is but to ask how long I will actually be in the mud.  In seemed to me that we were in the mud much longer at the unremembered location.   However, that location didn't include the jacuzzi and blanket wrap, which make the experience quite nice.  Instead, they had fancy steam showers.  Golden Haven isn't so fancy, but it was clean and authentic, perfect for us.

Couples Mud Bath at Golden Haven  No more soreness after this hot mushy mess!

     After the 60 minute mud bath experience we used the hot tubs and pools available to all guests and called it a day.
The next morning we grabbed some complimentary aussie items and tea, checked out complimentary bikes from the front desk and found the Wine Trail, short but beautiful and refreshing.  It led us through some foggy vineyards.  We also biked the farm roads around the town and even found a ditch that was steaming.  Sure enough the water was hot, and very green soft algae was growing in it.  It just reminded us how thermal waters are present everywhere in Calistoga, making it an incredibly spa healthy destination.

    Before checking out, we used the hot tubs and pool one more time as we joined a discussion about California's new marijuana legalization.  Fellow spa users were complaining that the dose of marijuana in edibles was cut in half after legalization.  The things you can learn at a thermal bath!   Then, we tried our hand on the bocce ball courts behind the hotel.  There was pool, ping pong, bean bag toss and a picnic area too, plenty to keep families busy.
     In the afternoon, we visited two art galleries in downtown Calistoga.   Ca'Toga Gallery was very impressive because the Venetian owner, Carlo Marchiori, is also the artist, and he created everything in his gallery.  The theme seemed to be statues and paintings of jesters. It took him four months to paint the ceilings.  The shopkeeper said his local home was even more impressive.

Ca'toga Gallery ceiling

Then we had lunch at Evangeline, a locally owned French creole restaurant with great reviews on Yelp.  We were more than delighted with our lobster omelet, blackened shrimp and grits, and eggs benedict.  The grapefruit juice/champagne was to die for.

Feeling flexible with bartender after tasting at Provenance

We headed off to St. Helena and visited some shops such as a Turkish pottery shop and Pandora.  On the way back we visited two wineries: Baringer and Provenance   Both were $30 for tasting, so we tasted at the second winery only.   Our bartender let us all share one tasting.  He said he poured a little more than 1/3 into each cup.  In any case, it was enough to get me dancing and doing the splits!
     It was a very memorable and refreshing weekend.   We will do this once a year!