Saturday, Jan 14th--Sea Day

I just spent a couple of hours posting my Panama Canal photos on the blog.  If you have not figured it out yet, clicking on the photo will make it larger.  It is now 11m and we are in the Pacific Ocean heading for Manta, Ecuador where we will be docking tomorrow morning.  It is an overcast day with smooth seas and 79F outside.  We are currently 3 degrees north of the equator and will be crossing it tonight.  There is a ceremony up on pool deck right now for those who are crossing the equator for the first time in a ship.  You are called a "pollywog" if you have not crossed the equator by ship and after crossing you are a "shellback".  We, of course, are shellbacks as we crossed the equator several times on our 2010 World Cruise.

We will be packing our bags this afternoon as tomorrow the full 72 day cruisers, who want to go, will be flown to Quito, Ecuador, where we will be staying overnight in the Swissotel.  It is only about a 40 minute flight from Manta to Quito.  Manta is at sea level obviously, but Quito is 9200 feet above sea level.  We are hoping that we do not have a problem with altitude sickness.  This occurs when you do not change altitudes slowly to get body adjusted.  We will do it in 40 minutes.  Some people are affected and others are not.  Let you know upon return how we do.  We can only take 22 pounds of luggage each but that should be ok for just a overnight.  Will have to take sport coat and Rebecca some nice clothes as we will be having a special dinner in the San Francisco Monastary which is the largest religious complex in South America.  The next day we will go the geographic "middle of the earth" where we can stand with one foot on each side of the equator.  That afternoon we will fly back to join the ship in Quayaquil, Ecuador, where the ship moved on to the night before.  Regent has chartered 3 flights to take us to Quito.  Just found out the 1st and 3rd planes are 30 passenger turboprops. We are on first flight unfortunately.  Middle flight is jet.  After lunch we will go workout.  I will just do some weight training to rest foot more.  It seems to be back to normal but won't push it.  We will get both NFL playoff games on tv today.  Show tonight is variety show with a ship's singer, a comedian, and the two specialty dance artists.  Will be going to that after dinner.  Probably will not be any posts for the next couple of days since we will be off the ship.