Inca Empire Cruise - Day 25 At Sea

After three straight port days, today and tomorrow will be very welcome sea days.  The heat and humidity have worn us down a bit so now we get a chance to recharge our batteries, especially Val who is still getting over her cold.  To celebrate our day of leisure we slept late.  Returning from breakfast we found the cabin stewards were cleaning our room so I grabbed my computer and we went back to the Neptune Lounge and reviewed our Machu Picchu pictures.  We needed to select some of them to share with our Machu Picchu travel group as we were having a get together later tonight.

After finishing our photo selection, we returned to our room where I spent the rest of the morning catching up with the blog.  After three port days in a row I had fallen behind and I wanted to get caught up while my memories were still fresh.  At 1:00 Val headed off to her trivia competition and I went to hear a talk about the Incas by Guest Lecturer, Tommie Sue Montgomery.  Val met me in the showroom at the end of the lecture and we went to lunch.

After lunch it was back to the showroom for a talk on the Mayas by author and journalist, Mary Jo McConahay who read excerpts from her book “Maya Roads”.  It was a very interesting talk and I think I will purchase her book when I get home.  By the time the talk ended it was late afternoon so we headed back to the room where I finished the blog while sitting on our balcony enjoying the balmy temperature.

Tonight was a formal night, but Val and I thought that since this was the fourth formal night of the cruise we really didn’t feel like getting dressed up so we decided to skip it.  We did have a function to attend as Tony, our Holland America tour leader to Machu Picchu, had arranged a wine and cheese gathering for the 26 people in the red group who traveled to Machu Picchu together.  It was a reunion, of sorts, so we could reminisce and share pictures of our wonderful journey.  Everyone showed up and we had a great evening reliving our experiences.  Tony collected photos that anyone wanted to share (that’s why we worked on our pictures in the morning) and before the end of the cruise he will distribute them to everyone in the group.  He also had a slide show running showing the pictures he had taken on the trip.  Tony is in charge of the Digital Workshop classes that are offered every day on the cruise so he was the perfect person to handle the pictures and distribution.  All in all, it was a great evening and it was nice to see everyone again.  Even though we probably won’t see any of our trip mates again, we did form a common bond on our three day journey to Machu Picchu and back.  Thank you, and well done Tony!

By the time our gathering broke up, the Lido had closed for dinner so we had to head to the Neptune Lounge for some snacks and desserts to satisfy our hunger.  After we ate we went to the casino where Val’s winning streak finally ended and my losing streak continued.  Tomorrow is another sea day so we can sleep in and relax again tomorrow.