Around the World with Roz

The Journal

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More Impressions on Some Ocean Explorer I Passengers

I am walking the pool deck usually twice a day. However, you should see the few of us brave souls who do this. There is a "power walk" every morning, and sometimes I join in at my own pace, which is actually pretty close to the leaders; the trouble is the wind and the rolling of the deck. We lurch around as fast as we can go, but sometimes get almost blown into the pool, or slide across the deck. But I keep circling. Today, for the first time the tropical sun is brilliant, and the temperature is 82 degrees. I walked, but not as long as I should because it was too bright.
      I made it my rule to walk up and down the seven or eight flights of stairs, and am sticking to my guns. The cinema is on the bottom deck and I'm up about 6 or 7, and the main lecture and entertainment auditorium is up two decks from my stateroom, so I'm constantly walking up or down.
Everything helps.
      Right now, we're moving rapidly across the Atlantic from Cape Verde Island with aquamarine seas and sunny skies, heading toward San Domingo, Brazil, where I have signed onto the "cuisine" tour to see the native foods in the market and how prepared, etc. This is the "historic" 15th century Brazil where the slaves came in, so this should be interesting.
      We have such great lectures the precede each port, the culture, music, history, geology and geography, along with birds, and a the stars and planets. The faculty are truly outstanding---quite remarkable, they are very academic, do not look down on this audience, which is very highly educated (and many have been around the world numerous times), and almost always use slides for their presentations.
      This morning we heard a lecture preparing us for Rio; this afternoon is the next lecture on "A hundred million suns, a close up look at our galaxy"--the woman astronomer is FABULOUS! The natural history expert (who gave a
great lecture on whales yesterday) and the bird expert are a terrific couple who are married and have lived in Alaska for 20 years. They cruise and teach together and look no more than 40!