5° 53.141 N , 79° 52.240 W

Yes Stevie, it was Guayaquil, as you say , up a river again .Poor Julie ,I had a bad cough after I came on here . I told you I had antibiotics did I not. I hope that she is feeling better today. She must have finished work by now, yes? No I did not know about gold but it can not be bad .Pleased about Landrover as I know that you enjoy being there . How is your diet going? I hope OK .Hope that you have recd. my e.mail re. Panama Canal , is there some way that you can save it for me to see ?Off to bed now so byeeeeeeeeeee XXXX

Sat 4° 54.777 N , 79° 58.794 W

Lo thereWell, I am back to my blog. I struggled with e.mail £5 .25 worth to let you know about the Panama Canal . http://www.pancanal.com/ because I thought you would not be looking at my blog and I want you to watch Ruby going through. Me as well of course. Yesterday, Friday ,we were in Manta ,Equador. The day before at Guayaquil in Equador. What an experience. The authorities would not clear the ship so no body could go ashore.Computers so they said. It meant that the tours could not leave until the afternoon. We 3 went on the shuttle bus and walked along the prom which was really nice. There was a nice park with little pools and many Koi Carp in them. We also saw a lizard sunning himself, I have forgotten his name. Last night we had trouble leaving. The customs people did not turn up to 'sign us off 'therefore the sail away party did not take place but I got eaten by a mosquito very badly on my back---- rotten little floaters. We eventually left and were too late to get over the sand bank down river so had to anchor up until 3am and the water to rise. Today has been O.K. we have been processed quickly , went into town and wandered around .We could not have the barbeque on the Lido deck for dinner because of ' many unwelcome flying insects ' That was enough to make me run and hide . Our newspaper says that there is trouble between Equador and Peru, they don't like each other. Trouble also between Columbia and Venezuela they don't like each other either .Don't know why they can't be more like me, I like all of them .Pray to the Lord that they don't start ' spatting ' or I shall not be able to wander off in Columbia and that will be devastating. GTG luv XXX.

Somewhere West of S.A.

Steve, sorry about lat longs but I did not know that you were taking any notice. You have never said that you were interested in them, mind you , you haven't said much at all . Here you are,Thurs 6th, 2°. 16'.806 S ,79° .54'.608 W. How about that then! You thought that I had forgotten ° did you not, because I had forgotten where I had put it the last time I did the specs . I liked it best when I could send it by text and say ,Where am I' . Still no coverage in ports.It was far better down the east coast, until we got to B.A that is.I have seen 2 pods of dolphins, so exciting . The first was when I was in a bridge class , we all rushed to the window to see them leaping out of the water as they shot past us going the opposite way. l of course did not have a camera. After bridge I went to pick it up with scant hope of seeing more but some more appeared further away this time but I filmed what I could. Ilove to see animals, birds , fish in the wild as they should be. Also we have been giving a lift to 2 Cormorants on and off all day. one in particular was walking around the deck close to me and the way he looked at me was incredible. It was intelligent , he looked as though he was going to say something . After he had tried to jump up onto the rail and failed, somebody picked him up and threw him towards the sea . He came back after a while and sat drying his wings and was on and off all day. Lovely to see. Right Steve ,where am I ? you have the specs. TTFN XXXXXXXXXXX

Peru

We berthed at Callao Peru to visit Lima the capital. Lima is about 8miles inland and is surrounded bythe Peruvian coastal desert, and is a short distance west of the Andes Mountains. I, as always went on the city tour and enjoyed it very much. We went to the pre-Inca ceremonial site which is a World Heritage site .It has been excavated over a long period and is much older than Machu Picchu .It was midday and diabolically hot because we were surrounded by high brick walls. Well worth seeing tho'. We were shown the Presidential Palace and wondered at the large police presence .There were also 2 armoured cars and Police in riot gear with' plastic ' shields in front of them. One of us noticed the cameras etc. and there was the President making a speach. Nobody bothered about us taking videos so I asked a Policeman if I could photograph him. Yes I could so that was O.K. then he asked my name I did not know what he was saying but he said 'me lamo Miguel'probably one of the only things I remembered. As soon as I heard Miguel it was easy to guess so I introduced myself. He wanted to know where I come from , clue 'Amerique', so I told him no , Angletera then I hot footed out smiling and waving, my Spanish is limited. very limited. I must go back to lessons if I am thinking of going anywhere in S. America again .I can not bear not knowing the language .It is typical of me to drop Spanish, become reasonably fluent in French then go gadding around all the Spanish speaking countries. We left the square a little behind the guide and passed in front of 5 men in riot gear with plastic shields. I thought it would make an interesting picture so I did my , 'can I video you routine' again . They can only say 'No' or something similar but the boss man said 'with pleasure, fill your boots '-- or something similar, so we did .We are now the envy of anyone wanting a photo of said Police ,Army or whatever they were who had walked past eyes averted. Good here is it not . I like Peru very much . On return to the Ruby we found a market with all sorts of goodies at cheap prices I bought 3T.shirts and a poncho made of Llama wool .Back in the sun for a while now. It is very hot today hardly any wind. Ttfn and thanks again boys for my M. D. messages.XXXXXXXX

Quick note

Dear Chris and Steve , Thank you for messages re. Mothers Day. I did look in right place Steve but did not see any .Don't worry Chris ,it will cost you. Steve ,Alan Helped me to get my e. mail so we deleted a few and I will go on manana and do some more . will also tell you about Peru but I must go and get 'done up 'I have to attend a cocktail party for our new Captain. Byeeeeeeeeeeee.XXXXXX.

Quick note

Dear Chris and Steve , Thank you for messages re. Mothers Day. I did look in right place Steve but did not see any .Don't worry Chris ,it will cost you. Steve ,Alan Helped me to get my e. mail so we deleted a few and I will go on manana and do some more . will also tell you about Peru but I must go and get 'done up 'I have to attend a cocktail party for our new Captain. Byeeeeeeeeeeee.XXXXXX.

Antafagasta

Sunday 2nd . It is Mothering Sunday,I have come to look for your messages boys but so far nothing, nix, nada, rien. Well Saga gave me a free glass of 'bubbly' at lunch time . Thanks re. light Chris, yes I knew about the earthquake. We have a small news letter every day and it was reported on there. Whatever next, there I was in Chile earthquake land and you got the 'quake. I hope we did not suffer any damage, chimneys and such. Steve , I can not get to my e. mail . I have just tried and it will not connect. I only asked you because you have broadband , I pay 30p a minute for internet and can not read e. mail off the net. We have now left Chile, our last port was Antofagasta and of course I did a tour of the town. The Americans are building a Casino which will bring in a lot of money and most likely a lot of gangsters. The coastline is as always lovely. We saw a lot of pelicans just sitting around on a rock. There are no natural beaches along the coast so the powers that be are importing loads of sand from Brazil and making beaches. It seems to be a great success and certainly looks good, the latest one is near the town. It will certainly be good for tourism which will bring in the money. There is a policy in Chile that nobody is allowed to take any food or fruit ashore. They do not want any foreign 'bugs ' and who can blame them . At Valpariso there was a 'sniffer ' dog and we had to put our bags under the bar for him to sniff. He went 'bananas ' at one bag which was promptly 'lifted 'while we 'goodies ' ignored everything around us. In the event we found out it was some sort of sun cream containing coconut .WE crossed the tropic of Capricorn yesterday so we are truly in the tropics. Steve ,I found a sky chart near Reception , it says that the Southern Cross is in the east from the stern so I shall try to find it . There was a planet to the east in the morning coming in to Valpar and I thought it must be Venus but this chart says that Saturn is in the east so there we are. Must have a look tonight. Bye for now XXXXXXXX