Galley Tour

Today is a day at sea, as we travel from Ecuador down along the coast of Peru towards our next port of call --  Salaverry/Trujillo -- which we will arrive at tomorrow morning.

Shortly before lunch, we watched whales spouting not far from our balcony!  We ate lunch up on the 11th deck, at the boat's stern, and as we sat there a huge pod of dolphins (numbering around 30 or more) entertained us by leaping out of the water, and playing in the ship's wake.  What a thrill!

This afternoon, we took a tour of the ship's galley with the Executive Chef.  It's an incredibly spotless place which churns out breakfast, lunch, and dinner for 600 passengers and 450 crew members every single day.  This includes any special dietary requirements from passengers who cannot have salt, or are allergic to certain foods, or need a vegetarian or vegan diet, etc.  The crew meals are specially prepared to include at least one Indian, one Indonesian, and one Filipino dish each day.  An amazing operation!  All the bread and pastries are made from scratch each day, and the Executive Chef will often go ashore to purchase fresh fish, etc.  He told us that just yesterday he bought 700 pounds of Ecuadorean Sea Bass.  We were told that for the first leg of this cruise (Miami to Lima) 850 pounds of chocolate had been loaded on board, along with some 600 lobsters, and a whole bunch of other stuff -- my mind became boggled, and I can't remember the numbers now!

The internet connection continues to be painfully, frustratingly slow, and it was especially bad today -- so much so that I gave up trying to edit this photograph.  So this is straight out of the camera ... my apologies.