April 3 Willemstad Curacao. Willemstad is the capital of the Netherlands Antilles and lies about 64 kms off the Venezuelan coast.. It is the largest of the islands and was discovered in 1499 by one of Columbus' lieutenants, Alonso de Ojeda together with Amerigo Vespucci.and Juan de la Costa. They called the island The Island of the Giants as they were met by Indians taller than themselves. In 2010 Curacao gained its independence and is now a self governing sta...

Thurs 27th. Puerto Quetzal, Guatamala. A fabulous market of about 50 stalls is at the other end of the gang plank and we take a cursory look before paying for a cab to take us into town with two friends. This expedition does not take long as we wind through a shanty town and reach the "jewel" of a beach. Grey black sands covered with polystyrene and other rubbish, the skeleton of a rusty mangled pier and miles of umbrellas where people are selling food and dri...

After leaving San Diego we sailed for three days before reaching the small port of Puerta Vallarta. The MS Balmoral is a much smaller ship than we have been on before and has 1100 passengers and 500 crew. Our cabin is great, larger than anything we had on the Cunard ships and we have our own balcony. The meals have been very good and there is a full range of activities should you wish to participate. E even has a watercolour workshop a couple of days each week...

We are 3 days into our cruise on the MS Balmoral and will dock in Puerta Vallarta tomorrow morning around 7 am, then we go on a tour. Met Elaine at LA airport and we headed almost immediately for San Diego. Just time for a shower and some breakfast. Our hotel in San Diego was great and we enjoyed a marvellous dinner at a Red Lobster restaurant, with real fresh lobster. Wednesday we took a drive up the coast as far as Del Mar and enjoyed a browse around a huge a...

Well we have completed the drive. 2400 odd miles from freezing Chicago to 91 degrees F in L A when we arrived. We left San Bernadino and had about 65 miles to cover to get to Santa Monica Pier. This is not the official end of route 66. This is at the intersection of Lincoln Boulavard and Constitution Street. We went to this location and it is not marked in any way. We then fought our way through the mother of a traffic jam to the pier where we had our photo take...