For all of you who know those wonderful people that are Phil and Shirley, this an update they have sent to Hinton Happenings on their global travels – currently they are in the Americas.
Here in Bonaire it’s hot hot hot, but with a cool breeze and a cold beer not far away. So far we’ve been to Madeira and Barbados, and the next few ports are in the Caribbean, then down to Peru before heading off to Easter Island and the Pacific.
I’m in the choir and Shirley is doing a lot of craft, as there are a lot of sea days. We sang Gabriels Trumpet at the church service on Sunday. I’m sure that if people like us can form a reasonable choir, then it can be done at Hinton!
Life is lovely, and we are very aware of how fortunate we are, to be here and to have so much to come home to.
A few days later: A MAN A PLAN A CANAL PANAMA is of course the famous palindrome which actually describes the Panama Canal rather well.
Either backwards or forwards, from the Atlantic to the Pacific or vice versa it transports you to a new world in a few hours, saving 8 days of travel and thousands of pounds worth of fuel, all for a cost of four hundred thousand pounds for a medium size passenger ship like this!
With three sets of locks and six separate chambers we rise and fall 84 feet, travel through jungle and lakes, all the while sipping iced coffee or gin and tonic, perhaps unmindful of the 24000 men who died building it more than 100 years ago.
It is truly fantastic, almost beyond belief that mankind can envision such a scheme, let alone create it.
The cargoes in transit include almost anything one can imagine, including of course people like us – for pleasure, yes, but hopefully with the end result of broadening the mind and enabling us to value and love those of different race, colour and faith.
26.01.17. We are now in Peru and have trodden the streets of Lima.
It is really interesting to learn how Peru has come through Spanish colonialism, then ultra left wing revolution, dictatorships and a sort of democracy to a time now where the economy is growing fast yet nobody seems to get any richer except the chosen few.
Here in Callao we are near Lima and the sea is very cold due to the Humboldt current from the south, so the whales and seafood are plentiful and the days hot except for a cool sea mist in the morning.
We didn’t go to Machu Pichu as we are not really fit enough for the walking or the altitude but we’ve seen plenty.
Off to Easter Island and across the Pacific tonight.
New Forest Edge Churches 