October 18, 2024
TANGIERS, has changed a whole lot since I was last here in 2002.
The port area and the whole waterfront has been completely upgraded with under ground parking lots, a mosque, a booming marina and tons of housing complexes. I did the hop on off bus with other residents and climbed to top of light house.
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We had lunch in an authentic Turkish restaurant with the Medina walls. Yummy chicken tangine w/ apricots, dates, sultans and almonds; couscous; fresh bread olives and eggplant dip and sweet mint and dates with nuts for dessert.
Legend is Hercules stomped his foot off shore here and that is how the Atlantic and Mediterranean Seas split here!
Ternate, Indonesia, which is both the name of the city and island, and is part of the Maluku Islands in eastern Indonesia. It is a port that sees maybe 3 Cruise ships a year. However, they really made an effort to show us the best of what they can offer. It's mainly a Muslim country, and we knew we had to dress discretely, but we knew little else. We didn't have our typical port talk prior, due to a technical issue with the AV equipment. Ben a fellow resident, organized an island tour, with about 8 stops, for 90 of us residents.
Cebu greeted our Ship with a big warm welcome, despite having just been rocked by a major Earthquake, days before our arrival. The Minister of Tourism arrived with a motorcade and she proceeded to chat with the residents and thank us, for all our support.
Today we were Cave explorers! We went to the one of UNESCO newly classified 7 NEW WONDERS OF NATURE - The Puerto Princesa Underground River.