May 22, 2025
TOPOLOBAMPO, MEXICO
View of cute town from the adjacent hillside. We are the first ship this town has had in PORT in 2 years! They literally rolled out the red carpet for us, and brought, what seemed to be 1/2 there population of 3300 people, to the Port, to perform and engage us in tourism!
Sadly it was a Monday and a lot of local businesses were closed - our residents would have spent money in Port, but they were limited things open. No grocery store and only a few restaurants open.
One of the more interesting houses we saw - all about the paint job, especially on the underside!
Note the Pelican through the opening in the letter P!
Got to love a place that sells shirts saying " Where the heck is Yap? " Colonia ( population 3,100 ) is the Capital and Harbor town of Yap State ( population 11,600 ) one of four states in the Federated States of Micronesia. We are in the Pacific Ocean or Philippine Sea just north of the equator, Papua New Guinea and Australia.
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.