peru, polywogs and the best hemisphere on the whole planet

Well, I'm back, more or less. North of the equator that is. Since my
last entry I've been to Peru, Ecuador, Acapulco and Puerto Viallarta.
I couldn't get off the ship in Ecuador, (in-port manning again), but
I can tell you it's hot. I took the lounge chair picture at noon. See
the shadows go straight down and the light has a very clear quality
to it. Every part of the deck was so hot I actually burned my feet
going from the chair to the pool.

There is a traditional ceremony that takes place aboard ships when
passing the equator. In a nutshell, King Neptune comes aboard and has
to grant you permission to enter his realm. He punishes some
pollywogs, (people who have never passed the equator before), then
declares everyone to be shellbacks. Don't really know what any of it
means but it was good fun. We were doing a deck show at the time and
they did the ceremony between sets. There was a brief delay before
the second set as they cleaned the beer, ketchup, confetti, dead fish
and octopus from the deck. Still, what with the smell, there really
wasn't much dancing after that.

Anyway, I'm back in the best hemisphere in the whole world.