FRIDAY, APR 23RD--AT SEA

It was another perfect day for cruising with smooth seas, sunny skies, and high temperature in mid-80’s. After 4 days at sea we are ready to see some land tomorrow. I must have been sleeping back in my high school world history class when they discussed West Africa! Get out your world atlas. I have never heard of the countries of Benin and Togo and that is where we will be the next two days. Third day is Ghana and I have heard of it so bet there was some negative news associated with it. Benin is next to Nigeria and is only 60 miles wide at the coast and 400 miles deep with a population of less than a 750,000. I seriously doubt that tourism is a big money maker here. The port city is Cotonou and is also home to the airport and a railway. Our excursion desk has prepared us to expect a Third World country with poverty and not many English speaking people. We will be taking a tour in the afternoon but in the morning we hope to take a shuttle into the city of Cotonou to do some shopping in the markets & shops. Dorothy Bishop’s show last night was really good. Tonight’s show features a return of the Australian singer, John Bowles. We loved his first show. As I mentioned a few days ago, tonight we are dining with the Chief Purser and Executive Concierge. I hope they don’t mind that I ordered veal parmesan for Rebecca and I tonight. We still have the Israeli security team with us on the ship. They will be with us until we leave Africa. Jim Barton, one of our neighbors, emailed us photos of our house today. Thanks Jim!