All posts by Corey Sandler

Corey Sandler has been a storyteller all of this life. He worked as a newsman for Gannett Newspapers and later as a correspondent for The Associated Press before entering the worlds of magazine and book publishing. He has written more than 200 books on history, travel, sports, technology, and business. He continues as a writer and travels several months each year as a speaker aboard luxury cruise ships all over the world. If you'd like to contact him, please send an e-mail to this address: corey[AT]sandlerbooks.com (Replace the [AT] with the @ symbol, please.)

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9-10 June 2015
Venice, Italy: La Dominante, La Serenissima

June 10, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Venice, the Dominant, the Serene, is one of the most extraordinary places on earth.

A city afloat. The grand remnants of a once-great Republic.

The City of Water. The City of Bridges. The City of Canals.

Depending who is doing the counting and sometimes on how high the water rises, modern Venice consists of about 124 islands that sit in the shallow and marshy Venetian Lagoon along the Adriatic Sea in northeast Italy between the mouths of the Po River to the south and the Piave to the north.

A VENICE ALBUM

Photos by Corey Sandler

It was during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance that the Republic of Venice rose to become a major maritime power, along with Genoa, Pisa, and Amalfi.

At its peak, in the 12th and 13th centuries, the Venetian Republic eliminated the pirates along the Dalmatian Coast, acquired control of most of the islands in the Aegean, including Cyprus and Crete, seized and sacked Constantinople (today’s Istanbul) in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade, establishing the Latin Empire in the process and became a major power-broker, trading with Western Europe as well as continuing to deal with the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic world.

By the late thirteenth century, Venice was the most prosperous city in all of Europe. At the peak of its power and wealth, it had 36,000 sailors operating 3,300 ships, dominating Mediterranean commerce.

From the 13th through 17th centuries, Venice’s leading families vied with each other to build the grandest palaces and support the work of the greatest and most talented artists.

Six hundred years ago, Venetians protected themselves from land-based attacks by diverting all the major rivers flowing into the lagoon and thus preventing sediment from filling the area around the city.

During the 20th century, when many artesian wells were sunk into the periphery of the lagoon to draw water for local industry, Venice began to subside.

The city is still threatened by frequent low-level floods (called Acqua alta, “high water”) that splash over the walls. Saint Mark’s Square floods more than 50 times a year.

THE VIEW FROM THE TOP

One of my favorite parts of my job is giving commentary from the ship’s navigational bridge as we sail in or out of some of the planet’s most beautiful ports.

Among them is Venice, and I was up top early on 9 June to help guests understand the great city.

Here are some photos from Venice, starting with the view from the bridge:

Photos by Corey Sandler

To those guests leaving us here in Venice, safe travels and arrivederci: Until we meet again.

And for those joining us for the next adventure, welcome aboard.

Here’s our plan for the next cruise, from Venice to Istanbul.

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Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

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Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

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8 June 2015
Koper, Slovenia: Emerging from the Shadows

June 8, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Koper, Slovenia is a beautiful, diverse, and culturally rich corner of the former Yugoslavia.

Slovenia touches Italy near Trieste, a border that has moved back and forth many times.

Slovenia and Croatia were the first new countries to emerge from the former Yugoslavia, on June 25, 1991.

Macedonia followed, although it wasn’t recognized for a few years. Bosnia and Herzogovinia, and Serbia and Montenegro began in 1992. Those last two countries had a sort-of-amicable divorce in 2006. And then Kosovo broke off from Serbia in 2008.

It’s all a bit confusing, but then again Yugoslavia was a cobbled-together country that never experienced cultural, ethnic, or religious unity.

A KOPER ALBUM

Slovenia has always been a crossroads of trade, culture, and conflict. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Croatia to the south and southeast, and Hungary to the northeast.

On this visit, I went with guests to the capital of Slovenia, Ljubljana.

Please: let’s keep this amongst ourselves: Ljubljana is a gem, a bright and shiny and energetic place. Here are some photos from today:

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7 June 2015
Hvar, Croatia: The Trendy Isle

June 7, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

The island of Hvar is one of Croatia’s trendiest destinations: Beaches, watersports, cafés, and shops.

The tourist bureau would have you think of it as the Saint-Tropez of Dalmatia.

It’s a very attractive place; the town of Hvar is mostly white and tan structures with orange or red roofs.

But going to Hvar means going to a place where, with the arrival of summer come flocks of tourists, along with eruptions of color in the interior of the island: vineyards, fields of lavender, and riots of wild flowers.

A HVAR ALBUM

On this visit I went with a group of guests on an off-road adventure into some of the mountains and valleys of Hvar.

We ventured through fields of purple lavender and yellow broom to isolated towns; one village is down to just seven residents, some of whom were refugees from an even more remote settlement now abandoned.

Here is some of what I saw.

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6 June 2015
Dubrovnik, Croatia: A History of Danger

June 6, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Dubrovnik has lived with danger for most of its existence.

Centuries of political and trade conflict with much-larger powers, a massive earthquake, and a war in the 1990s whose effects can still be seen.

What remains and has been restored is a sight to be seen, now one of the most popular places to visit in the growing tourist allure of Croatia.

Photos by Corey Sandler

We know the place today by its Croation name of Dubrovnik. The Italians reach back to an older name of Ragusa, which is based on the Roman settlement of Ragusium, and in turn the Greek port of Ragousa.

In the Middle Ages, the Republic of Ragusa was an important economic and political power, in the era of similar city-states like Amalfi, Pisa, Genoa, and Venice.

By the 15th and 16th centuries, its thalassocracy–its empire at sea rather than on land—rivaled that of the Republic of Venice.

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If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

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5 June 2015
Kotor, Montenegro: The City in the Hill

June 6, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Montenegro is a nine-year-old nation with a thousand-year back story.

The nation, carved out of what was once Yugoslavia, is one of the smaller countries in the world: about 14,000 square kilometers or 5,300 square miles.

It’s smaller than The Bahamas, a bit larger than Qatar or Jamaica.

Montenegro’s coast line is on the Adriatic Sea, at its south-west border.

A KOTOR ALBUM

Photos by Corey Sandler

Croatia is to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast, Albania to the southeast, and Kosovo to the east. That’s a pretty rough neighborhood.

Montenegro, of course, means Black Mountain.

And the region has had a version of that name for centuries, but not always in a Romance Language.

As far back at the 14th century, the hilly area was called Tsrna Gora, which means…Black Mountain.

Today its name is an adaptation of the Italian-Venetian translation. Modern Italian would be montenero.

Today, the official language of Montenegro is Montenegrin, which is nearly the same as Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian.

Some people have called the Bay of Kotor “Europe’s southernmost fjord.”

That’s an interesting description. It has the feeling of a fjord in Norway or Chile.

We sailed a deep, twisting watery path from the sea about 17 miles into the interior.

But in technical terms, it’s not a fjord at all. A fjord is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created in a valley carved by glaciers.

Nearly all of the earth’s glaciers are at or near the poles, with only a few way up high in mountains near the planet’s mid-section.

Kotor is at 42 degrees north, which is slightly closer to the equator than it is to the North Pole.

Instead, what we’ve got in Kotor is a drowned river valley. The river was long ago covered over by a rising sea level in the region.

On our sail-in, around the last bend ahead of us lay the Old City of Kotor.

The map of Kotor looks to me like a ski mountain: a city in the hill.

The city walls were built by the Republic of Venice when Kotor was an important trading port.

On this visit, I went to the ancient town of Budva, a seaside resort begun by Illyrian Greek tribes and then enhanced over the millennia by Romans and then local Slavs and Montenegrins.

It is also the home of a very exclusive (and expensive) resort on Sveti Stephan island.

A BUDVA ALBUM

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4 June 2015
Corfu, Greece: It’s Complicated

June 5, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Corfu is a little piece of Greece, the seventh largest of the country’s islands.

But its status is a lot more complicated.

The history of Corfu includes a long period of domination by the Venetians, a bit of French, and a few decades of British rule.

It was the occupation by the Venetians, though, and the strong fortress structures they erected that was one of the main reasons why Corfu was the only significant part of Greece never conquered by the Muslim Turks, the Ottomans.

A CORFU ALBUM

Photos by Corey Sandler

The island, along with a few smaller islets, forms the northwestern frontier of Greece. The island’s north-eastern coastline is just 3 kilometers or 2 miles away from Albania.

I said that the island was never taken by the Ottoman Turks, but that was not for lack of trying.

The Siege of Corfu in 1537 landed 25,000 soldiers from the Turkish fleet of Suleiman the Magnificent. They pillaged parts of the island and took 20,000 hostages.

But in the city, the castle held and the Turks withdrew because of lack of supplies and an epidemic.

The second great siege of Corfu took place in 1716, during the last Turkish-Venetian War.

On July 8 the Turkish fleet of 33,000 men was encountered by the Venetian fleet off the channel of Corfu and was defeated. Despite repeated assaults and heavy fighting, the Turks were unable to breach the defenses and were forced to end the siege after 22 days.

The 5,000 Venetians and foreign mercenaries, together with 3,000 Corfiotes, were victorious.

Once again Venetian castle engineering had proven itself once again against considerable odds.

The repulse of the Ottomans was widely celebrated in Europe, Corfu being seen as a bastion of Western civilization against the Ottoman tide.

Back in Venice, hometown composer Antonio Vivaldi wrote an oratorio: “Juditha triumphans.”

Today Corfu city looks very different from most Greek cities.

The Venetians set the tone for architecture, and also created a culture more open and diverse than existed in many other places.

Today I made a visit to one of the remnants of the many other cultures that touched Corfu: Achilleion Palace, built for Empress Elizabeth of Austria-Hungary in 1890, named (and decorated) in tribute to her hero Achilles. After her death (by assassination in one of the complex steps that led up to World War I), it was purchased by Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany.

Wilhelm, who also had a thing for heroes and large statues, had a huge version of Achilles installed in the garden, with the inscription “To the Greatest Greek from the Greatest German.” Humble, no?

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3 June 2015
Messina, Italy: Up From the Ashes

June 3, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Early Wednesday morning, we sailed south from Sorrento and Amalfi through the Tyrrhenian Sea into the funnel-shaped Strait of Messina.

Arriving at the Strait, on our left was the bottom of the mainland of Italy. To our right was the large island of Sicily, the football being kicked by the toe of Italy’s boot.

Entering the strait, the passage is as narrow as 2 miles, or 3 kilometers.

At its exit to the south, the strait is nearly 10 miles or 16 kilometers wide.

Almost anywhere the sea funnels into a strait, mariners expect strong and sometime treacherous currents.

That’s only one problem.

The Eurasian plate is moving down, or south, toward the African plate.

And one of the hotspots, where the plates grind against each other, is southern Italy.

Here, in a relatively small area, we have Mount Etna: the tallest active volcano in Europe, nearly constantly bubbling over like a bowl of Arrabiata sauce left on the burner.

Silver Spirit came to the dock in the once-handsome classic Sicilian city of Messina.

I say Messina was once-handsome, because on December 28, 1908 the city was all but leveled by a terrible earthquake that killed as many as 100,000 people.

Today, Messina is the third largest city on the island of Sicily; about 250,000 in the city itself and 650,000 in the surrounding area.

A MESSINA ALBUM

CHIESA DEI CATALANI, MESSINA

Messina reached a peak of splendor in the early 17th century, under Spanish domination. In 1783, an earthquake devastated much of the city, and it took decades to rebuild and rekindle cultural life.

Destroyed again by the earthquake of 1908, during World War II Messina was subject to massive aerial bombardment by Allied forces.

So, between the earthquakes and the wartime bombing, what you see in Messina today is almost entirely rebuilt. Handsome, interesting, but mostly no older than about 70 years.

There are some ancient remnants, though.

Parts of the Cathedral of Messina date from the 12th century. Contained within are the 13^th century remains of King Conrad, ruler of Germany and Sicily.

The sculptures and details of the exterior are phantasmagorical, well worth a visit on their own.

But the biggest draw of the cathedral is its bell tower. The tower holds one of the largest astronomical clocks in the world, built in 1933.

Be there at noon and watch the show.

PATRON SAINT DAY IN MESSINA

As luck would have it, we arrived on the day of commemoration of one of Messina’s patron saints: Madonna della Lettera.

According to local legend, when Saint Paul visited Messina seeking converts, he took back with him to Palestine some new followers who made a visit to meet the Virgin Mary.

May is said to have written a letter, in Hebrew, to bestow her blessing on Messina.

We stood by the cathedral and watched part of the procession.

MOUNT ETNA

And of course, there is Mount Etna, one of the most active volcanoes in the world; the tallest in Europe and the highest mountain of Italy south of the Alps.

Etna is about 100 kilometers or 62 miles from Messina.

It is very much awake, rumbling and spurting.

Etna stands about 3,329 meters or 10,922 feet tall, although every time it erupts it grows or shrinks. That makes it about two-and-a-half times the height of the next tallest Italian volcano, the one we saw recently in the Bay of Naples: Mount Vesuvius.

There are several very interesting small towns and villages in the shadow of Etna.

The most popular is Taormina, which occupies a former Greek settlement and still holds a remarkable Greek Theatre.

Its acoustics are exceptional: a stage whisper can be heard in the last rows. And behind the open stage, framed between columns, stands Mount Etna, a character in every play, opera, and concert presented there for millennia.

Another extraordinary sight is the tiny town of Castelmola which floats above Taormina.

About a thousand people live on the tippy-top of the hill, with cobblestone streets within ancient walls and spectacular views of Taormina…and Mount Etna.

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If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

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2 June 2015
Amalfi, Italy: Hugging the Coast

June 2, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Around the corner and below Sorrento is the Amalfi Coast, the Costiera Amalfitana.

This is an especially beautiful stretch of coastline in a beautiful part of the world.

And it is a lot more relaxing to visit on board a luxury cruise ship than by car or coach.

The alternative is to go down the Amalfi Drive. I’ve driven the drive, and lived to tell the tale, although the experience aged me greatly.

The road winds back and forth, hugging the sheer cliff walls on one side and edging up to the sharp dropoff to the sea below on the other.

Oh, and the road is also heavily populated with…how should I say this?….Italian drivers and tourists. The locals drive with what seems to be total abandon. The visitors, like me, clench their steering wheels in a deathlike drip.

The most famous towns are Positano, which hugs the cliff walls, and Amalfi. Past Positano is the city of Salerno.

AN AMALFI ALBUM

Positano was a relatively poor fishing village during the first half of the 20^th century.

It began to attract large numbers of tourists in the 1950s.

John Steinbeck may have helped. In an essay in Harper’s Bazaar, Steinbeck wrote: “Positano bites deep. It is a dream place that isn’t quite real when you are there and becomes beckoningly real after you have gone.”

The church of Santa Maria Assunta features a dome made of majolica tiles as well as a 13^th Byzantine century icon of a black Madonna.

According to local legend, the icon had been stolen from Byzantium and was being transported across the Mediterranean by pirates.

A terrible storm blew up near Positano and the frightened sailors heard a voice saying “Posa, posa!” (“Put down! Put down!”).

The precious icon was unloaded at the fishing village and the storm abated.

And so today, I came back to Positano. I skipped the beach, the ships, and the granita stands and climbed the hill on a photo safari.

A POSITANO ALBUM

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1 June 2015
Sorrento, Italy: Beauty and the Beast

June 1, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Campania is one of the most beautiful, dramatic, and dangerous regions in all of coastal Italy.

Silver Spirit at anchor off of Sorrento, with Mount Vesuvius in the background

On the mainland, it stretches from Naples south to Sorrento and down the Amalfi Coast.

The wide Gulf of Naples is framed by three major islands: the most famous is Capri just west of Sorrento. Offshore of Naples is Procida, and further out Ischia.

And from almost everywhere you can see the hulking threat of Mount Vesuvius: one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world.

ON TOP OF OLD VESUVIUS

Photos by Corey Sandler

Directly connected, of course, are the famed ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum, mute witness to the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 C.E.

There is no dock for ships at Sorrento, and so we put down our anchor outside the harbor.

Why do I say this place is so dangerous? Because the beast, Vesuvius, is most certainly not extinct. It has erupted numerous times before and after the major event in the year 79. In recorded history it has lost its head roughly every 80 years or so.

Over the centuries, most of its eruptions have been sudden and explosive.

It is the only volcano on the European mainland to have erupted within the last century. (The two other volcanoes in Italy are on islands: Etna on Sicily and Stromboli which is an island by itself.)

Campania has a population of about 5.8 million people, making it the second-most-populous region of Italy after Lombardy (in and around Milan.)

When was the last time it erupted?

In an almost-forgotten event in World War II, Vesuvius erupted in 1944 as American troops and other Allied forces moved north up Italy.

That would be a bit more than 80 years ago…

A POMPEII ALBUM

CAPRI

OPLONTIS AND NERO’S WIFE

We have been to Sorrento so many times that the street vendors call us by name.

Sorrento, Naples, Capri, Paestum, Pompeii, Herculaneum. Been there, done that, enjoyed it very much thank you.

On this trip we decided to do something a bit out of the ordinary, a visit to one of the newest ancient sites of Campania: Oplontis, which includes the huge, spectacular Villa of Poppea, which may have been the seaside resort of Nero’s wife Poppea. That’s not certain, but whoever owned it was quite wealthy.

And whoever owned obviously never came back after it was buried under tens of metres of ejects from the eruption of Vesuvius.

Like Herculaneum, it was hidden in plain sight beneath the fields and strrets of modern Italy, in this case the town of Torre Annunziatta.

Here is some of what we saw:

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31 May 2015
Civitavechia to Venice

May 31, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Welcome aboard.

We are embarked on a voyage that circles down and around Italy, from the ancient port of Rome on the Tyrrhenian Sea through the Strait of Messina to Corfu in the Ionian Sea and then north into the Adriatic Sea.

This cruise ends in Venice, once one of the world’s most dominant military, economic, and political powers, a thalassocracy of maritime colonies and trading partners that includes much of our itinerary as well as further east into the Aegean Sea to Constantinople, today’s Istanbul.

Here’s our plan:

I’ll be posting stories and photos from each port.

I hope you’ll follow along on our voyage.

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4 May 2015
San Francisco: Heading Back to the Atlantic

May 4, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

We have reached the end of our journey that crossed from the southeast of the United States to near its northwest corner. From Fort Lauderdale, Florida to San Francisco, California making great use of the shortcut of the Panama Canal.

I’ll be heading home for a few weeks.

Next stop for us: Silver Spirit from Civitavecchia (the port of Rome) to Istanbul, then back down and around to Venice.

I’ll you’ll join me here (or there.)

Safe travels.

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2 May 2015
San Diego, California: The Deep South of the West Coast

May 2, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

San Diego has a bit of a second-city complex.

A beautiful setting, a great year-round climate, a natural deepwater harbor, great beaches, and an economy based to a great extent on the U.S. Navy and tourism.

Sailing into San Diego

It is, in fact, the second most populous city in California after Los Angeles.

In my opinion, L.A. gets all the attention but San Diego—and San Francisco—deserve all the praise.

San Diego encompasses about 200 deep canyons and hills separating its mesas, creating small pockets of natural parkland scattered throughout the city lots of hills.

Most of the homes and businesses are on the flat mesas, with the canyons left relatively wild.

We arrived on May 2, but in San Diego’s Old Town, it was Cinco de Mayo for the weekend, a celebration of the Mexican heritage of many San Diegans and the city itself. Here is some of what we saw today:

CINCO DE MAYO FESTIVAL

DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO

Our cruise from Florida through the Panama Canal to California followed the path of some of the celebrants who came to San Diego for the Panama–California Exposition in March, 1915 as part of the celebrations of the opening of the Panama Canal.

The exposition was held in San Diego’s large urban Balboa Park.

At a time when many architects were celebrating the over-the-top Beaux-Arts style, in San Diego they chose Spanish Baroque, which includes some Moorish Revival elements, and a bit of Spanish Colonial design.

The fair was decorated with more than two million plants of 1,200 different types. Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell made a three-day appearance in November 1915.

Some of the Exposition’s permanent buildings are still standing, including the Botanical Building, originally home to a collection of rare tropical and semi-tropical plants, the 200-foot-tall California Bell Tower, in the form of a Spanish ship, the Chapel of St. Francis of Assisi, and the Fine Arts Building , now part of the Museum of Man.

As impressive as Balboa Park is, for many the most important and most lasting remnant of the fairs is The San Diego Zoo, home to more than 3,700 animals of more than 650 species and subspecies, including the Giant Panda.

The second half of our long day in San Diego was a night game at Petco Park, which is not a place to walk your dog but rather the home of the San Diego Padres baseball team. The modern stadium is nestled within downtown San Diego near the Gaslamp District, a great way to keep a city lively. Petco is not quite Fenway Park in Boston, but it is of a similar atmosphere.

A NIGHT AT THE BALLPARK

ALONG THE WATERFRONT

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If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

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Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

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29 APRIL 2015
Cabo San Lucas, Mexico: Land’s End

April 29, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Cabo San Lucas is at the bottom of the peninsula of Baja California, lower California in Mexico dangling off the bottom of Alta California, the state of California in the United States.

Cabo San Lucas: Saint Luke’s Cape.

It was given that name by Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, a Portuguese who served with the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés before taking his own expeditions on behalf of the Spanish crown.

From about the mid-16th to the mid-18th centuries, the harbor at Cabo was a regular hiding place for English pirates and privateers who would venture out to attack Manila Galleons, the Spanish vessels hauling treasure from China, Japan, and the Philippines back to Mexico for transshipment up and over the mountains to the Gulf of Mexico and from there eventually to Spain.

Once the piracy business came to an end, Cabo was not all that valuable. It was difficult to get to overland, and there was little fresh water available.

But Cabo came back to life at the end of the 19th century when the locals found an industry exporting the bark of the palo blanco tree, a form of Acacia. The “white stick” was an ingredient for the tanning of leather.

From pirates to tree bark, next came tuna: lots of the large fish just offshore.

A CABO SAN LUCAS ALBUM

Today, we are the big fish: Cabo is one of the most successful resorts of Mexico, a truly beautiful place with all sorts of sports. Fishing, swimming, parasailing, shopping.

ONSTAGE ABOARD SILVER SHADOW

Sailing from Acapulco to Cabo San Lucas, we were honored to be joined by George Sakellario, one of the world’s great guitar masters.

We have known George for years, always looking forward to meeting like ships in the night somewhere in the world.

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27 APRIL 2015
Acapulco, Mexico: Conquistadors, Pirates, and Elvis

April 27, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Spanish Conquistadores used the region in and around Acapulco and Ixtapa-Zihuatenejo as a point of departure to explore the Pacific coast, as well as a port in 1527 for the first ships to sail to the Philippines.

With the disappearance of the native population, fields and forests were worked by Spaniards.

This was different from much of Latin America where the Spaniards established colonies of local labor and sometimes slave labor.

As important Spanish assets, the Mexican ports also drew the attention of the pirate and privateer Francis Drake, as well as Henry Morgan and Thomas Cavendish.

For more than 256 years, the annual trade known as the Manila-Acapulco Galleon or the Nao de Chine took place.

Key to the Manila Galleons was the discovery of the northern Pacific tradewinds which allowed ships to sail back to Acapulco from Asia.

Traders in Acapulco bargained for spices, silks, porcelain, ivory, and lacquerware. After the fair, much of the treasure would be carried up and over the Cordillera to Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico.

ACAPULCO’S HANDSOME CATHEDRAL

FUERTE SAN DIEGO

Some of the treasures of Asia brought to Acapulco, and the Fort built to fend off pirates

The five-pointed stone Fuerte de San Diego was completed in 1617. Some old guns are still in place.

After the end of the Manila Galleon, Acapulco fell into decline.

Like Panama, it recovered during the California Gold Rush that began in 1849. Many ships stopped on their way to California or on their return trip to Panama for the land crossing there.

More than a few passengers were so taken by the natural beauty of Acapulco that they decided to settle there.

A peek through a window at an old hotel in Acapulco

And then in 1920, England’s Prince of Wales—the future King Edward VIII—helped launch Acapulco as an international tourist destination.

Then came the celebrities: John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier honeymooned here in 1953. Elizabeth Taylor chose Acapulco for one of her weddings, to Mike Todd in 1957.

Brigitte Bardot posed on the beach. Frank Sinatra was a regular, and even sung about it in one of his signature songs, “Come Fly With Me.”

Since 1934, Las Clavadistas de La Quebrada have lured tourists. The cliff divers work their way out onto ledges in the rock, make the sign of the cross with great drama, and jump into the quebrada or ravine below.

This is a situation where what looks quite dangerous actually is dangerous.

Las Clavadistas de La Quebrada. At right, a diver plunges toward the sea below

Speaking of danger, the king himself, Elvis Presley, starred in “Fun in Acapulco” with costar Ursula Andress in 1963. In that film he played a former circus worker who—because of a woman—gets trapped into a dare to dive at La Quebrada.

Elvis did not visit Acapulco for the movie, which was shot almost entirely in Hollywood. And he certainly did not jump off the cliff.

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25 April 2015
Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala: Rebirth of the Resplendent Quetzal

April 25, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Guatemala is a place of resplendent beauty, terrible poverty, great history, tragic bloodshed, vibrant culture, and a tentative rebirth with a still uncertain future.

It has balanced on a knife’s edge for centuries.

One of the symbols of Guatemala is the Quetzal, its national bird.

The Quetzal is a reminder of defeat at the hands of the Spanish and a yearning for liberty.

Today it also symbolizes a hope for enduring peace in a place that has seen terrible suffering.

A street vendor in Guatemala La Antigua

The Resplendent Quetzal—to give its full name—is native to Guatemala, with a close cousin in Costa Rica.

About 14 inches or 36 centimeters in length; the pretty males add a tail streamer of as much as 25 inches more.

A big guy, then, might stretch 39 inches—or one full meter—from stem to stern.

They have a green, iridescent body and a red breast.

Guatemalans describe the Quetzal’s song as a “whimpering pup.”

But there is also a legend that says that the quetzal sang beautifully before the Spanish conquistadors arrived, and he will sing once again when the land is truly free.

At the heart of the country is La Nueva Guatemala de la Asunción: Guatemala City, very much representative of the nation.

It is a wild and somewhat dangerous city—the largest in Central America; some four million people live in and around it.

A bit further inland is La Antigua Guatemala, the old city, begun in 1543.

La Antigua

The city served as the capital of the Spanish Kingdom of Guatemala, which for more than two centuries stretched from Mexico City to Peru.

All in one place we see vestiges of the Mayans, the ruins of the Spanish and above it all…the volcanoes.

I have visited La Antigua many times and it never fails to thrill. On our approach this morning La Volcan Fuego erupted, just for us. Not a big explosion…just a boom and a cloud of ash. A welcome back to a special place.

LA ANTIGUA, 25 APRIL 2015

COREY AND THE VOLCANO

The author, on a previous visit, midway on a climb of the Pacaya volcano

The remnants of its Spanish colonial architecture have been preserved as a national monument.

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23 April 2015
Puntarenas, Costa Rica: Living La Pura Vida

April 23, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

We arrived at our first port in the Pacific on a steamy morning in Puntarenas, Costa Rica. And then it got hotter: 92 degrees, and if there is such a thing as more than 100 percent humidity, this must be what it feels like.

We have been here many times, up in the mountains, along the rivers, tothevolcanoes. Today we stayed local, slowly making our way around the town of Puntarenas, a place that does not see all that many tourists. But we know we can count on friendly times amongst the Ticos.

Pura Vida, no matter the heat.

23 APRIL 2015, PUNTARENAS

Costa Rica means “rich coast.”

Yet another thing that Christopher Columbus got wrong.

First of all, Costa Rica has two coasts: Atlantic and Pacific.

And secondly, Columbus was a guy who believed in wishful thinking.

As we know, he was looking for India when he landed in the Bahamas, and so he called the islands there the West Indies.

And when Columbus sailed through the Caribbean to the dead end of Central America, he was looking for the Panama Canal…or a natural strait through the isthmus.

On September 18, 1502, Columbus set anchor offshore of Costa Rica, and Carib Indians paddled out in canoes to deliver a peaceful greeting.

Columbus was looking for gold, and that’s the “rich” part of the name: there just had to be gold somewhere.

Costa Rica has managed to survive the Spanish Conquistadors, the American filibusters who came south in hopes of annexing Central America, corrupt or venal politicians, United Fruit and its “banana republics” and various other indignities.

Today, the gold in Costa Rica is green. To their great credit the Ticos have decided their future lies in gently making use of the vast ecological treasures of the nation: rain forests, estuaries, mountains, volcanoes, and wild life.

A PUNTARENAS ALBUM

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21 APRIL 2015
Our Passage Between the Seas: The Panama Canal

April 22, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Early this morning, about 6:30 a.m., we arrived in Limon Bay in the Atlantic Ocean.

At 4 p.m., we sailed out of Miraflores into the Pacific Ocean.

Silver Shadow in the Miraflores Locks, 21 April 2015. (From Panama Canal Webcam)

I have made the transit of the Panama Canal more times than I can remember; it never ceases to impress and excite me. Sign me up for a return trip.

The desire for a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific was a driving force for four hundred years: from the time the Spanish first arrived in the dead end of the Gulf of Mexico in what today in Panama.

The alternatives were not good: a months-long sail down and around the bottom of South America at Cape Horn, or an overland passage up and over the cordillera mountains and through torrential rain, raging rivers, and deadly threats from disease and killer creatures of just about any description.

Ferdinand Marie de Lesseps was a national hero, “Le Grand Français,” the Great Frenchman.

He had successfully led the project to build the Suez Canal in Egypt, in the process enriching thousands of French investors.

De Lesseps was a promoter, an entrepreneur, but not an engineer. He was very good at building companies.

But he declared: “The canal will be built.”

And notwithstanding the rain, the rivers, the mountains, and disease, de Lesseps said his project would be en niveau, sans ecluses. On the level, without locks.

APRIL 21, 2015: FROM THE ATLANTIC TO THE PACIFIC

The French project began January 1, 1880. It was immediately obvious they were not in the dry sands of Egypt.

By 1885, extravagance, graft, and the unrealistic design for the canal had emptied the company’s treasury. After eight years, the canal was only about 40 percent complete, and work on dams and locks barely begun.

And now the United States, led by the charismatic president Theodore Roosevelt was ready to reassert itself. The Americans bought the assets of the bankrupt French effort.

The first challenge for the Americans was not one of engineering but instead conquering disease. Clearing Cuba and then Panama of malaria and yellow fever was one of the great accomplishments of medicine and made it possible for massive effort by the United States to build the canal.

A PANAMA CANAL ALBUM

Today, the canal is nearing completion of a major expansion.

At each end, the final touches are being put on new sets of locks that will allow much larger ships to take the watery elevator up and over the Continental Divide.

On board ship, I give three lectures about the canal and the politics of Central America.

You’re welcome to join me next time.

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Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

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19-20 APRIL 2015
Cartagena, Colombia: La Heroica

April 20, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

We arrived in steamy Cartagena in the afternoon and overnighted, catching our breath in one of the most handsome old Spanish colonial cities of the New World.

Cartagena was the Fort Knox, the Las Vegas, the Tower of London: one of the principal offshore gold repositories and warehouses for the Spanish.

And for that reason it came under attack many times.

Colombians call Cartagena “La Heroica.” The Heroic City.

Here are some photos I took on this visit to Cartagena:

CARTAGENA, APRIL 2015. All photos by Corey Sandler

La Popa Monastery

FUERTE SAN FELIPPE

Within the Walls of the Old City of Cartagena

In 1533—35 years after Columbus sailed nearby and almost a century before Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock in 1620—Spanish explorer Don Pedro de Heredia founded a settlement he called Cartagena de Indias.

Cartegena of the Indies, to distinguish it from Cartagena on the Mediterranean in southeastern Spain.

In 1513, Vasco Nunez de Balboa and his men walked across the Isthmus of Panama and became the first Europeans to see the Pacific Ocean from its Eastern shore.

The Spanish soon got into the business of conducting trade with Asia from what is now Mexico and California as well as pillaging Central and South America.

Traders brought back spices, silks, porcelain, ivory, and lacquerware. And there was gold.

Much of the Asian treasure was carried up and over the Cordillera to Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico, then reloaded onto galleons through the Gulf of Mexico…the home of the real Pirates of the Caribbean.

Cartagena became the central warehouse for the treasures that came from Asia and much of the gold and silver taken from the Americas.

And it also became one of the principal targets of the real pirates of the Caribbean.

Spanish King Philip II, known as “the Prudent,” did not like losing his stuff to pirates and privateers. And so he hired Europe’s foremost military engineers to design and build Fuerte San Felipe.

The massive network of seven forts and defensive walls average 40 feet high and 56 feet thick. It became Spain’s largest fort in the Americas.

Today the heart of old Cartagena is a labyrinth of narrow cobblestone streets that open onto broad formal plazas. Street names change from block to block.

It might remind you of Istanbul, or Mdina on Malta. But instead of Muslim calls to prayer, it’s salsa and vallenato music all the time.

Cartagena’s history includes the sad story of slavery, the cruelty of some of the Spanish including a branch of the Inquisition, and more recent devolution into narcoterrorist chaos.

A CARTAGENA ALBUM

After many years of neglect, Cartagena—the jewel of the nation—has been reborn.

For those who have a bit of money, the city is a Caribbean playground: A wild party in a place of great culture. They call it rumbeando.

“Partying, dancing all night, getting drunk, waking up early to go to the beach, then doing it again.”

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16 APRIL 2015
Fort Lauderdale, Florida: California Bound

April 16, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

California, here we come.

We begin a new cruise today, headed toward the north coast of South America at Cartagena, Colombia and then through the passage between the seas to the Pacific Ocean.

I’ve been through the Panama Canal more times than I can remember, and I look forward to the trip again and again. Especially coming from the Atlantic side, the sight of a large cargo or cruise ship sitting 80 feet above you on the top step of a watery ladder is something you do not forget.

After we reach the Pacific, we will turn north and make calls in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, and then arrive in California: San Diego and finally the spectacular city of San Francisco.

Welcome aboard.

Here’s our plan:

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14-15 APRIL 2015
Nassau, The Bahamas: A Bit of Everything

April 14, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

The Bahamas is an independent nation whose name may have come from a Spanish phrase.

The name of its capital, Nassau, derives from a German city.

They drive on the left side of the road, and speak the Queen’s English—more or less—because it was an English colony for 255 years.

Their closest major neighbor is the United States, as near as 55 miles away from the westernmost of the Bahamas islands, and their currency—the Bahamian Dollar—is directly tied to the value of the American buck.

Oh, and it is also the site of the lost city of Atlantis—at least that is what the owners of the large hotel, water park, and casino on Paradise Island across the harbor from where we will dock—want you to believe.

We arrived in early evening on 14 April and will overnight here, departing on Wednesday evening.

To our guests who are leaving us tomorrow in Fort Lauderdale, I wish you safe travels and look forward to sailing with you again somewhere in this wonderful world.

A NASSAU ALBUM