Ssh! I think we’ve spotted a stowaway!

He was fast asleep on a corner wearing the same scruffy jumper and ripped trousers that we’d spotted him in a day or two earlier….

Captain’s Log – Cunard Ship Queen Anne – this is now the 20th day of our voyage…

Today is a “sea day” as we relax on board after time ashore ( as if we’re not always relaxing on board.. No ropes to tidy or passage plans to check, not even any meals to prepare! What can you do except read, write and sunbathe?)

Back to stowaway suspicions – after several sightings in lifts and dining areas, one of us was convinced this person was not an official guest.

“Perhaps he’s sleeping rough in the laundry room and no one knows…”

This seemed a bit unlikely to me, I was more convinced he was a bit of an eccentric kicking against the ship’s dress code – just because he could!

On our entry to the Panama Canal we were up early to watch the ship make her first passage through the canal. As we squeezed in at the rail overlooking the bow and the ship was guided into the first lock with inches to spare, we glanced down at those gathered on the viewing deck below… There he was again! The Stowaway, as bold as brass, taking prime position on the bow and attempting to get help with a selfie on his camera. Maybe he wasn’t a stowaway.

Another emerging theory, floated over captain’s cocktails later, was that he actually owns the company and was an “undercover boss” seeing if he would be challenged by his crew! Had any of them spotted him, I wondered.

It took us all day to pass through the Panama Canal, an amazing feat of engineering, which several nations had taken part in at various stages. After the first locks, the ship emerged into a huge lake which was a surprise. Here we scoured the muddy jungle-like banks for crocodiles or alligators… not a sausage!

Although we hadn’t helped the process, there was a sense of achievement as Queen Anne headed out of the final locks and into the Pacific… we’d done it!

Next stop was Colombia, where we tried to recruit a ship’s parrot.

The port terminal of Cartagena was Colombia’s version of Ikea… not selling flat pack furniture, but frustratingly designed so that you had to zig through the whole maze of shops, stalls and perching parrots, peacocks in trees, flamingos behind fences and swinging monkeys, before you got to the exit. To be fair there was plenty of greenery and nice shaded paths to make up for it and the parrots were friendly.

Cartagena has its own taxi cartel and so there were no cheap rides into the old city. “Farmer tours” took off again and we skirted the ancient walls beside the sea, before wandering the narrow streets filled with coffee shops… but what coffee! We drank ours upstairs at Cafe Epoca, where a spiral staircase without rails led us to the dark wood interior, rich with the aroma of great coffee.

My favourite part of the city was the flag lined streets of Getsemani – formerly a poor area, now cool and trendy, with huge murals on every corner and brightly painted buildings. There were two nice surprises here, one was the price of Mojitos, where they offered BOGOFs, and while sipping drinks in the shade of a street cafe, we were serenaded by a ‘pop up’ group of rapping boys, who called me Barbie! (I wasn’t even wearing anything pink!)

When we clambered back on board, just before the clock struck 1pm, I wondered if the Stowaway had made it back in time… or perhaps he had not risked getting off!

We found out more at our next stop in Guatemala…