MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Yesterday we visited the city of East London, South Africa.  Medium sized city of about 80,000, the only river port city in SA.  The current unemployment rate here is 40% despite a new Mercedes assembly plant where they make all the "C" class vehicles. While there are some very nice housing areas, the blacks are still very much second class citizens.  The majority of the nicer houses have razor wire and or electic fencing. 

We did a short tour of the city and visited a very nice natural history museum.  This museum is notable for having the only surviving Dodo bird egg and the mounted speciman of a coelacanth.  The coelacanth was a prehistoric fish that has lived in the Indian Ocean for 400 million years and was thought to be extinct until it was redicovered in the East London Harbor in 1938.  This discovery was regarded internationally as the most significant zoological find of the century.  They also have human trace fossil footprints dated at 124,000 years old. 

The Christmas Eve celebration began with the Captain's welcome party.  After a very nice lobster dinner we had a special Christmas program put on by the entertainment staff that included carolling and several holiday related routines including acting out the 12 Days of Christmas, and the arrival of Santa Claus.  The evening ended with a large number of the crew getting on the stage and joining in the singing.  

Entrance to the natural history museum

The prehistoric coelacanth 

Reef Beach where the footprints were found

Dining with our favorite wait staff

The "Partridges in a Pear Tree"!!

Santa being naughty with the female lead singer

Members of the crew singing carols