Palermo, Sicily, November 22-26th

This is another busy port and one that comes with a "be careful" proviso, although I have seen nothing to suggest it is unsafe (unless one is speaking of the traffic - see below!). We are positioned between a US destroyer, well off to our starboard, and the largest car ferry I have ever seen, to our port side. You will appreciate that my Italian is nonexistent, but I think the (self-important) traffic director I was chatting up "said" 650 cars capacity (we were holding up fingers to get the total and the "50" part was a source of prolonged ambiguity), this taking place in a calm moment produced by the stalling out of a triple semi-trailer (a load of pizza boxes likely).

With no hesitation I put forward the Italian drivers as the worst I have seen in the ten countries visited to date (and it is hard to imagine that Morocco, our last -new - country to come, can outperform these maniacs). Some examples from the last two days (1) A city bus ran a red light, pure and simple. I know, because the "little green man" symbol for the pedestrian crosswalk had already been presented in "my" direction. The bus driver just lay on the horn (that was for me), and the gas (that was for a cluster of others readying themselves for the crossing), and sailed on through. (2) One has to contend with motor bikes and motorized scooters that take to the sidewalks when presented with what they perceive to be impassable street conditions (any pedestrian congestion encountered is just slalomed through).(3) In what must be a "where do I start" job from hell, I saw a traffic warden ticketing several cars triple parked out side of a betting shop. The warden was wearing a beaked cap that was right out of central casting, a sort of traffic hazard in and of itself! To end this theme on a positive note, I have seen a great number of "smart" cars. They certainly are "parkable"! I have observed them nose to nose, back to nose, perpendicular to the curb, perpendicular to each other, double-parked with each other. Come to think of it, if I were to see one on top of each other (the missionary position as it were) I'd have "a complete set".

My "watch group" and I had an overnight to a seaside resort town, Cefalu, an hour?s train ride from here. It is the off season, of course, so we were able to negotiate two small apartments near the beach for 25 euros a "head". The units each had a double bed and bunk beds, plus a small kitchen, and a continental breakfast was included. There were seven of us - four guys counting me - so it all worked out (I got the top bunk). We had a good time exploring the town, walking the beach, eating out together. They are a good bunch of kids: four Canadians (two from Calgary, two from Ontario), an American from outside of Boston, and a Bahamian.

Today we (eighteen of us) took a city bus to another little resort town twenty minutes away, nestled in the coastal hills. As part of the in-port program (i.e. pre-paid), bikes were rented and we went on a 30 kilometre ride up, up, up and down, down, down the other side, returning to our starting point. We had a support vehicle (for backpacks, water, etc) and two riders (front and back). The bikes were excellent; all that was missing were helmets. There were no mishaps and it was great fun! The route was right along the coast. The elevation was about a double Blomidon lookoff, and the gradient was much like the Cabot Trail, with lots of hairpins and -switchbacks, and my are some of those kids going to be stiff and sore tomorrow! (Of
course it wasn't a race, but several bikes broke away from the main group near the summit, in a dash for the top. I was a witness to this sub-plot.)

Palermo has been a difficult port to get online, and today - Sunday - little is open. I will send this tomorrow morning, but not "at the crack of dawn", because things don't get going that early here in Sicily I have found. We sail tomorrow afternoon (November 26th) for Agadir, Morocco, a twelve-day voyage, my longest. Then after three days there, it is a two-day "jaunt" to Las Palmas, Canary Islands,
from where I fly home in three weeks!