Joe Benning Photography

Travel & Photo Blog

  •   Reston, VA

A Few Days in Fiji

After crossing the International Date Line on February 9, we stopped in Fiji, officially known as the Republic of Fiji. It is an island country in Melanesia and a part of Oceana  in the South Pacific. Fiji is an archipelago consisting of over 300 islands, with slightly more than 100 of them inhabited.  Democracy in […]

Read More »

Pago Pago, American Samoa

Tuesday, February 7, 2023 Well, here we are in Pago Pago, American Samoa.  Located on the island of Tutuila, Pago Pago is the capital city of American Samoa. Officially known as Territory of American Samoa, it is an unincorporated territory of the United States. And as we just recently discovered, Pago Pago is not pronounced […]

Read More »

Bora Bora, French Polynesia

We arrived at Bora Bora on Friday February 3rd for a 2 day port-of-call. It is an island of legend, known for the lagoon that circles the island with its beautiful turquoise waters teeming with undersea life makes the waters especially good for snorkeling. And there are the famous thatched roof huts built over those […]

Read More »

French Polynesia

On January 30, we sailed into Fakarava, one of the French Polynesian islands. On the 31st we docked at Rangiroa, on Feb 1, we arrived at Raiatea, also part of French Polynesia. On Feb 2 we sailed into Papeete, the capital of French Polynesia on the island of Tahiti.  I should make clear that the […]

Read More »

Easter Island

Commonly known as Easter Island, it was so named because the European sailors who discovered the island arrived on the scene on Easter Sunday. Recently it has become  customary to refer to the island as Rapa Nui and the native peoples as the Rapanui people.  The name roughly translates as “Big Rapa” which references the […]

Read More »

Through the Panama Canal to Manta, Ecuador

The west coast of South America, where part of Ecuador is located, is an extraordinarily fertile area for commercial fishing. Manta, located on Ecuador’s central coast, is the largest fishing port in Ecuador. Also known as San Pablo de Manta, the city is the largest and most populated city in Manabi Province.  We stopped in […]

Read More »

Guayaquil, Ecuador

17 January 2023 As our itinerary changed due to civil unrest in Peru (and the cancellation of our planned visits there), we had the opportunity today to visit Guayaquil, Ecuador, a city we first saw in 2018.   Guayaquil is a large port city, home to over 3 million people.   It has a cosmopolitan […]

Read More »

Cartagena, Columbia

The joke the locals tell in Cartagena, Columbia is that the city has two types of weather: Hot and Hotter. It was certainly hot (and humid) on January 12 when we docked there. Then again, it beats 4 degrees in New Jersey.  Originally known as Cartagena de Indias, Cartagena was an important Spanish colony that […]

Read More »

Leaving Miami

We are finally on our way. We set sail from Miami on Sunday afternoon and we are scheduled to dock in Cartagena, Columbia on Wednesday morning. This far everything is first rate—the service, the accommodations, the food and entertainment—not to mention the 7 bars around the ship. We do have very slow internet (along with […]

Read More »