I enjoyed our week’s tour of the Hawaiian Islands, which is suffering from financial woes much like the rest of the country. President Obama and his family were in Kailua,Oahu, when I was there, too.

I was shocked when I arrived at Kona, on the Big Island. I walked into the King Kamehameha Hotel, where I’ve spent many good times, and was surprised to see that its shopping arcade was empty. About 5 or 6 years ago, the arcade was filled with high-end shops, many of which are boarded up today. Our ship’s passengers were welcomed in stores and sights in Kona, Hilo, Lahaina, and Nawiliwili, but other ships are talking about not calling at some Hawaiian ports now because of financial problems.

Let’s hope that the year 2010 will show improvement in the world’s financial problems and in the world of cruising. 

I moved to Guam after working for 2 years for the Trust Territory of the U.S. in Saipan, an island north of Guam, so my editor thought I was the perfect one to interview a man who had knowledge of Amelia Earhart’s last days.  So in November 1970, I interviewed Joe Artero, a Government of Guam employee.

Artero told me that in 1937, when he was 22 years ago, he went to Saipan and heard from a police detective that Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan had been executed there. He also learned that the Japanese were fortifying the island, building a submarine base, and preparing to capture Guam. A Saipan police officer said he had photographed the Americans riding in a military auto with the Japanese governor of Saipan.

  At home in Guam, Artero was questioned by the Naval Commander of Guam, who ridiculed the story that the Japanese had captured the aviators after her crash and taken her to Saipan.  However, when American forces invaded Saipan in 1944, Earhart’s briefcase was discovered. Papers indicated that Earhart and Noonan had been spies and were held in a jail in Saipan until their deaths. There was even a photo of Earhart with her hands bound in back. This evidence was classified Top Secret and disappeared into U.S. Navy hands. 

You can read more of my interview with Artero in my book “Where America’s Day Begins,” available through this website or at Amazon. Also, Fred Goerner’s book “The Search for Amelie Earhart,” published by Doubleday and Company in 1966, tells the complete story of the aviators’ crash and subsequent capture by the Japanese and taken to Saipan.  She should be remembered an American hero who met a horrific death.  

The 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games will be held in Rio de Janeiro August 5 to 21. This city will prove to the world that it is more than beaches, Carnaval, samba, and Caipirinhas, Brazil’s national drink of sugar cane liquor.

Athletes from around the world will compete before the world’s most famous and photogenic landmarks–Christ the Redeemer statue (Corcovado), Sugar Loaf Mountain, Guanabara Bay, and Copacabana Beach. An Olympic village will be built around the harbor, and many venues are already in place. The opening and closing ceremonies will be held at the Maracana, the world’s largest football stadium, Copacabana Beach will be the site of the Olympic Beach Volleyball, Marathon swimming, and Triathlon events, and the Sambodromo, home of the annual Carnaval parade, will host the Paralympic Archery and start and finish of the Olympic Marathon.

The Cariocas, residents, are excited and ready to welcome athletes and visitors to this world-class city. I’ll keep you posted as I learn more about the venues and events of the 2016 Rio games.

The reader who can guess where this picture was taken will receive a free copy of my book “Don’t Miss the Boat.”

Here are the clues: Janet Go walks in the rain on a Pacific Island noted for tuna fisheries and the setting for British author Somerset Maugham’s story “Rain.” This is the home of the Sadie Thompson Inn and the Rainmaker Hotel.

Here’s a new clue: The island was struck this week by a major earthquake and tsumani that caused devasting damage.

If you know the name of this island, send me your answer here or at jgoco6@bresnan.net.  Good luck!

After the concert, I went back stage to meet Michael. His mother, whom I met on a South America cruise earlier this year, arranged for me to have a comp ticket and backstage pass. I gave him photos of his mother and I in Rio de Janeiro and he was warm and friendly, genuinely glad to meet me. Here is our picture.

The plan to use the ship as a floating hotel for next year’s World Cup Games in Capetown, South Africa, fell through, as did ideas to use her as accommodations in South Pacific ports.  Instead, she sits at Port Rashid in Dubai and her future is uncertain. Dubai’s bankers have suggested selling off assets due to financial troubles, including selling the 70,000-ton former Cunard flagship. Meanwhile the legendary liner is being looked after by a caretaker crew of Egyptians and with rumors that art work and other parts of the 963-footer are being sold off to raise much needed funds.

Dubai’s state-owned conglomerate Dubai World,  bought the ship for $100 million in 2007 and planned to make it a floating hotel off the Palm Jumeirah man-made island. But Dubai is caught in a financial slump and its plans to refit the ship as a museum, hotel & luxury residence have been shelved.

Dubai recently celebrated the opening of the world’s tallest building: a rocket-shaped edifice that soars 2,717 feet high with views that reach 60 miles. The building has been named after Sheikh Khalifa of Abu Dhabi for Dubai’s gratitude for its neighbor’s $10 billion bailout of their financial troubles. At a cost of about $1.5 billion, the Burj took 5 years to build and has surpassed the previous record holder in Taipei, Taiwan.

The first ceremony involved the welding of coins beneath the mast of the 2,200-bed Queen Elizabeth for good luck. Three coins were chosen–a half crown dated 1938, when the first Queen Elizabeth was launched, a sovereign dated 1967, when the QE2 was launched, and a sovereign dated 2010 acknowledging the new Queen Elizabeth being floated out. Then, the festivities moved dockside where the ship was blessed and a bottle of Italian prosecco was smashed against the hull by the madrina. The valves of the drydock were opened, and the ship slipped into the water for the first time. 

The October 2010 maiden voyage of Cunard’s new ocean liner, Queen Elizabeth, to the Canary Islands sold out in 29 minutes! This is the fastest selling voyage in Cunard’s 170-year history. It sold out faster than the QE2’s final voyage, which sold out in 36 minutes in June 2007. The Queen Elizabeth will join Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria, giving Cunard three new liners plying the world’s seven seas. The new Queen’s Grill Suites have been named for knighted Commodores of Cunard.

The Queen Elizabeth’s first world trip in 2011 leaves New York January 13. This day will be a rare event when the trio of Cunard Queens (Mary 2, Victoria, and Elizabeth) will have a Royal Rendezvous. Then the Queen Elizabeth embarks on her circumnaviagation, beginning with a transit through the Panama Canal to Los Angeles. Then she heads for Sydney, South Pacific, New Zealand, Singapore, Bali, Vietnam, Thailand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Dubai, Oman, Suez Canal, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Southampton. Passengers will take the Queen Mary 2 across the big pond to New York.  All aboard!

CONGRATULATIONS to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,  for garnering the votes to host the 2016 Olympic Games. This is the first time in Oympic history that a country in South America has been selected. Rio plans to build an Olympic Park on the waterfront. The beach volley ball competition will be held on famed Copacabana Beach, across from the equally famous Copacabana Palace Hotel. What an exciting time 2016 will be in this passionate country of beaches, mountains, samba, Carnaval, and prosperity.  Rio does have its down side, such as high crime and murder rates and people living in poverty on the hillsides in favelas, but I’m sure Rio will cope and show the world warm Brazilian hospitality. 

I returned from a 2-1/2-month cruise around South America on March 11, 2009. I was aboard Holland America’s ship ms Prinsendam. We left Fort Lauderdale, Florida, January 2 and, after a day’s visit to the company’s island of Half Moon Cay and a day at Barbados, we headed south to the Amazon River. We spent a week sailing up and down the Amazon–an amazing trip. From there we headed south again, stopping at many ports in Brazil, including Rio de Janeiro, of course. Then on to Montevideo, Uruguay; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Falkland Islands; South Georgia–we were the last ship of this size to be allowed to visit this island; through the ice fields of Antarctica, up the fjords and coast of Chile, Peru, Ecuador, through the Panama Canal, Colombia, and back to Florida.

I’ll write more later. Here is a photo of me in my Panama Hat and tagua nut necklace I bought from master artisans in  Manta and Montecristi, Ecuador.  If you’re under the impression that Panama hats are made in Panama, think again. Panama hats are hand-made by master weavers in Ecuador and have never been made anywhere else.

This misunderstanding dates back to Teddy Roosevelt. According to legend, when former President Roosevelt attended the inauguration of the Panama Canal in 1913, he was given an Ecuadorian straw het. Not knowing the hat’s origin, Roosevelt thanked the donor for the Panama hat, and the rest is history.

I welcome your comments.

 Some suspect that in view of current worldwide financial woes, the QE2 might find her way to nearby India and to the scrappers at Alang. What a tragic fate for such a world famous ship. Like former passengers who loved the QE2, I am deeply sorry to see this happen. She should be preserved in all her glory, similar to the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California.

Cunard’s longest-serving four-strip officer, Hotel Manager John Duffy, received the prestigious Seatrade Insider Cruise Award for “Seagoing Employee of the Year 2008″ in recognition of his long and distinguished service with Cunard and onboard Queen Elizabeth 2. He has served Cunard since 1965 and played a key role in making the QE2 the best-loved ship in the world. He joined the Queen Mary 2 in March 2009. I’ve been aboard the QE2 four or five times with John Duffy and he’s always been hospitable, friendly, and efficient. Good luck on the QM2, John. 

Before her retirement to Dubai in 2008, the QE2 sailed 5.5 nautical miles, more than any other ship ever. She’s carried almost 2.1 million guests, and completed 24 World Cruises. She is the fastest merchant ship in operation–can go faster than other cruise ships and outrun pirateers!

Speaking of cruising, Crystal Cruises has been voted best cruise line by Conde Nast Traveler readers. For a record 15th year, Crystal Cruises was voted the “Best Large-ShipCruise Line” by readers. Crystal’s overall score of 93.1 topped all cruise lines in the large and small-ship categories. The luxury line’s 15 “wins” is unprecedented by any cruise line or hotel in the world. The line is renowned for service, space, quality, and choices.