Lesser Three Gorges

Friday, October 18, 2013
We continued our cruise up the Yangtze through the night, docking early in the morning opposite the Lesser Three Gorges, a tributary stream.

 Our room on the Century Diamond is very spacious and comfortable. The service is 5 star. Every time we leave the room, someone comes in and makes the bed, fluffs the pillows or changes the towels.

 We disembarked onto smaller boats to take an excursion up the Lesser Three Gorges tributary stream.

 We traveled for about 40 minutes through the narrow winding gorge.

 At the end of the navigable stream, there was a local presentation for the tourists. A couple of the fellows, attracted to Anita's revealing outfit, pleaded to get their pictures taken with her.

 Then the local ladies asked to pose with both of us.

Anita taught both tourists and locals how to do the "Water Safety is Always Important" dance, requiring lifejackets for tourists but not for the daredevil locals.

 Finally, we traveled back downstream to the cruise boat.

 Whenever we return to the big boat, there are always hot towels and green tea waiting for us.

 Staff always help people back along the ramps to the ship.

 This is the main foyer of the Century Diamond, showing different deck levels.

 This is typical housing and agriculture along the river.

 There is lots of commercial shipping along the river but no pleasure craft like we'd see in Canada.

We had passed the Xiling Gorge at the dam, the Wu Gorge above the dam and then finally the Qutang Gorge in the late afternoon. After the 3 Gorges, sometimes as we traveled through the night we could see the lights of major cities.