Sea Days and Puntarenas (Again!)

We have been on this ship for 60 days now.  Time flies when you’re having fun doesn’t it.  Thursday around 6pm the captain came on and made an announcement about the weather being rough on Friday. This was just after my internet signal on land ended.  I couldn’t check the weather.  

While I was sleeping I had a dream about the typhoons in Hong Kong and remembered that I used to follow them on the net.  I awoke around 5 and looked up the weather around Mexico.  What I found was not nice.

13 foot waves!  EEK!  As I lie in bed at 6 am, I could feel the boat rocking more than usual.  I’m prepared.  I have crackers, ginger candy, and ginger tea all ready to go.  I went back to sleep for a few hours and woke up right as rain.  2 pills at 6 helped a lot.  So did a few crackers.

We went to the presentation on the 2024 world cruise at 11 and stayed until it was over.  As expected, we didn’t win the lucky draw.  The girl speaking told us that 60 rooms were already purchased.  That means half of the people on this ATW are signing up again.  That’s impressive since the booking form only came out 3 days ago.  It’s not the trip we wanted, a lot of the ports are repeats for us.  George only has around 15 stops that he hasn’t been to.  My count was in the 40’s, but mostly small island stops. Of course Iceland and Greenland are the main draw as neither of us has been there.  It should be another fun trip.  I post the itinerary here as you can find it on many Facebook and other webpages. I don't think it is a well kept secret anymore.

We had a conversation about cancelling this one, but George said he likes the ship, it’s small enough and even at double the people we have on now it’s still fewer than the Holland America ATW that we had signed up for in 2020. I agree with him. I hate crowds and a big ship is not ideal.  We did a Virgin cruise in October of last year and hated it.  The place was packed everywhere we went.  That is a ship we will never sail on again. 

They also showed us 4 Grand Adventures that are planned for 2024.  We are interested in the  Grand Pacific Expedition as it hits places we were to go on this trip but sadly we will be in the Galapagos during that time. 

In the afternoon we played cards as usual with our friends.  They cleaned our clocks!  We just couldn’t seem to get good cards.  Ah well.  Next time.  The good news?  The seas calmed down a lot.  There were a bunch of gulls circling the ship.  I was later told that they also made big messes on the deck.

Dinner was in the grand dining room as usual.  Tonight we sat with a table full of educators and bankers.  How funny that every couple at the table had the same occupations.  We finished the night with a movie in the room.  Our usual day.

On Sunday we were told there would be weather similar to what we had the day before.  I wasn’t looking forward to another rocking ride.  Today it wasn’t the same, it was forward hitting waves so it wasn’t as bad.  

At 11 we went to listen to a talk by the magician on board.  It was very good.  We had met him the night before at dinner and George handed him a puzzle.  I was watching from our table as his wife took it away and gave it a go. He later took it back and played with it under the table.  I’m sure she hates us now. He called us around 3 hours later to let us know that he had finished the puzzle.  That has to be a record. Anyway, he told us after the talk that it took him longer than it should have because his wife kept stealing the puzzle from him.

We went to lunch where George had yet another hamburger and I had some salad.  There is a rotation of food on the ship: Mexican, British, Italian, Indian, Asian…But always the same items are on the menu.  To be honest, after 60+ days, it is getting old.  Its a joy to get off the ship and eat the local food for lunch.  

We were supposed to play a game with Rod and Merry, but at the same time we had to be in Martinis to talk about the diving we are going to do with another group of passengers coming up soon.  We sadly had to cancel the game, but will get to it on one of our sea days.  

Dinner this evening was an event for the ATW passengers.  We were told there are 224 of us and they put on 6 different dinners to keep up social distancing.  We were also told on 6 March it’s masks off time for the passengers.  The crew still needs to wear theirs. This is both a relief and a worry.  The entire ship is now COVID free.  We will be getting new passengers  in Barbados and I heard over 100 in Miami.  While vaccinations are still required, I have to wonder how careful these new comers have been.  I am also afraid that if we are allowed to unmask on the ship that some may do the same when we disembark. It is my greatest hope that we make it to New York virus free. 

On to dinner.  We all met in the library at 6 pm and had a glass of champaign and a bit of chit chat.  Around 6:30 the chef came in with the bells and called everyone to dinner.  We shared a table with two couples we hadn’t met before.  How did that happen? I guess we just aren’t as social as others.  We were offered red or white wine and given the menus for the evening.  Chef Mario came out and told us what was on offer and assured us that he had already accounted for all of our special diets.  This was music to my ears as I was a bit worried about it.  Sorry about the shadow, I wasn't in the best spot and was trying not to be obvious.  The dessert was very nice. The truffle on the side was very good. 

The conversation at the table was very good.  We had wonderful food and handed out two more puzzles.  After dinner we retired to the room for a bit of a movie before bed. One of these years I’ll make it through an entire movie.

Monday morning we woke up around 6 and watched the boat dock.  I stood on the balcony for a while and heard quite a lot of cursing going on.  It wasn’t until 8 that the announcement came allowing us to get off the ship.  By this time, George was having his second sleep so I looked at what we could do in Puntarenas.  Today we opted to not take a tour.  The island we landed on is only 6.7 kilometers around the outer edge.  Google told me it would take 1.15 hours to walk.  Imagine how fast it went on the scooters. 

We had a mission.  I wanted to see the lighthouse, and we want to pick up some coffee liqueur.  Upon exiting the dock, we were asked by the guards to show proof of ownership of the scooters.  They took photos of them, our drivers licenses, and our faces.  This was odd to say the least.  It’s the first time it’s happened.  We complied.  Across the road was a man who lives here, he was helping people as they got off the ship to find different places in town.  He told us there are no scooters here so the guards didn’t know what to do.  Fair enough.  

We headed off along the coast line as far as we could go.  There is a lovely boardwalk for people to walk on and we used it to our advantage.

Sure enough, we found the lighthouse. 

From here we were trying to find the liqueur store the gent at the pier told us about.  We did but they did not have what we wanted.  No problem, we scooted on hoping we would find another place that might have it.  I was surprised to see cans of Tunafish locked up. It makes one wonder. 

Along the boardwalk we saw a man getting ready to pedle his wares.  

We even saw some men repairing their fishing nets. 

After a detour back to where we started we ended up on a back road and found a grocery store.  I went inside and looked, and sure enough, they had coffee liqueur!  I tried to ask for it in Spanish but that didn't work.  One of the customers understood me and asked the man behind the counter for it for me.  The shop proprietor told me to come behind the counter to point to what I wanted.  Fine.  I did and when I was back there heard his wife tell him to be careful in Cantonese!  WOW! What a surprise.  Well, this made it much easier.  I told him in our mutual language that I wanted two bottles of the coffee liqueur.  He grabbed a ladder and got them down for me. Judging by the dust on them, they had been up there a long time.  

The look of surprise on both their faces was priceless.  As I went to pay, his wife and I had a conversation about being on the ship and living in Hong Kong. The irony of the situation did not pass me by.  An American in Costa Rica ordering alcohol in Cantonese.  Never in a million years as they say.  

I was amused to see cheddar cheese in a squeeze bag.  This must be similar to the cheese in a can. 

Mission accomplished.  We returned to the ship and went to the room to return our scooters and relax for a bit before lunch.  The room was being cleaned so we just left the scooters and headed up to the Terrace Café.  They weren’t open yet, but we didn’t mind.  A nice waiter came over and brought us a much appreciated drink.  Did I mention it is 92 degrees here today?  

We had lunch and while there I overheard one of the waiters tell another that the captain only drinks warm water.  As luck would have it I had a puzzle in my bag and I gave it to George to hand over.  He did and they had a nice conversation about puzzles for a short while.  This is the first time I have seen the captain of the ship.  We have discussed his lack of appearance with others and chalked it up to keeping  safe from COVID.  I assure you, he does exist.  And he is TALL!

We went back to the room to place a phone call back to the states about a puzzle shipment we are having problems with and I tried to download some files to aid the process.  The internet kept shutting down on me as I opened the file.  It would not let me download.  Well, George had an idea and we headed off to shore where there is a building with free wifi. It worked!  I was able to save the files and send them to George who fixed them to send on to our broker.  Hopefully this will solve all of the problems. 

While here waiting for this to be sorted, we took advantage of the internet and downloaded a few Netflix movies to my phone and George spent some time watching the latest youtube video of the Texas Giga factory build.  Did I mention that he is a huge Tesla fan? 

I am sure we will head back to the ship so George can take a nap before dinner, but I wanted to get this posted while I still have good internet access.  

As for Costa Rica-or at least this city-I saw a lot of bars on windows.  They say there is very little crime here, perhaps it is because of the heavy police presence?  At any rate, I felt safe as usual, but again, as usual I wouldn’t want to live here. 

I believe though that one could easily retire here on the cheap. The prices in the grocery store were not high and they have a rather large wet market along with a variety of specialty shops. I even saw a butcher!  I haven’’t seen a stand alone butcher since I lived in Germany in the late 80’s.  

While the distance is pretty, the close up is not. There are a lot of corrugated metal buildings here.  Meaning to say, they are fairly ramshackle.  I didn’t see any "nice" homes by American standards while we were scooting around this little finger that the ship docked on.  I realize there are other areas that we did not see and that there very well could be nicer towns and homes.  I just didn’t see them here.  As expected, we did not find any puzzles, but hey!  We love the coffee liqueur!  

EDIT: as we returned to the ship there were a few performers outside the ship.  I have added a video of them to my youtube channel for your viewing pleasure.  

Until next time, Happy Puzzling and Smooth Sailing.

Three cities in Mexico: Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlàn, and Acapulco

 Three different cites, three very different experiences.

Due to T-Mobile's excellent cellular service, I was able to add videos throughout the post today. I hope you enjoy them.

On Tuesday we landed in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico at 12 noon.  There was a change from the original "New Around the world cruise" map the was sent out.  We were supposed to arrive at 10 am.  I booked a dive trip for us for 1 pm thinking this would give us plenty of time to land, get a tender and look around a bit before we had to leave.  Boy was I wrong. I called down to the front desk, explained our situation and asked what they could do to help us.  No problem they said, just go down to the insignia lounge and grab a tender ticket.  Perfect! Problem solved.  

At 11:45 we headed down to grab that ticket and got one right away.  And then we waited.  Just before 1 pm we got to the dock.  Our dive master and I had been texting so he knew exactly what was happening.  We had to pay $1 to get to the boat, and of course I had no singles.  Thankfully our dive master was waiting for us and got us in.  And off we went!

Every time we do a dive, I am asked is this one better than the last and I have been answering yes.  This time I couldn’t say that Cabo was better than Bora Bora.  Why?  The water was COLD!  I had on a 7mm suit and George was wearing a 5mm.  Both of us had chattering teeth when we finished.  Add to that the lack of visibility and the murkiness of the water and it wasn’t an experience I’d like to repeat again.  

BUT! We did see some wonderful sights.  The first thing that caused me to shriek with joy was a wall of golden colored fish.  Even though they were out over the chasm below us, I lost my desire to stay next to the cliff wall and swam out between them.  There is nothing like a wall of fish parting and reforming as you go though it.  This alone made the dive worth doing.  

But wait, there is more.  We saw hundreds of pufferfish that just came right up and wanted to kiss our hands. There were blue box fish everywhere. 

The angelfish were the size of dinner plates!

We even got to see a rare species called a guitar fish! 

This was an amazing dive. It could only have been better if there was better visibility.

And then there was the sand falls!  Apparently the coast is collapsing and we were able to see the underground river of sand that is coming off the coastline.  Today was a bust for photographs as my phone had that stupid covid tracker on and the State of California and the government of Mexico both want me to sign up.  I shut off the camera housing.  Oh well, I have the images in my head. 

When we finished the dives, we dumped our gear near the tender drop and wandered into town in search of puzzles.  We found nothing locally made, but we did find a 3d popup of St. Petersburg.  Funny since we will be heading there towards the end of this trip.

We returned to the ship for dinner with two couples we’ve been with before.  This evening, the staff had puzzles for us. They really enjoyed teasing us with puzzles. One was to go fishing with a tea bag string for a cube of ice. 

Another was to draw 4 lines across 9 circles in a 3x3x3 grid without lifting the pencil.

I knew the solution to the first one and was still working on the second one for a few days.  The next was to balance 2 forks on a tooth pick.

The final was to make 4 triangles by only moving one toothpick. 

We handed over 2 more puzzles for them to play with at their leisure.  There is now quite a collection for the dining room staff at the receptionists desk.  

On Wednesday we went to Mazatlàn.  We arrived at 8 am and were able to disembark at around 8:30.  Since we had forgotten to plug in the scooters, we decided not to leave the ship until later.  We lazed around until around 10:30 before heading out to see a church that I remembered from my high school Spanish days. 

Today we were docked at a container ship pier with a cruise ship berthing possibility.  We had to hop on a bus to get to the entrance, and from there we walked into a Disneyesk shopping area.  There were all types of t-shirts, silver jewelry, magnets, and other tourist trap purchases.  We bypassed this and headed out to the downtown area.  

This city has it together.  You want to get to the old town?  Just follow the blue line painted on the road!  We did just that.  We headed to the Church of Immaculate Conception first.  Why?  Because I remember it from Spanish classes.  We scooted up, took a few photos and carried on.  This isn’t a place to stop and lock up our scooters.  I’m sure we would have come back to nothing more than a broken lock cable.  It’s ok though, I’ve seen enough cathedrals in my lifetime to last for another two or three.

From there we scooted over to El Clavadista, a 50’ platform for the cliff divers.  I knew of this as well and wanted to see it.  As luck would have it, just as we were pulling up on our scooters, 3 men were getting ready to dive.  I held the scooters and shot a video of the three men while George took the still shots you see here.  On the way there we passed what can be best described as a walk of fame and a mermaid stature that caught our eye. 

This was terribly exciting for me.  I enjoyed it thoroughly.  The divers can be seen here. 

From there we continued to scoot on down the coastline for a few miles making stops along the way to photograph sea gulls,

the lovers at an earlier age,

and for George to do a few chin-ups.  He misses doing these on the ship so whenever I see an outdoor gymnasium type area I make sure we stop and do them. 

After we finished, we saw that it was pigeon mating season.  There were a couple of large males strutting around and shaking their feathers in a display of interest. One rather large male was attacking a female who wanted none of him.  The little girl found an out!  She ran over and sat between George’s feet.  The male looked up at George and backed off.  He strutted his feathers around a bit more.  This time I am sure it was a display intended to get George to compete with him.  George was having none of it and just stayed calm and still to help shelter the female.  After a while the male went away and the female turned herself around so she could see what was going on around her.  She didn’t move other than that though for around 1/2 an hour.  We stayed still watching the other birds and the sea.  When the female made a move so did we. It was around noon so we decided to go for lunch.  

We had seen a few places back by the cliff divers and so we scooted off in that direction.  The first two places we stopped at were closed for the day, the next 4 places were just too close to the road and the fumes of the vehicles going past. They also allowed smoking in the outdoor seating area.  This was a big no for us.  We decided to head inland and went one block away to find a lovely little place that had outside seating and good food.  George had some soft shell tacos and I had some nachos.  Both were delicious.  Of course we had 2 beers as well.

From here we scooted back to the tourist trap area of the container port and George sat and had half a beer while I ran around looking for puzzles.  I found a few, but they were made in China.  Hard pass.  It was back to the ship for us where I passed out for an almost 2 hour nap.

Dinner was in the main dining room again and we had a lovely evening with the company at the table. Both couples will be getting off in Miami.  Such a shame, we’ve enjoyed their company.

After dinner we did something we seldom do. We sat and listened to the string quartet.  It was divine.  I love violin music, and tonight I was not let down.  After they finished the set, we retired to the room.  

Thursday saw me waking at 10 am! I never sleep this late!  In my defense though, I had a rough night's sleep and was up from 1 to 5.  I caught up on emails, and before I knew it it was lunch time.  We went up to the Terrace Café as usual and today was Italian day.  There was a fresh pasta table and a pizza set up. 

I had the Tuscan Bean Soup and two slices of pizza.  The crust is so much better on these specialty days than it is on regular days.  

After lunch, George went to the room to take a nap while I went for a massage.  Heavenly.  I used to go bi-weekly for one when I lived in Hong Kong, and haven’t been since.  It was long over due.  I enjoyed it so much in fact that I booked one for next week as well.  I suppose I’ll probably get a few more before we get off the ship.  

While in the Spa, I asked about the fitness instructor.  She said they were hopeful that one would come on board on 5 March and stay the duration.  I am too.  I enjoyed the yoga classes while they lasted and would like to go again.  

I then went down to the reservations desk and booked for the 2024 Around the World.  I have to say, it is a bit disappointing.  There is no circumnavigation of Australia, or Africa but we do get to do both canals in one trip.  This time it starts in Miami on 29 December and returns to New York on 12 July.  That reminds me, I should check to see if there is anything going from New York to Florida following that. 

In the afternoon, I sat on the veranda writing this blog before George and I started discussing the ATW 2024.  After much thought and discussion, we agreed that we didn’t need the service of a butler which we would probably never use, and the additional space, while nice, is not worth the extra price to us.  I went back down to change our booking and to my great pleasure it was not an issue.  

We called housekeeping to set up the HDMI cable on our TV so we can watch some of the movies we brought with us.  We have managed to see almost EVERY movie on the ship.  Desperate times now for us.  

I ordered some packaging bags for our next puzzle exchange.  We will need them to get to the house before we do as we will only have around 3 weeks to get the puzzles made, packaged, and packed in our suitcases before we hop a flight to the next IPP.  Funny thing is, we’ve both wanted to go to this country for a long time.  Now as it turns out, we will be going there twice this year and again in 2024.  I think we will be able to see everything we want to see between those three visits.

We had dinner reservations at Polo Grill tonight so at 6:30 we headed up to the restaurant.  This night we dined with another couple that we had not met yet and one that we had. As always, it was a pleasant evening.  I loved the legs on the glass of wine and the shadows they threw.

Friday saw us in Acapulco and since I hadn’t gotten this post up last night, I’ve decided to add today’s activities here now. We woke around 6 am and just caught up on the happenings around the world.  At 8 we were docked and the announcement came telling us we were able to get off the ship.  We didn’t.  We lay in bed a bit longer before heading out for our latest scooting adventure.

Our first stop was the post office so we could send a package to Japan.  What an ordeal.  They don’t take US dollars (fair enough) they don’t take credit cards (really?) We had to run around and find an ATM to get some cash only to return to the post office to pay for the package that they kept.  What an adventure.  

From there I wanted to go see a mosaic that has been placed on the side of a house, but because of how long it took us to take care of the post office, we had to skip it.  Our next stop was the Hotel Mirador to watch the cliff divers.  I had planned this part of the trip a few days ago.  We went for a lunch and a few drinks, and of course,  the divers. They did not disappoint.  We saw 5 divers today.  3 individual divers and then for the final dive, two men went at once.   The videos are much better than any photo. 

This building has some history to it.  It was built on the cliffs in 1933. Some notable visitors include  Elizabeth Taylor , Frank Sinatra , John Wayne , Sammy Davis Junior , Hugo Sánchez and John F. Kennedy.  We were insignificant but in good company.

After our lunch and the viewing of the divers we headed to the Fuerte de San Diego.  This fortress was built by the Spanish in 1617 to defend the city against pirates.  It is an impressive structure.  The view from above shows it as being a 5 pointed star.

When we went in, we were told the fort is usually closed, but they opened it today because our ship is in town.  We took advantage of this and had a walk around the structure.  We were very impressed by the construction. There was an outer wall, followed by an inner wall, then a mote, before the main structure.  It would have taken a lot to breech that structure.

I even got to see my first cactus tree.

One of the things that tickled me was the use of the old VW beetles as taxis.  You see, I have a 2003 ragtop beetle and just love the thing.  These older ones are so well kept here.  I was surprised to see them everywhere.

We even managed to find a 10 piece puzzle.  Don't laugh! I know you want to.

We returned to the ship. Today we decided to go have a swim in the pool. It is filled with salt water. I had no idea.  I think too much salt but I can understand it for hygienic reasons.  I know I have a bit more fat on me than is ideal, but it took nothing for me to float.  While swimming, we were given the pleasure of having a mariachi band on the ship to listen to. 

George and I returned to the room after the swim.  He to take a nap.  Me to load those last few videos and finish this post.  

Tonight we will eat in the main dining room again and head into another sea day before we return once again to Puntarenas.   

Which of the three cities did I like the best?  Mazatlàn.  The other two were gritty to me.  Cabo San Lucas was a tourist trap type of town with many shops selling kitsch.  Mazatlàn was clean, well laid out, and easy to travel around.  Acapulco reminded me too much of cities in China.  Would I want to come back?  Yes, I'd love to stay in that historic hotel for a few nights, and I'd definitely return to Mazatlàn to see more of the city. 

We love having the scooters.  It allows us to get off the beaten path that most tourists take and see things we wouldn't see on an excursion.  In places like this, it is best to scoot rather than take a tour.  When we get to some places in Europe and elsewhere we will start doing more tours.  Our next stop will be more scooting.  We are on a mission to get a few more bottles of the Coffee liqueur we purchased and finished last time we were here.  It is delicious!

At 6 pm the captain came on the speakers and told us that we would have a bit of weather tomorrow morning around 9 am and lasting until 2 pm.  This is foreboding. As a precaution and being hopeful that I will sleep through the night, I took a couple of those seasickness pills. 

Until the next update, Happy Puzzling and Smooth Sailing.