Day Seven - Costa Rica

I never realized the port where we arrived would be so far from town.  We didn’t get the chance to see anything of San Jose where I am told the real estate is modern and very expensive in half of the city (the half where the Americans live) and typically fair to poor in the rest of San Jose.

Since most of the tours required hours of travel on a bus to get to the destination and the sky walk in the forest which we would love to have been able to do but was marked as “strenuous,” we opted to take the Tarcoles River tour where we enjoyed seeing all the birds and crocodiles.  There had been recent flooding from Hurricane Thomas that resulted in rerouted the river and washing out many of the restaurants, buildings and boat docks along the river but the tour proved to be very interesting anyway.

Day Six – Huatulco

Today the ship arrived at 8:00am and we walked into town as soon after that as we could.  WOW, has Huatulco changed.  At least the port area.  They have a beautiful new dock that accommodates cruise ships, buildings that house souvenir stores and lots of stalls with “stuff” to sell as you approach the beach.  Thank goodness they still have the little restaurants that put their tables right down at the water’s edge for you.

We first went to the gazebo coffee shop that we enjoyed so much before.  That was still there.  We were joined by friends from the ship and had a delightful cup of Cappuccino.  Then after walking around town to see what has changed we settled down on the beach to enjoy Margaritas, Nachos and swimming in the bay.

Day Five - Acapulco

Today Hal had no interest in going ashore.  Instead he spent his time by the pool.  I went shopping in town.  Well that is I tried to shop.  I walked all over the Artisans market as well as the downtown area of Acapulco looking for Christmas presents that I could ship to Trinity and Miles and nothing.  The downtown stores had some toys but not the American toys I was looking for.  I don’t understand why the Little Tyke Toys have to cost almost three times as much in Mexico as they do in the US.  I thought if I bought them from a store in Mexico it would be different.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a store that carried such toys.  I should have planned ahead and mapped out stores then hired a cab.  OH WELL!  I just didn’t get it together……….

Cruise through the Panama Canal

Day One

Day one of our Cruise began a little differently than planned.  I thought I was organized, washed all the clothes, made reservations at the Hacienda Hotel for the night before and put Yoshi in the kennel.    All that was left was to pack and clean the house.  It didn’t matter what time we reached LA because we were just spending the night and needed to board between 12:00 and 3:30pm the next day.

Upon waking on Sunday, Hal asked to see the itinerary for the cruise.  I gave him a copy of the tickets but he wanted the booklet describing the trip.  I had printed it out the night before so I went to the printer and got it for him.  He looked at it and immediately said “ This says our ship leaves TODAY.”   He was right!  How could I have gotten this so wrong?  By now it’s about 7:30am.  We through clothes into suitcases and flew down to LA.  Hal drove while I cancelled reservations and packed bags in the back seat.  We arrived at the Hotel about 1:30, dropped off the car and took a cab to the ship.  Needless to say, it was not a restful departure. 

Once on board we were able to calm down and start enjoying the trip.  We have a lovely balcony stateroom and really enjoy sitting outside.

As we were eating dinner  the first evening,  the boat started to vibrate.  It became more and more violate until the dinner table and everything on it was jumping around.  Then quite.  Then nothing.  For about 20 – 30 minutes we were dead in the water.  Finally we started up again.  Hal thinks that the vibration was caused from the engine being thrown into full reverse.  Maybe we were about to collide with something???

Day Three

Cabo San Lucas – Day Three

Having been to Cabo before, we decided not to take a tour and just visit the local restaurants/bars and enjoy the seafood and margaritas.   Good choice.  Excellent Margaritas and after a couple, we went shopping.  Can you tell what Hal bought for me?  Was I ever surprised…….  We had been to a lecture on board the ship about shopping in Cabo but I never expected to be the beneficiary of that lecture…….

In case you are wondering, yes it is a diamond – with lots of other diamonds around it…………

Day Two

Day 2 was spent at sea but started with breakfast on the balcony.