Cartagena, Colombia

Cartagena is a beautiful city and would have been great had we been on a different tour.  It started out when we boarded the tour bus and all of these Filipina women that were from our ship were onboard saving seats for their travel companion which is very typical for elderly Filipina women.  They all could not figure out why their husbands were not on the ship yet.  Of course as soon as I boarded the bus and saw all of them sitting there I got irritated already.  I did not want to be on the same bus.  There is a big group of Filipinos that are sailing with us.  I say about 50 of them but we'll save that for another novel.

So these ladies kept asking each other where their husbands were in Tagalog not realizing I'm also Filipino.  Out of my mouth came out "they are just now coming down because they just called our number to come down.  You cheated and came down when they called numbers 1-3.  We're number 4!"  Of course nine of them couldn't  figure out what I was talking about as I pointed to the sticker on their chest that has a number  4 on it. Let's call a Spain a spaid and say they were playing dumb.  Then they just giggled.  Rick new I was getting irritated but like the diplomat that he is he just chatted with them while I waited for my blood pressure to go down.  Then off to our first stop.  As we were driving I noticed that the tour guides microphone kept going in and out and his accent was so thick that I could not understand him either.  So I chose to just ignore him and the rest of the Filipnas that kept talking about the sale they went to and how much they spent and saved.  Here we go.

First stop the Fort.  The Fort was beautiful but I noticed a long line of people walking in to the forth.  The bus driver said we had 20 minutes and then we have to drive to the next stop. Huh? Well, let's backup at the bottom of the fort were several street vendors selling their trinkets.  Big Colombian ladies dressed in these colorful clothes with big basket of fruits on their heads and they will let you take their picture with them.  Oh wait, but it cost $1 to having your picture taken with them. If you don't pay them, they'll chase you. LOL. So I'm thinking why did they drop us off at this site were this fort is located just to see vendors.  There is a monumental building (The Fort) that we could visit.  I chose to ignore it and started to head back to the bus.  Oh, it was about 90+ degrees with 100% humidity.  My shirt was drenched from sweating.  I boarded the bus and here are two couples, 1 couple sitting at our seats and the other couple sitting at our friends' seats. I told them they had to move and they proceeded to tell me it did not matter where everyone sat because someone laid their stuff in their seat.  I told them I could careless what anyone laid on their seat and asked them to move forcefully.  They got up and the man started to talk back and I cut him off very quickly and said, "hey, do you have something to say to me?"  Of course his reply was "sorry not you. It's just that everyone has their stuff on our seat."   Our friend Cheryl saw the couple sitting at their seat and told them to move because they were at her seat. Then came the Filipina women.  Of course now all I had to do was sit back and watch the Filipina ladies at work. By this time we are all friends.They made the two couples move and were also standing their ground.  Finally I think I asked where their stocked were.  Just before we got off the bus the tour guide gave everyone a sticker that had his last name printed on it and of course we also had the #4 sticker too.  These two couples did not have stickers.  We found out that those two couples were on Princess Cruise not Royal Caribbean.  Could they have apologized for being stupid and not looking at the front of the but that had Royal Caribbean on it? Nope!

The sites in Cartagena were beautiful.  But Rick noticed that every stop we made was at a particular shop.  He thought that the tour guide was taking us to his vendor friends and probably getting a kickback from any sale.  It was obvious after the third stop.

We walked for a while at the second stop and it was just too hot. He kept stopping at these vendor spots to talk.  Ya right he was trying to get us to buy something.

I would have loved to put the tour guides head in this and cut the rope.

So after a long walk everyone decided to buy beer.

And more beer!  

At this point I stopped taking pictures.  I had my big camera with me and my iPhone.  Too tired to care about taking pictures. I had a picture taken with a sloth.  Paid $2.  He was cute and his name was Ponchito.  I will load that on FB when I return.

Next is sea day. 

Colón, Panama

There was really nothing much to see here.  We walked outside and went to a place called the Free Zone or Zonas Libre.  The stores are all tax free.  It looked like a compound.  The stores were all behind this huge wall with guards in the front.  You paid $1 to go in.  They were nice stores.  I found my BLV cologne.  Normally my cologne for that size is about $75.  I paid $35.  Not only were the tax free but their prices are about 50% off the normal price.  

Then as we were walking, the sky let out and it poured hard!  None of us were prepared for it except for Karen and Brian.  We bought $5 umbrellas.  They were nice and big.  The streets were flooded and water went above our ankles.  I rang my socks and let them dry in the bathtub.  My shoes are out in the balcony drying.  The were soaked.

Oh well.  That was our first time in Colón and probably the last.

Next stop, Cartagena, Colombia.  See you then!

Crossing the Panama Canal

This is the day that we are going to cross the Panama.  It is 4:17 ship time and it's still dark outside but from the front of the ship we can see lights so we are close to the entrance.  In a couple of hours we will see the Bridge of Americas.

Here we are as we approach the Bridge of America.

This bridge is what is preventing some of cruise lines' from using their larger ships such as the Royal Caribbean's Voyager class.  The bridge is not tall enough.  They are expanding the Panama Canal to accommodate the wider ships but the taller ships will still have a problem.

The pilot boat is dropping off some of its people to help guide the ship through the canal and also to drop off the narrator.  She narrated through the entire crossing.

The first lock as we approach.

In the picture above you will see a cargo ship that is going through the lock.

These little silver train like thing is what will pull the ship through the the lock.  The folks that got on from the pilot boat brought several heavy ropes that will be tied to the ship and then they will toss to these little trains so they can pull us through.

This picture shows how close the ship is to the walls of the lock.  So as you can see a wider ship certainly would not be able to make it through.

The picture shows the lock closed behind the ship.  Now our lock will fill with water so we can come out of the lock in the front and continue on to the next lock. There are 5 locks all together.

The picture above shows the freight ship next to us.

This last picture shows the difference in the water level.  When a ship approaches the water level inside the second area wil fill with water to reach the same level as the first area allowing the ship to move to the second area.  Then it will lower the water so it can come out in the third section and the water in that third section will raise to let the ship out into the lake.

Next stop, Colón, Panama!  See you then!

Out at Sea

Today is another day at sea.  The only thing we have going today is a luncheon with an officer.  It was great!  Our table was liveliest.  The food was great.  I had the steak but again it had a lot of grizzle but the little amount that I had was good.  Here is what we had:

Appetizer was Tuna Tartar

For lunch I had Manhattan Steak on Corn Hash.  The corn hash was great!

For Dessert I had Cassata Siciliana.

Here is the group at our table.

Here we are with Rosa the Guest Relations Manager.  This is for you Pat and Bill Pink.

Tonight's dinner will be at Portofinos Specialty Restaurant on the ship.

Tonight's appetizer antipasto.

For dinner I had Osso Bucco.  This was fantastic!

Don't forget my rice!

Costa Rica

The tour in Costa Rica was great.  I'm glad we all enjoyed the tour.  We first took the bus from the ship and it took us to a spot where we took this old train.  It really wasn't a train station it was parked out in the middle of a field.  Seats in the train were wooden seats and no air conditioning just windows.  It was also very loud.  But we all enjoyed the ride.  The train took us to this place where we got on these boats that took us around the river.  It was like riding in the Amazon River.  We saw a lot of interesting birds but my favorite of all where the crocodiles.  Here are some pictures.

Here is Alex our tour guide.

The train that we boarded that took us to the bus which took us to the boat.

Inside the train.  Here Kim and Mike, two of our Canadian friends.

More train shots.

Here are the boats.

Love the Crocs.

Next day we'll be out at sea again.

Out at Sea

Another day out at sea.  These are my relax days.  Waiting for Rick to get done showering and then we will have breakfast at Chops.  I miss my fried rice.

My bar waitress sent some strawberry syrup to our suite so I can make Strawberry Sunrise.  Those are really good.  We still have 3 bottles of champagne, half a bottle of Grey Goose, 3/4 bottle of JW Platinum and about 15 more bottles of wine left.  We only have 7 days left on the cruise so we've got to drink up!

The ocean is a little rough out there.  Thank goodness for stabilizers.

Guatemala

Looking forward to this tour but it's a long one.  9 hours.

Brian, Kare and Rick

Mike and Kim

His gun is almost as big as he is.

Coffee beans.

The tour was actually nice.  It rained and of course we forgot our umbrellas in our cabin.  It was funny because the kids were selling little trinkets just like in Ensenada.  Then we got on a boat that took us on an island where we had lunch at a hotel.  When we got off the boat the same kids where there selling the trinkets. I swear they had a much faster boat than we did.  A couple of the folks with us bought 2 of the trinkets for $5. Um, I would have talked them down but what the hell do I know, I only came from a country where haggling was very common.  

The food in the hotel wasn't bad but I had what I thought was tea but now I don't know what it was.  It's still raining outside. I just gave up on the do.  It's wet, so no pictures of me.

Tomorrow is another sea day.  Looking forward to another relaxing day and another game of Phase 10.