June 30, 2015, Tuesday, Corinto, Nicaragua

These lovely ladies and musicians greeted us as we debarked in Nicaragua.  The Tourism Board describes Nicaragua as Unique and Original.  It is the largest country in Central America and has 6 million inhabitants.  Our tour was the Colonial Leon and Bubbling Mud Pots.  During the afternoon a dust storm worked itself up into a major hazard.  The farmers had prepared the fields for planting but the rains hadn't come and so the fields were dry and ready to whip into a bad day for being outdoors.  I was able to put on David's handkerchief over my mouth and nose.  

The plaza was particularly bad.

The dust storm across the bare fields

Town

Central statue 

A Fireman Captain had his funeral while we visited the cathedral.   His body was taken to this fire truck by pall bearers.

Inside the cathedral.  These flowers were from the funeral

This is the black Jesus rescued from when the cathedral was destroyed once.

Statue in honor of the famous poet Ruben Dario

View from inside the cathedral

Market by the cathedral

School girls after school

By the cathedral

The next stop was the Bubbling Mud Pots.  Some people have seen bubbling mud pots and said, you've seen one, you have seen them all.  But we had never seen any in Nicaragua.  I thought it was amazing.  Even better was that it seemed to be run by a family who lived around the property.  It was a small little tourist site.  They sold crude pottery figures made from the mud.  David bought one there.  He was told that it was a pre-colombian artifact.  He paid maybe a couple bucks.  I think the boy who sold it to him made it.

A small boy offered to let me hold his parakeet, for a fee

This is a small volcanic cone in the background

I stood too close to take this movie and got hot mud on my calf.

There is a huge lake in Nicaragua called Lake Nicaragua that almost bisects the country.  There are talks with the Chinese to create another canal from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic to compete with the Panama Canal.  Our lecturers mentioned it as though it will happen some day.  But our Nicaraguan guide said it will never happen, but the Chinese are giving them money and talking about it.  I didn't get the impression that much else was being done but talk right now.  We'll see!

We had our second show by the Platters.  This time David and I danced in the conga line and to some of the songs.

Nicaragua, 9:00am to 6:00pm.  High 98, low 75, sunrise 5:21am, sunset, 6:13pm.  Nicaraguan Cordoba Oro (NIO), US $1.00 = 26.2838 NIO.  Spanish is the language spoken here.

June 29, Monday, Puerto quetzal, Guatamala

We docked at 11:00am here at Guatemala's largest Pacific Ocean port and gateway to most of the tourism.  I went on the excursion called Auto Safari Chapin.  David went on Coffee Close to Nature.

Our drive was along the Pan American highway until we reached a gravel road approaching the zoo.

Puerto Quetzal means green place.  The economy is 90% agricultural, sugar cane, coffee, cattle, banana are the main products.  Energy production is 40% thermal and 30% wind.  Population:  70% indigenous Mayan, 25% latino and Spanish mix, and 5% black.  The problem they have here is drug smuggling.  Central America is a bridge for this.

It was very muggy and by the time we got to the safari, it started to rain.  But the safari was in our coach.  I could open up my window, but rain came in.  There is a series of gates that separate the animals who stay is large open areas.  Some animals are indigenous, but most are not.

The first thing we saw was this curious lizard

Very soggy emu

Giraffes huddling under their shelter

this spider monkey posed for us.

This lion kept by the female

She is looking down at her mate

A lot of pigs

We got to see this leopard wandering around

A tapir standing up!  Mostly I have seen them lying down.

A good clear shot of the chain link fence.

The tapir again

Typical busses in Guatamala

Quilts for sale.

Someone was going to buy one of these beautiful quilts

Another craft stall.  Guatamalan crafts are beautiful, esp the applique work.  I found a couple nice shirts as well as small souvenirs.

We just had a few minutes to shop before getting back on the ship. 

David's trip was interesting as well., called coffee close to nature.

This is the country area where the coffee is grown

The coffee was still green.  Harvest is Nov to Feb

One of the machines use for coffee

The roaster

The grounds of the coffee farm they visited

Another beautiful sunset

June 28, 2015, Sunday, Huatulco, Mexico

Huatulco is pronounced, wah-TOOL-co.  It is in the state of Oaxaca.  It thrived as a port after the Spanish Conquest under Hernando Cortez.  We arrived early in this little beautiful Mexican town at the Santa Cruz pier.  We went on the 5 Bay Catamaran cruise and swim.  The coast line is beautiful with 9 bays, and plenty of snorkling.  They pride themselves on being a safe, clean, green part of Mexico.  The language is Mextico.  There are coffee plantations in the mountains.

After our cruise we visited the coffee cafe in the center of the village square.  They sell the organic Huatulco coffee.  We met the Mother of the woman serving us.  She brewed a very nice cup of coffee. We bought 500 gm. and some of the chocolate as well.  All for $20.

Tourism is the main economy, which is 80% domestic.  Our guide explained how they have grown and how many more hotel rooms they expect in the future.  Now it is 6,000 rooms.  70% of the tourists are Canadian said our guide..  Before 1980's, the area was all coffee.

We ended up swimming in one of the bays.  The water was warm and inviting.  I was the last one back on board.

Near the President's vacation home here

Around the bend to the first bay

We saw a pair of very friendly sea turtles in the ocean.  As many as 15,000 come to lay their eggs on one of their beaches each year - next month.  They used to have leatherback turtles but the jellyfish are almost gone and so are these turtles.  They also have humpback whales in the winter.

The President of Mexico has a vacation house here, as well as some very wealthy Mexicans.  We learned in the lecture about central America that Mexico is poised to be the next China.  The illegal immigration is slowing down because there are jobs now here, and in the next years to come, we will be losing our Mexican workers who will return.  Mexico makes a lot of automobiles and imports a lot of our food.  It is a fast growing economy.  

June 26, 27, 2015, en route to Huatulco, Mexico

Two more sea days.  This time the weather is hot and humid.  The lounges are not even too cold as they have been in the past.

I did my usual sea day, sit to be fit with Claudia at 9:00am, get  a new kit for needlepoint and fight the lines to get a good choice.  I finally got to do zen doodle with artist Pat Grillo this time, and then had a rest and lunch  before playing bridge with Harold again.  I had a back, neck and shoulder massage after trivia.  Dinner was in Horizons for the Mexican buffet.  This time they played Mexican music!  The show as a new group, Mark Friedman and Rodi Alexander.  Theya re very professional performers who obviously enjoy what they are doing.  He is an excellent piano player and she is a beautiful, talented singer and dancer.  They sang a medley of popular songs using the voices of the singers.  I talked David into going and e enjoyed it I think.  He went to see Vlad play piano last night and I stayed "home".

Saturday, I attended the seminar about Columbian emeralds given by the son of an emerald family company who says they are the jeweler of the Pope.  Men won both of the two $500 credits for buying an emerald.  Columbian emeralds are the best because of the brightness he says.  They have a beautiful pair of earrings shaped like palm trees.  The leaves are the emeralds and the trunk is all diamonds which you can purchase for only $100,000.  I have an emerald ring but I have no idea what kind it is.  I got it from Fred Meyer jewelry.  What do you think?

Saturday

They have a movie about the building of the Panama Canal for us.   "A Man, A Plan, the Canal"

 They also held an Officers and guest challenge.  The Officers played us at golf, shuffleboard, pingpong and throwing balls in a ring in the pool.  The pool challenge was the easiest and most fun.  You could do it more than once.  Tammy ran the shuffleboard.  In order to get even one Big "O" point, you had to win the whole match.  I watched the Captain lose to a passenger.

The excitement was the show by The Platters.  There is one guy who is an original, Eddie Stovall, his son, Miss D, and another guy. They live in Branson, MO so I imagine they perform there regularly. They put on a wonderful show of their hits such as Only You, Twighlight Time, Remember When, Workin on the Chain Gang, I'm Sorry, You'll Never Know, Mustang Sally, Red Sails in the Sunset, Love Train (they led us around the Insignia Lounge),  

Miss D leading the Love Train

the Great Pretender, and Harbor Lights.  It went so fast.  David bought a CD and got it autographed.  They are very friendly and approachable.  Hearing these songs from our dating and batchlorette days makes us all very happy.  The popularity for this music is much more than the standard cruise entertainment offerings.  They are responding to our requests, but they could do more like have the Insignia band play rock for the pre-show dancing, or a rock band as entertainment.

June 25, 2015, Thursday, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

From our balcony as we anchored in Cabo.

Another view of Cabo

We went on the Clear bottom kayak and snorkel tour which started at noon.  I spent the morning watching the shores of Mexico as we sailed by, and catching up on blogs.

I turned in our tour tickets and got #3 bus passes.  Doug and Kathy Hull were doing kayaks as well but their number was #1.  A nice lady beside me said she had #3 and they were going on the camel ride.  Luckily she told me or we would have gone for a camel ride in bathing suits and snorkel gear.

Luckily one of our fellow passengers took this photo of the famous arch.  Our kayaks went near, but not through it.  We were one of many tours viewing this landmark.

We had to sign a waiver before leaving the pier.  Kathy warned us that anyone over 70 was not allowed to go, so we became 69 years old.  At the beach, there were two rows of tandem kayaks, all yellow!  I didn't take my camera so I have no photos.  We had an easy 1/2 hour paddle before we took a little break at the future site for our snorkeling.  But we headed on towards the point, which is also where the famous arch is located.  It is in a little bay and the waters there were surging from the surf and currents.  No one went through the arch, nor were we allowed to do that.  I wouldn't begin to try, even if I were really 69.  We headed back to the big rock with buoys around it where we tied up all the kayaks to the ropes and slipped off our boats to snorkel.  The fish were all right next to the big rock.  Kids were jumping off the top of it all the time, but on the other side.  there were really big plate sized silver fish with beautiful yellow fins and tails in schools.  Then we saw several other different fish.  I saw a very large trumpet fish, a parrot fish, a humuhumunukunukuapuapa and a beautiful purple fish with green spots in a row down the middle.  the coral was sort of purple and fan shaped.  It was hard to believe that there were so many fish at such a popular place to swim and snorkel.  We even saw scuba divers below us.

When we returned, we just went right to the ship and the spa and thallasotherapy pool.  I was beat.

We came back to shore about 5:00pm looking for a virgin marguarita and nachos with real avocado.  Senor Frogs bar, whose sign only said "Frogs" due to the first part falling off in the hurricane last year, closed up!  So we stopped at another bar where Karen and her daughter were having drinks.  We had our wish.

Nachos

Virgin margueritas in my new yellow hat

Emil Zapata and I, wearing my new yellow scarf and hat.

Senor David wearing a very heavy, hard, Mexican hat

Tom and Deanna Jones enjoying life, as usual.

As we walked down the beach by the tour operators looking for business, one of them said we looked like tourists!  Many of our fellow passengers went on the tequila tasting tour.  Some of them came back very late at 8:00pm on our tender.  It was a very roudy crowd.  It turns out the four David was having fun with were the Platters who were coming onboard for their shows.  There were tour boats playing party music all over the harbor, most of them fairly crowded and you could tell they had also been tequila tasting. Tom Jones told another story about how he and a buddy went to the officer's club and they weren't 21, but they were served tequila and decided to drink as much as they could until one of them couldn't.  He said he could not stand the smell of tequila for 5 years afterwards.

Pelicans on the pier.  Another guest told her husband to look at the penguins

Sunset from the tender

Cabo was hit by a hurricane about a year ago.  There was a lot of damage, mostly in the San Jose Cabo area, further South.  Everyone who had been here more than 15 years ago, like us, remarked at how built up it was, but also clean and presentable.  We all wished to come back someday.  All day long we saw parasailers, jetboats, swimmers and snorklers, glass bottom boat tours, regular boat tours, deep sea fishing boats with marlin flags flying, and ships with sails like pirate ships, like the one above, and just plain party boats.

We went directly to trivia.  It was a four way tie for first place!  David went to hear Vladimir play the piano, the entertainment for this evening.  I said it would be much nicer to fall asleep listening to Vlad play piano than reading in our room.  David will get on a bus and fall asleep.  He will fall asleep in any venue where someone is speaking.  He will guaranteed fall asleep at a movie or concert.  He will fall asleep only half the time if it is loud music playing and the performer asks for audience participation.  Now I know why so many of our shows ask us to clap or sing along.  They want to keep us awake.

News from the world.  The Dow Jones is below 18,000 again due to a failed Greek debt deal.  One Euro =$1.12.  The Boston marathon bomber was sentenced and said he was sorry for the attack.  Patient awarded $500,000.00 for being mocked.  France demands answers on US spying.  It is all so useless to worry about when on a world cruise.  We have more important things, such as whether or not to go to the art class or napkin folding tomorroww at 10:00am.  No doubt it will be art because it is zen doodling.  This looks like fun - no worries about being a great artist.  You just have to draw any old line and then another and make lots of connecting lines or doodles in an amongst the other lines.  Yeah.