Panama, Panama

I’ve been dreading writing this for over a week now and I’ve decided to bite the bullet because it’s only going to become a list that is longer and longer and longer! So, we’ll go Port by Port on this one :)

First Port of Call: Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

I wasn’t IPM, but it is a tender port, which means a busy morning. So, I’m handing out tender tickets in the Show lounge. Things started going wrong when it took the ship until 10:20 to get cleared (normally we’re cleared by 10 a.m. so tendering can get underway.) We had started handing out the tender tickets at 10:00 a.m. and anticipated the first tender to leave by 10:15. No dice. Some people ended up sitting in the Lounge for 2 hours – I had people screaming in my face, arguing with me and all I could say was “I’m sorry, I’m going on what the captain is telling me on the walkie-talkie.” Now, how often to I break down in front of people? Well, I wasn’t going to this time either. After 2.5 hours of nasty beasts in my face, I had to walk back stage and take a few deep breaths – I was done! I had the Broadcast technician turn the TV on – he turned on sports. The women complained. Then, we switched it to CNN and a riot broke out because these conservative pricks (excuse my French but their behaviour was atrocious!) started flipping out. So I turned on the Shore Excursion Demo – they we happy with that. Go figure. After we finally got everyone off, I made some enemies, but I couldn’t go ashore because I had an activity an hour later. Luckily, I had quite a few supportive passengers that confirmed what ass holes people were to me. Uh well, Cabo isn’t my favorite place anyways!

Next, we docked in Acapulco. We had an initial threat of having to tender in this port also. I said they would not put me down in front of those people again, unless there was a deck officer there to explain the entire procedure. Luckily, no tendering. I did end up getting off, but didn’t want to take a taxi by myself for 20 minutes to where the hotel was with everyone – didn’t think it was safe. So, I walked around the city for about an hour – had enough of the “Hey Lady..buy this!” I decided I’d just go back to the ship, since Sherwin had to work the whole time I had off and lay by the pool. It was fantastic!

Santa Cruz, Mexico- I was In Port Manning.

Puerto Chiapas, Mexico- Always an adventure with Sydney! Sherwin and I both had the entire day off so we wanted to do some kind of excursion or something fun like Jet skiing. So, we got off the ship, found a cab company that was willing to take us to “Playa Linda” round trip. The ad had an awesome resort with a nice beach and restaurant. They said it was a great place to eat and relax. We get in the cab and get dropped off at “Villas de las Orcas” resort. Not a soul was there. We walk out to the beach – not a single person…anywhere. It was almost eerie. After 40 minutes of walking around in search of a phone (the resorts was broken and they all kept pointing us different directions) someone understood what we were asking and got the cab back to pick us up. They took us back to the Port and we spoke to the girl. She gave us $10.00 back and we were happy. Bought a cool sterling silver sunshine pendant with an amber center, Evan’s birthday gift, and Sherwin got a couple Corona shirts, from a legitimate Corona store for only $5.00 each. He was happy! We ended up right in front of the ship…literally. As soon as you walked off the gangway, there was a pool and a big thatched (I think that’s what it’s called) roof with food and drinks – so we ate, ordered margaritas and beer and sat with a large group of crew and swam all day. It ended up being way more fun…we had a long day to relax!

Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala: Awesome! Again, not much was there but we went off and walked around through all the local vendors - Just the typical South American arts and crafts and other jewelry. After walking around for a bit, we ended up at another restaurant (we eat a lot!). It was the only thing to do! Ran into some friends there and had a good time. You’ll see lots of pictures of this restaurant and we were right in front of the aft of the ship.

Puntarenas, Costa Rica: In Port Manning.

Panama Canal…was amazing! I got up extra early (and was supposed to be working in the library) to see us go through the locks. I stayed outside for about 2 hours to watch the ship enter and exit the first one and then I was outside for the last one because it was so large and did the lowering. What a fascinating process and incredible to see and understand all the work that went into it and the 100’s of thousand’s of people that working on this engineering feat. The raising and lowering of the ship…very very neat!

We go through there another 2 times in the next month, so I’ll see it a bit more. Rumor has it, that it is $80,000-$100,000 each time one goes through the canal – and that’s for everyone, even the Panamanian Ships. Also, $1 Billion dollars in maintenance a year…WOW!

Cartagena, Colombia: It was another day where Sherwin and I both had off until 4:30, so we went into town as soon as we could get off. We docked in a container port, so there wasn’t much there. When we reached the “terminal” there was a free shuttle – and Sherwin and I assumed it was into town. Well, no. It was back to the ships – so we got a grand tour of the containers :) We walked a bit and caught a cab – we said we wanted some good seafood and he took us to the best restaurant. I wanted to take pictures, but there were too many people and my small camera broke, so I couldn’t imagine whipping out the big one in the middle of this local restaurant. Very authentic though, with the bright yellow walls, wooden chairs. I ordered a “Shrimp Casserole” which was a shrimp soup – shrimp in coconut milk is what Sherwin says it was…anyways, it was delicious! Sherwin got what he’s been looking for since Asia…a fried red snapper. We ate some plantains and garlic shrimp. Service was a bit slower, per say. We’re used to being in and out of a restaurant in about an hour. Nope….THREE HOURS LATER :) It’s ok…we enjoyed just being away from the ship without too much of a time constraint.

We’ll be in Half Moon Cay (Holland America Line’s Private Island) which I hear is absolutely gorgeous. Everyone says that it is absolute Paradise – more than Bora Bora. I know it is run by the natives and our employees – so I’ll make sure to get some pictures before then!

I think that’s all for now. I’m sure there are things I’ve left out – but I’ve given the general gist of it all I think!

New Observation: You know you should probably not eat that cookie if you are now wearing Wal-Mart Scrubs ALL the time. Smart Casual does not mean scrubs are ok- especially since you aren’t a doctor/nurse or anything in between!