Sunday, Nov 19, 2017

We packed up early and got the hell outta dodge. Off we went through Maryland, West Virginia and into Kentucky – a long day in the car. We went from 50 degrees to 32, with sleet and snow along the way. Not enough to stick, just enough to make it white and pretty.

Had breakfast in another Waffle House, mostly because we couldn’t find any place else. High end brunch joints or happy meals in a fast food drive-throughs were our other options. Our waitress, Linda, was just tall enough to greet us eye to eye while we were sitting down. She knew how to sling it – had 7 plates stacked on her arm and none of the food was touching the bottom of the other plates.

Sirus radio is our friend. We found Willie’s Roadhouse and sang along with all the “classic” western tunes while we drove for 8 hours.

Outside the city limits, Maryland and WV are wide open rolling hills, covered in yellows and golds of fallen leaves. There is no litter – all is very clean. (I'm driving so no pictures again, sorry)  

Kentucky is storybook land. Big ole brick houses, long driveways, through rolling hills of green, surrounded by miles of horse fencing – how do they keep it all mowed? It was truly picturesque. At the end of the day, we got off the interstate, onto a State highway and ended up in Paris, KY for the night.

The Best Western hotel in Paris has finally convinced us it’s time for a change of rewards program. This place was the pits. Tired, old, dated – they might have been trying but it fell far short of what we’ve been used to. This place still had the 2’ high toilets of olden days.   

BUT – we found our roadside diner. Jerry’s of Paris, celebrating its 56^th year, was everything one could ask for in a family joint. Seat yourself, no booze, and 10 ways to serve potatoes as a side dish, not including various additional gravy, chili or cheese covered options. I have to list them: baked, mashed, with brown gravy, with white gravy, boiled with butter, scalloped, fries, steak fries, hash browns, tots. Other sides: mac & cheese, broccoli, green beans, carrots, corn, corn pudding, coleslaw, sliced tomatoes, applesauce, dinner rolls, cornbread, sour dough bread, garlic bread and texas toast. All the dinners were served on one plate, two sides on two more plates, and bread on its own plate, with butter flavored spread. 

I ordered a side salad; iceberg lettuce, 3 cherry tomatoes and a couple of croutons in a cereal sized bowl with two full ramekins of ranch dressing. My chicken strips were moist and tasty; I confess I ordered mac & cheese – just had to – and the coleslaw was crisp and oh-so sweet. Jim had chicken fried steak, (last night’s baked potato sliced into quarters and deep fried) steak fries and also oh-so sweet corn pudding. It was much better than it sounds; we’re just spoiled with the food we eat at home, so this seems odd. The blackberry cobbler for dessert was excellent.

The family next to us, four generations of grandma, mom, daughter and baby, with husbands – the ladies ordered spaghetti. Grandma got spaghetti, sauce on the side; mom got spaghetti with meat sauce, daughter got 4 meatballs the size of tangerines, with spaghetti and a side of mashed potatoes with white gravy. Daughter’s husband (think Goober in a John Deere ball cap) got a double cheese burger with a side of cheese fries. Everyone had sweet tea. Good stuff.

Place was packed. $25 bucks covered it all. Loved it.

Saturday, Nov 18, 2017

Off to the National Zoo. The nice lady at the desk downstairs gave us directions and suggestions on how to take the Metro train to the zoo. It’s only a couple blocks from our place and only a few blocks walk once you arrive.

We had breakfast at Pret de Manger, means ready-to-eat in French. Very fresh, organic, fast food – would be a huge hit in Sonoma County. I liked my tuna and cucumber sandwich with honey tangerine juice.

We found the Metro kiosk – it was an elevator sized box sitting on the sidewalk in the middle of the block. It appeared to be an “entry to the Ministry” but the ride down through the sidewalk and concrete tunnel was more “Kingsman-ish”. The elevator opened out into a huge vaulted cavern, with escalators, colored arrows and signs going every which way. Rides are $2 each but you have to by a card, which costs $2, and the card has a minimum of 4 rides so the total is $10 each for us to ride to the zoo and back. Totally worth the price. The train had tons of room, was clean as could be and seemed so much easier than trying to drive and park (parking is $25). We walked through a lovely neighborhood, both coming and going back to the station. The little businesses and apartment building had a sense of community and history.

The zoo is free, lots of entryways and not very crowded. Of course, this is November and it was a little chilly so that may explain the uncrowded conditions. Still, many of the animals were out. The lions, 2 males, and a tiger, all roared for several minutes as they wandered their enclosures. The zoo moves them around to keep them interested but that means they have to re-establish their territory each time, hence the here-I-am roars. A zebra ran in circles, kicking its heels at the cheetah, nonchalantly watching from next door. A zoo keeper fed rats to the Maned Wolves – they mostly eat fruit and grasses in their native Brazil as meat is scarce so rats is good-eats for them. There were several kinds of seals, a grey wolf, beavers, otters, prairie dogs, elephants, lemurs and more to make it interesting.

The Amazon rainforest was fun, too. There was a roseate spoonbill just standing on the railing of the first pool,

which was full of good sized sting rays and turtles. The bird even snapped at one fool who got too close with a camera. All the birds were flying free and the upstairs jungle, looking down on the pools below,

had a monkey and (hidden) sloth roaming about.

 

snacking on carrots and veggies

Gotta admit, all this walking, we hurt. We seem ok in the morning but half way through the day,that slow, museum crawl really catches up with you. So we left the zoo after 3 hours, stopped in a tiny bistro for a coffee, grabbed a bottle of wine from a shop and come back to the room to just chill for the afternoon.

Getting a reservation on a Saturday night in this area is tough. There are no casual eateries. The nearest pizza is miles away. Jim finally found The Grist Mill in a nearby (NO MORE WALKING) Marriot which had space for us. And no wonder… the food was excellent, the ambiance iffy, the service, laughable. We were seated in an off-side area of the hotel lobby, ok but not cozy. The staff had to have been the most unprofessional, gee-everyone, let’s-put-on-a-show, group of lackadaisical people imaginable. Except the manager; she hustled out every dish, brought checks, and swept the floor while her staff wandered about, looking a little lost or bored. In fact, while at the bar, the waiters were making the drinks because the bartender was in a really bad mood and couldn’t find what he needed to make the one drink he was working on. It really was funny.

We had one of the better meals in a long time – spicy fried chicken, pureed potatoes and green beans, all cooked just right. 

Friday, Nov 17, 2017

Sure doesn’t feel like we’ve been gone 3 weeks but I am ready for a “day off”. Didn’t sleep real well last night and all the walking yesterday left its mark - no shoes for a month and my toes did not like being confined to shoes all day yesterday. Only 3 minor blisters but achy and tired for sure.

We wandered out for coffee, the Pleasant Pop. I had to try the gluten free, coconut, banana, corn, chocolate chip muffin and Jim had a pretty decent croissant. We then gave up and went back to the room to veg.

Finally headed out for the Smithsonian around noon and wandered through the American History building. Why is so much of American history centered on war? But. We did see Lincoln’s Hat,

heard more about him; saw amazing displays, videos, posters, newspapers and everyday household artifacts. The First Ladies gowns were fun as were the other uniforms and the original Star Spangled Banner.

A word on our accommodations here: We are in a corporate apartment, in a condo building, a block or two from the White House, 15^th St NW and H St. There are none of the usual hotel amenities like newspaper or breakfast but the room is an actual apartment with living, dining, kitchen, hallway, bedroom and bath, fully furnished, right down to the can opener. It’s really nice and comfortable, lots of room.

And then there are the little things; the bathroom door won’t stay closed, the sink and the tub have no stoppers, there’s no rod in the holder on which to hang the toilet paper. The bed is small, maybe a full size, and the linens are excellent. In the living room is a little walled in corner. There is a constant running water noise coming from it. Maybe it’s an air conditioner drain? It reminds me of those noise machines, the ones which make the babbling brook sound, but not as peaceful. Funny-weird.  The street noise is booming-loud at street level, horns, sirens, cars, people-people-people and still very audible up at the sixth floor. Still, I’d stay here again. The concierge is incredibly helpful and literally everything one could want is within walking distance.   

We had dinner at Johnny Van’s – lobster curled up in its shell, in an ice filled bowl with two sauces, Cesar salad, French onion soup, calamari in Thai sauce and a chopped house salad, with tomatoes, which Jim actually liked! Our bar tab almost exceeded the food tab with 2 glasses of wine for each of us equaling $56.00.

Side note; while food is more expensive here than anywhere else we’ve been, the cocktail tab is really impressive. Two Irish coffees ran $26; a screwdriver is $12.50. Forget about a bottle of wine, per glass is pricy enough.

Thursday, Nov 16, 2017

Washington DC. The bartender last night (remember the kid?) told us the traffic was terrible here. Guess he’s never been to our area. We’re still the winners.

Made into town by 10 and then took an hour to find our “hotel”. Turns out, we booked into a corporate apartment, amongst other tenants, with a different name on the building and teeny-tiny address numbers hidden in the brickwork. After finding it and a place to park, (not included), we walked out, headed for The Mall.

The White House is completely locked down. There are barricades and yellow caution tape wrapped every which way with security and police standing everywhere. There isn’t a trash can in sight so we couldn’t dispose of the truly awful coffee and scone we’d found at Starbucks. We walked several blocks until reaching the Washington Monument.

Touching the Washington Memorial

Me too

It was closed, indefinitely, for repairs. It was closed the last time we were here, too. Go figure, forty years later and nothing’s changed. Kinda says it all about DC?

We then walked down to the WWII memorial, past the reflecting pool to the Lincoln Monument. Once again, it’s truly a breathtaking spot. Once again, it hammers home how far we’ve come and how nothing’s changed; still striving to right the injustices and create peace.(Quite possibly the most powerful single place I have ever been. Couldn't stop myself from  getting teary eyed)  Then, onto the Vietnam Memorial; 58,000 names on the wall, (8 of them women), all killed in the name of national vanity and greed. Across the reflecting pool, we found the Korea War Memorial with a note there for the 54,000 service people killed between 1951-1054. See a theme? 

The Martin Luther King Memorial was well done but not particularly impressive. The granite statue is massive, his visage is blockish, not particularly graceful. The Roosevelt Memorial is inspiring and once again, sad to say, so much time has passed and we are still here, still doing the same stupid things as a nation and not as caring human beings. There’s a new monument going up for the forgotten statesman, the one who wrote the very first Declaration, the one cribbed by Jefferson, for the final Declaration of Independence. Sorry to say, I’ve already forgotten the name. The Jefferson Monument is massive and impressive in all its marble glory.

on the way to the Jefferson Memorial

We’ve now walked the circumference of the Mall, no lunch, no water, still a long way from the room. We walked onto the Smithsonian Castle, ie: vistor’s center, grabbed some bottled water and played with the interactive displays. That was fun, like watching mini film clips and pac-man at the same time. We went across to the Nature and Science Museum to view mummies, the Hope Diamond, incredible photography by award winners and live butterflies. Those were amazing; saw a Blue Morpho as wide as my hand, lots of Monarchs, Green Malachites and spotted all-types. There was even a Moon Moth in a special case, kept that way so he wouldn’t be hidden during the day. They only live 3 days so it was unusual to see one at all.

We limped back to our room, fumbled around with check-in and finding our luggage, hidden in the bowels of the parking garage next door. Our apartment is huge. There’s a full kitchen, with an island, dining table, living room couch, chair and tv. Down the hallway is a full size bedroom and bath. All the amenities are included, even a gift bag with coffee, paper towels and cleaning supplies.

The gal at the front desk gave us a coupon to dine next door – so we did. Woodward Table or Woodward Take-out Food, aka WTF, (really?? They didn’t think that through??) is very clubby, lots of wood, pretenses’ menu with a southern slant – 24 oz ribeye with collard greens and sweet potatoes – and pricy. A screwdriver is $12.00. Anyway, Jim had pork wings (bottom half of a pig’s leg) and I had a Louis salad. We shared Parker House rolls (oh yeah) and Myer Lemon Crème Brule. Best meal we’ve had in a couple of days.

On the bridge by Jefferson's place

Nov 15, 2017

Drove around the Savannah downtown, looking at all the squares and buildings, soaking up the “feel”. Headed north on 95, intending to get as far as Charlottesville but ended up driving all day and reaching Fredericksburg by 5pm. Checked into a Marriot’s – what a change from the Best Westerns - bigger room with a kitchen, more amenities, for less price (but, the next morning, not as good a breakfast).

Around 11am, we stopped at a Shonie’s for pie and coffee. No pie, sigh. I ordered toast, just to have something to soak up the coffee. (almost ordered dry white toast, ala The Blues Brothers, the situation had that sort of feel to it.) The waitress felt so sorry for us, she brought a second order of toast, no charge.

We later stopped at an Arby’s, again, just to grab something. Every table had huge bouquets of red and purple silk flowers in a tin tub, on a red placemat. There was a flower covered fountain in the corner. Quite a bit of ambiance for an Arby’s in the middle of nowhere.

After checking into the hotel, we we’nt hungry but did want a cocktail. We drove around and around, our Garmin failing us by locating several empty buildings. Finally gave up, to head back to the ratty looking Mexican restaurant near the hotel, when we stumbled upon the Ruby Tuesdays we were originally searching for. Not a sterling example of the chain, I’m sure. It was tired and near empty with a kid of bartender wanting to know if Jim wanted his screwdriver on the rocks.  A tasteless shrimp appetizer and two drinks later, we headed for home and bed.

Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2017

Another late start and headed north to Savannah. The highways are flanked by trees and bushes on both sides, sort like driving through a tunnel. There are lots of road side bill boards with interesting messages, everything from canned vegetables of okra and corn to Christ-saves, Pedro’s “you never sausage a thing” to big-time health care to gater farms.

Savannah is lovely with its moss hung trees and iron work. Lots of old-old buildings in the downtown area, brick, draped in balcony flowers, gingerbread and arched windows.

We dined at Corleone’s, a neighborhood Italian café. Huge portions, salmon with fettucine alfredo and veal Marsala with olive and tomato pasta; barely ate half. Still had to try the key lime pie, though. Tangy and sweet. Bought a “legalize marijuana” t-shirt in Italian flag colors, just to support the cause. 

Damn cold is still no fun so no pics, sorry.

Monday, Nov. 13, 2017

Kind of a blur. Jim’s cold has taken hold and his energy level is almost as low as his misery is high. We slept late and then made a trip to the Tampa Zoo, arriving by 2pm. It’s beautifully laid out and landscaped but an air of sadness overlaid the park. There was hardly anyone there. It was a little hot and humid so the animals were barely moving, but that was expected. We couldn’t quite put our fingers on it – it just seemed a sad place to be.

There were many animals we’ve not seen before – FILL IN THE BLANKS

The penguins were hand fed while we watched; fun to see them jostling for first in line.

Had a pizza dinner at a tiny storefront café; no ambiance, just a couple of tables and chairs and a couple of guys gossiping in Spanish at the counter. A flat-foldable pepperoncini and a couple of Coronas cost $20 bucks and we never saw anyone after they served the pizza. We left the cash on the table.

Sunday, Nov 12^th, 2017

After lengthy discussion, we both admitted there’s nothing in Disney World we want to see badly enough to fight the crowds and cost. It’s weird, but I swear we didn’t find this info at home – we had to be here in town to finally find out what are the four themes of each Disney parks – 1. Same rides as in LA; 2. Water park; 3. Epcot Center, which by all reviews is a little dated/outmoded and 4. Disney movie world comprised of movies we haven’t seen or don’t care to see. Alas.  But, ok, no harm done. As it is Sunday, and it looks like rain, we’ll go to Universal Studios on Monday, after the bulk of the crowd is gone. (later Sunday night – we finally found the cost for a one day pass to Universal Studios. It would be close to $350 just to get in the door. Again, neither of us wanted to see Harry that badly.)

We spotted Canaveral National Seashore on the map and headed east. The drive of couple of hours was filled with massive highway construction, funky old-timey towns after big-city Orlando. We are trying to avoid the highway and take the side roads but it isn’t easy. Odd thing – people are as friendly as can be but as drivers, total insanity. Tailgating, weaving, speeding and slamming on brakes, left turns from the far right lane across all other lanes, running lights – it’s nuts, spooky nuts. In Costa Rica, people ignored the rules of the road and were in no hurry. Here, very aggressive and in a panic-hurry.

Anyway, Canaveral abuts the NASA launch area and you can see the launch towers from the park. The park itself is acres of low rolling sand dunes through bays and lakes, running out to the Atlantic Ocean. We spotted an armadillo waddling across the road. We climbed a boardwalk up and over, down to the surf and stuck our toes in the brown water. Not as cold as the Pacific but not near as warm as the Caribbean. Flocks of pelicans passed quite low overhead – we could hear the wind over their wings. The sand, a fine white powder which sticks to everything, was covered in seaweed, remnants of Hurricane Irma. (A lot of plastic mixed in with the debris) We stood and chatted with 2 ladies, one showing the other her very first beach ever. The newbie was too shy to talk but her smile was delighted.

There’s lots of hurricane damage to the towns along the coast. Not much rebuilding but many piles of lumber and other storm trash. All of the coast houses are impressive with many styles and their bright colors but some are truly massive intrusions. I’d hate to have my ocean view spoiled by a 4 story spreading monster across the street. And right smack on the beach – I guess they like the remodeling opportunity that is sure to come up again.

Had lunch at a Panera staffed with sincere but inept workers. Jim’s turkey and apple sandwich caused them quite a bit of grief as they aren’t equipped for “changes”. No cheese seemed to be a hard concept to grasp and the apple slices described turned out to be apple slaw. When Jim asked for just a plain, nothing but turkey, replacement, they gave him both. Told him they couldn’t take the first one back. As we left, the guy clearing our plates was worried when he saw the uneaten sandwich. Jim said “don’t worry about it” and left. I followed behind, explained the change and the kid says, “oh good, I didn’t want to leave pissed AND hungry”.(She told me this and it made me think of something out of a Jack Reacher novel)

Heading north up HWY 1, we found Ft Matanzas National Monument, a 1700’s Spanish fort placed at the mouth of the bay to protect St Augustine. Storm damage prevented our taking the ferry over for touring of the actual fort but the nature walk and visitors center were nice. The boardwalk through the hummocks, live oaks, saw palmetto and wild grape was pretty interesting, overhanging and strewn with possible tarzan-like swings.

so many things to focus on the camera got confused 

Caught a glimpse of the ocean through the bushes and heard lots of birds.

here too...

 

why not this one?

We enjoyed that enough to try for the next fort up the road in St Augustine - which we discovered is a big-time tourist town. Gorgeous old buildings with iron work balconies, covered in bright pink, yellow and turquoises paint with white gingerbread trim. There were hordes of people mobbing the streets and swarming the fort itself. As there was no parking, we passed on through and plan to hit it again on our way north on a more quiet day.

So far, the Florida we’ve seen is flat. There are low trees, some tall buildings and overpasses but that’s about it in the way of height. The feeling of “near-by ocean” is everywhere. And it is oh-so clean. There is no road trash, yards are stripped clean with acres of green grass and no bushes, there’s no broken down cars or fallen outbuildings, no extra nuthin’ anywhere. We can’t tell if it’s due to the hurricanes blowing everything away or if this area is really tidy. It is remarkable how picture perfect everything is kept.

We dined at an Italian restaurant across from our hotel. Our waiter, Daniel, was having a terrible time remembering anything. He offered to refill our water three times before finally taking it away with him. The wrong salads arrived, then the wrong meals, with the wrong sides. He kept apologizing and finally sat down with us to explain how he was losing his mind, he just wanted to go in the back and cry. It was pretty funny and slightly endearing. I think he’s bored to death and needs something new but who knows, maybe we’ll see him in SF someday. His manager came by to check on us, was concerned we hadn’t eaten the greens, explained they were great and we try, but we ( spelled "I") don’t eat greens. Complimented Daniel to her as it was obvious she was checking more on him than us. All in all, a good meal, excellent scampi and calamari, remarkable entertainment.

Saturday, Nov 11^th, 2017 – Debarkation Day

It was a grand sunrise, all pink and gold, while pulling into the Everglade Port in Ft Lauderdale. Lots of big puffy clouds tumbled in the turquoise sky. We moved through a channel to the dock, a channel lined with homes, with lawns and swimming pools running right up to the edge of the channel. Our ship was maybe 50’ from the edges but not a wave or other disturbance was created.

Debarking Lounge

We breezed through customs, took the bus to the airport, picked out our rental car and was on the road to Orlando by 9:30am. This area is flat-flat-flat. The biggest and only hills are overpasses. There’s lots of grass, palm trees, low bushes and trees, with small ponds and lakes pooling up in every low area around. The only hurricane damage we saw were shredded billboards everywhere. The billboards appear to be made of cloth and hang in tatters.

At noon, we stopped in Ft Pierce at, wait for it, where else???

Yup, The Waffle House, the finest of southern traditions. I’ll admit, it was a close call. The Cracker Barrel advertised “Breakfast Y’all Day” but we just had to revisit that bastion of Southern Hospitality. Nor were we disappointed. Our waitress, Princess MoMo, was friendly and prompt, suggested hash browns, covered, smothered and diced, to go with our meal, but we stuck to a simple waffle and eggs with coffee. Pretty good, too.

We followed our Garmin leader, avoiding toll roads, and weaved our way north for about 4 hours, arriving in Orlando and the Best Western by 3pm. We unpacked, got our bearings and did some planning.

Along about dinner time, we wandered across the parking lot to Miller’s Ale House. It is an open air bar with a couple of dozen tvs blaring college football; buckets of beer and lots of cigarettes burning. We had a couple of pints and some bar food; calamari, chicken fingers and pot stickers. Also pretty good.

Nov 10^th, 2017

It poured during the night, lots of lightning. It’s warm and overcast this morning. We spent another day in the room, chillin’ and napping.

As it was our last night on-board, we paid a final visit to Honey and Christian. The Maker’s Honey poured us was a huge embarrassment but, dang, we did manage to drink it all. We dined at the Bordeaux with a nice bottle of Clos d Bois cab, a steak with mushrooms, full turkey dinner with all the fixings and Baked Alaska for dessert.

Nov 9^th, 2017

A day at sea, windy and warm. The Princess Patter lists our day’s activities of knitting, pickleball, bridge, shopping, trivia challenge, Big Sales, mini facelifts, elevator roulette, secrets to a flatter stomach, backstage tour and meet the cast, jewelry raffle, bingo and choir practice. That’s just this morning! We stayed in the room, just writing postcards, napping and doing puzzles.

My cold is cresting so I’ve not much energy. We spent a very quiet day, passed on cocktails and watched movies in the room.

 

I think they missed us

Nov 8^th, 2017

Another warm and windy morning after a night of amazing thunderstorms. The sky was lit up from horizon to horizon.

We watched the sea birds gliding alongside the boat in the slip stream. I guess that means birds can fly at least 20 miles an hour as that appears to be our average ship speed.

We lazed around until noonish – I watched Mary Poppins on deck while Jim read and napped. We pulled into Aruba to disembark around 1:30pm.

Aruba is a high-rise covered, low lying island. There are white sand beaches and the multi-blue-blue layers of ocean, but it is big tourist business for sure. Diamond boutiques and high-end store line one side of the street, lean-to shacks with made-in-china junk, ah, souvenirs, line the other.

We left around 2pm and wandered along the water front, just taking in the sights and sounds. It reminds us of Sausalito on a busy summer day. So many gawking tourists, so much noise. There were 3 other tour boats in the docks with us, so it was crowded. The Royal Princess was docked next to us. It’s the latest and greatest of the Princess fleet. It holds 3500 passengers and had to have been 15-20 stories high. Our boat, the Coral Princess only holds 2000 passengers and was dwarfed next to it.

Along the waterfront, we saw crabs and iguanas. A whole herd of iguanas in every shade of green, blue, gold, brown and gray were munching on the lawn.

We also stood on the wharf to get splashed by the Caribbean. My cold (yes, I caught a cold yesterday) was wearing me out and neither of us felt like shopping so we headed back to the ship after an hour. Again, it was so hot and humid, we felt like we’d been out for hours. A quick mojito, once back on board, picked us right up, though.

 Dined at the Horizon, Octoberfest! Had an after dinner sambucca at the Wheelhouse Bar and then watched The Mummy with Tom Cruise back in the room. (not a very good movie, BTW – Mary Poppins is better).  

Nov 7, 2017

Awoke as we pulled into the bay at Cartagena Colombia. Huge soaring skyscrapers surrounding stone and coral forts built in the 1500’s. Saw the fort where Romancing the Stone was filmed – even saw the pit which held “the snappers”.

The Virgin of the Navigators, with child, sits in the middle of the bay.

They watch over Cartagena and keep it safe. We pulled into the dock around 7am and again, no promised thundershowers. It was 80-90-100 degrees with 90% humidity. Now, I like to think the heat doesn’t bother me, but I was proved wrong today. It knocked the stuffing out of everyone. We were dripping wet with our clothes soaked through half way through the day.

We met our tour guide on the pier to walk to another dock. The walkway was lined with big pot of bougainvillea in every imaginable color. In fact, all off the downtown plazas and squares are covered in hibiscus, lantana and bougainvillea, hanging from balconies and climbing walls.

We boarded a tour boat and had quick trip around the harbor, seeing the sights and hearing the perfection of life in Cartagena. Carlito, our guide, really loves this city.

 

Carlito gave us some pointers about how to get around. “Don’t give papaya” – it means, if you leave it lying around, it won’t be there when you get back. A hitchhiker’s thumb in the air means let me pass through the traffic. And that the vendors are not aggressive, but they are persistent. Boy-howdy, are they persistent. You can say, “no, no, no,” but as soon as you say “no, thank you”, they leave you alone. That mostly worked, too.

We walked to the Clock Tower, the old fort where all the treasure of South America was stored in Spanish days.

There are numerous statues of statesmen and priests, with churches to match. There are streets full of Colonial and Republican buildings. Colonials were built in the 1500-1600’s with wooden balconies, Republicans were built into the 1800’s with cement balconies. All were painted vivid bright colors, festooned with flowers and mostly well maintained.

The streets were narrow and cobblestoned, pedestrian and cars jockeying for space but no honking or collusions. Many of the bigger houses had huge double front doors with a man-door in one side. These were for the servants. The double doors were opened for the master of the house so he could ride his horse inside and dismount, or the lady could alight from her carriage and so avoid the street. Door knockers indicated rank and wealth.

Lion headed door knockers meant judicial or police, hands meant cleric, lizards meant royalty and sea life meant businessmen. There were also round doomed rivets placed on the doors which indicated how much wealth or slaves the owner had. 

We watched a gang of excellent street dancers performing amazing breakdancing, an artist painting on mirrors, went through an emerald museum, with an excellent opportunity to purchase from and authorized source, watched the old craggy black ladies in brilliant satin dresses, selling fresh fruit from bowls on top their heads and dragging tourists into photo opportunities, only a dollar.

A US dollar equals 2800 Columbian pesos. As Carlito says, we are millionaires.

We returned to our boat and to what we thought would be another tour of the old forts along the waterfront. We hadn’t quite understood the part of the tour description about an open bar with local music and forklorico dancing.

  Our party boat floated about the bay for over an hour, with a 4 piece folk band playing local music and two beautiful dancers in white, swirling their skirts and enticing us to join the party. Rum and coke for all! There was some more history given and a few sights pointed out but it really was a  booze cruise. Jim and I ended up dancing on the front of the bow as we passed by the Princess, giving it an ocean wave and cheer.

Hot, sweaty, dehydrated and tired, we were back on board by 1:30, and happy to be home. 

Nov 6, 2017

PANAMA CANAL. The promised rain never arrived. It was bright with big puffy clouds, slightly windy and 80 degrees all day.

During the night, we pulled into Panama to await our turn through the canal. The fee for a cruise ship to use the canal is based on berths – in our case, the fee is $280,000.00. I’d imagine that includes a hefty concession fee to give us first access as we started into the canal by 7am. At one point, I counted 45 ships anchored around us but I think that was only a fraction, as there appeared to be many more ships outside the immediate bay. No wonder Panama wanted the canal back.

It took about 9 hours to go through. It didn’t seem fast moving but when we could see other boats next to us, we could tell the docks filled and drained rather quickly. Our boat was almost exactly the same width as the canal. It really did look like you could reach out and touch the walls. There are “mules”, little rail cars on tracks which pull/guide the boat from lock to lock. The first lock, the Miraflores, was 3 locks long, then we went through a second set, the Pedro Miguel, 2 locks long. We past under the Bridge of the Americas, (Highway 1, Alaska to the end of Chili), a soaring white single cable suspension bridge, similar to the Sundial Bridge in Redding. We then floated through the Culebra Cut, into the connecting Gatun Lake and out the Gatun Locks, under the Centennial Bridge and into the Caribbean Sea.

Panama City could be seen over the hills to the south or my shoulder.. The surrounding land was mostly cut steps, covered in scrub jungle. Lots of men and machinery lined each side of the canal and everyone waved. It was weird to see into the other ships as they passed us as they were so close.

It’s difficult to describe how impressive the Canal is. It seems fairly mundane on the surface, but one can’t help being impressed by the immense effort it took to create it and the equally immense effort it takes to keep it performing. Thousands of people died during construction; it took years to build, new and unknown diseases to fight, not to mention crocs, snakes and insects.  Millions of gallons of water for each ship is pumped and recycled, untold millions of tons of rock and concrete are visible, equipment and men are everywhere and it’s ongoing, constantly.  

While we passed through the lake, Jim napped and I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean – Dead Men Tell No Tales. Seemed appropriate. We met to watch the final exit and then went for cocktails with our favorite bartending team. They weren’t impressed with the canal as they’d seen it too many times.

Big boat in new lock

Honey said her contract is for 9 months and she stays with the Coral Princess. It took her 2 years of college and prior hospitality experience to get this job. There are lots of people waiting to get a job on a cruise ship and she says it’s better than being at home. In her case, the Philippines. Christian’s father still works cargo ships, has all his life, so it was natural for Christian to follow in dad’s footsteps. He goes home every nine months for a month or two, eats mom’s cooking and catches up with his friends.   

An uneventful dinner, another football game and to bed.

Nov 5, 2017

Overcast but warm after raining all night. We moved forward another hour during the night, so I awoke 4am home-time, 7am our time. Both Jim and I felt kind of lazy so we weren’t in any hurry to start the day. Jim had ordered room service breakfast so no hurry at all.

I ran out of book around 11 so I headed down to the library to pick up today’s Suduko and a new book – found “Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter”. I then went up to the Lido Grill for a burger, beer and fries.

Came back to the room; Jim was engrossed with Sherlock so I started in on my new read. FUN book. We went out again around two, it’s still raining, and Jim had lunch. I had ice cream. Back to more reading.

Dinner at 7, nothing special in the Horizon Café tonight.

Except some food art

Took a turn on the Prominade deck, came back to football and I finished my book. It’s now 9:30pm, we’re wide awake. Jim watched football while I read. Movies under the Stars was scheduled at 10:30, and even though the game was still on, I went up to Lido deck, figuring the game would be over shortly. An hour and 15 minutes later – grrrrr – it finally ended. And then the movie never started – really grrrrr - . We sat and listened to that high pitched screech that plays when the broadcast day is over. Gave up and went to bed. 

Nov 4, 2017

One week at sea and here we are in Puntarenas, Costa Rica. It’s 80 degrees, extreme humidity and overcast, thunderstorms expected.

At breakfast at 6:30am, I was dripping wet from the heat. We are right up on the dock this time so I can watch the disembarking passengers scatter. The bay is completely surrounded by islands, rocks and peninsulas. One mountain far away appears to be snow topped (but I heard later, the only snow EVER was just 3 years ago, for a day). There are huge frigates and pelicans circling the bay. The land we’ve docked against looks to be completely flat and all of 2’ above sea level. It is covered with palm trees and brightly colored shops and shacks.

And we are waiting again. We booked a tour, scheduled to meet at noon and it was close to 1 before we boarded the bus. An entertaining tour guide, Jose (no way, Jose), beguiled us with interesting CR facts during the 40 minute ride to the train (95% literacy, universal health coverage, no army, low taxes, minimum wages, immigration, import/export, agriculture, transportation, politics – 13 parties).

We stepped straight off the bus onto the train.

It is a narrow gauge variety, a screeching, vibrating, 1940’s, 3 carriage train chugged through rice fields, mango orchards, backyards and downtowns. Everyone waved and lots of horns honked. Of note, stop signs and lines on the roads are “guidelines” rather than absolutes. It’s everyman for themselves. The houses and grounds we passed were similar to those in Mexico, mostly squalid and trash filled, a mis-mash of building materials, dogs yowling and chickens squawking, rusty tin roofs, all with a satellite dish on top. Everyone has a cell phone, too.

We stopped at one point to watch the howler monkeys.  

 

We then went back on the bus for another ride to the Jungle River Cruise. It had started raining at this point, so all the NY ladies were having a fit about getting wet. A quick stop at the rest room yielded the best photo yet.(Actually a video that is too long for this format. I'll show later)

The flat bottomed tour boat slowly moved up the brown, brackish river while the rain came down in buckets. Everyone was drenched. We did see a couple of beached crocodiles, one each, small, medium and large. There were storks and egrets, smaller sea birds and a gorgeous Roseate Spoonbill – snowy white head and neck, blending into pink to a deep cranberry tail, with black bill and legs. We had to leave early as the lightning was making for nervous travel.

We went back for a quick visit to the souvenir shop (of course, required, I think) and then back to the bus and the boat.

After drying out, we headed to the bar, chatted with Honey and had dinner at the Bordeaux. Our window seat let us watch a spectacular lighting storm, lighting up the whole sky. Beef and Yorkshire pudding for Jim, pork chop and apple cider sorbet for me.

We had a B&B at the Crooners Bar and chatted with some of our fellow passengers before calling it a night.