On The Sea Again, I Just Can't Wait To Get On The Sea Again: March 2023

It looks like I have three days to catch up on, so here goes. Wednesday was a day at sea. The day started out quite windy with some choppy seas. I even had to succumb to a treadmill in the fitness center for my morning walk. Fortunately, as the day went along and we made a turn to the west, the winds calmed and the sailing became pleasant. It was a typically relaxing day that somehow typically zipped by. The only event we had was a very pleasant lunch with the GM, Marck. And somehow through it all I managed to accumulate almost 14,000 steps.

With the evening so pleasant, we wound up sitting on our veranda for almost 2 hours as the sun set and the nighttime set in.

The sky was clear enough at intervals that we were able to get a pretty good night sky show. Venus was shining brightly overhead.

But the best show came when we could see both Sirius and Canopus, the two brightest stars in the sky.

Sirius is quite visible in the northern hemisphere, Canopus is not so this was a real treat. Here's some Cliff Claven facts for you. Sirius is 8.611 light years away from us so the light we were seeing left there in about August of 2014. Where were you in August, 2014? We were on the Oceania Nautica sailing from London to Copenhagen. By contrast, Canopus is 310 light years away from us. Where were you in March of 1713? Perhaps you were in St. Paul's Cathedral in London listening to the first performance of Handel's "Jubilate". Or perhaps you were in Gibraltar bemoaning its loss from Spain to Britain.

And now for tales of two ports - one so disappointing the other surprisingly interesting. First, Roatan, Honduras. Originally, we had booked a Viator excursion for the day. After our excellent excursion in Puerto Limon, we looked at the Viator tour and realized that it was more monkeys and sloths! We were within the cancellation deadline, so that's what we did. We figured we'd walk around Roatan or go to a beach. That plan was foiled by a couple of mega cruise ships. Docked in Roatan, taking up the only two docks, were the Norwegian Breakaway and the RCL Brilliance of the Seas. In other words, that meant about 6,000 additional cruisers in town.

In addition, since they hogged the docks, we had to anchor and tender. With many Oceania excursions leaving early, we knew that the tendering would be chaotic. We could have played our Oceania Suite card to get right on a tender but we decided to just stay on board until the crowds subsided and it was open tendering. It was actually after lunch when we finally went in and it wasn't worth the trip! We made our way through the mobs at the port with its typical shops and tried to walk into town.

That was hot and not pleasant so we quickly turned around, made our way back through the throngs at the port and got back on the ship.

Thankfully, the evening again turned pleasant as we indulged in the on board wine and tapas bar and enjoyed more Venus sighting.

Today we were in Santo Tomas, Guatemala. We really had very low expectations for this port. The morning was another hot one. Even for my 6:30 morning walk, the sun was quite strong. So we decided to get off of the ship relatively early (it is not a tender port) and take a short walk, maybe to the nearby beach. The port itself is typically unattractive for this part of the world - industrial and adjacent to the Navy base.

We got off at about 10:00 and started our walk towards the center of town. We found the main street and wandered along until we got to the central market. It was so interesting walking through town. Some observations from our walk - motorbikes are the primary mode of transportation, stores are an interesting mix with some barred close so you have to ask for what you want, and the street is hubbub of activity.

The market was very dark but, as always, interesting to walk through.

After the market, we worked our way to the beach. Linda was quite disappointed that the circus did not open until 8:30 pm.

The beach was not someplace we would swim but at least it was a nice place to enjoy a cerveza!

We wound up spending about 2 hours on our outing doing what we like to do best - exploring and getting to know a place. The day somehow exceeded our expectations which is always a good thing.

This evening is another wine bar on board, one of our favorite activities. We'll probably just have wine and tapas and skip dinner. Okay, maybe some dessert! Tomorrow, we are in Harvest Caye, Belize, an NCL private island. We're hoping for a nice day at the beach, at last.

Peace and blessings,

Linda and Larry

Okay, let's catch up. Monday, we transited the Panama Canal. This was our third time. The transit is always interesting, though perhaps not as exciting as the first time, or the second time. We approached the canal at sunrise.

We opted for breakfast in our room so we could watch the entrance to the first locks from our veranda. You know that you're on a classy cruise line when they serve sugar from IHOP!

And now here are some pics from as we approached and transited.

And, in the category of the more things change, the more they stay the same, here's a couple of collages from October, 2019 and this year.

Later this year we will transit the canal again - only that time we will be going from the Caribbean to the Pacific for the first time.

Tuesday we were docked in Puerto Limon, Costa Rica. I believe that it was the first time that we've been on the Caribbean side of the country. We booked an excursion through Viator that included a boat ride on the Tortuguero Canal and a walk in the Cahuita National Park. The tour was excellent and we saw plentiful wildlife. On the tour we saw sloths, howler monkeys, iguanas, Jesus lizards, herons, egrets, spiders, leaf cutter ants, white faced monkeys, and more.

We stopped at our guide's house where she showed us all of the plants growing in her garden. Maria was really good - very focused on the environment, into organic foods and natural cures, and multi-talented. In addition to guiding, she is a manager at a resort, an artist and a mother.