Sea Day (And At Home) Musings

I started this blog entry during our 2 sea days as the cruise wrapped up.  And now I'll finish it at home after being here for a few days.  Here goes.

Days on the ship seem to pass rapidly and every day can bring some wonder.  On one of our last nights we were able to watch the sun set into the sea and feel blessed that it was a good one.

Then, the next morning I was standing on the fitness track at the stern of the ship and watching the sun rise from the sea.  Another magical moment.  I didn't have a camera to capture it, which was a good thing because I could enjoy it without worrying whether or not I got a good photo.

Which brings me to musing about the smart phone or lack thereof.  If you remember, I dropped and broke my phone 2 days into the cruise.  After a few days of checking my pocket for my phone whenever we walked out of our room, I adjusted well and didn't miss it a bit.  I will admit that it has been nice that Linda still had her phone that I could use to take photos.  And then I could be judgmental about other people's use of their devices.   We have sat in Barista's and observed a couple who sat there for a half hour and never looked up from their phones and never said a word to each other.  Another time, it was 4 people at lunch each on their own device with seemingly only one woman who spoke at all.  So, what am I trying to say?  I guess that the phone is a wonderful communication device until it actually stifles communication.  My advice is to use it wisely or just go ahead and get that old fashioned flip phone.  Will I follow my own advice?  Now that we're home and I have a new phone, I have found myself slipping right back into the reliance on the device.  Oh well!

One aspect of that 17 day cruise was the way that it had prepared for our next Oceania cruise.  For that cruise, we will be in the same suite but we'll be there for 120 days!  We've made a list of things we want to bring.  And, more importantly, we've realized that we are definitely going to have to adjust our eating and drinking routine!

It's always good to be home and to see our family.  But . . . cooking, cleaning, doing laundry!  It's an adjustment.

And now, I'd like to wrap this up on a personal note.  Please forgive me if I've gotten too personal.  Let's talk about fathers.  Cruise Director Carson, in one of his morning shows, made reference to his late father which got me thinking about my late father who has been gone for over 50 years.  In fact, on a massage table the next day, I spent most of the hour remembering my father.  And today, I stumbled upon this document that I had saved over 2 years ago in which Rob Reiner (may he RIP) commented on his father.

Per Rob Reiner

My Dad

I was lucky to have a man in my life who conducted his career in a way that was very honorable and decent. I saw how he treated other people, and I saw how he handled his fame. People have always asked me, "Did he sit down and give you advice?" And I said: "No, he never gave me any advice. He just lived a certain way, and that was the best advice I could have gotten."

After all of this time, I still feel that my father is my guiding light.

Until next time,

Larry and Linda

Life's A Beach In PV

Today we are in Puerto Vallarta.  Before we got here, we had a busy day at sea.  It started with 2 fun but losing activities - no prizes at the Oceania Country Fair and no wines at Bingo.  It seems that our Binog Goddess missed the ship!  Things improved when we did a Passport to the Caribbean cooking class.  The class emphasized the flavorful spices used in Caribbean cooking.

The day was capped off with a lovely dinner with GM Gabby and his wife and 4-year-old daughter.

Have I mentioned that it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas and Hanukkah on the ship?

This morning we sailed into Puerto Vallata for our third time.  The birds were thrilled to see the ship stir up the fish.

This time we did the same walk along the beach that we did when we visited 2 years ago.

Same beach, same shirt!

Same flea market, same stuff!

Tomorrow is the first of 2 sea days before we arrive in LA on Saturday.

Peace and blessings,

Linda and Larry    

Hualtuco

Monday we were in Hualtuco, Mexico.  We took a birding excursion that included 2 stops.  It was a fairly large group and we were lucky to be put in a van with only 11 people.  When we arrived at the  Las Fintas Ecoturistica, 4 of the people from our van joined one of the other 2 groups, so there were only 7 of us with our guide who turned out to be excellent at spotting wildlife.  We saw many birds, butterflies, and a couple of lizards.  While they were sometimes difficult to spot, our guide had a scope through which he took some photos with our camera.

When we returned to the starting point of the hike, the people from the other groups were very upset saying that they had seen no birds.  Some of them chose to go back to the ship rather than continue to the next spot. Our group was down to 5 people.  I will say that it was quite hot and humid.

At the second hiking spot, we had more sightings.  You might be able to spot the hummingbird.

It was a good excursion.  Huatulco has a nice beachfront area with nice looking beaches.  When we walked out to meet the excursion in the morning, we thought that we might go to the beach after the excursion.  

But, after 3 hours of hiking in the heat, we decided that we were too tired to do that.  A shower instead felt great.  This trip through the hot, humid weather that we are not used to, has been a challenge to our stamina.  I guess we really are getting old!

Now, I don't usually comment on politics and try my best to avoid the news, but today I just have to say that, after his comments about the Reiners, our president is the most disrespectful and disgusting man in our country and maybe the world.  Enough said.

On a happier note, PURA VIDA!

Linda and Larry  

EL SALVADOR and guatemala

Saturday we were in Acajutla, El Salvador for our first visit to that country.  That brings our country count to 98 - closing in on one hundred!

We looked at 2 different excursions to give us the opportunity to see the country.  One went to the capital of San Salvador and the other so Santa Ana.  Both involved long bus rides from the port.  We opted for Santa Ana since it seemed to be more historic.  The bus ride was indeed long.  It took 2 hours to get to the central area of the city.  There was a busy square surrounded by the theater, the cathedral, and the city hall.

We were given a nice tour inside of the theater.

We then visited the cathedral.

Lastly, we walked into the courtyard of the city hall where, for some reason, they have a replica of the famous Manneken Pis statue from Brussels.

Next up was lunch which turned out to be a bit problematic.  We had informed our guide (who was quite good) that we were vegetarian (it's easier than saying pescatarian).  He sent a message to the restaurant and they came back with 4 vegetarian dishes for us to choose from.  We both picked vegetable crepes.  But, when we dug in they were loaded with chicken.  Oh well, we just ate the potatoes that came with it.  After lunch it was time for the bus ride back to the port.  Thankfully, it was a bit shorter going back.  Driving around El Salvador proved to be quite interesting.  We saw volcanoes and sugar cane.  And we could get a sense of the lives of the people.

It seems very primitive by our standards, but who am I to judge?

In the end, we were not terribly impressed with Santa Ana.  Perhaps if we ever return to El Salvador, we'll have to try San Salvador or something outside of the cities.

Today, Sunday, marks our return to Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala.  Last time we were here, we did a wildlife excursion.  This time we decided to not do an excursion.  Instead, we just took the local shuttle bus to the actual port terminal.  We were docked at a more remote pier while a Princess ship was docked right at the terminal.  After the 15 minute ride, we walked around the market area at the terminal until we had enough.  As you may remember, shopping is not our thing.  Let's just say that the goods for sale were the same crap, just from a different country!

Peace, blessings, la dolce far niente, and pura vida,

Linda and Larry

Tres Puntarenas

Today, Thursday, we are in Puntarenas, Costa Rica.  I believe that it is the 3rd time that we've visited here.  The first time was in 2016 which was memorable for a reason that I'll explain later.  Two years ago when we were here, we took a wildlife excursion.  This time, we decided to just go for a walk along the street parallel to the beach.

It was a hot day out there but we managed to walk for about 45 minutes almost to the end of the road where the reward was our own little wildlife viewing.

It was a  bit confusing to be walking around in the 90 degree heat and to see Christmas decorations along the way.

Costa Rica's slogan is Pura Vida which captures their positive and relaxed attitude towards life.  I guess that it's the slogan of the day.  So much so that I had to buy a hat to replace the Pura Vida shirt that I bought the first time we were in Costa Rica maybe 18 years ago.

So now you may be asking yourself what made the 2016 visit so memorable.  Well, as we walked along the beach that time, there was a ship anchored off shore that was clanging repetitively - clang, clang clang. It inspired me to write a short story.  I'll include a link to that story here and hope that you can read it (and hope that you don't find it too amateurish!)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vROzybMQW9zsjJR2X755ggoAYuot2lRuI913fSSpoAJyy4PSspd3iGJyO-SdTbW4Sov9uKW2UsXDQtb/pub

As the sun sets on another day, here's wishing you Pura Vida!

Linda and Larry