Two More Days at Sea

Tuesday-Wednesday, May 9-10

It was more of the same as we relaxed and read, slept, ate, walked, chatted with friends and were entertained by numerous talks and shows, as well as watching some movies.

The weather has got cooler as we head north, so we're out of shorts and t-shirts and into warmer clothes!

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Monday, May 8

It was cool when we docked this morning, but the sun was out and the views of Cabo from the ship were fabulous. We had to be tendered to shore, and then set off on our own walking tour. This place is very party oriented, with lots of shops and markets, and again lots of vendors bugging us to buy from them! We did indulge in some retail therapy and enjoyed meeting some of the locals. We also chilled out over a couple of Bloody Mary's and some tacos at a little cafe, and of course caught up on wifi!

Two Days at Sea

Saturday-Sunday, May 6-7

As our last port was in Mexico the ship picked up a folkloric group who have started to immerse us in the Mexican culture. This consists of a noon performance of songs and dancing in their colourful national costumes, followed by basic Spanish lessons at 2pm. There have also been talks by the location guide on the Mayans and Aztecs, as well as other talks and presentations to attend such as preparing Mexican meals.

Of course there has been sleeping, eating, walking and reading, as well as just lying on a deck chair in the sun! We've also met some nice people on this cruise and so there is always someone to chat to. As I've said before, we love days at sea!

Tonight's show was a tribute band to Buddy Holly and the Crickets called "The Rave-Ons", and they were fabulous. They certainly had the packed theatre bopping along to the fantastic music of Buddy Holly from the 1950s.

Huatulco, Mexico

Friday, May 5

After a night of thunderstorms, heavy rain and strong winds, which made the sea quite rough (although we slept well), we arrived in Huatulco around 1pm. We had a lazy morning attending a talk on the Mayans, and then a walk around the deck until a quick lunch before going ashore.

The port has mainly jewellery and souvenir shops for a couple of streets and that's all, and then the restaurants and cafes line the beach which is either side of where the ships dock. We walked around checking out what was on offer before settling for a beer and some wifi time. Then it was back to the ship to get changed into our bathers before heading to the beach. The water was warm and clear and very refreshing, and cooled us down as it was quite humid today.

Back on board we had a late dinner and a quiet night before our departure at 11pm, but it was another very enjoyable day.

Antigua, Guatemala

Thursday, May 4

We docked in Puerto Quetzal in Guatemala, but we didn't spend any time in this port town as we had booked an excursion to Antigua, about 90 minutes drive away. It was overcast as we left at 8:30am, but as we started to climb into the hills it became greyer and rain began to fall. We hadn't planned on this, and as we climbed higher it got even more misty so that the peaks of the volcanic mountain ranges were obscured.

When we arrived in Antigua it looked cold, but as soon as we stepped out of the bus we knew we would be ok in what we had on. In fact there was very little humidity here, which made a nice change from our recent stops. We had to transfer from a big coach to smaller buses, as Antigua is a UNESCO World Heritage site with lots of small cobble stoned streets, so the big coaches aren't allowed in the old town.

As we set off on our own for over 3 hours to explore this town, we were amazed at the friendliness of the locals, as well as the lovely old colonial buildings. The place has so much character, as it was founded in 1502 and served as the seat of government for over 200 years. However it was destroyed by a series of earthquakes in 1773, and left a lot of the old churches in ruins which are still visible today.

As we walked along the streets we were again harassed by vendors wanting to sell us their locally made goods, but they were nice and accepted a firm "no thank you". We visited a Jade museum and factory (one of many in town), but spent longer at the very interesting and tasty chocolate museum! From there we visited the San Pedro church before moving onto the San Jose Cathedral. This Cathedral looked over the Central Park, which was abuzz with people and colourful street vendors all going about their business under some beautiful big old shade trees. The Park was surrounded by colonnaded buildings and the whole setting was magical under the now sunny skies.

After making some purchases we set off to see the Santa Catalina Arch, which lead us to the Santa Catalina church. This was one of the nicest looking churches we've seen, with amazing columns, statues, mouldings and relief decorations in white contrasting against the butter yellow render of the building. 

We were running out of time, so we stopped for a local beer while we caught up on wifi. It was then a quick walk back to the meeting point where we were transferred to the bigger coach for the journey back to the ship. It was one of the best tours we've had, and there is plenty more to see and do in Antigua when we return some time in the future.

Leon, Nicaragua

Wednesday, May 3

We arrived at the port of Corinto in Nicaragua about 9am, so it wasn't too early a start for us today. We wanted to visit Leon, one of the previous capitals of this country, which is known for its colonial buildings and Cathedral.

Our tour left at 10am, driving through the town of Corinto on our way to our first stop. We passed mainly fields of sugar cane and corn, with processing plants for the sugar cane dotted along the road. In the distance we could see some of the volcanoes that Nicaragua is famous for, as it has 27 within its borders!

Before reaching Leon we stopped at the San Jacinto Bubbling Mud Pots, where our guide Eddy led us on a walk around this geothermal area of bubbling mud pots and hot springs. We were besieged by children ranging in age from about 4 to 14, either begging or wanting to sell us some pottery or mud from the area. We had been told not to encourage them by giving them money, as schooling is free in Nicaragua and that's where they should have been.

We finally reached Leon, and were impressed with this university town as we made our way to the Park of Heroes and Martyrs. The park was filled with school children, as it was after 12pm and school operates in 2 shifts - 7am to 12pm, and 1pm to 5pm, so it was "changeover" time. We made our way to the Cathedral at the end of the park, and Eddy took us inside to show us its treasures. This is the largest Cathedral in Central America, and it was very nice inside, painted in cream and white, and with reliefs set in grey with charcoal borders. The effect was cooling and visually different to other Cathedrals we have visited.

While some in our group chose to climb to the roof of the Cathedral we set off to find a cold drink and some wifi, and found a local cafe that had a lot of atmosphere and the local beer we tried went down very well. We checked out the market stalls before returning to the coach for the return trip to the ship. 

We arrived about 3pm, and agreed that from what we saw we would be happy to return to Nicaragua to discover more of this country and its friendly people.

Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Tuesday, May 2

During the night as we sailed from the Panama Canal to Costa Rica we were awoken by a massive thunderstorm with amazing lightning, loud thunder and pouring rain. We were glad we were tucked up in bed!

On arrival in Puntarenas it was very overcast, still warm but without the humidity. We walked from the ship along the shoreline past lots of market stalls that had been set up. The sand was black as Costa Rica is a volcanic area, with 3 volcanoes in this Central American country, but it was too misty to see them today.

We did some shopping, then stopped at a cafe for a beer while we caught up on wifi, as we've been away for a week without access to it! On our return to the ship for lunch we passed the old cathedral which was built in 1902.

After lunch we walked in the opposite direction and strolled along the tourist walk beside the beach, passing the park and aquarium on our way.