Home tomorrow!

Spent a wonderful day with our friend Ted at his home in Victoria.  Walked to his place had a delicious lunch and then walked back to the ship.  Now getting ready and packing to go home.  

On our way home. Today Victoria!

On Saturday evening, enjoyed a fabulous farewell dinner with our friend Anne, from Australia.  She disembarked in San Diego.  Sunday met Pat and Gregg in San Diego.  They took us to their beautiful home in the hills overlooking the bay and Coronado.  We enjoyed lunch and cocktails with them.  Also got to ride in their newly purchased Mercedes sports car!  Wow!  Then back to the ship to start our journey home.  Next stop Victoria where we will be lunching with our friend Ted.   Roak decided to play roulette and won.  We went back to room and got a call saying that he had won twice as much as they had paid him out.  So yesterday we picked up the rest of the winnings.  

San Diego tomorrow!

Spent a quiet day in sunny and hot Cabo San Lucas.  

Today, Saturday we are on our way to San Diego.  Temp is now 15C!  What a change from what we have been experiencing for the past 3 weeks.  Feeling more like home!  Have met some wonderful new friends during this cruise and look forward to keeping in touch with them in the future.  Had dinner with friends from Scotland via Coquitlam and friends from Australia.

Meeting friends tomorrow in San Diego who we met last year during our cruise to Mexico.   

Today PV Tomorrow Cabo!

Yesterday (Monday) we spent a quiet day in Guatemala.  We visited a beautiful little craft market where the talented local people offered their products.  Roak bought his fridge magnet after much bartering with both he and the vendor being happy.  

Guatemala isn’t very safe and pickpockets aged from 6-60 abound.  Sailed on to Ixtapa Zihuatanejo.  Arrived at Z on Wednesday Apr 9^th.  Beautiful little place.  Humidity is dropping which is good.  

Today PV.  Went to the Mexican fiesta night.  It was great!  Tomorrow Cabo San Lucas!

From thunderstorms to mangrove swamps

Quiet day at sea sailing along the coast of Costa Rica!  Fantastic thunder storm in the early morning with a light show.  Sounded like thunder in a tin can-strange.  Formal evening tonight-Friday.  Tomorrow we tour a mangrove swamp and see the wildlife. 

On Saturday we experienced a wonderful adventure in the mangrove forest and enjoyed a train ride through the countryside of Costa Rica.  We saw scarlet macaws, boas, crocodiles, and green quetzals.  Roak was amazed by the beautiful brahma cattle and the cowboys who tend to them.  We were so happy to see orchids growing in the wild as epiphytes-attached to trees in a symbiotic relationship.  Also saw termite nests (the size of basketballs) in trees, clearing the forest detritus.  Like Aruba, Costa Rica deserves a return visit.  

Today (Sunday) we visited Corinto Nicaragua.  Not a must see!

Horseflies the size of hummingbirds

Today we traversed the Panama Canal.  What a wonderful experience.  

We talked about Peter using a rock to wash laundry and ward off crocodiles but decided it best to use the laundry service.  Hot and humid the whole day!  

Early in the morning we saw parrots leaving their roosts to find breakfast and some of them roosted on the ship’s guy wires for awhile!  

Then the horse flies came and chewed everyone up.  Horseflies: definition: the size of hummingbirds with 4’ teeth, gently removing whole parts of you. Now we are in the Pacific Ocean and are on our way through central America!  

Aruba! Aruba! Aruba!

Roak has been speaking Indonesian for the last few days and all of staff are having as much fun as he is.  I am able to get a copy of the daily Dutch newspaper produced on board ship so I am keeping up with my studies that way.  

Today we spent the day on the beautiful island of Aruba!  What a quaint place.  Buildings the colour of pastel candies and just a cute!  It was the Queen’s birthday yesterday and the town remained festooned with flags, banners and flower displays.   

Visited Queen Wilhelmina Park where we saw a touching memorial to Anne Frank.  Saw lots of small doves and lizards, so Roak got his animal “fix” too. The weather was sunny, hot and humid.  Quite a change from Ft Lauderdale.  Tot ziens!