So today we are in Guatemala. Yesterday we signed up for the Pacaya Volcano Climb, it was listed as “strenuous” which is the same level of difficulty as the other excursions we have been on so we weren’t quite sure what to expect. We had the earliest departure time from the ship, 6:45am so we had an early breakfast and retrieved our stickers for our group in the Celebrity theatre. Once our number was called we headed off the ship and boarded our 2-and-1 bus around 7:15 and were off to the mountains. There was one couple that had been on the kayaking trip with us was on the tour, a younger couple from Miami, both who could speak Spanish, so it was nice to see some “familiar” faces.

When we arrived at the national park where the volcano complex was there were many younger children renting walking sticks for $1 shouting to us “it is necessary!” And I just figured they say that to get you to rent one, not the case as I found out later in the hike. There were also men and older boys with horses who followed us as we began up the path. I’m thinking, this can’t be so bad that folks would bail out to ride a horse, but it was definitely a challenging hike. The first leg was very inclined and we were already a few thousand feet up and the altitude got to you quickly, so I was huffing and puffing after the first few hundred meters when we stopped the first time. Thankfully that was one of the steeper inclines, but not by much. One older British couple and one older lady ended up using the horses during the climb (and descent), it was $15 each way but I’m sure for them it was well worth it. We would go usually 10 minutes of walking and then pause to let everyone catch up and our tour guide Mynor would translate for the nature guide that we had picked up on our way in.

There are big signs in both Spanish and English at these “rest stops” telling visitors about the view they were seeing, the different types of volcanoes, vegetation, etc. As we are ascending we had a black dog that stayed with our group the entire way up, he just trotted along in the line with everyone else and would flop down in the shade when we reached a break spot, it was very cute (and of course the whole time he was looking for food when someone would pull out a snack bar or something). We were given two Milky Way bars and two bottles of water for the trip and we brought a Clif bar and two additional bottles of water, by the time we reached the top we had gone through three of the bottles of water and one candy bar and one energy bar. At what is typically the top of the climb there is a seasonal little hovel that houses a “lava jewelry” shop, but today they were on vacation so it was empty. The horses were allowed to come up to that point but then there was another 100 meters or so to climb to get to the high lookout point.

At this point we had gone from being in what started almost as a temperate forest to quite desolate black volcanic rock/gravel/sand with greener mountains off in the distance. We had gone from seeing the volcano from the road to being three quarters of the way up its side. There was a hiker in our group who specialized in high altitude hikes and he asked if we could go farther. At first this sounded like something we were too tired to do after the 4km hike up but wow as it worth it. Our Guatemalan guide took us up an additional 500 meters or so (probably 1km of walking), past where any normal tour goes, and typically where folks have to pay an additional fee to go. We walked through the lava fields, with their lightweight pumice stones and eerie shapes, at certain points it was like walking on styrofoam as you walked across and slid down the pumice stones. I had my Meryll hiking sandals on up to the top of our hike, but on the way down we essentially had to carefully slide down the loose gravel slope so I put on my sneakers I had brought (much to the relief of a few of the ladies on the hike who were worried about me). Before we had gotten to this point the older couple asked to go back to where the horses were so our main tour guide took him back and our nature guide continued on, with the wife from the Miami couple acting as a translator for him.

At the crux of our hike we were in one of the craters of the volcano, probably 3/4 of the way to the very top, which was split in two. In 2010 this volcano had erupted and went from a smoothed pointed mountain to a mountain top split in two, with both sides still steaming and smoking lightly. The lava flows and ash and rock that we were walking on were only two years old and just two weeks ago there had been an earthquake that mussed with the stability in various parts of the trail (so much so that at times we had to be very careful to follow exactly where the guide walked). As we walked along the side near the top there were many places where the ground was steaming and you could feel and see hot air coming up out from under some of the rocks. It is so hot that as a “treat” our guide brought up marshmallows for us to roast in one of the little scoops where the temperature was over 200 degrees. I have to say that was the coolest way I have ever roasted a marshmallow and wow were they a welcome sugar rush after the climb as well. We then began our descent down the gravelly path that was really just worn down lava flow, it’s amazing how much the lava stone breaks up, but that’s what makes the great volcanic soil around here as well as the black beaches on Guatemala’s Pacific side. The descent was much faster than the ascent and we rarely stopped for a break. As we came down a cloud moved onto the mountain and a lot of the trip we were shrouded in the cloud, only being able to see a few dozen meters above or below us. It was actually kind of a nice change as it made you focus on the path and what was nearby, which was gravel for the first part, but then lots of little pink and purple and white flowers began to appear as you got a bit lower, then turning into more of a standard early growth forest by the end of the trail, with the ground transitioning from pure pumice stones about the size of golf balls to finer pea sized stone and sand, to mostly sand, and finally mostly soil with some rocks.

Once we made it back to the bus (our knees very grateful for it) we drove abut 30 minutes to lunch at a local restaurant. The food was great, simple but very flavorful. We had the choice of grilled chicken or beef that was served with grilled halved potatoes with an herb butter, sliced tomato, fresh avocado slices, and some very tasty salsa. To drink we could choose from a rice based sweetened drink or a flower/tea based sweetened drink. Jeremy and I each got something different so we could try everything and it was all great.

After we were dropped off at the port we made our way through the little market of souvenirs that were set up outside, purchased some gifts for folks and I got an oval jade pendant, with the silver back a design with a quetzal bird.

We have now cleaned up, dusted off everything (our feet and shoes were covered in black dust) and are relaxing until our “Chef’s Table” dinner at 6:45, I can’t wait! So far this had been the coolest day on the cruise and I have a feeling dinner tonight will cement that.

So today was a day at sea, so that meant a watercolor class in the morning after breakfast and some reading time out on the deck (we decided we really like the brown wicker chaise lounges they have out on deck with the orange cushions, may be good for our deck at home). In watercolor class we have started doing paintings based on photos now, I chose a green and red spiky agave plant. After that I met up with Jeremy and we went to a cooking demonstration (the chefs were very entertaining) followed by a lecture about the engines and navigation of the ship (not as interesting as the cooking).

After that we grabbed a quick lunch and then picked out the excursions we wanted to do for the rest of the ports (volcano hike tomorrow, two Jeep tours in Mexico. After making the reservations we returned to the room and read for most of the afternoon. We spent a bit of time trying to calculate the distance of the horizon (yes, we’re geeks) and we hashed out ideas for lighting the new deck (I wanted criss crossed lights, he wanted them along the perimeter only, we compromised).

We got ready for dinner, our second formal night, and enjoyed another meal with John and Karen, we showed off wedding pictures and our engagement story this time around (I got chided by our other two dining couples for taking off my engagement ring to show them), and talked about Lord of the Rings. They loved Qsine so much and really encouraged us to go try it so we decided to go together the dinner after tomorrow. As an added bonus, the maitre’d overheard us discussing making a reservation and called for us and gave us a two for one price for dinner. We have to be ready by 6:45am tomorrow for our hike so we decided to skip the 70s musical show tonight and just read a bit of LOTR and head to bed early.

Today we visited Punta Arenas, Costa Rica. We pulled into port around 6am with a few rain clouds following us but the coastline was still visible. We can see mountains, black beaches (there are volcanoes, 7 active, along the backbone of the country), and a small tourist town. After acquiring some breakfast and waiting in the theatre for our tour time we boarded a small (2 and 1 seat across) bus for a lively two hour ride up the Pan-American highway to the restaurant and home base of the river tour company.

Turns out this was not a single inner tube kind of “river float” like we had done on our last cruise, but rather a 6 person raft plus a guide, and we had to paddle at various points. As we loaded into the raft the guide asked who wanted to be the leaders and sit in the front of the boat, without hesitation the other four folks in our group, a British couple and two ladies, turned around and pointed at us, so we were volunteered to set the pace for rowing (and probably ended up doing a bit more of the work, but that was fine). There were very small rapids in a few spots but most of the time the water was quite calm. Since I had thought we would be in the water more I did not bring my camera but boy do I wish I did (and I really could have as we did not get very wet until the last bit of “rapids” where a wave came right in on my legs).

We saw so many different kinds of wildlife, I had only seen them in zoos before but on this trip we got close enough I probably could’ve touched many of them. As we were loading into the boats there was a family of howler monkeys in the trees above us, including a few tiny babies, very cute. As we floated along we saw five different crocodiles of various sizes (I made sure to keep my hands out of the water at those times). We saw iguanas big and small, in trees and bushes as well as on the rocks and one even chilling on a branch in the middle of the river. Apparently during the mating season the males change their colors from green to orange and black, we saw three of the courting males. We also saw varying sizes of the Jesus Christ lizard (they can run on the water to flee from predators). When these lizards are small they look like a typical lizard but when they are grown they have a ridge/fin along their back and another along their tail. We also saw some really cute tiny bats. They hang around the rock outcroppings over the river and blend in almost perfectly with the rock. They are probably the size of a mouse but are kind of mottled brown and gray and almost appear spiky, but they are perfectly camouflaged against the stone. We saw two larger groups of a dozen or so bats, and as we got closer they flew off so that was neat to see. We saw so many different birds: yellow-crowned night herons, little blue herons, oriole nests (they looked like black drawstring purses hanging from the trees), pretty little blue mangrove swallows, snowy and cattle egrets, osprey (this is the migration season now for a lot of the birds of prey), a gray hawk (with bright yellow beak and feet, he was royally annoying some egrets by hanging around near their nests), yellow flycatchers, boat-billed herons (Jeremy thought it was holding a leaf in its mouth at first), magnificent frigatebirds, wood storks. It was really amazing to get to see these large birds up close.

After the tour we returned to the home base restaurant for rice, beans, carrots and green beans, plantains and steak for lunch, along with lemonade. Many of us also enjoyed the Costs Rican beer Imperial, which was very good, and was served ice cold so very refreshing as well. We did a tiny bit of souvenir shopping at the restaurant and then returned to the bus. I had a bit of a headache after the rafting so I napped for part of the way, Jeremy stayed awake for the entire, apparently rather harrowing, ride back. The highway is only two lanes and our driver was quite aggressive with passing other folks (at one point reportedly he was in the process of passing someone and there was an oncoming motorcycle Jeremy heard the driver mutter “shit” and apparently we almost ran the motorcyclist off the road). The driver was going along at quite a clip and engine braking often, for me it was just kind of a fun ride 😉 We passed pineapple farms, rice patties, sugar cane fields, tilapia ponds (with lots of white egrets hovering around), as well as cattle pastures and small family farms. Our guide Jorge was very nice (he was also our raft guide) and he always had “a plan” we had to follow and would be sure to let us know when something was “only ten minutes” away.

There is a tourist area with shops just past the cruise dock but it has started raining (it is the rainy season here) so I think we will stay on the ship, we do need to start buying some souvenirs though for folks, we are running a bit behind on that.

So today was a day at sea. The time shifted another hour back so we were awake around 6am, got some breakfast at 7, read for a bit then I headed up for my 3rd watercolor painting class of the cruise. The class has become much more popular over the past week and was pretty full. After I came back downstairs to the room and we both read for a while then went back up to the Cosmos lounge for the newlywed and anniversary welcome reception where they served champagne and a quite tasty strawberry custard cake. We sat with the New Mexico couple and stuck around afterwards to watch and commentate on the merengue dance class that happened after the reception. We found out they are both also only children and, eerily enough, had also first planned to do a driving trip out of Boston through New England as their honeymoon, then opted out due to too much planning being needed. Small world.

After lunch we got into our gym clothes and sat up on the deck for a bit and read, it was a bit windy and cloudy which made it cooler than normal but it was still nice. At 4:30 they had a staff vs guests volleyball game on deck 12 so we were eager to play in that. The court was shorter and narrower than standard, and the net lower but it was still fun to play. The wind blew the ball all around and quite a bit of the play wasn’t the standard bump-set-spike but it was nice to get out and exercise a bit (and realize we miss home a bit too).

We got cleaned up after volleyball and headed to dinner in the main restaurant. We had been told last night that the chefs table dinner was tonight but turns out it is actually on the 16th, which is what we were originally told, so we still have that to look forward to later in the week. Tonight we had another nice dinner with John and Karen, chatting about gardening, movies, and our cats.

Tomorrow we are doing the rafting excursion in Costa Rica so that should be really fun, I know my parents, Jeremy and I enjoyed it on our last cruise.

So today we made our voyage through the Panama Canal, with Jeremy geeking out pretty much the whole time ;). We started entering the lock system around 6am and completed the crossing around 5pm. Jeremy was up bright and early to see us enter the first set of locks. We kept the cruise ship info channel on in the room and when they announced that the helipad was open at the front of the ship to view the locks up close Jeremy and I hustled (ok, ran), along with many other guests, to deck 5. I didn’t hear during the announcement that you had to have closed toed shoes to go up on the helipad so I went back up to the room and waited for the rush to die down a bit then got on my loafers and headed back down. Jeremy had staked out a prime spot at the very front and center of the viewing area and so I got some very dirty looks when I called to him and worked my way through 3 layers deep of people to get to him, but he had saved me a spot. We got rained on rather hard two or three times while we went through the first set of three locks at Gatun. Despite the rain, it was pretty awesome to see the mechanics up close, the way the railings on the locks folded down to tuck into the sidewalls, how the locks used only gravity to transfer the water and keep each lock sealed. Very cool. As we were going through, we felt a pretty big jostling at one point and apparently one of the locks closed early and hit the back of the ship. The captain made an announcement about it after we completed going through the first set of locks but I didn’t hear the complete announcement so I’m not 100% sure what happened, I’m sure we will hear rumors throughout the ship for a while though.

After the first set of locks we were in Gatun Lake, where we had kayaked yesterday. We went upstairs and had some breakfast and then returned to the room to watch things go by on our balcony. Then we decided to try lunch in the dining room for a change, it was alright, the service not quite as attentive as at dinner, Jeremy and I both had the udon noodles which were unexpectedly salty (most of the food, if anything, has been a bit under seasoned, but expectedly so as there are lots of folks on the cruise whom I suspect need to control their sodium intake), but still tasty. We then went out to the outside walk around deck 5 and encountered the newlywed couple from New Mexico and we watched going through the next set of locks together and chatted, took photos, and we all managed to touch the canal wall when we went through we were so close to it, very cool.

After the second set of locks we headed back to the room and read, watching the last set of locks go by from our balcony. I proceeded to take a 45 minute nap and then got ready for dinner. Tonight John and Karen rejoined us and we chatted away the whole dinner, ranging from science to touching on politics a bit.

Tomorrow is a sea day and I plan on going to the watercolor class at 9am, there’s a newlywed/anniversary welcome reception with cake and champagne at 11am, there’s also a volleyball game against the staff at 4:30 so I think we’ll be partaking in that as well.

Our second day in port has been a bit more active than the first. We chose to go on a kayak tour of Gatun Lake today in Colon, Panama. We got a light breakfast when we got up around 7 this morning then went up to the buffet to have something with a bit more protein and carbs to fuel us for the exercise to come. We waited in the Celebrity Theatre for our excursion group to be called, and while we waited we tried to figure out who was going to be in our group. It turned out to be about 20 people, of all ages pretty much, but mostly couples.

We rode through the city of Colon and into the old military zone where the US military base was (it now has been converted, and is still being converted, into civilian housing). We were taken to a beautiful hotel resort that was a hospital during World War II and then a school they called “The school of dictators” that apparently dictators like Noriega attended. Some folks changed into bathing suits (Jeremy and I had worn quick drying workout clothes) and then headed down to the water and boarded our two person kayaks.
We paddled around for about an hour, and it was great to get some exercise. We didn’t see a whole lot of wildlife, a few birds, moving branches that supposedly housed black howler monkeys. We did see some beautiful wild white orchids. I brought my little digital camera so whenever we saw something interesting Jeremy would paddle over after carefully handing me the camera out of the ziplock bag inside a drawstring bag we had brought with us on the kayak.

After we returned to the dock we were given a little time to shop their souvenir store or buy a beer from their bar, so Jeremy and I split a Panamanian brand beer (a quite tasty lager) and then we boarded the bus.

Our next stop was the Gatun Locks, and we timed it just right that we got to see one ship finish going through and see the locks fill and open for another ship. It will be very cool to see the same process tomorrow morning from the ship. Jeremy was definitely geeking out at the locks, he even let me take his photo on one of the “electric mules” that pull the ship through the locks that was out on display.

After getting dropped off at the dock and perusing a little shopping area next to the ship we headed back to the room. Since we got back around 3pm we ordered a sandwich, fruit and cheese via room service to tide us over until dinner.

Since we had four open spots at our table tonight the maitre’d sat the two couples from the other night with us again. It was another interesting evening of conversation, we even ventured into discussing Chick-fil-a and gay marriage a bit, with Jeremy and I both repressing some of our commentary to keep the conversation polite and not too heated. We learned that Sheila was a flight attendant for America West airlines and that both couples had experience sailing so planes and boats also ended up being topics of discussion.

Tomorrow we are heading through the Panama Canal and locks, starting at 6:30am so I have a feeling Jeremy will be up bright and early to catch the whole thing 😉

So today was our first day in port, Cartagena, Columbia. For this excursion we opted for a pretty standard sightseeing tour of the Popa Monastery and the Gold Museum. We boarded a bus around 8:45 and were touring around the city until around 1pm. The monastery is the highest point in the area and offered great panoramic views of the city and the port. It is no longer a running monastery but they do still hold mass there on Sundays. On the road up to the top of the hill there are the 12 stations of the cross, each marked by a large white stone and concrete cross. The roads are very narrow so it was a bit of an interesting ride up in the bus, especially when encountering other cars. It was a very stark contrast driving up to the monastery, as there were a lot of old and rundown homes, contrasted with the exceedingly touristy areas that we were brought to initially when leaving the ship.

Our tour guide Elkin (we wore name tags around our necks with his name on them to identify our group) called us his VIP tour and offered us “10 star service”. It was helpful when we were in crowded areas with other tour groups to hear him call “Elkin’s VIP tour group over here!” He talked back the dozens of vendors who would cluster around the bus when we would get off somewhere, selling hats, t-shirts, necklaces, fans, purses and bottled water, soda and beer. There were also folks wandering about with sloths who would let you take your photo with it, for a tip, as well as ladies colorfully dressed with baskets of fruit balanced on their heads.

We were dropped off at a little tourist mall to shop at the end of the tour and we finally introduced ourselves to one of the other newlywed couples we had seen around on the ship. They live in New Mexico, he is an Air Force pilot and she is an industrial psychologist. Before dinner we sat in the Rendezvous lounge purposely at a table for four and ordered cocktails in the hope they may pass and stop by on their way to dinner, and they did, so we had a chance to chat a bit more then. But back to the shops in Cartagena, we realized we had not called the credit card company to notify them we would be making out of country purchases so Jeremy turned on his phone and made a call to them to notify them (booo to roaming charges). We then purchased a kilo of medium dark roast Colombian coffee to use ourselves and distribute as gifts.

When we returned to the ship we went up to the buffet deck and staked out a corner window, had some lunch, split a bucket of beer, played Scrabble (Jeremy and I each won one game) and watched as we departed port.

For dinner our friends John and Karen returned, raving about their dinner the night before in one of the specialty restaurants Qsine. Our dinner buddies from the previous night ended up getting seated at the table across from us (much to the surprise of one of the wives, who thought we’d be sitting with them again). Tomorrow night it’s likely they will be sat with us again, as the older couple from the first evening we haven’t seen in the dining room since, and John and Karen are eating at the Olympic.

We opted out of seeing the comedian tonight and just decided to go back to the room and read and relax.

So today was our second day at sea, and a relaxing one at that. We moved into a new timezone and set our clocks back an hour but that didn’t stop us both from waking up around 6:30 this morning. We got up, had breakfast and then I went to my second day of watercolor painting class. Today we learned about negative space, painting big tropical leaves, and then using dry brushing techniques to add texture and layer color on the leaves. I will have a whole gallery worth of little paintings by the end of the cruise.

After the class I met up with Jeremy and we went on the ship’s galley tour. There were a lot of folks there and we waited probably an hour while the earlier groups went through, and while we waited the head chef and director of the food and beverage department on the ship answered various questions. When it was our turn we went down one of the express escalators that the servers use down into the galley on the third floor. The area was relatively quiet as they were only prepping for dinner but it was neat to see such a huge kitchen, with stainless steel everything. During the Q&A the chef mentioned there was a “chef’s table” in the galley that seated 8 people, we were very excited to hear that. Jeremy tracked down and asked the maitre’d about reserving a spot for us for one of the dinners and luckily they still had space for their second seating next week, so that should be a fun, and very “us” dinner, so really looking forward to that.

After the tour we grabbed lunch and then found a more secluded corner on the pool deck in the shade to sit and read. It was right next to the ping ping table however so twice we had games going on right next to us but overall it was a quiet spot. After a few hours there we went back to the room and I took a nap (I’m getting quite good at them) while Jeremy read until dinner.

At dinner tonight our normal dinner companions were not there and about halfway through our meal two couples were seated with us, Diane and Alan from Australia who retired from the baby and children’s clothing manufacturing business and Sheila and Bob from Arizona, he retired from the steel industry. They had met each other earlier in the cruise and were quite chatty. Both couples had done very well for themselves and it was rather entertaining listening to them chat. For example, while vacationing at the Club Med in Indonesia, Sheila and Bob met a championship Formula1 driver who later in the year invited them to his home country of Monaco for Christmas on his yacht. The couples had been married nearly 50 and 43 years respectively and we were advised that the reason they were married so long, and the reason the two couples ended up getting along so well, was because they could always laugh and talk together, they said if you always sat and never spoke you were doing something wrong.

So even though I napped quite a bit today, we headed back to the room after dinner to relax. We are getting up to an alarm tomorrow, as we are to be out on the dock at Cartagena at 8:15 tomorrow morning for our tour of the gold museum and monastery, so that should be fun and a good change up from these two days at sea.

So today was the first day at sea. After a room delivered breakfast (not too much variety so I think we’ll be planning on utilizing the buffet for the rest of the trip) I went up to the Cosmos lounge for a watercolor painting class taught by Linda Curtis and assisted by her gregarious husband. It was actually a lot of fun, I got to practice my artistic side a bit (and the ladies next to me kept loudly vocalizing that they were copying me, so I guess I was doing ok). We were given a 6 color paint set and 3 brushes and paper and were told that each sea day there would be a class at 9am so I’m planning to go as many times as I can (and with gaining one hour tonight the class will be even easier to get to).

Afterwards I came back to the room to meet up with Jeremy and we had lunch outside after reading for a bit and waiting for the buffet to open. After lunch and reading/lounging we came back to the room, read some more, and napped until we needed to get day for our first formal night. Jeremy wore his wedding suit and a blue tie and I wore my “wedding departure” dress from White House/Black Market and a blue necklace from Charming Charlie so we matched quite well. Only Karen and John were at our table tonight but we had a good time talking (I had a great filet minion for dinner) and then we went to see the “Simply Ballroom” show in the theatre which I very much enjoyed, it was essentially a ” Dancing with the Stars” simile but quite entertaining and fun to see the dances in real life. Tomorrow is another day of relaxing 😉 no big plans aside from watercolor painting class in the morning.