From the Tree to the Bag…

Fuerte Amador

11 Oct 14

Today we are in Fuerte Amador, the port for Panama City and the Panama Canal.  We left Costa Rica 2 days ago and had a relaxing sea day (but rainy weather) in between.  I did not post a blog while we were in Costa Rica for 2 reasons:  first, I went on a tour and 2^nd, we seem to have lost megabytes when I was trying to download a photo last time.  So today we are using the wifi off the ship.  It took us forever to track down a wifi that worked as the one nearest the ship was overloaded and no one was connecting.  We ended up down the harbour at a Bennigan's Restaurant - we are eating lunch as using thier wifi.

Brian with Mei - Jess? whaddya think???

Let’s backtrack a bit and see what’s happened since I last blogged.  I believe I mentioned it was Brian’s birthday so we celebrated at The Pinnacle with our friends again.  The photo shows B with our waitress Mei – Jess, she is interested in meeting you – she is 30 and is from Bali…lol! 

Susan, Anna, Gretch on the left and Dusty, Greg, Brian on the right

After Huatulco, Mexico we sailed to Puerto Chiapas.  This is a great little port that has some shopping and a bar/pool right off the ship.  I purchased a few items, then spent the day at the pool.  Brian took the shuttle into town and grabbed a taxi from there and went to Sam’s Club.  He purchased cheap liquor there as well as some more candy for the crew.  Upon his return he joined me at the pool.

As far as sea days go, this ship could use a few more activity crew and a few more games.  My mornings are busy with bean bag toss or other sports, but after 1pm there is nothing to do.  I am still in the lead for Ladies Olympics, but just barely.  I missed my putts today in golf and only got points for attendance.  Brian is in the top 5, but will have to work hard to win.  However baggo is one of the activities still left and he is VERY good at that.  There is an afternoon poker tourney most sea days and I am 2 for 4.  I have had to adjust my game a bit, but think I have finally figured out how to win.  We have a great group of players, 3 of them from Australia, which means you will always have a good time when Aussies are involved.  They are traveling together as a gang of 10 and all of them went zip lining in Costa Rica yesterday.

Susan, Dusty and I went on tour to a Coffee Plantation in Costa Rica.  It was fun and very interesting to see how coffee is processed from the tree to the bag…  The part I did not like was getting up at 8am and listening to the tour guide drone on while we were traveling in a bus for 3 hours… ugh!

This is a handpainted oxcart in Saarchi, Costa Rica - they use them in parades

I am in training for new job - coffee picking!  It pays $2 a basket!

When we returned to the ship, Susan & I went back out to the market for some shopping.  We found some great bargains and ran into Brian.

This may be my last blog post from the ship as we will not have a connection while traveling thru the Panama Canal and our next port of call will be Cartagena, Columbia where we are taking a private tour with Susan, Dusty, Greg and Anna.  After that we have a sea day, a beach day and then Ft Lauderdale.  I may have to play catch up once again but from Jess’ place in Winter Park.  Have a great weekend my friends and fair sailing…