Los Angeles to Mexico

We are in Los Angeles and it is 8am. We are all set to hop off but probably customs won’t clear until 9am and we are boarding at LAX at 10:30 am we hope. Luckily it is Sunday and the taxi is waiting at the pier. Just finished eggs benny and fresh raspberries. Now to get back to reality. What a trip. We will be in Marina Vallarta 2 weeks and then a few days with Jill and Perin in Los Angeles. Looking forward to that. I’ll write from Mexico.

Cabo San Lucas

We are on our way back from Cabo San Lucas to Los Angeles. We arrive the day after tomorrow and we had a wonderful time "hanging out" in Cabo San Lucas at the "office". We can’t believe the incredible new development in the port. It is fabulous. A lot of money is being "dumped" in and they are doing a great job of the architectural development while maintaining the natural beauty of the harbor. We have met some interesting people. Eric Hill’s mother is Latvian and he and Peter have been speaking Latvian together. He is a young man and Pulitzer Prize winner for his photo journalism on native peoples in Alaska. Ted Schnormeier and his wife have the most amazing gardens in Ohio. His company is responsible for a huge development in Cabo San Lucas and the houses will be 15 million each. Ted has taken all of our classes and we have really enjoyed getting to know him and his wife. Check the web for Schnormeier gardens.
The seas are rolling a bit today. The ship is moving porpoise like through the water. Maybe I’ll have to put on a patch. So far, so good. We worked out this morning and I’m getting used to going backwards on the elliptical trainer. Today, people will burn their CDs with all of their images from the trip. The people on board have been delightful and I think there is a certain type of person who wants to go through the Panama, and be in San Andres, and Guatemala. Janice Fishbein who is editor for cruise critic is on board with her husband. He has an amazing story of how he survived a heart attack that left him in a coma for 60+ days. He looks great and happy to be alive. Jenifer and Bob Marx are still on board and he truly is the pirate of the seas. In Cabo San Lucas, on the beach, I bought a beautiful semi precious stone from a guy named Saturnino called a peridoto. It looks like a large yellow diamond with 35 facets. I haven’t looked up the stone on the internet but will do that today.

Guatemala

Yesterday, we were in Guatemala. We hired a driver and a guide and drove 1.5 hours to Antigua in Guatemala. The Mayans are not very tall and so friendly and colorful. Our guide had lived in Seattle and so his English was pretty good. The markets had wonderful fabrics (embroidery, lace, and woven things). The city reminded us of Patzquero in Mexico. It probably was built at the same time (late 1500s). The cathedral had suffered a severe earthquake. There are live volcanoes on top of three mountains and they are active all the time. Two hundred and thirty years ago one of the volcanoes erupted and so you see rivers of lava on either side of the highway.

One of the entertainers on board had told us about a wonderful 5 star hotel that we should visit. Wow!! Amongst all the poverty, the hotel is a converted convent and exquisite. We asked our driver and guide to leave us for a couple of hours so we could wander around and have lunch. There are hanging orchids everywhere, beautiful Macaw parrots, gorgeous paintings, statues just fabulous. We had a great lunch and wondered around taking pictures like crazy. There was a large wedding going on in an open amphitheatre.

I wanted to buy flowers for our stateroom and so once the "guys" picked us up we went to the large market and finally found the flower place. We bought 12 Bird of Paradise, a dozen Queen of the Nile, and a huge bunch of Eucalyptus. The cost was $6 US!!!

Now we are enroute to Acapulco and arrive in the morning. Today is a busy teaching day. Happy 30th Birthday Chris. Today Chris is in Brazil kiteboarding for his birthday and we are thinking about him. He is staying in Buzios and we have been there and it is really beautiful.

Puntarenas, Costa Rica

We are now in Puntarenas, Costa Rica. Yesterday, January 19, 2006 going through the Panama was fantastic. It is absolutely amazing to imagine the difficulty of dredging and building the canal. They had to cut through a 500ft. mountain of solid rock as part of the process. This is the narrowest part of the canal and is called the Gaillard Cut. It is now 700 ft. wide but was only 300 ft. wide in 1914 when the canal was completed thanks to Theodore Roosevelt and his key manger John Stevens. The day the canal was open was the day World War 1 started. Another interesting aspect of the canal is that there are no pumps to move the water. All of it comes from the surrounding watershed and the Chagris River. Peter climbed up on the most forward and highest roof of the ship and was able to get some good photos.

Found! 9 Cubans Lost at Sea

What an adventure. A couple of days ago the seas were really high and a lot of people weren’t feeling well. We faired okay and the show must go on. At 2:30 am. We picked up 9 Cubans in a small boat who were lost at sea. They were trying to get to Florida but were sent off course by the wind and wild sea. One of them was injured. It is amazing that they survived. The crew fed them and clothed them and they were delivered to Cozumel. The Mexican authorities have given them asylum.

We have befriended Sir Robert Marx and his wife Jenifer. He is a lecturer on board and a famous archeologist who has spent his life searching for underwater treasure. He has written several books and has found an incredible amount of coins, jade, gold, ivory etc We have had dinner with the marks the last 2 nights and the stories they tell are fabulous.

Today we are in St. Andres, a small island that belongs to Columbia. It is actually closer to Nicaragua than Columbia. We hopped in a cab and went to the launch place, took a small boat to a small island named Acquario. The snorkeling was awesome, the best we have seen. The fish were plentiful and beautiful and water absolutely clear. Tomorrow morning we will be on our way through the Panama Canal. A historian on board ,David McCullough is giving a lecture about Panama tonight at 9:45. I hope we can stay awake. He is a Pulitzer prize winner and supposed to be great.

Back to Miami

We are on our way back to Miami and have quite high seas. We will be busy the next couple of days at sea. Yesterday we were in St. Barths and that was again wonderful. We do our turn around in Miami, say goodbye to the current guests and embark on our 17 day cruise through the Panama to Columbia and then back up the coast of Mexico ending up in L.A. We have a lot of days at sea compared to the last 2 cruises so will be busy teaching. We just saw the weather report for Vancouver so we understand why we are here.

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Yesterday we went on a tour to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. It was an all day excursion and very interesting. We dock in La Romana where the fabulous resort Casa de Campo is. Apparently the Clintons spend New Years there every year. But, as one leaves the resort and moves toward the big city, everything changes. The poverty is shocking. There is garbage everywhere. In the city, the police are everywhere perfectly dressed with guns in their holsters and some are walking around with billies in their hands. There are also army guys with machine guns just sitting around on benches. Apparently Haiti is far worse than this. It is hard to imagine. Santo Domingo is really old and so has some interesting history. There is an Aztec style building called the lighthouse where Christopher Columbus’s remains are claimed to be in a black box inside the gated lighthouse with a guard in a striking white uniform protecting the remains. We visited the Cathedral and of course they took us to some jewelry shops. We had a lovely lunch at one of the hotels along the Malecon with a 12 mile boardwalk along the sea and then headed back to the Regatta.

In the evening, we went to the magic show and Steven Best and Casandra live in Yaletown in Vancouver. They are 21 and 22 years old and just terrific. Steven started his magic at the age of 5. He chose me to go up on stage and it was so much fun. Fortunately, I had gone to the spa before dinner and had my hair done.

Today we are in Virgin Gorda and Peter and I are both escorts for a tour called “The Best of Virgin Gorda.” It continues to be around 85* and sunny every day. The gym is well equipped and the food is consistently excellent. Finding a balance between the two is the challenge. We just love this ship and we have developed a nice friendship with Shani (the cruise director) and several other people that work on the ship.

Two evenings ago, a gentleman came into the computer lab in a panic. He was supposed to take wedding pictures for his sister and soon to be husband but was having trouble with his camera. Peter to the rescue. Peter went up to their suite and took 90 + pictures and most of them turned out really well. They were thrilled. The couple had been together for 31 years and finally decided to get married! He is a surgeon in the States.

La Romana, Dominica

We are on our way back to La Romana, Dominica and are quite busy with classes. We have a group of very enthusiastic people on board so things are humming.

Yesterday, we had to clear customs in Miami before getting back on the ship so we hopped in a cab and went to South Beach for lunch. Back on board we had open house with our brand new group of our “best friends”.

We are currently just off the coast of Cuba and it seems so close. It is 82* sunny and blue sky with that incredible turquoise Caribbean water.

We haven’t yet found snorkeling that compares with our favorite place in Maui but we are still looking.

Miami

We have just arrived in Miami and will soon disembark. We’ll be back on board around 1 pm. We set sail again for the Caribbean. This trip is amazing and we are having a blast.