island lady

Sooo...after one of the worst tours of the trip two days ago...we had one of the best. Again..win some lose some, this was a win. Early meeting in the theater at 7:30 am. Was thrilled to find out that dear new friends Chris and Joslyn, that have been on almost every foodie tour we have been on...were on with us again! Kidney busting ride up the highway for almost 2 hours to inland touristy town of Antiqua. Lots of sugar cane and further up into the highlands...coffee plantations! 20 pax on our tour, and picked up an extra 4 from overloaded "bus 11" tour to add to our very tight quarters small van. Arriving at a resort with tropical nursery and wonderful buffet set up, we enjoyed home made Guatemalan style open faced tacos. Soooo good! Enjoyed walking around the tropical plants in the nursery. Big rocky hills on the way up.

Lima no....Miraflores...yes!

Bucky told me it was quite common in the coal piles.

Welcome to Guatemala. Speaking of bugs....watched these two walk up from shoreside to place this big mat down at the end of the dock and start it spraying heavily. Soooo is this to protect them...or us?? 🤔😳 Fishing boats ready to go out...huge coal piles in the background with a lot of oil crackers everywhere, plus oil tankers waiting just offshore. The coal piles are smoking...which happens a lot (Bucky used to work at coal fired power plants around the world as visiting engineer for air heaters they use).

Yeah, he busted out laughing when I read him this. You guys did have the ugly buglies there. 😬

There are a lot of different tours tomorrow, but seems most of them end up in the old town of Antiqua inland in Guatemala. Ours is another "foodie tour" which meets early at 7:30 am...though others are even earlier. Looks like a trip up to the WJ for a quick bite before we leave. 7.5 hour tour. Happily the weather forecast is a bit cooler at 85 degrees, versus the 97 we had inland yesterday. Ahhh...nice and "cool". 😉

Me too...except for the extreme temperature difference. 😉

Had a wonderful Pinnie lunch with good friends from our county in Florida (Brevard) @pstone1 who invited us to share their "four top". What a wonderful time...thanks you two! 🥰 They still live where we did for 20 years on Merritt Island (two miles from Port Canaveral) before we moved "out to the swamp" when we downsized. Good memories were shared. Bucky ended up chickening out and ordered the pasta...I had one of the best Salmon dishes of the whole cruise. Yumms! Should have taken my phone and posted pictures. 😋

Totally agree. Win some lose some. Most of our tours have been great...this just was not one of them.

Yes, the 340 plus members are in two days (our next sea day).

We have had very good tours in areas that indeed had the sad poverty...as I agree there is a lot of that here...and on the Atlantic side. And of course much of that in the islands in the Carib. The bad thing was how mismanaged this tour was, which was a ship's tour. It was not listed correctly and the guide was out of her element doing that tour. And sure it's a Pacific beach town, but way too far up in the natural harbor. The water is not fresh and has dirt beaches, which is common in bays that don't have the fresh water influence. A lot of natural run off creates the dust, mud, and dirt. Birds like Frigates liked it though...shallow water bays...easier fishing. 😉

Happy someone scored a nice tour.

LOL...agree. Sounds like we had the same tour set up...in different places. Ughhh... Oh well, win some lose some. Puntarenas won't be a place we are itching to revisit. 😉

Indeed it is....beautiful!! 🥰

Day at sea today, seas are a light chop...blue skies, deep blue water. Was once again treated to a show at breakfast with large pods of Pacific Common Dolphin jumping our short wake right next to the ship. Plenty of Booby birds searching for breakfast as well. "Cheers with an officer" Pinnie lunch today at 12:15. I will skip the steak this time (not looking for a repeat of the bad ones from the last two mini legs)...Bucky going to try it again. I will save my carnivorous taste for lunch at Giovanni's later on Friday. Way better steak. 😉

You can tell the weather has become much warmer...frequency of "boil and fry" laundry bags increased. 😉 Current position on our way to Guatemala.

The bouncy ride back included (for some reason) an extension of going past the ship to the end of the island to tour the rest of town by bus. Lovely 😑 We were already getting back much later than we wanted to. And believe me, the town is not much to look at...as are the dirty beaches. IMHO...Not a place we plan to come back to visit. No, it did not rain...but would have welcomed the wash off. 😊 Finally back to the ship and much needed showers. Up to the Concierge Lounge for my highly anticipated Pisco Sour. 😋 The whole lounge was empty during the half hour we were in there at after 5:15, but had great conversations with bartender, concierge "Ti" and her boss. Finally down to dinner late, but our wait team was happy to see us. Went to the 6:30 show and sat in the back as it had already started. One of the Royal singers did the Elton John tribute and really got into character for it. He was great!! Back to the cabin to read, falling asleep with my book on my chest. 😉

It indeed was miserably hot and humid. 97 degrees in the shade with no breeze. Tour really took too long. Everyone was tired, hot, and ready to leave....but they kept delaying it. Not sure why. One man was furious who stormed into the small gift shop to tell them that the bathroom had run out of water. I was able to find the small cooler in the back of the gift shop that had small Red Bull size cans of Sol beer for sale at 3 bucks a can....ahhh..heaven in a can. Bucky was thrilled when I walked up to him at a picnic table with one for each of us. Then we just sat for half an hour sipping our beer and wondering where our tour guide was. The rest of our tour was just milling around wondering when we were leaving.

Did see one Sloth in a tree...but not a very good picture. Of course doing what Sloths do best...sleep. 😉

Was advertised as free flying (not caged) Macaws....and of course...they were all in a very large Aviary cage that we could not enter...only view from the outside along the "forced march". Took many pictures of the ones in the cage, and there were many Macaws for sure...but did not like the look of the cage in the picture between myself and the birds. So I deleted them. Then at the end of the tour, which we had lagged back and pretty much wandered on our own by then, I found another path that had several of them allowed to fly free (basically by the feeding station). They kept ignoring me when I wanted a face on picture...until I realized "Hey! They speak Spanish!" Hola!! That got their attention! 😄

Yes!!! Bus had A/C!! 😁 So that was the good part, and half of the one hour ride to the sanctuary had decent roads....then went downhill from there. Last half was bouncy back roads...ouch my kidneys! But not a real goat path...just basically one lane torn up road. Driving through Puntarenas was the usual razor wire and extreme poverty. But the rough roads later on had some nice greenery. And enjoyed some jungle plants in the sanctuary...though I would have thought more flowers. Bucky loves "Gigantis Bamboo". He saw a lot of that in Vietnam...as Dave can attest to. 😉

Getting ready to get an early bite from the WJ, have sunscreen applied, will slather on bug spray after lunch and head out. Still very hot and humid...but no rain predicted. Will take a chance and leave rain jackets behind. Though when we take them...it never rains...so am I temping fate? 😳 Then again, maybe a nice rain shower is not such a bad thing. 😉

Ours does not state that, and GS desk was really vague on that as "no guarantees on bus condition" 😮 Maybe since it's a volunteer sanctuary?. Oh well, I am still looking forward to seeing the Macaws. 🙂 Land based "Jungle Cruise" here we come. 🥵😬

Me too. Have found some very nice books, several favorites at the pool table library, though all of the new ones are on deck 12. Have already donated half of the ones I brought on board, and looks like I am not the only one. 😉

Arrived early to Puntarenas...supposed to be by 10 am, but we got here just after 8 am. Our tour does not meet until noon, which will give us plenty of Jungle heat this afternoon visiting the kitties and birdies. 😉 🦜🐈