Catching Up

Whaaat ? ! ? I haven’t blogged since Huatulco. Oh my, I think you had better fire me as I am obviously not a very good blogger this trip.

So in an attempt to play catchup:
We have stopped in San Juan del Sur, Nicaraugua, a sleepy little fishing village that mostly survives on surfing tourists. Who do not spend their time in fancy resorts, so there aren’t any. But there are numerous little bed and breakfast and hostel places with a couple of rooms for rent above the family living quarters. And if they have no rooms to rent, they offer laundry services. We walked down an entire street of rentals and laundries, and then sat on a bench on the seaside boardwalk and just watched the families on the beach, the vendors strolling by (No thank you, I do not want an ocarina, bird whistle, carved bowl or beads) It was all very picturesque, including the lady on the boardwalk with two monkeys on a leash just like pet dogs. No, I don’t have a photo as she was charging for pictures.

While Jackie and I meandered, Tom, Pam and Gene went ziplining. I have seen some of the videos, and it is very reminiscent of the zipline in Belize (that’s for you Barbara and Richard). I am well past the ability to do that sort of adventure any longer and it was a good thing that I chose to just take it easy that day.

After another sea day (meaning: Sleep in, eat, watch a performance or lecture or show, eat and repeat) we stopped in Costa Rica yesterday where we did an eight-hour 10 in 1 tour. We saw capuchin monkeys (photo to follow), birds and the rainforest, Carara (sp?) National Park (also a rainforest but on the mountain top), banana and fruit plantations where they make fabulous fruit smoothies including the mango-papaya-coconut combination I tried. Plus a replica old plantation town, even more unusual fruit trees and birds, termites, giant ants, some sort of beetle about four inches long (ick), waterfalls, macaws, and general jungle mayhem. THEN we went crocodile hunting, but since all wildlife are protected in Costa Rica it was the photo sort of hunting. We saw little young crocs (3 feet long) up to adults about 25 feet long. These were about 50 years old, but crocs live about 150 years, and continue to grow their entire lives, and can get much larger - up to 45 feet long! Most of us were just plain worn out by the end of all this, and we all fell asleep pretty quickly after dinner.

And slept some 9-11 hours according to reports this morning. We’re not quite the youngsters we used to be, even though we sometimes try.

Today is a sea day (see above description for daily agenda) and we just finished the first meal of the day at 11:30. It is now noon, and I think I will have the Drink of the Day, a Caribbean Cooler.

Tomorrow is the Panama Canal adventure....starting at 6 am. I will try to blog, but do not be surpised if I must apologize yet again. <sigh>