Acapulco

Day 8 – Brains over Brawn

I'm not the athletic sort. I proved that once again today during the 2^nd Women's Olympic Event. The Olympic competition happens on sea days. I disgraced myself by earning one of the lowest scores in the bean bag toss. This time, however, I did not advertise my citizenship by wearing my Canada T-shirt. I am pleased to report that the two women currently leading the competition are Canadian.

Our North of 50 Trivia team is less embarrassing. We're in the top ten percent and have a fighting chance of placing in this event.

As for the ship building competition, we haven't seen any of our team members since we signed up, but I will hunt them down on our next sea day.

The live show tonight's was outstanding. An entertainer by the name of Tony Pace earned the first standing ovation of the cruise. He's a vocalist, impressionist and comedian wrapped into one. If you're heading to Vegas in the near future, you might be able to catch his performance at the Tropicana – and that would be a show well worth seeing.

The TV in my stateroom tells me that is is almost 11 pm, ship's time. We are at latitude 17° 51'N, 2626.7 nautical miles from Vancouver and 4073 nautical miles from Tampa. It is 27.9 degrees Celsius outside with a relative humidity of 93 percent. We are experiencing small waves of 4.9 feet. At least, that is what the TV says. I think that's just enough wave action to lull me to sleep, while Dean plays Texas Hold 'Em in the casino.

Tomorrow, Acapulco!

Cabo San Lucas 22.88°N – That ship has already sailed!

It was a scorcher today! I couldn't tell you what the temperature was, but “hot as hell” is an understatement.

We arrived at Cabo San Lucas at noon, the only cruise ship in the harbour, but certainly not the only ship. The ship, pictured below, is named “A.” It's 388 feet long and is owned by a Russian billionaire. Every one was talking about it, inlcuding our captain who gave us the low down at dinner time.

A Ship Called "A"

What an incredible day. As we walked down the harbour, snorkel gear on our backs, dozens of vendors offered us transportation on sailboats, glass bottom boats, fishing boats and pirate ships, to various snorkeling sites.

Having been to Los Cabos several times, we had a particular snorkeling spot in mind – Santa Maria beach, half way between Cabo San Lucas and San Jose. We wanted to take a catamaran, but they'd all left the harbour. So when a vendor tried to convince us to hop aboard his boat, we pointed to the Cabos Blue, a catamarran on its way to Santa Maria, already about 100 yards off the dock. “We want that boat.”

No problem. He waved us onto his boat, and drove us out to the catamaran. Better late than never.

All the catamarrans we passed were chock full of people; ours had only eight couples aboard, which meant lots of walking around room. Lively latin music played put everyone in the mood for beer and margaritas, which were included in the $45 per person cost. So was lunch. We motor sailed close to the incredible arches at Lover's Beach (El Arco de Cabo San Lucas) and a sea lion colony.

After a glorious 45 minute motor sail, we arrived at our destination, a lovely sandy cove, with very few people onthe breach, but dozens floating on life jackets, faces down in the water.

At home, when I can scrounge up the courage to go in the lake, my body tenses as I edge my way, squealing and making a scene, into the cool water. There is no need to test the temperature of the water here. I jumped in with nary a msucle contraction. .

The snorkeling was good, though we didn't see the variety of fish we've seen previously at Lover's Beach or other Cabo spots.

What a wonderful afternoon. We were back at the harbour by 3:30 pm. After a quick walk-about, we headed back to the ship. The humidity had us dripping with perspiration and in desperate need of showers. A nice touch, Holland America staff handed out steamed hand towels as we boarded the tenders to go back to the Ryndam.

A quick shower, dinner and a show. Tonight's show was a fantastic comedian / magician.

Trivia: At Cabo San Lucas, passengers are tendered ashore. The ship disembarked about 1000 passengers in an hour and a half. That's what I call smooth sailing!

Day 6 - Olympic Trials and Trivial Pursuits

Today, I joined a group of women Olympic hopefuls aboard Holland America's Ryndam. Eight or nine of us gathered in the basketball court for our first Olympic competition. I donned my Canada T-shirt, hoping to do my country proud. Basketball may have been invented in Canada, but I a sorry to report I was a disappointment, sinking only two baskets out of a possible eight. On each “sea” day, another Olympic event will be held, and the highest cumulative score will win the Gold medal. I am hoping future events will require less skill.

I also entered a ship building contest, roping a couple of unsuspecting gentleman onto my team. Teams are required to construct a ship out of various recyclable materials found on the ship – like casino buckets, water bottles and chop sticks. Sea trials will take place the day before we dock in Tampa. It's a bit like Okanagan College's spaghetti bridge building contest. The winner will be selected based on floatability and creativity.

Finally, this afternoon Dean and I played Trivia, which is played on each “sea day.” The team with the cumulative high score will be crowned the Trivia masters at the end of the cruise. Naturally, we named our team “North of 50.” We scored a respectable 11 out of 15.

Talk about a small world. What a boost to my ego when a man in the trivia crowd recognized the name of the magazine and said his wife was following this travel blog.

Day 5 - San Diego 32°42′54″N

Uploading to the blog has proved to be a challenge from the cruise ship, where the internet is accessed through a satellite. If a picture paints a thousand words, here's 10,000 words!

Working on the pool.  There is another one!

I'm working, people!

After three full days at sea, we docked in San Diego on September 23^rd. There's no shortage of tourist attractions in San Diego and on previous visits to this city, Dean and I have enjoyed pretty much all of them so on this trip we hopped city bus number 901 to Coronado.

The Hotel del Coronado is a state historic site. The grounds are outstanding with herb and flower gardens and a walkway along the beach.

We took the ferry back to the cruise ship harbour. It's only a ten minute transit, and it offers up some great views of the city skyline, Seaport Village and the Coronado bridge.

Trivia: Every Okanaganite remembers the fires of 2003.  Did you knbow that in October 2003, wildfires in San Diego burned 280,000 acres (1,100 km), killed 15 people, and destroyed more than 2,200 homes?

Day 3 at Sea - Don't you lecture me, mister!

The ship provides information on ports of call and other topics of interest, in the library and in the showroom which occasionally transforms into a lecture hall. Today, I took a seat in the showroom where an American professor was giving a lecture titled, “Canada, Our Sister to the North.” The promotional literature for the lecture said “Canada is the most similar country to the US in the Western Hemisphere and its closest neighbor, yet many people do not know very much about this important country.”

Had the audience been mostly American (who are the majority of passengers on this Panama Cruise) this might have been a very informative lecture, but the majority of passengers who chose to attend this lecture on Canada, were Canadians.

The professor told the crowd that Americans don't know much about Canada, even though we are their largest trading partner and share a long border. Canadian and American governments, he said, have a good relationship and disputes are settled through amicable means. He pointed out that Canada and the US don't go to war over trade issues. We settle them in courts or through diplomatic means and that is obviously preferred method.

Perhaps this lecturer over-simplified the process when he explained that when a dispute arises, the US Secretary of State phones up the Canadian Foreign Minister; they have a little chat and work it out in everybody's best interest. Still, I got his point.

I suspect most of the audience disagreed with the professor's claim that the Canadian electoral system is far superior to the US method, mainly because “Canadian politicians do not promise the moon just to get elected.” Canadians trust their elected officials, he claimed, because Canadian politicians actually do what they say they are going to do on the campaign trail.

But things started to go awry when he reported that Canada had 9 provinces and 3 territories, the Canadian dollar is worth about 65 cents US and we have a population of 44 million. Canadians are heavy smokers and drinkers, too. (He was not joking)

Needless to say, some Canadians took issue during the question and answer period, pointing out to the speaker the error of his ways. Any notions he may have had about polite Canadians went out the window. A Brit in the audience was offended that the lecturer said Canada was the US's biggest ally in the fight against terrorism, when that title so clearly belonged to Great Britain.

Perhaps the professor got his information from an out-dated internet site. I could have been offended, but in fairness, I probably don't know as much as I think I do about the United States. I feel confident I could list all fifty states, but I doubt I could place all of them correctly on a map.

Ironically, what the professor inadvertently managed to do was prove his own point – that we really do not know much about each other.

Day 2 - Where in the World are the Wallys?

 We're out to sea, Billy!

The Ryndam's Captain Mark Rowden has just announced over the PA that we have travelled 305 nautical miles at an average average speed of 16 knots and are currently about 60 nautical miles off the coast of Oregon.

Our stateroom has a wonderful, large window, so we've always got a great view, even if we can't step directly outside. Our queen bed is like sleeping on air, a vast improvement from the living room floor we'd been sleeping on for the three nights before the cruise.

Thus, we slept in this morning and didn't make it to the Tai Chi class. As a replacement exercise, we decided to try some dance lessons at mid-morning. How hard can it be to learn the waltz?

Possibly, skipping off to use the facilities during those crucial first few minutes of the lesson was a mistake. That's when they teach the basic steps, which I missed, and I was incapable of making a smooth move for the rest of the lesson.

Dean and I haven't danced since our wedding, and today, it showed. After an embarrassing attempt to follow the instructors steps, some kindly folks had pity on us, and offered up some private lessons. But it was too late. Our confidence was in shambles. We failed miserably at the waltz.

However, at 2 o'clock, the Cha Cha Cha is being taught in the Crow's Nest Lounge! A gentleman named Don, from Campbell River, saw that I was a slow learner, and gave me a 20 minute private lesson, a futile attempt to give me a step up when I return at 2 pm to wow the crowd.

Perhaps, I've set my expectations, too high. I will be happy if I don't step on anyone's toes.

Cha Cha Cha