Volcanoes and Kayaks...again...!

Hello!

Sorry for the late blog post.  It has been awhile since I have had decent internet access.  I have done a lot since I wrote last time in Panama so I will get right down to it.  This post is about my cruise through the Panama Canal BEFORE my Mom came (don't worry I will write about all of those adventures as soon as I get home!) Pictures won't have captions and I will re-organize it later, but I don't have much time so please forgive any typos! 

After Panama, we stopped in Guatemala and I finally got to do a tour that I have tried to sign up for three times already.  It was a volcano hike and I was very excited to get outside and do some real hiking.  I had the best time and enjoyed some stunning viewpoints of the countryside.  It started off with a bus ride out there that was about 45 min. long, but it went by fast as our guide, Eric, told us LOTS and LOTS of information about the city of Puerto Quetzal and the country of Guatemala in general.

When we started the hike, it was quite cold.  The higher we went, the colder it got.  I was glad I brought a pair of pants that I could wear over my shorts as well as a pullover.  I started off the hike wearing it all.  Being Calgarian, I always know to dress in layers.

At the beginning of the hike, there were kids selling walking sticks that, of course, I was too cheap to rent.  Also, I have never found a walking stick useful.  However, nearly all of the guests rented them for $1 a piece (yes, I am THAT cheap).  Some even grabbed 2! I’m sorry, but how would that be more helpful?  Anyway, I noticed that most people ended up just carrying most of the way rather than actually using them.

It wasn’t long before I went into camp counselor mode.  Eric told me there was a woman with asthma so I was keeping an eye on her while also making sure that people were taking breaks and drinking enough water (I don’t know how many times I shouted “Hydrate Early and Often!”).  I also took on the role that Debra Odegard usually takes on.  It wasn’t long until I was telling people to get in line at viewpoints and shouting “I’m the official photographer”.  I think people appreciated having someone there to take their picture (not everyone is as skilled at selfies as I am).

I should also mention that there were about 15 horses following us up the hill.  The riders (some as young as 9) would keep shouting “taxi, taxi!” hoping that one of the guests would give up and ride a horse the rest of the way (for the price of $30).  I am pleased to report that every single tourist managed to do the hike on their own (of course there were still verbal complaints the whole time, but I’ve learned to expect that from at least 40% of all cruisers. Weaklings.)

Eric would stop the group every once in awhile and give us more information about the vegetation around us, animals that lived in the area, history of the volcano etc. which was great and again, the views were stunning.  Eventually we made it to the halfway point and took a little break.  At this point I had taken off my pullover because I was sweating while walking, but it got REALLY cold once I stopped and the wind was blowing really hard.  We were going to be going up even further so I was LITERALLY about to put it on when I heard this girl (a little older than me) complaining about how cold she was.  She just kept going ON and ON about how they should’ve told her to bring something warmer (which, I must mention, it DID say on the shore excursion ticket) and I just couldn’t take it anymore so I offered her my sweater just to shut her up.  What I hated most was that she is there saying “No, it’s ok...” when I know that she is freezing and just wants me to INSIST that she takes it.  I kept saying “No really I have pants on, I will be fine” and it wasn’t until her mother said “Take the sweater!” that she finally gave in.

The rest of the hike was great-it was more difficult coming down because of all the shale, falling rocks, and steep hills.  A woman slipped and declared that she had broken her wrist (lie) and didn’t know if she could walk anymore (lie).  Again, camp counselor Annika came out.  We cleaned up her cut on her ankle and I told her she would be fine, but if she really felt she had hurt herself she should go to the medical centre on the ship once we got back.  OH NO, that wasn’t enough.  She was CONVINCED she broke her wrist so she insisted we make a splint using a water bottle (I’m sorry, what?) and would NOT stop talking about it for the rest of the journey.  Honestly, I don’t know how many times I just wanted to tell her to suck it up.   

One of the coolest parts of the hike was when we were in the crater of the volcano and roasted marshmallows using one of the natural heat vents (called a chimney).  It was very cool and I enjoyed a few of the marshmallows before we finished the hike.  My feet hurt at the end, and I was covered in dust/dirt but it was a wonderful, exhausting day and I enjoyed it a lot.  Here are a few shots from my adventure!

In Cabo, I went kayaking and snorkeling.  It was great!  I was partnered with a guy named Bill from Atlanta.  He was supposed to be in a kayak with his wife, but she was a little nervous so she went with the guide, and Bill became my partner!  He was quite the conversationalist, and we talked A LOT.

We went to “Lover’s Beach” (not just me and Bill, but the whole group.  Obviously) and I took some GREAT selfies.  I was happy there were lots of rocks/boulders to set my camera on.  Everyone was looking at me with strange faces, yet nobody volunteered to just TAKE my picture for me.  Go figure. 

I also went snorkeling, even though I hate fish (and I hate fish because I am scared of them.  NBD).  I saw lots of interesting fish and enjoyed myself, other than when someone’s flipper would touch my body and I immediately thought it was a school of fish attacking me with their scaly, slippery bodies.  This happened multiple times.  It’s fine.

Our guide, Luis, was great.  My favourite thing about him was that he was constantly asking me to take pictures of him.  I would be taking pictures of the scenery and then, I would notice that Luis was posing thinking that I was actually taking a picture of him

Bill and I loving life!

Luis and I

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Anyway, it was a wonderful day filled with sand, sunshine, and the sea!

My next blog post will be about my time spent with Mumsie and Gwen.  We are having a great time, but I don’t think I will have any decent internet access before I return home so you may have to wait awhile to hear about our adventures!  Better late than never, though, I suppose!

Hope you are all doing well!

Love,

A

Parties & Recoveries!

Greetings all!

I have good news and bad news.  The good news is that this is a new blog post filled with exciting adventures (obviously), but the bad news is that the reason I am able to write such a detailed, awesome post is because I am so sick that I am stuck in my cabin and can’t do anything else!  We’ll get to that a bit later, though.  Before I begin to talk about the past two weeks, I will FIRST give you a taste of my dolphin adventure with a few photos!

The crewmembers that I went with!

Meeting our dolphin, Aqua, for the first time!

My first dolphin ride!

Loving life!

The moment when my bathing suit bottoms almost fell off (yes, it happened)

Aqua doing some tricks for us!

KISSES!

Me and the girls from the Spa!

Learning more about dolphins as Aqua and I bond through physical touch.  DBJ.

Dolophin show!

I couldn't resist a photo collage for such an occasion

I’m so glad I was finally able to get the pictures (by pitching in with a few other people) so I can not only share a few moments of the adventure, but also to have the memories for myself!  The past two weeks have been really great.  I hit a bit of a slump in the middle of the cruise and became a bit homesick.  I think everyone reaches that point where you miss doing things you just can’t do when you live on a ship: going to movies, meeting up with friends, DRIVING etc.  Things that you don’t really think about until you can’t do them for months at a time.  But, I bounced back and am going to enjoy the last four weeks before I come home (and only two weeks until I see Mumsie!). 

This cruise I didn’t do any excursions.  Not because I didn’t sign up for them, but because any of the ones I signed up for seemed to be cancelled.  I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that a 5 hour mountain biking trip was cancelled because senior citizens weren’t really into it...!  I was still pretty bummed though.

Anyway, the first port was Cabo and I wasn’t even able to get off the ship because it’s a tender port and I had an early set.  So, I just laid out in the sun with the acapella boys and enjoyed the view.  I DID get off the ship the next day, however, in Puerto Vallarta which I think is my favourite port.  This would be the first port that I had internet in so I wrote a blog post there, enjoyed a Starbucks (obviously) and did some shopping.  I had the intention of buying souveneirs for everyone adn then...I found the Mexican version of “Zara” so I just bought stuff for myself.  Stuff  that I don’t actually need.  AKA shoes.  Mom, don’t roll your eyes.  I will find a place to put them.

Anyway, it was a great day because we had quite a few hours there so I also bought some groceries (AKA Candy) and didn’t have to rush around.   OH!  I also enjoyed “Subway” for the first time in two months which was ah-mahzing. 

My day in Guatemala

Our next port was Guatemala which, and I’m not exaggerating, is a port where there is NOTHING to do.  Instead of trying desperately to find SOMETHING to do, I just embraced the fact that we were there for 8 hours without much to do and laid in a hammock for a few hours.  I read, wrote in my journal, and slept!  It was great.  Even though I signed up for a tour in Guatemala this upcoming cruise, I won’t be totally disappointed if it doesn’t happen because I really enjoyed myself!

The big event onboard for the crew during the cruise was the Halloween party!  I haven’t actually dressed up for Halloween or done anything spectacular for a LONG time, so it was fun to get into it with everyone else.  I went as Sandy from “Grease”.  Rhine, who does lighting for the shows went as Danny so it was really fun!  I must admit, the reason I went as Sandy was because I was too cheap to buy a costume (some people were spending around $50 on theirs!) and we all know that I wouldn’t even ATTEMPT to make something, but it all worked out great!  I couldn’t stop saying “Tell me about it, stud” all night.  It was hilarious to me but perhaps got a little annoying to everyone else.  Of course, I captured it all on my camera.  When Rhine asked me if he could go as Danny, I warned him that if he chose to do so, he would be getting his picture taken A LOT.  He was totally fine with that so that was great.

I never smoked the cigarette, I promise MUM!

Sandy selfie.  Obvi.

The party was on Deck 12 outside which was really fun.  I think only about 10% of us were dressed up but I just embraced it.  The production cast members, the acapella boys, and myself were about it.  Of course as soon as I got there, my heels came off because I was ready to DANCE.  I’m pretty sure everyone thought I was drunk even though I was completely sober but at least THIS time, I didn’t need to worry about people telling me that I couldn’t drive home (even when I’m sober.  This has happened a few times in Calgary) because I could just walk back down to my room!  The wind was blowing so hard that my hair (which I had spent about an hour curling) became completely straight within 5 min.  Thank goodness I got a good picture with Rhine before THAT happened...!

About to go out..!

I still don't know what Dan was dressed up as...something from Harry Potter AKA I was totally clueless.

AND...the hair is now straight.

Me and my friend Jemaine! Notice the bare feet necessary for dancing.

I went to bed relatively early that night (as in I left the party before everyone else) because I was supposed to be ready to go at 7:30 to go mountain biking.  As I mentioned before, it was cancelled (they informed me of this after I had been there for an hour waiting) so that was a bit of a bummer.  So, I enjoyed my internet time and a coffee.  I had a little breakdown, but of course, Keith and Debra were able to snap me out of it just like I imagined.  I always go to Mum first for compassion (which she provided of course) and then I go to my Dad for reality check in combination with advice on how to proceed (which of course, was what I got) so that was very helpful. 

Colon, Panama is a similar stop to Guatemala in that if you aren’t booked on an excursion there isn’t anything to do because it’s dangerous if you go beyond the cruise terminal.  In fact, two passengers went beyond the terminal alone and got beaten and mugged.  These were two poor old ladies, so I was definitely not going to take any chances.  We had a boat drill and a department meeting in the morning, so I wasn’t even able to get off the ship until 12:30 and I had to be back on the ship by 3:30.  I went to a restaurant with some people from the cast to use the internet which was unreliable and, after realizing I had forgotten my wallet and was unable to pay for a $3 diet coke, I decided the day was a bust.  I had a much better day in Cartegena, Colombia the next day!

You know, I have really come to enjoy Cartegena.  It is one of my favourite ports even though you have to pay for a cab to get to the old city and I am cheap...but it was worth it!  I spent the day with Seth from the acapella group.  We had a really great time walking around, chatting, and snapping some photos.  We even went into the store that I love (the little boutique where I bought that dress, then returned it, then bough another dress) and had a group of girls following us for a bit.  They were in high school and were taking some English class and were interviewing us.  They were asking us about being environmentally friendly and were videotaping us.  So of course I loved it.  :) They also FREAKED out when they found out I was from Canada.  They all LOVE Canada (I mean, it's not surprising, really) and Seth got a not-so-awesome reaction when he said he was from Boston so that was sweet.  They were all very sweet and were kind enough to take a photo with us.

Took this picture for Mum so that she could remember it fondly because we are NOT going here when you come

Without Zach here, it was up to me to take photos of worn looking doors/walls.  I think I did ok. 

The chess game was getting intense.  But then I won. MUHAHAHAHAHA.

I finally got close enough to the parrots to take a picture!  

Seth bought some fresh papaya!

And shared with me!

The town square

Thank GOODNESS I decided to change that morning otherwise we would've been wearing the same fruit.

Famous statue..I can't remember why though.  My bad.

After our interview! :)

IT's a little blurry, but these monkeys were so adorable!

The new city

So that was Cartegena.  Then we arrived in Ft. Lauderdale and I spent the day shopping in the mall and calling people that I hadn't talked to in awhile.  It was great EXCEPT that night I began to get very sick!  I had a really bad fever and my throat was totally swollen.  As soon as I started feeling this way, I thought.."I NEED TO TAKE A SELFIE FOR THE BLOG!"  So here it is.  The day after I went to see the doctor because I didn't sleep all night (my fever got so bad that I was wearing a toque, my down jacket, and leg warmers at one point because I was so cold.  Of course 20 min. later I was boiling hot.)  Anyway, the doctor told me I was not fit for duty so I have literally spent the last two days in my cabin.  I was not allowed to talk or sing (AKA DEATH) so I put a note on my door explaining my situation and asked that nobody call me or come in the room because, let's face it, if there is another person talking to me I WILL talk back.  And the conversation will probably last for about 2 hours.

Doctor's note!

Anyway, I am now in Panama and enjoying the view outside.  I thought I'd leave you with a selfie now that I'm feeling a bit better.  :)  My  next post is going to be filled with pictures of some of the people I've met here.  Their jobs range from dancers to housekeepers to sandwich makers but they are all my friends and I want to share them with you!  Until then, I hope you are all well and I am sending you hugs and smiles from Colon!

Byeee for now!!

A