Evenings have been filled with some great entertainers and a couple of the Captain’s cocktail parties, one for the World Club (those who have sailed Cunard before) and another for the 1,043 world cruisers aboard. The World Cruise party featured all sorts of hors d’oeuvres including caviar and a cake that they never cut. We suspect it might have been fake and just for show.
Puerto Quetzal in Guatemala was a nice warm up. Not quite as
hot as Cartegena had been and we spent a good part of our day on an air-conditioned
bus. Our excursion took us to a drive through safari zoo. It was a little more
than an hour from the ship but it gave us an opportunity to see the countryside
and the volcanoes in the distance. Guatemala has over 30 volcanoes several of
which can activate at any time and some were smoking a bit.
The zoo was nicely planned out with fenced in zones for the different animals. Once a vehicle passed through a gate, an attendant would close it again. That explained why the lion and tiger didn’t meander into the antelope area for dinner not to mention the fact that they would be fed raw beef regularly and probably weren’t hungry. Curiously the male lion and female tiger were together in the compound. They seemed to get along quite well and it appeared the male lion was a bit amorous. What was up with that? A new species?
The safari zoo reminded me of one back home but at this one, you didn’t feed the animals. There was quite a variety of mostly animals from Africa in the drive through part of the park. After a soft drink and serving of French fries (excellent fries, probably cooked in the tasty kind of oil), we walked through a smaller area that housed animals and birds native to Guatemala.
It was a nice getaway from the ship for a few hours. The only regret is that we had to view all the animals in the drive through park from the bus and it was difficult to get good pictures. When we stopped to get a close up view of the giraffes and were offered the opportunity to feed them, I got a great picture of the younger one. I tried to get a photo of the capuchin monkeys that were caged nearby (they were called capuchino here, pronounced like the coffee drink). Now I’ve had some experience with capuchins in Costa Rico and I know they can be quick and mischievous, but I felt confident in putting my camera close enough to the enclosure to get the picture between the wired sides. It was even double wired halfway up to keep them from reaching out. It didn’t work. That little stinker stuck his arm through a hole and grabbed at my camera before I knew what was happening. Luckily he didn’t get hold of it and I didn’t drop it. It did startle me pretty good. I’m sure he had a good chuckle over it.
And before I forget, our tour guide began by introducing
herself as Karen, the good Karen. I later told her I was the other good Karen
on the bus. She laughed. As a matter of fact she laughed a lot through out the
whole excursion.
After two days at sea, our next port was Cabo San Lucas. We’ve been there before and done whale watching and seen the manta rays jump out of the water so we passed on the water excursions. I remembered Cabo as being a nice place to walk where there were a lot of nice hotels and shops. It has changed, greatly. There are a lot more bars and the hawkers have multiplied exponentially to great degree.
Greeting the guest from the tenders |
Before I get ahead of myself let me say there were nearly
3000 people to get off the ship by tender since there was not a pier at Cabo
for cruise ships. People on excursions get first priority of course and we
figured that by mid morning the rush would be close to over so we played a
little pickleball before we had to go to the Royal Theater to pickup a tender
ticket (the method for organizing the operation). As we entered by the long passageway to the
bottom of the theater, a staff member was there by a mat that had two white
stripes on it with the picture of a shark between the lines. We were asked to
step over the lines as a way to see if we were mobile enough to bridge the
small gap between ship and tender. Clever way to eliminate some who claimed to
be mobile but perhaps weren’t as much as they thought.
The Royal Theater had to be filled with about 700 or more people. We sat and waited, knowing the last of the excursions had left and thinking it wouldn’t be too long. We were wrong. It was an hour and a half wait.
As eleven o’clock passed, our plans were now changed to
include lunch as there was no way we were going to make it off and back on for
lunch. The tenders took 50-60 people at a time. Ship’s tenders as well as local
tender boats were being used. When it came our turn, we realized why the long
wait. The sea was a bit rough and the tenders were having trouble bouncing up
and down and keeping the little ramp in place for passengers to board. We’ve
been on more challenging tender trips but this certainly slowed progress. It
was all good. By the time our number had been called we had mapped out our
shopping excursion.
Cabo has a marina area with a boardwalk around it that made for a pleasant walk in temperatures that were in the 70s and nice sunshine with a little breeze. We followed the little blue dotted line on my Google Maps app, dodged hawkers and their goods, declined numerous offers for boat rides and fishing and finally made it around the busiest area of the boardwalk. A little farther and we turned off on a street and followed it around to find our destination. Walmart.
There was a need to get a few things like wire hangers that
take up less space in the closets, a storage box that Bob wanted for his underwear
to keep in the bathroom (TMI?), body wash for me (I don’t care for the smell of
the ship’s), cups with lids to carry coffee from the buffet, and air freshener
(there is a funky smell in the shower that doesn’t seem to go away). While
hangers and storage boxes were easy, body wash and air freshener was a bit of a
challenge since everything was in Spanish. I spent a good deal of time
translating with my phone before I actually found a body wash that was in English.
All in all, it was a good experience. Even trying to explain
to a Walmart employee eager to help but didn’t speak English that we wanted bar
soap to wash with. Thankfully there was an English icon on the self checkout
and a helpful attendant to make sure we did it all right. We had to buy a bag
to carry our goods back but that will come in handy as a nice big laundry bag.
All in all, prices were good.
Bob had a taste for something from home, MacDonald’s. Just around the corner from Walmart we were able to satisfy his craving. The menu was partly in English and the counter help spoke it well. We enjoyed our “Mexican MacDonald’s,” two Big Boys, a medium fry and two Cokes for $13, and made our way back to the main dock where the tenders were picking up guests to return to the ship. Our wait was much shorter this time and the seas had calmed a good deal. Curious though, as we waited we saw foodstuffs that were being loaded on a tender for the ship. Croissants and other bakery in containers as well as some other produce. Even after questioning a few waiters onboard, we were assured that all the morning bakery was made on the ship. Hmmmm.
We did not get to visit the famous arch at Cabo but did
catch a glimpse of it as our ship passed. Unfortunately the sun was shining
directly into the camera and I couldn’t get a good picture.
Bob attended the sabbath service in the evening before
dinner. He did that on our other world cruise and enjoyed learning more about
the Jewish service. They haven’t thrown the Gentile out yet.
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