Highlights from the Cruise

Since our cruise is winding down, Marilyn and I thought we would give you a brief overview:

Favorite port:
Luanne: Puerto Vallarta because it was easy to walk to places
Marilyn: She said it was Costa Maya until I told her we didn't go there on this cruise. She then amended her answer to Cabo San Lucas because she liked the tour, the port was pretty, the day was nice. Then she burped so I encouraged not to speak any more.

Favorite dinner companions moment:
Luanne: When I realized one person had no teeth
Marilyn: The two minutes in which one of them told Marilyn about her upcoming 3 surgeries (the reason she cannot go on a cruise for the next several years), her diabetes, and the Canadian health system.

Favorite tour guide:
Luanne: Libby, because she was a teacher, and now has the kind of job all teachers should have when they retire
Marilyn: Adan-Call-Me-Adam, because he was so open with his life and Marilyn got to know him so well in such a sort period of time

Favorite tour moment:
Luanne: Pulling up to the Jose's Chicken Coop Cafe, realizing that was where we were going to eat a meal.
Marilyn: A tie between Carmen reading us all the American restaurant signs as we rode down the road, and Libby reminding us for the 96th time that the sidewalks were uneven and to be careful.

Best spa moment:
Luanne: When Wendy the reflexologist told me that she could tell by my big toe that my colon was clogged up, and wondering what she wanted to do about it
Marilyn: When she got to go in a new spa room with a window, but was told not to worry because it was a one-way window, but worried anyway when a little boy started trying to look in the window (and Marilyn was in her spa-wear - a towel covering her lady regions).

Other Significant Cruise Moments:
*Getting our professional photo made with the captain, who has the personality of ... actually there's nothing with less personality to describe him to.
*Trying to get a picture while on land of Marilyn pointing out our cabin, because we thought we saw her bathing suit on the veranda, only to realize after returning to the cabin, that our cabin was actually on the water side.
*Trying to buy a Mexican Wal-Mart card, that ended up being a child and parent card, so we don't know if our room steward and dinner server will actually be able to use them or not, or even if they have any pesos on them.
*Dressing for a late movie (because we had eaten too much at Palo and were extremely uncomfortable in our dress up clothes), which meant in our pajamas, then seeing our dinner companion on the front row. And no, we didn't go sit with him.
*Ditching the tour when Adan stopped at his brother's jewelry store, thereby depriving him of his tour evaluation and tip!
*Looking at our first photo from the cruise, of us having lunch on the deck, then realizing the woman walking past was actually our future dinner companion.

All in all, it was a good cruise. Good food, good service, interesting dinner conversation with interesting people. Tomorrow we get back to reality, taking lots of good memories with us.

Torture on the High Seas

With only two days left in our cruise, I had already decided that today I would have a "well-being" massage. Today and tomorrow are sea days, so I thought that a massage would be a nice relaxing way to finish up the cruise and arrive back at home relaxed and refreshed. Then came Boris.

Boris is a nice young man from from Russia or Germany or some former Soviet Union country. He had already given Marilyn a massage on Monday, so she mentioned that he was good with the pressure. When I met him today, he asked as to how much pressure I wanted. I said, "medium to hard," which he started with. He continued to ask me if I wanted it harder, to which I said, "yes," thinking that was a good thing. I can only liken it to that good thing that happens just before giving birth. You know it's going to hurt like the dickens, but the end result is worth it.

At times I thought he was trying to squeeze the fat out of my pores, or separate the knotted-up muscles in my back. Maybe both at the same time. At the end of my 50 minutes, though, I knew I had been massaged. It was the worst best thing ever.

I'm not sure if I will arrive home relaxed and refreshed - it all depends on the Advil. But I have been to Boris, and it was good.

Puerto Vallarta

I wanted to post a picture that would most accurately sum up our tour today in Puerto Vallarta, but blogger would have none of it. So I will have to try to describe the neighborhood in which we had our mid-tour “snack.” Amid the broken-down vehicles and buildings, were the local business establishements. The actual cantina (probably our tour guide Adan-Call-Me-Adam’s brother’s garage) pretty much blended in with the surroundings. We were given a quesadilla and a drink (I chose 7Up, hoping that whatever active ingredients were in the soft drink would combat any of the organisms in the food or on the hosed-off plate). The snack was good, especially if one just eats (hoping the wetness from the glass plate is from a hot-water rinse and not a dog-lickin-creek-rinsin) and ignores the rooster walking around outside (really). Obviously this establishment is a family run business, as our Adan(m)’s whole family was out selling their jewelry and lovely painted doo-dads. (We didn’t buy anything there, but bought identical doo-dads later at the town flea market, probably actually made by Chin-Lee over in China). Another of Adan(m)’s relatives brought his pet parrot, so in case the chicken ran away, you could eat with a parrot. But that was only part of our tour.

A (as I shall call him to save internet time) started off the tour by telling us how terribly he recently hurt his foot playing basketball (even though he is obviously middle-aged and 300 pounds). He reminded us quite often, and when he wasn’t reminding us of his infirmity, he was grimacing and wincing, even though he was sitting down at the time. At every stop he managed to tell us the A’s Version of Puerto Vallarta history. He also told us he had two degrees, was a back-packing and snorkeling and scuba diving guide, and once got upset because at the underground sea something he thought he saw paper in the water while scuba-ing, but when he got closer, it was actually money that had come out of people’s pockets so he made a billion dollars picking up “trash.” He is also trying to save the environment, so he instructed us not to have our picture made with the lizards because the people who do that stress the lizards out and then throw them in the trash. He has never been out of Mexico, takes his vacations in September, except this year when he is going to Canada for a conference in July. He also has a friend who back in the 60’s was a waiter for Jackie Kennedy when she came down with all her friends, and she tipped him $100 a person. And even thought the houses on the coast cost millions of dollars, he has a friend from Alaska who is coming down to buy one to live in and two to rent.

Anyhow, a mind can only hold so much information, so when A let everyone off the bus to “shop” at his relative’s jewelry shop (where A hopped all over the store giving us his special drinks he makes of tequila and lemon and water and whatever), Marilyn and I decided to abandon the tour, shop, and take a taxi back to the ship. We managed to hit the local flea market, Starbucks, and Wal-Mart (where we attempted to purchase gift cards for our room steward – cards we hope are legit) before heading back to the ship and lunch.

By the way Puerto Vallarta is named for a person. I should know – Adan-Call-Me-Adam told me so!

Mazatlan

This is a picture of me, diving off the cliff because I can't get any of my lovely photographs to load, and the internet aboard the ship costs like $50 a second, and I know people whose life happiness depends on getting my vacation photos on a daily basis.

Well, maybe that's an exaggeration. Actually, this is a picture of Please Pay The Diver Diving Man who dove off this rock (which is not so high when you see it in person) and then went around asking for money. Asking for money was pretty much what we encountered at every stop today on our tour around Mazatlan. We saw an Indian dancing show, where we could buy a CD of Mazatlan music, known the world over (except obviously in Tennessee). The MC of the show said that all the money from the sale of the CD went to homeless Mazatlan children, but I really don't think so. Since he changed shirts 3 times during the 20 minute show, I think it went to his shirt fund. I would show you pictures, but apparently Blogger does not want me to post them.

At some point during this post and resulting picture-posting frustration, I remembered that I am on vacation. So I have decided that I will lay in my deck chair and ponder other ways of your seeing my pictures. Besides, I think it's time to eat again, and I do have my priorities!

Cabo San Lucas

Today I'll just let the pictures do the talking - if I can get them loaded onto the blog!

This is the way to get to the pier to get to the bus to go on the tour. The rockin' and rollin' boat tender ride was an excursion in itself!

This is one of the windows to the glass-blowing place. It was interesting, but they didn't look too busy. Guess the glass-blowing industry isn't booming right now!

This is the band that greets you upon your arrival on the pier. They were not all that excited, but played a happy tune, anyway.