SEMINAR AT SEA
I began my first two weeks on the ship working during the “Seminar at Sea”. Seminar is much more of a cruise than Semester at Sea. On the ship we had great food and desserts, interesting lectures, and live musical entertainment ranging from Cuban Son to the hammered dulcimer. The best part was Mike being able to join me for these two weeks. We only had one or half a day in each port, but it was enough to get a glimpse into each of the countries and know where I’d like to return to one day.
The first three stops were all in Mexico. We left from Ensenada, about one and a half hours south of the border. Since we were setting up the shop, I only was able to get off the ship for a couple hours, just enough time to walk into town for a margarita. Our next destination was Cabo San Lucas, a definite tourist town. Luckily, we took a tour on a small boat around the bay, which gave us refuge from the souvenir stands and Senor Froggs dominating the town. The clear blue-green water allowed occasional views of tropical fish, while pelicans flew overhead and the sea lions barked from the rocky formations jutting out of the water. After the tour, the boat driver dropped us off at the Playa del Amor, Lover’s Beach, where we first attempted swimming first in the frightening, apparently dangerous waters of the Pacific, before settling into a cove on the calmer Sea of Cortez side. After about an hour of soaking in the warm waters, the boat returned to take us back into town.
The last stop in Mexico was Huatulco, in the Oaxaca region, a not yet widely discovered, quaint coastal town. Mike and I wandered into the town where we meandered around the streets, market, town plaza, and into the beautifully folk-style painted church. For lunch we had the most delicious mole sauce we’ve ever eaten! Before we got back on the ship, we went for a quick swim on the gorgeous white sand beach. We could have spent the whole rest of the day on that beach, but alas we had to be on the ship in the early afternoon.
Guatemala awaited us next. Our port of call was Puerto Quetzal, a fairly new, mainly industrial port. With nothing to see near the ship we headed to Antigua, the former capital. The trip took about 2 hours, but afforded beautiful views of volcanoes, coffee plantations, and countryside villages. Somewhat narrow, cobbled streets, and brightly painted, mostly one-story buildings lined Antigua. And of course at the bottom of the steps of the main cathedral stood the main plaza. Along the main tourist routes, native Guatemalans hawked their beautiful textiles, we even saw an albino. At first we wondered why a blond, white girl was dressed in traditional garb selling textiles with other Guatemalans. Mike and I went to the textile museum, which displayed the different styles of dress and embroidery traditionally warn throughout different regions and times in Guatemala. Afterwards we found the market, which is one of my favorite things to see in any town. Anything from tweezers to souvenirs to vegetables to shoes could be bought in the market. Antigua was an incredibly charming city, which has definitely pushed me to want to explore more of Guatemala.
Costa Rica was our last stop before crossing through the Panama Canal. We docked just outside of Puntarenas. We decided to spend half the day in nature and the other half in town. First we grouped up with two other people and took a taxi out to the forest to go on a walk through trails, which included small suspension bridges for a view from above. The trail was a bit too touristy, but the nature was beautiful. We hoped to see a macaw, but only heard it squawking. We did see humming birds and other smaller colorful birds. We also saw plenty of termite nests and ant colonies, and tropical flora and fauna. Puntarenas itself was a beach town. Again we strolled around stopping for a beer in the plaza and coffee at a sidewalk café. Before going back to the ship we headed to the beach and browsed the souvenir stands along the boardwalk.
Since our journey began on the west/pacific coast of the American continent we had to get to the other side for our next port of call. Sailing around the bottom of South America would take about 20 days, so instead we took the shortcut through the Panama Canal. We entered the first of three locks (similar to Ballard locks) at around ten a.m. and didn’t emerge at the other end until about seven p.m. We had the privilege of having a canal expert narrating our entire trip through. He described the history and future, including expansion of the canal, among other things. The land surrounding the canal consisted mostly of lush green vegetation, every once in a while interrupted by gashes in the earth with construction vehicles traipsing across where the canal is being widened. The lake portion reminded me a lot of the environs of Vietnam.
Jamaica became the port of call following the Canal. We were supposed to have stopped on San Andreas Island, Colombia, and even actually pulled up into the harbor. Unfortunately, we were tendering (taking the lifeboats to shore) instead up pulling up to a pier, and the water was too rough to do so safely. We sat in the harbor for a few hours waiting for the seas to calm, while the quaint town along the shore beaconed to us, until the captain decided the water was only becoming rougher and we would just head to Mongtego Bay, Jamaica early.
Jamaica was quite an experience. Due to the fact that tourism is replacing agriculture as the main trade, every citizen seems to be interested in making every visitor a tourist not a traveler. The evening we arrived, we headed out to the so-called “hip-strip”, what was supposed to be the happening, nightlife neighborhood. The first place our taxi driver wanted to drop us off, because he thought it was where we wanted to go, was Margaritaville! He intended to drop us there then drive us back to the ship after our Margaritaville experience. Nobody in the van wanted to do that so instead he dropped us off at the other end of the strip, near a small beach. We walked down the road expecting to see some “hipness” but only found souvenir shops, a “craft market” where every stall had the same exact souvenirs, resorts, and tourist trap restaurants. On every corner someone offered to sell us drugs. Luckily, we found a small grocery tucked into a corner where we bought a couple local beers. So, we escaped the hipstrip and found refuge at a beachfront park and drank our beers with the din of drunken singing pouring from Margaritaville in the distance.
The next full day in Montego Bay, again we hopped into a taxi the tourist information insisted we needed in order to get into downtown. On the way into town, the driver described all the great shopping available downtown and stopped to drop us off on a strip of duty-free shops. Of course we all told him we’d rather be dropped off in the heart of downtown since we were more interested in the city itself than buying a tax-free designer necklace. In town a local latched onto Mike and I to give us a tour of the town. He took us to the historical sights and described the importance. It was a great hour tour, after which we had a delicious meal at a vegetarian restaurant we noticed on the way into town, and then headed to the beach. We didn’t have enough money to pay entrance to the famed Doctor’s Cove beach, or any of the other pay beaches for that matter, so went to the one locals were swimming at. A couple people tried selling us Jamaica bracelets, to no avail, but other than that it was a nice way to relax after traipsing through the city all day. To get back to the ship we decided to forgo the overpriced taxis and walk back even though the tourist information told us it was impossible. It ended up only being a half-hour walk with some interesting things to see on the way.
Our last stop was Georgetown, Cayman Islands, where we were one of nine cruise ships in the harbor! The area around the port was a complete nightmare. The sidewalks overflowed with cruise passengers searching each shop for a duty-free deal. Mike and I found a booklet with a historic walking tour, so set out to get away from the shopping frenzy. At each stop we were the only ones there, despite the thousands of tourists ascending upon the town. Afterwards, we decided to take a taxi out to “Hell”, an area with unique black rock formations giving the area a hellish appearance. It was a smaller sight than I expected, but still interesting, and worth the drive out to it since it gave us a view of the types of neighborhoods people actually live in on the island. We had to share the ride with three of the strangest people I’ve ever met, who had me shaking my head at every other sentence coming from their mouths. For instance, the youngest one with a bratty attitude claimed that Jamaicans were very lazy despite the fact that our driver told us five minutes before that he was originally from Jamaica. The oldest one liked to talk over the taxi driver when he was telling us about the Caymans or the sight we were driving by, and when anyone asked her to be quiet, she would complain that she had a right to talk. And this is just the tip of the iceberg! Needless to say we were elated to escape them when we had the driver drop us off at the seven-mile beach. After a bit of beach bumming we walked about a mile along the beach back to the port. Throughout that mile the beaches changed from fine white sand lined to coral and shell speckled. Luckily, by the time we returned to port the other ships had left and the streets were quieter, only then could you see the remaining parts of the old, quaint beach town that Georgetown was in its past life.
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