The Panama Canal

What a phenomenal sight! One amazing fact is that over a billion gallons of fresh water is released into the ocean each time a ship passes through the canal. If it weren't for the fact that Panama gets so much rain, there wouldn't be a canal at all. The canal that is under construction will recycle 60% of the water. I took too many pictures to load here, but they are on my Flickr. photo sight if you want to see them all. http://www.flickr.com/photos/toni33et/

Costa Rica

Here I took a tour of a refuge for animals that were confiscated from people trying to smuggle them out of the country illegally. That would be mainly red macaws, but the preserve also had blue macaws, sloths, a tapir, and various other birds. You weren't supposed to interact with the birds because they were hoping to reintroduce them into the wild but as you can see from the pictures the released birds liked hanging with people. A red macaw egg supposedly bring $5000 in the states. I'm wondering if that is really true.

Huatulco

This quiet little village is what the Mexicans hope to turn into the Cancun of the Pacific shore. For now it is just a rather unspoiled, non commercial place. The humidity was extremely heavy here and after buying a box of cough drops at the local farmacia I returned to the ship. Here is probably the place to mention that two days before my trip began I woke up with a horrible sore throat and feeling yucky. There was no way I was missing this trip, sick or otherwise so I was pushing it a bit. My roommate felt ill and went down to "sick bay" where they threatened to put her off the ship if she didn't do what they said which was to have IV's put in and all kinds of anitbiotics; so I wasn't admitting to feeling unwell to anybody.

Turtles

The people running the turtle preserve watch for turtles coming ashore and laying their eggs. Then they dig up the eggs and move them to the safety of a fenced area where they rebury them, marking the number of eggs and the probable date of hatching. When they hatch they put the baby turtles into sea water for twenty four hours before releasing them into the sea at night. Night because there are less predators to eat them right away. After visiting with the turtles we went boating on a huge lagoon and finished with the botanical gardens at the university. A very enjoyable trip!!

Acapulco

Here is a view of Acapulco from the "elite" area of town. You can see the ship docked at the upper right. We were on our way to a turtle preserve, lagoon trip, and the botanical gardens at Loyola University. Although nobody said anything outright, we had a police guard with us. This seemed rather surprising but who knows what is really going on with the drug lord war.

Cabo San Lucas

We left Los Angeles and headed out to sea. On previous cruises, I'd always had a cheap inside cabin, so the luxury of a cabin with a balcony was delightful and the shower was so big you didn't have to worry about banging your elbows either! This is also the first time I hadn't had an assigned seating and time in the dining room. Wow, that was really great because you got to sit with different folks each time and I met a whole lot of really nice people. Then there was the on board activities which I must admit didn't do much for my ego. I joined every contest and got beaten at chess, ping pong, suduko, and trivia. However, I did manage to throw two small bowls on a pottery wheel and that was really fun. When we reached Cabo, I had arranged for a boat trip to the famous end of the land arch. If I'd only known that the boat was going to dock right by it I could have saved $150. Oh, well, heads up for next time. Cabo was actually my least favorite port: too commercial and too deserty.

Hair!

Here is what happens when you get sick of hot rollers and you decide to go short!

The Easter services were phenomenal. Here are Sherry and I in between Saturday night performances. Randy Frazee gave a sermon on the rending of the curtain in the temple with fantastic visuals. I had never understood exactly what happened before.