Cruise Day 9
I am writing this sitting in a deck chair, looking out at the Pacific, somewhere between Puerto Vallarta and Acapulco, which will be our next port-of-call, tomorrow, Canadian Thanksgiving.
After we left San Francisco the ship headed south, for two days at sea before we were to reach Cabo San Lucas, at the southern-most tip of Baja California, on Friday morning. The weather remained cold until we crossed into the tropics south of LA, and then suddenly the temperature and humidity went through the roof. It was not too bad while we were at sea, because the ship's motion produces a breeze even when there is little wind, but the land temperatures have been almost beyond toleration, particularly in the afternoon - both in Cabo and in Puerto Vallarta it has been 37 degrees, and the humidity high enough that it feels like the low 40's. After a few hours in that, stepping into the ship, which is kept at a very comfortable 22 degrees, is like stepping into a refrigerator. Conversely, after a few hours in the ship, stepping out feels like jumping into the sauna, and glasses, binoculars, camera lenses, instantly fog over.
October 5, the 2nd of our at sea days, was the first formal night of the cruise, so all decked out in evening dress and tuxedo we enjoyed the Captain's welcome champagne reception, a great dinner, and then a great show in the very large and completely equipped theatre. Then we stopped for a dance and drink in the Crow's Nest Lounge above the bridge plus another drink in a lovely little lounge that has a classical trio playing every evening. Then I thought I had better check for e-mail, as I had a few small outstanding items to which I expected replies.
As most, but not all, of you know by know, it was then that an e-mail from my son Scott reached me that my mother had died Thursday morning. At that time we were out of cell phone reach, so after sending out some e-mail (and having a stiff cognac) we tried to sleep for the rest of the night, with limited success. Thus, we were awake and on the veranda when we entered the harbour at Cabo San Lucas with the full moon (harvest moon sized on the horizon) just setting behind the mountains. Even at that hour, the harbour rim was alight with the light from various hotels, and inside the harbour the Carnival Pride, which had sailed in ahead of us, was a blaze of light.
We waited until sunrise at about 5:45, and then I called Scott on my cellphone (while there is no service at sea, I am able to connect to whichever cell service is local using my GSM quad-band world phone; when I first decided I wanted that level of connectivity I thought that perhaps I was overdoing it, but in an emergency it definitely pays for itself!). Scott had already started the plan we had discussed for this eventuality, and thus we were able to just touch base on some of the details. (Maria will be cremated, which was her wish in any case, we will continue the cruise, since getting back to Canada would be difficult and costly, and we will have a funeral service at her church in Midland after our return-it leaves me with a curious feeling of not quite accepting that she is dead, with some unreality about the whole thing, but under the circumstances the best we can do.)
We had booked an afternoon excursion by boat followed by a scenic drive, so after all that activity we caught a couple of hours more sleep, and then took the ship's tender to shore (Cabo does not have piers large enough to handle cruise ships, so they anchor in the bay. Zuiderdam has her own tenders, which are also lifeboats, and so we were ferried ashore, about 120 at a time.) We then went onto a modest-sized but modern boat that took us around Land's End into the Pacific, with a trip up the Pacific side of the peninsula. Lot's of fun, after a ship that hardly moves, this boat was definitely bouncy! There was a good breeze blowing, which kept us tolerably cool, but also allowed the sun to beat down on us without warning.
There were lot's of photo ops along this very rugged coast, above which the houses of some very fortunate folks are located (see our pictures). The scenic ride wasn't much, but it took us to a restaurant from which one could see the entire bay, with our ship and the Pride at anchor, once again allowing us to see just how enormous this vessel is - 950 feet long at the waterline, 120 feet at the beam, and 12 usable decks above the waterline, thus at a guess about 150 feet high, not counting the superstructure and funnels. The restaurant also supplied good Mexican beer, which by that time was very, very welcome! Then back to the pier through the town (which might as well be in California, as it has everything in the way of American fast food joints, except for Taco Bell!) and the tender ride back to the ship. After a quick cool shower, we went back up to the Lido Deck on Deck 10, for margaritas and the sail-away party. Diner, the usual show, and so to bed, followed.
Next morning we woke up just as we were coming down Bahia de Banderas (Bay of Flags), towards the harbour in Puerto Vallarta. We had previously visited here, about 3 1/2 years ago, just before we met up with the Mexico Travel Seminar group in Mexico City prior to going to Cuernavaca. Then we had stayed at a resort to the north, in Nuevo Vallarta, which is actually in a different state (Nayarid) from the town proper (Jalisco) and more oddly, in a different time zone! This has to be one of the only urban areas in the world where the population in its daily affairs needs to ask whomever they are dealing with what time zone they are operating in. Our tour guide had that problem; he was from the north, and hence one hour behind us, as ship's time had been set to local time in Puerto Vallarta the night before.
After breakfast, we went ashore for our tour.
(Actually, we waited to go ashore with a lot of others, because Mexican customs and immigration were taking their own sweet time clearing the ship. A make-work project, since we had left a Mexican port the night before, and sailed in Mexican waters all night, and they would have had the ship's manifest as soon as we left San Francisco.That make-work continued later that day, when we returned to the ship - Mexican authorities checked our ship's id and photo id, fair enough, but then we were made to empty our pockets into trays, and put anything we carried onto a table. Then all this was pushed to the other side of a gate, through which we walked, to pick up our stuff, which had not gone through anything, nor had it been looked at. Then you go up the gang-plank, and ship's security does the full routine; scan your ship's id, which pops up your picture on the screen and all your stuff goes through x-ray, and you go through a magnetometer gate and a search if necessary.)
When we got ashore, we found our tour - we had signed up for something called "Town, Country, and Tequila" which turned out to be not as advertised. The guide did give us a few facts about the Mexican economy, by contrasting some of the very wealthy homes in town to the poor farms of the country, and asking people to wonder why McDonald's in Mexico charge about the peso equivalent of their US$ price for a hamburger, but only pay their staff Mexican minimum wage, about $10 daily. But this was pretty minimal stuff compared to what we do when we take students to Mexico.
The tequila part turned out to be a visit to an alleged tequila factory, but which bore as much resemblance to a real operation as Cinderella's Castle at Disney World has to real housing! The operation was basic tourist trap, overpriced tequila, and the usual tacky gift items, at prices four and five times what the local market in ordinary towns would charge, prices that would drop dramatically by a factor of two when you walked away.
Then it was off to a street which had nothing but silver and emerald shops on it, for more shopping opportunities; again, at very suspect prices if one had any idea about what things in Mexico usually cost. Also, very pushy salespeople. Finally, a walk around the old town of Puerto Vallarta, architecturally very much the same as before Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor had come along in 1962 to screw it up. Architecturally; unfortunately what used to be homes, and small shops and businesses, now are tourist traps, tattoo parlours, upscale clothing stores, and either fancy restaurants, or American fast food, including Hooters!
The cathedral is lovely, and there was wedding that it would have been nice to just quietly observe, but the effect was spoiled by various tourist groups simply wandering in and gawking while talking about how quaint it all was. (A number of men, who would never enter their own church with a hat on, just walked around with their baseball caps on, loudly muttering about how weird these catholics were. I must say the priest was more Christian about it than I would have been, just ignoring the lot and getting on with the wedding and the Mass. Made me grateful that I never had a church that tourists would want to visit.)
I would have liked to take more time around the town, unfortunately, by this time it was mid-afternoon, and the sun was becoming dangerously hot. We ventured out onto the malecon briefly; it is a lovely seafront promenade, with the mountains as a backdrop to the city, but it was like being on a grill. Thus, back to ship, some lunch, and to get our electrolytes back into order with an infusion of Heineken.
Before supper, we were able to watch a gorgeous Pacific sunset from our verandah (we remembered how beautiful the sunsets were there from our visit before) and then to supper. Because the ship wasn't sailing until 10 p.m., the entertainment at night was a local folk dance group, which presented typical dances from a number of the western Mexican states. They were beautiful to watch, because they were dancing something which was meaningful to them, and because they hadn't been spoiled by too much professionalism.
Then there was a very late show, at 10:30 p.m. put on by the Philippinos in the crew, of song and dance - very well done, and again, because they were doing this to show us something of their own country and culture, it had the beauty of sincerity.
(Aside; most of the hotel side crew on the ship is either from the Philippines, or from Indonesia, mostly Bali and Java. Wonderfully friendly, and very accommodating. And you have to admire them, their contract is for a year at sea, followed by 4 months holiday, after which they can renew their contract for another year. So they are away from home and family and friends for 12 months at a time. Our waiter, who is Balinese, told us that at least now they have Internet available on the ship, so they can keep in touch by e-mail, and if the time zones align, by instant messaging. Also, phone calls from Canadian and American ports, using phone cards that are inexpensive, relatively. But still a hard life, even if the working conditions and benefits are much better than for other migrant labour - as seafarers, they have a union that takes good care of their rights.)
As I've said, today is a day at sea, so we slept in, had an early brunch/lunch, and sat on the deck until it got too hot. Just before I came inside a few minutes ago, a school of dolphins came along side and performed for us - but of course my camera was back in the cabin. We are not in a hurry to get into Acapulco, so the ship is sailing slowly at around 13 knots, and the dolphins were easily able to match that, as they jumped the waves, and some of them even did 360 degree flips. Showoffs!
Tonight is a "black and white" formal night, the dining room and the theatre have been redecorated to that colour scheme, and "gentlemen" have been asked to wear actual black tie, rather than the multi-colour indulgences that seem to be the fashion. Don't know what the show is going to be, but we expect a similar, 30's 40's theme. We'll let you know in the next of these missives, which will probably be in about 3 days, when we next have another day at sea.
I am going to get some photos from the last two days ready for uploading, and will do that at the same time I send this e-mail. So keep looking for those at (2008 note: they have been re-upoaded, after fixing the mess that happened uploading them from my laptop during the cruise) http://longworth_mueller.fototime.com/
Until then, greetings, and a happy Canadian Thanksgiving!
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