Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 26

[melsea]

Sorry guys and girls for the delay in this instalment real life got in the way these past weeks. I'll try not to be long in the next ones..

Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 26

Day 87. At Sea. hot, humid and sunny. 1 of 3 days at sea before Costa Rica.
4th April Evening Casual.

Started the day in The Glass House for breakfast. I went to the photography gallery and collected the photos I wanted printed from our night at the Fairmont. I went back to the GH to show Bill the photos before I gave them out. When I got there June, a welsh Lady who is on her own but has lots of spirit & fun about her, was talking to Bill so I was able to give her the two photos of her. She was very pleased with them as its a memory of our night out on the town in San Francisco. I then went in search for the other people I had photos of. At the back of the ship I knew that two couples were going to be there. Ev & Joy, Pat & Sandra. All were very pleased and surprised at what I had done. They also said how much better my photo was of them than the ones taken by the on board photographers. I then went in search of Brian & Lorraine. Who were seated where I hoped they would and where they generally are. Although when I got there only Lorraine was there, Brian came a few minutes later. They were pleased to have a picture of them from the night. They commented on the fact it was better than the photographers photos as well. My final visit for the last photo was of Maureen & Roy. I couldn't find them at first but before I could continue to search for them an announcement from the bridge alerted us to sightings of a pod of Dolphins which unfortunately were some way off but I did managed to the see them but they did not appear for us when we got closer to the area they were. I saw Maureen on the other side and took her the photo and she said exactly what everyone was saying that mine was better.
I sat outside on deck 7 where I did more drawings in my Art Diary. While there I was keeping an eye open for any marine life that may show itself. I saw a big splash very close to the ship, I went straight over to the railings when a large fish/mammal leapt out of the sea and splashed down, I have absolutely no idea what it was but it was big!.
Lunch in restaurant. Sun bathed outside where the table tennis is played. Slept when I got back to the cabin.

Day 88. At sea. Very hot & humid. Easter Sunday.
2 of 3 days at sea sailing down the coast of Central America.
5th April Black Tie

Quick breakfast at the Glass House.
Easter Church Service.
Sat on deck 7 writing up The Day one diary and not really succeeding due to the fact I saw some Dolphins which was lovely to see and then got chatting to a lady sitting on the next table.
One 'O'clock came round real quick. Lunch was in the restaurant.
Snooze beckons me so had an hour of sleep plus 15mins.
In the evening I went to the show which was quite good.

Day 89. At sea. Hot & Humid. Sea is a bit wobbly this morning.
6th April Evening Casual

3 of 3 days at sea, ever nearing our last port in the Pacific Ocean.

Clocks go forward at midday. -6 GMT
Breakfast in Glass House.
Wrote out letter to Brooke & Verity thanking them for the Fairmont Hotel evening.
Lunch in the restaurant.
Sat out back, it became very windy later.
Dinner in restaurant.
Didn't win any of the prizes in the raffle in the Casino, however Marjorie did, for the second time.
Went to be early as I had to be up very early for my tour tomorrow.

Day 90. Punta Arenas, Costa Rica. Very, very HOT!!
05.15-5.30pm
7th April Evening Casual/Tropical

Tour today. Forest Skywalk & Pura Vida Gardens.

Having gone to bed fairly early last night I had set the alarm for 06.12 & 06.22 the second one so that I would be ready to actually get out of bed. Had shower and then went upstairs to the Horizon where I had two sausages, baked beans & scrambled eggs with orange juice followed by a cup of tea.

Went to the Curzon Theatre to get sticker for tour, again I was in number 9 group only this time it was orange sticker 9. It wasn't long before we were called to go down to the dock side and get onto the bus. Well at least that is the usual procedure. I noticed when I got off and making my way to the small bus that I didn't have my tour ticket as the girl at the entrance to the theatre didn't give back my tour ticket & I hadn't noticed in my excitement, so fortunately the lady who does the port talk helped me out by seeing I had a tour ticket and she hastily wrote up another ticket so that I could get onto the tour bus, phew. Luckily I had the other half of the ticket showing who I was. With all of us on the bus we started our tour, it was 7.20 when we left. I sat next to a lady and we introduce ourselves and I asked was she on her own and yes she was and that she was having a great time and she was celebrating her divorced, I replied thats not what I was expecting and she had a little grin and she said her husband was a bully and she hadn't been able to do anything so this cruise has be just wonderful and she was loving every minute of it and doing what she wanted to do whenever she wanted to, I said good for you. We had quite a laugh all day.
We were driven to the first of 3 forest skywalks, the Villa Lapas Skyway. It was going to this place that we realised why we were in a people carrier type vehicle, there was noway a large coach could even contemplate making its way on the roads leading to this place, there was barely room for us and some of it with a fairly steep incline & descents. We were taken upwards first to be shown a fantastic view of where we had been driven from. In the distance you could just about make out Aurora which was a little speck on the sea. Soon we got to our first sky walk bridge which was a long way up from the ground but no so you would noticed as there was so much foliage that you could not see the bottom which was probably a good thing. There could only be a certain number of us to cross at any one time, so you had time to take a look. Then it was my turn to follow and as you started your walk you could feel the wobble starting but it didn't feel too bad, in fact it was a lot less than I was expecting. It felt like we were extras in an Indiana Jones movie, we were certainly above the trees as we had a clear view of the tops of trees and further afield we could see the Ocean, quite a sight it was too. On the trails we had to walk we saw on the ground lots of trails of ants busying themselves with carrying bits of plants, flowers. It was quite an amazing sight to see these ants going about their natural business, and there we were heading up step and trails to our various view points of the skywalks. Our final one was called 'Capacidao' and this was different. For this one we were not going to go all the way across it, we went to the centre of it and then turn back again, this one was had a restriction of how many could be on it at any one time which in this case 20 persons max. This particular one was pretty wobbly as too. Having walked our three skywalks we were taken to the Pura Vida Gardens where we saw amazing Fauna and views from high up. It was here where we saw more than dozen of big beautiful Red, yellow & blue Macaws. We were then continued our walk to where we could see the one of the tallest Waterfalls, Bijagual in Costa Rica. Although we could see it wasn't exactly the spectacle we were expecting because like many of the places we have visited throughout this cruise they had one thing in common, lack of rain, so our wondrous waterfall was a trickle, a bit of a disappointment considering what the photos we saw of what it usually looks like but hey you can't have everything, that's nature for you. It was not even noon and we were about to have lunch at a local restaurant. It was a buffet style lunch and boy it was delicious, the were local juices made from real fruits and water also. We were not rushed and afterwards I had a look in their gift shop that had products made by the locals. There some different style cards and pictures which were of feathers that were painted on and put onto card that also had more painting done around the edges, these were just 6$ each and so I bought a few for presents and for me as well. We were taken to another place that had a church in its own little oasis and beautiful gardens. We were shown inside and it was very nice and two sides were open to the elements which in the heat of summer is probably a good thing to have. As I was walking away I was chatting to the lady I am sitting next to on the bus on this trip her name is Jan and she said 'now that is a proper church, simple and not outlandish, I asked her what she meant. She had been to Rome and she was so appalled by the sheer amount of wealth of gold and gaudiness of it all, she felt this one was much nicer.
After this visit we were taken to a place where we were given refreshments of juice and fresh fruit, it was lovely as it was getting rather hot by now and it was a welcome little extra we were not expecting. We spotted here lots of different birds as well those we heard but could not see. In the gardens wondering around were Iguanas. But one place we did see was amazing and that was on our way back. There is a bridge which thankfully is way above the river as we saw an amazing sight. We had left the bus and were guided in single file along the bridge which has no pavement so you had to walk on a narrow edge. We stopped half way and looked over the bridge where we saw in the river, crocodiles, 26 of them!! We took loads of photographs and there were all sizes of them and one of them was absolutely huge and was undoubtedly a male. It was an impressive sight to see and we were saw glad we were a long way up. Its not a sight I shall ever forget.

[Dancing Queen]

Wondered where you had got to, I was beginning to think you had sneaked off on another cruise !!

The skywalks sound interesting although a bit scary.

[emjay45]

I was also wondering what had happened to your next instalment. I really wanted to do the Skywalk with my husband but decided against it because of my cough. I was really jealous when he told me about the crocodiles.

[Belle53]

Good to have you back, I've been missing my world cruise fix!!