Woo, life since last update!

Panama was uneventful.  I ended up being able to get off because someone had to be onboard, so I grabbed some cheap snacks at the local grocery store and then did a bit of shopping, picking up presents for a few people (and a couple things for me!) before getting back on board.

In Costa Rica, Gabriela, our friend Nick and I went back to the same beach from last time and played in the much bigger waves and then had this seafood platter that was ginormous and took up half the table.  I will get the pictures from Gabriela, but we ended up managing to eat most of it – 3 full 9 inch fish, calamari, fried shrimp and fish bites, fries, chips, ceviche, fried plantains and a few other things we couldn’t identify but were perfectly tasty!  Oh and rice and beans at my request :)

The following sea day, I got reCPR certified but this time through the American Heart Association, which I don’t think is quite as good but still, it’s nice to be certified again.

Unfortunately, Thursday night we said good-bye to some really awesome people who were off on their breaks.  We had a great time, though, drinking, eating and playing games!  (Uno and Balderdash for those interested)

On Friday (the fourth) we were back in Fort Lauderdale and had our big 6 month US Coast Guard inspection.  This involved a long fire drill and a lot of time with me as a Traffic Director (still need a pic of me in that outfit) staring at the staircase bored out of my mind.  A perky coast guard woman asked me three questions on safety, which I aced and we were finally dismissed to our raft stations.  Once there, we sweltered in the heat for another half an hour, had to field one more question from the coast guard as a whole raft and were finally dismissed almost an hour and a half after the drill started.  It was almost 11 and I needed to be back at 1 to work so I raced off the ship (had to wait until exactly 11) and ran into town to grab the supplies I wanted (cider and coke, mostly) and spent a few minutes online while scarfing a really tasty buffalo chicken wrap and drinking a strawberry smoothie.  Then I raced back to the boat for the usual busy afternoon and evening on embark day.

On the 5^th, we were in Half Moon Cay and I just happened to run into the head of the Shore Excursions on the way in on the tender and she invited me to the Grand Cabana which was not being rented, so she, my boss, Renee and I hung in the hottub for about an hour with drinks until I had to leave to catch my excursion.  I went horseback riding on the island!  The views were incredible and I had a lot of fun.  The saddles were different from what I’m used to and my horse was rather ornery but generally did what it was told with some coaxing. 

Then, after the land ride, we changed and got on new horses and went swimming with them!  It was SO freakin’ awesome, even if I got the ornery one again who did NOT want to follow directions.  I have some pretty awesome pictures of this horse with me that I will share next Fort Lauderdale, if not sooner.

I was IMP in Aruba on the 7^th, but was able to get off for an hour in the evening because of the way things worked out.  We went for a nice night walk and visited with a lot of other crew who were enjoying their evenings off.

I got a tour in Curacao and got to go on a cave and city highlights walk!  The caves were super neat with lots of stalactites and stalagmites and bats and the whole shebang.  Our guide was excellent and despite the humidity inside, I wished we could have stayed longer.  Our city walking tour was pretty poor but I still got to see lots of parts of Curacao I hadn’t seen before.  I also did some very successful shopping there!  The woman was just too fast and didn’t wait for people to catch up to start talking and, as an escort, I had to be the last one in line so I missed a bunch.

Curacao evening we got some bad news – there was a GI bug spreading far too rapidly across the ship so we went into pretty much lockdown and everything that was self-service could no longer be.  It lent for a very hectic afternoon at work and a painful few days since.  Because of this, I canceled my tour in Panama I was hoping to get because I couldn’t leave Gabriela to do the library and her job when it wasn’t self-service!  More on this later, most likely.

Luckily, I could still get off yesterday in Costa Rica when we did a tour that Gabriela had organized with a man we met our first time there.  It was AMAZING.  One of my favorite things so far – more like the traveling I’m used to :)  We visited a fruit stand (with free fruit), saw monkeys by the side of the road, visited a banana plantation (Del Monte), I got to get up close and personal with a toucan (in the wild!) and we also visited a local canal where we saw all sorts of herons and birds, iguanas, a monkey and a sloth in the wild!  Super amazing and I got some great pictures, some of which I will share when we get back to Fort Lauderdale Monday.

The best news came today about 3pm when we were notified we’d beaten the virus and could come out of lockdown mode as of 5pm today.  The books will stay locked (due to the fact they’re currently sanitary and if we open them, we’ll have to sanitize them all over again) but still, this is a definite victory!

Coming up:

Fort Lauderdale – tomorrow (am supposed to be IPM but our tech guy, Aidan, reminded me that he is disembarking so his replacement will HAVE to be onboard.)

Half Moon Cay – Tuesday

Aruba – Thursday

Bonaire – Friday

Curacao – Saturday (IMP but hopefully able to get off long enough to buy a couple things I saw and didn’t get, not realizing it was my last time in Curacao)