Saturday, December 8, 2018- At Sea Guatemala to Cabo San Lucas Day 3

Saturday, December 8, 2018- At Sea Guatemala to Cabo San Lucas Day 3

 Our clocks were turned back an hour to Mountain time last night, so we got to sleep in an extra hour.  After breakfast in The Restaurant, we got together with our trivia team at noon.  We managed another win with 13/15, with the second place teams coming in at 11/15.  We didn’t know the capital of Seychelles was Victoria, or that Queen Elizabeth II was Time Magazine’s “Man of the Year” for 1952. 

 

Trivia Winners Again!

Weather was pleasant with temperatures just above 80 degrees with less humidity, but winds did make walking around the promenade deck challenging, and the white caps made it hard to spot whale spouts.  A couple we had lunch with said they had been watching closely for sea life, and had seen some sea turtles, porpoises, and even a ray, but no whales.  Ben had spent a fair bit of time scanning the waters during walks around the promenade, but had seen only a flock of brown booby birds diving on occasional schools of flying fish.

The video-on-demand system got back online overnight so we were able to catch up on the pre-recorded lectures, including photographic seminars, and historical lectures on the Spanish American war, and pre-Columbian American civilizations including the Aztecs of Mexico, Mayans of Guatemala and Yucatan, and the Inca of South America. The Aztecs, under Montezuma, had created an amazing city at the current location of Mexico City, that was destroyed by the Spanish Conquistadors.  We also learned that the Conquistadors eliminated the Inca by inviting their leaders to a grand feast, and then slaughtering them during the feast- reminiscent of “The Red Wedding” from The Game of Thrones series.

We paid the thermal spa another visit today for some relaxation and hydrotherapy.  It has been nice that these facilities are not extra charge, and that they have not been crowded when we have gone.  The lack of crowding has been a notable feature of this Viking Star cruise. The promenade deck is uncluttered and suitable for walking and even jogging, although the passage through the bow of the ship is narrow, and there are no mirrors.  I have only encountered one jogger during this cruise when I was walking.

At the stern of the ship, the promenade deck continues all the way around the glass enclosed Restaurant dining room. It appears that much of the rear of the dining room can be converted to open air dining with sliding doors, but I can only imagine this being done with the ship docked at port because the winds would be much too disruptive to allow for dining.  There is a nice sheltered area on the stern that looks out over the wake and is wide enough to accommodate several tables and chairs.   

Stateroom Hallway

Forward Elevator Lobby

Thermal Spa Hot Tub

It was a pretty relaxing day today. The evening show was another performance by the Violinist Juliette Primrose, but we opted to skip that and have a late dinner.  We did end up watching “A Simple Favor”, which turned out to be a suprisingly entertaining movie with Anna Kendrick playing a nerdy single mom blogger who gets entangled with a charismatic sociopath. 

We arrive at Cabo San Lucas tomorrow morning. There was a notice in the Viking Daily today that the port of Cabo San Lucas was closed to cruise ship anchoring today (December 8) due to wind and swells.  Hopefully, things will calm down overnight so we can anchor in the morning.    

Beef Strip steak

Chicken Kiev

Key Lime Pie    

Cannoli

 

Friday, December 7, 2018- At Sea to Cabo San Lucas Day 2

Friday, December 7, 2018- At Sea Guatemala to Cabo San Lucas Day 2   We had breakfast delivered, but there was a lot of salt spray on the balcony, so we ended up eating in our room.  The ship’s streaming system has been down with a very limited selection of movies, and no lectures for replay.  These sea days do highlight the relative lack of activities compared with our prior Princess cruises. We had trivia at noon. Our team came in second place again, but there were a few terrible questions.  The worst was “What animal is known to actively hunt humans?”  Their answer was Polar Bears- Really?  The most clever question was “What timepiece has the most moving parts?”  Answer= Hourglass.

So there was plenty of time to hit the fitness center and walk the promenade.  The weather has been perfect with temperatures in the mid 80’s, and partly cloudy skies.  There is still a fair amount of humidity, but less so than in Costa Rica.   The lectures today covered economic and political factors in Central America, which did not paint any sort of positive future.  I find the political and economic lectures much harder to stay awake through than crazy biology lectures.  We did manage to get  As Good As It Gets, and The Accountant to stream, so that killed a bit of time.   

 An Australian couple we sat next to at dinner had seen a small pod of dolphins play briefly in our wake in the morning.  I hadn’t seen any marine mammals during my walks on the promenade, but curiously, I did spot a handful of small boats, less than 30’ in length running parallel to our course more than 30 miles off shore.  I speculated they were dedicated fishermen, but the Aussies speculated they were running drugs.  I guess either is possible.  

The evening’s Star Theater show was a Cabaret featuring the Cruise director Aaron Syfert and the Viking Band.  He is a good baritone vocalist, and was a gymnast and soap opera actor in a prior life.  He put on an entertaining show, but it is strange for us to see a Cruise ship activities director putting on his own show. On Viking, all the cruise director’s staff do multiple duties including ushering, staffing the trivia, and dance classes.  

 Not much else to comment on today’s activities, so I’ll close with a picture of our wake at sunset.

Thursday, December 6, 2018- At Sea From Guatemala to Cabo San Lucas Day 1

Thursday, December 6, 2018- At Sea from Guatemala to Cabo San Lucas Day 1

The nice thing about sea days is getting to sleep in- to a point.  Most of the dining venues on the Viking Star close for breakfast at 9:30AM, so you can’t really sleep in as long as you want without missing breakfast.  But, then again, nobody is in danger of losing any weight on a cruise ship.     We had breakfast in the Restaurant, but it seems that despite the waiters using iPhones to enter the orders, they always manage to get some thing wrong.  I ordered eggs and lamb chops with sauted potatoes, but the last time I ordered the same thing, they brought only barely a tablespoon of potatoes- not enough to soak up the egg yolks, so I asked for a double portion of the potatoes.  And to make sure, I clarified it a second time before the waiter took off that I wanted extra potatoes.  And Janet ordered a single english muffin to soak up her egg yolks.  When the order arrived, Janet got no english muffins, and I ended up with a double portion of lamb chops, and just a tablespoon of potatos.  Janet also notice something that Princess does that Viking doesn’t.  When the waiters ask you what you’d like to drink, if you ask for tea, on Princess, the waiter puts the stirring spoon in the cup on the saucer.  If you ask for coffee, the spoon stays on the saucer.  That way, the beverage servers know right away whether to pour you coffee, or bring you a pot of tea.  On Viking, you end up getting asked 2 or 3 times whether you want coffee or tea.  But in the end, you get fed, and the food is high quality.  

Our trivia team reconvened at noon, and although we put on a good show, tying for second place, we missed out tying for first by one point- and there were two questions where we had entertained the correct answers, but put down the wrong ones.  Bridesmaids again.  One of the stumpers was “What was the name of the cat in Breakfast at Tiffany’s?”  We had no idea the answer was simply “Cat”.  The two teams that beat us by one point had a tie breaker of “What year was pre-sliced bread introduced?”  Answer=1930.

The satellite feed for the media system was down today, so no streaming movies or rebroadcasts of the live lectures.  That seems technologically odd that they would have to rely on the satellite to stream all their media, when it would be so much more efficent to keep the media on local servers on the ship.  Perhaps, licensing requirements demand that real time authorization be obtained for movie streams, but it really makes no sense that they wouldn’t be able to stream the lectures recorded aboard the ship.  With the video streaming down, the relative lack of activities on the ship become all the more glaring.  On Princess, we would have had 3 different sessions of Trivia, a Spanish language class, and Ballroom dancing class. But since Janet has been feeling under the weather, this has given her lots of time to sleep to speed her recovery.  

There has been a slight uptick in the visible marine sealife around the ship with more flying fish, and a wider variety of birds with Nasca Boobies joining the Brown Boobies.  The ship was now being followed by a flock of about 12 birds.  Unfortunately, they have left their marks on the windows of the Explorer’s Lounge at the front of the ship.  We’re sure the crew are not too happy about having to clean all that up.

There were lectures on the Mayan culture and on Biological Parasites.  The lecture on the Mayan culture was really trying to stretch comparisons between the rapid disappearance of the Mayan civilization and the current threat of global warming because there was a 3 degree increase in temperature that was associated with the disappearance of the Mayan civilization.  The lecturer seemed to be implying that if the Mayans had realized their evil ways and placed a tax on carbon emissions before it was too late, that they could still be enjoying human sacrifices on their stone altars today.  Not hardly.  The biologist’s lecture on Parasites was much more interesting.  Dr. Carin can be a bit of a chameleon herself, as she donned a slightly more conservative dress and parted her hair a little differently, completely hiding the shaved part of her head, and revealing a Mary Tyler Moore look-a-like.  

Her talk on marine parasites included a tongue eating sea louse that replaces the tongue of some fish species, and a crab parasite that turns them into zombies.  You have to wonder if a human analog to the zombification organism will develop!

We had some unbelievable colors streaming from the horizon as the sun set.  Perhaps the volcanic ash contributed to the show.

We had dinner in The Restaurant with our trivia group, which was nice because it was Carol’s birthday, and we got to share some of her birthday cake.  Apparently, Viking already knew it was Carol’s birthday, even though Greg did not make prior arrangements.  They probably get that information off the passenger passports.  The wait staff came and sang her Happy Birthday.  Janet and I later sent her a singing Monkeygram thanks to our new iPhones.  

We closed out the evening with violinist Juliette Prowess, a New Zealander, who did a pop/rock violin program with canned back up music.  It was similar to a program we had seen on Princess with a male violinist, but Juliette was technically a better violinist and had been a studio muscian in LA and part of the Riverdance troupe.  And she used conventional fingerings- the guy on Princess used wierd fingerings (2nd and 4th positions) which freaked Ben out.    

Tomorrow is another day at sea.  We’ll order room service breakfast again to shake things up a bit.

Wednesday, December 5, 2018- Puerto Quetzal, La Antigua, Guatemala

Wednesday, December 5, 2018- Puerto Quetzal, La Antigua, Guatemala We could see a line of volcanos rising out of the haze on the horizon as we approached Puerto Qeutzal, Guatemala. Our ship pulled up behind the Royal Caribbean Vision of the Seas.  After a quick breakfast in the buffet, we boarded our awaiting buses on the dock below.  It was a long bus ride through the countryside to our destination La Antigua.  On the way, we could see Fuego, the aptly named volcano, erupting to our north, with a cloud of ash and steam billowing.

Driving through the countryside revealed scenes similar to Nicaragua, with small cinderblock and cement homes with tin roofs huddled together under the blazing sun. There are a lot of transport trucks associated with the agricultural products of mangos, bananas and coffee. The countryside was framed by another volcano to the south called Agua.

Our buses wound up into the mountains, into coffee plantation country. We learned that quality coffee beans must be grown at altitudes above 1600 ft in well drained volcanic soils to achieve the optimal balance of acidity and flavor. The young plants must also grow in the shade of larger trees.    

One of the most dramatic sights we came across was an area wiped out by a pyroclastic flow from Fuego, the volcano we could see erupting with steam and ash.  There is a massive scar running down the side of the mountain, leading into a valley of death, characterized by crushed cinderblock and sheet metal buildings and scorched trees and ground. There was major construction going on to restore the road through this area.

We arrived at the outskirts of La Antigua where the buses parked and we walked into the town past groves of coffee plants and bananas.  We started our tour in the square of San José Cathedral and City Hall.  We then walked through the iconic Santa Catalina’s Arch to La Merced Church and Convent.  There were some in our group that had trouble walking on the cobblestoned streets, and it was over a mile to the La Merced so our group ended up getting pretty spread out so our guide had the task of herding a bunch of cats.  Still, we did manage to have plenty of time to wander the squares and markets. He did end up dropping us off at a jade factory where there were artisans making jewelry and other fine jade items. This place had nice bathrooms. Then others in group insisted on going to a restaurant where they could have lunch and drinks, so we were left to explore the city for about an hour.

There are lots of historic structures and lots of character in the cobble stone streets, but the little Guatemalan women vending their brightly woven fabric wares, and the kids who were pushing carved wooden masks, flutes and xylophones were pretty aggressive and annoying.

Not carrying any cash besides tips for the driver and guide makes it a little easier to deal with aggressive vendors. When Janet told one girl “I have no cash, sorry. No Gracias”, the girl retorted right back “Your husband will PAY!”.  But overall, the people were very warm, kind and happy to share a smile, and a glimpse into their lives.

 

 

 

It’s too bad we are committed to not accumulating what one of the lecturers described as inventory for future garage sales, because the Guatemalans are creative and industrious people.  

 

 

We did manage to eventually round up our group and head back to the buses. Several people had to have Tuk-Tuk rides arranged by our guide because they couldn’t walk another step.  

 

 

Once everyone was back on the bus, the trip back to the ship was unremarkable except for when we got into the shadow of Fuego, it let loose a huge ash and steam eruption extending thousands of feet into the sky.   

We were a bit nervous about driving through the prior pyroclastic flow zone, but we didn’t end up on the evening news and made it safely to the ship as the sun was setting.

 

We had another dinner at Manfredi’s, most likely our last since we have nearly exhausted the menu aside from the rotating de Giorno items.   

Tomorrow is the first of 3 sea days as we work our way back up the west coast of Mexico to Cabo San Lucas.  We’ll need to keep an eye out for whales.

   

 

 

 

Tuesday, December 4, 2018- Corinto & Léon, Nicaragua

Tuesday, December 4, 2018- Léon (Corinto), Nicaragua

Since the ship was arriving at 11am, we had a leisurely breakfast in the cafe and watched the very impressive volcanos of Nicaragua rise out of the mist and horizon.  Ben discovered that the Viking chefs make some very good but sticky sticky buns.   As we approached the coastline, our ship passed many large schools of baitfish churning the surface.  Ben even saw a billfish thrash its way through one of the larger schools, leaping into the air 3 times.  There are plenty of pelicans working these near shore waters.

We were greeted at the dock by a rauchous band and two groups of folkloric dancers in quite a festive ceremony as the ship came alongside the dock.

       

      

     

When the Viking Star has been tied up to the dock, it has always tied up with her starboard side to the dock. We didn’t get to choose our stateroom because we booked on a last minute promotion, but on this particular itinerary (Atlantic to Pacific Panama Canal transit), we would recommend booking a starboard side veranda if possible because the starboard side offered more interesting city views when tied up at the dock, was between the two lanes of traffic in the Panama Canal, and in the shade more often during the heat of the day.

Weather for our visit to Nicaragua was sunny with scattered clouds and temperature inthe lower 90’s.  Blazing hot in the sun, and still plenty humid and hot in the shade.  We are awfully spoiled traveling in the comfort of our air conditioned cruise ship and tour bus coaches, only having to be exposed to the sun, heat and humidity for relatively brief periods of time. I imagine a land based tour would involve a whole lot more time out in heat and humidity.

Our included shore excursion bundled us onto buses and drove us from our dock in Corinto to the city of Léon, a 2 hour drive through the countryside.  Fortunately, the MarcoPolo tourist buses were comfortable and air conditioned. The windows were very darkly tinted, and we didn’t make any photo stops. The main highway was paved, but many side streets are dirt, leading into neighborhoods that look like those we have seen in South America- tightly packed cinderblock and brick structures with rusting steel fences and narrow sidewalks separating their living rooms from the street.  Ocasionally you could glimpse someone sitting shirtless just inside their front door, or perhaps just leaning against the doorway as we drove past. It was very hard to get any good pictures of those typical scenes as we drove by.  

     

       

A very common sight were pedal cabs that combined a pair of benches in front with a bicycle in the back. Much less commonly, a motorcycle would be grafted to where the bicycle usually was.  The locals seemed to use these as their local version of Uber.      

     

 The countryside is agricultural with the volcanos forming a backdrop. It is not uncommon to see horses and cattle alongside the road. There are even a few horse or donkey drawn wagons in the city streets.        

It doesn’t appear that many cruise excursions have been going into Léon because our tour buses seemed to have a lot of trouble navigating the streets.  Our bus managed to get stuck in 2 intersections where it was unable to make a planned turn, so they had to detour and even make an awkward U turn to get to the central square in Léon.  Our guide said ours was only the second Viking Ocean cruise to visit Corinto and Léon.  Ours was the only cruise ship in port, but all our tour buses basically closed one of the streets leading to the city square, turning it into a tour bus parking lot.

There was a festival getting set up with giant puppets.  The date of the actual festival is December 7th and 8th.  The puppets are called La Gigantona, and are effigies of the white tall Spanish women who accompianied the conquistadors, and who towered over the native peoples.  There is also a basillica on the city square that is a UNESCO world heritage site featuring numerous domes in the roof.  We were able to walk up onto the roof to enjoy a view of Léon and the surrounding volcanos.  Two of the volcanos were actually smoking in the distance.  

   

There were many vendor stalls around the square, and many storefronts along the streets around the square.  Locals were going about their business, or perhaps had come out to gawk at all the white tourists.

  

The drive home was a bit warmer, but we were given some samples of a Nicaraguan rum and some cold Cokes to keep us happy.  We did make a brief photostop with a view of San Cristobal volcano, which dominates the horizon of Corinta and Léon.

We returned to the ship just as the sun was setting.  We had another dinner at Manfredi’s. We are working our way through the menu and will soon have sampled just about everything.  

Tomorrow we arrive at Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala, another first for us.  There is supposed to be no internet service because of a lack of satellite coverage in this particular port, so tomorrow’s blog entry may be delayed until we get back into satellite internet range.