A GOOD CUPPA JOE

Good gravy!  As I write this, it is one week shy of a year since we ended this cruise.  The King of Procrastination will be my epitaph for sure. 

We departed Costa Rica and spent a day at sea enroute to Guatamala, our next stop.  The usual routine.  I gallantly assisted Loni by finishing off the second half of her breakfast cinnamon bun.  After, of course, demolishing my own along with a bowl of oatmeal.  What happens at sea, stays at sea, except for the poundage.  Spent the morning reading in front of the panoramic windows at the bow in the Constellation Lounge.  For me, this is the best place on the ship.  Relatively quiet and with 180 degree views.  After lunch, we heard another Bill Hall lecture on the Canal and learned that the U.S. got outbid on supplying the concrete for the construction of the new locks by only $1.5 million (to a consortium of Italy, Korea, Spain, and Panama).  Fast forward to today.  While the century-old U.S. concrete of the old locks is still in excellent shape, the newly-opened locks suffer abismally from holes that are causing huge leaks.  The “fix” is to insert steel rods and inject epoxy into the holes!  Many lawsuits are pending.  Amazing.

Walnut pie for dessert at lunch and chocolate/mocha cake for tea in the afternoon.  Decadence.  Afternoon trivia did not go well, us scoring 12/20 with 17 as the winner.  Who could possibly know that Wrigley gum was the first barcoded product? Bah!  Dinner was vegetables en croute for Loni, shrimp pasta in lobster sauce for me.  Oh, the hardship.  At our table was a couple from Yorkshire, so we made the obligatory “All Creatures” comments to tolerant smiles.  He was upset because the ship had run out of his favorite cider and this was simply an outrage.  The other couple was from Germany so we discussed my old beer clients, Bitburger and Erdinger. Early day tomorrow for portfall, so to bed early.

The port for Guatamala is Quetzal (the national bird), which is strictly a working port, surrounded by jungle, with nary a tourist spot of interest.  I don’t include the bazaar that one has to navigate between the gangway and the waiting buses.  If kitchy shopping is your thing, it lies within that grove of trees behind us.  We again signed up for an all-day tour ($119 each)to include a coffee plantation and the colonial-era city of Antigua.  As the tour left at 7:30, we were up at 5:30 to ablute, grab breakfast, and wait for our disembarkation call (we were group 16, as you can see by my sticker). 

All went smoothly and we were on our way with our enthusiastic guide, Dario.  It was about a 1 1/2 hour drive to the coffee plantation, with not much to marvel at until we got near the volcanoes.  One was distantly venting a bit of steam, below.  When we got to the plantation, the entry drive was so narrow the bus had to do a 47-point turn to back into it, completely blocking the highway for some time, resulting in a huge backup in both directions.  Incredibly, not one car honked.  Everyone, even the motorcyclists, waited patiently (and it took a while) for the maneuver to complete.  Try that in the states and the drivers would be threatening to sue.  I liked the Jeepney-style bus that got hung up in the traffic.

The tour was quite interesting.  Coffee bushes are grown under canopy trees to provide shade.  A tree starts producing beans after only two years, but is not mature until about the age of ten.  The trees self-fertilize, having both the female and male parts.  The pods are ripe when they are red or yellow and are all picked by hand, in December, by local women.  The beans you see in the photo are all colors, and this in mid-November.  After harvesting, the beans are dumped in a large vat.  The best quality ones are the heaviest and they sink; the #2’s float.  After washings and fermentation for 2 days, they are spreand outside on drying tables for about 10 days.  Our guide said this farm grows 40,000 lbs annually, which doesn’t seem like enough to pay for the 60 temporary pickers, but I guess they are only on the payroll for a short time. 

After the tour we all relaxed under the trees for a very nice coffee break.  I thought the coffee was quite smooth, but my impaired taste buds couldn’t pick up any particular flavors.  Loni thought it was good.

As we were waiting around to get on the bus, the local volcano decided to put on a show.  In the inset picture, it’s the one on the left, and you can barely see the smoke puff starting.

Back on the bus for the drive to Antigua, which was designated the capitol in 1541, and sits at an altitude of 5,000 ft.  This is supposedly a big flower growing area, both roses and tulips, the latter for export to Holland!  We didn’t see any flower farms, but lots of farmland and jungle growth.  The city is laid out grid-fashion, with fairly narrow streets and no buildings over two stories (save government, churches, etc.).  It all looked pretty much like this shot from the bus.

Once we arrived we assembled the group for a walking tour over the cobblestone streets.  Alas, we never went inside anything!  Except the jade store, of course.  Gotta keep those merchants happy.  Except for a couple of views, I didn’t find the place particularly interesting save for the fact that it has looked like this for hundreds of years.

Almost nothing is open to the street; private homes are all behind walls, but we did get the occasional peek into a courtyard, and some of the homes sport flowers.  The fountain was in the main square, and featured a number of bosomy babes clutching their, uh, bosoms.

This was the prettiest street we saw.  Don’t know what any of it is, our guide was less than stellar.

There was a main town square that was packed with locals, tourists, and hucksters.  It was quite colorful, centered on the fountain and backed by the handsome white government building.

There were loads of Indian women in bright colors that were hawking wares throughout the square and in other areas as well.  Talk about multitasking—the woman leaning back on the car is not only carrying her cloth goods, but a huge bundle on her back and a baby in her arms.  Check out the look on the lady at the left as she glances over.

Off for lunch at a very nice patio restaurant.  Everything was steam tray served, but it was quite good.  This is pretty much the standard fare for the country, and quite similar to what we got in Costa Rica.  Chicken, plantains, beans, rice, beef and potatoes, and a blue corn tortilla.  I appear to be in white face from my suntan lotion.

After lunch we trundled down the street to the Jade Museum, which is a working jewelry shop that gives lectures and demonstrations.  It was interesting, especially learning that Guatamala has some significant deposits of quality gems, but we found it easy to avoid buying anything.  After the shop, it was time to load up for the 2 hour trip back to the ship.  This shot illustrates one of the downsides of cruising.  Multiple ships with multiple tours all congregate on the same few tourist spots.  That’s our guide in front, but that’s another tour altogether across the street.  Out of view are three more buses and related groups.  All trying to escape at the same time.  Oye.

Trying to get out of the city we encountered repeated traffic jams, as the buses all had to perform multi-point turns to negotiate various corners.  At one point we passed a bunch of firemen soliciting funds.  Apparently they are not paid by the government, but have to rely on donations.  Yikes!  Back on board around 4:45.  Loni’s foot made it through the day, but it is swelling up again with a bruise on the inner ankle.  We applied first aid in the form of tea and cake on the stern as the ship pulled out of its berth.  Dinner in the “to order” cafeteria, but they overcooked our fish.  Nice show with a gal pianist doing jazz and show tunes and remarkably well supported by the house band seeing as how she had just come on board before departure and had no rehearsal.  Still not sleepy, so we finished off the day with (groan) coffee and dessert.  It never ends.