Costa Rica, Day 5

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Another early day. We got up for an 8 am pickup. Today we went out snorkeling on a sailboat and saw some dolphins.

We stopped by the marina and I got a tshirt then, I decided I wanted a hat with SPF 45 built in so I went back in for that. Then Tom decided he wanted a shirt. This time the credit card was declined. I guess they thought it was stolen by then. Luckily, I had a second card.

All this activity made us the last ones inboard. We had been first at the dock.

We sailed out a bit and ran into the dolphins. I got lucky on the pictures. I was just shooting and hoping some would jump up when the shutter went off.

The video below is not mine but similar to what we saw:

The crew came around with wonderful pineapple slices. Yummy!

We sailed by a small rock island covered with brown booby birds. The little islands came up with the shifting of the tectonic plates.

Then snorkeling/swimming. There was a small island with sargent major fish. We had seen those in Barbados.

After this we had a nice lunch of fish, rice, potato, yucca and carrots.

A bit of sailing around then back home. First thing was to call the bank and assure them that the card hadn't been stolen, it was us making multiple small purchases.

Since we were already wet, we decided to go swimming. A nice dog came over and sat by me while I was reading. He even posed for the camera. I also tried to get a picture of a butterfly on a bush but I don't think it came out too well.

After showers, we headed in to Quepos to find the ATM again.

Then off to dinner. Our friends from Thrifty were there so we joined then and heard the whole saga of the flat tire.

Back home and writing this...

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Day Six, November 20, 2009: At Sea

Lazy day at sea, involving meals, snacks, ice cream… we worked a lot of it off, though. 

Except for the very first time onboard, when there was no choice, we walked up and down stairs many times a day.  We were on deck 9.  Restaurants and shows were on either 12 (or 13) or 7.  I’m surprised my knees survived!

There was the usual napping, reading

Sometime during the day we put a deposit down on another cruise to be used within 4 years.

We also got copies of pictures that were taken that first night, when we ate in Tango’s.  Tom as surprised – he hadn’t realized that we had had our picture taken.

We thought of doing several things, but ended up going in the pool, reading, napping and – eating, of course!

Despite today’s forecast of “Sunny”, there was a bit of rain out to sea and some thunder and lightning.

On balcony

In The Great Outdoors

Resting in the comfy chairs in Spinnaker

This evening we ate at Mongolian Hot Pots. I was very excited about this because I happen to have a Mongolian Hot Pot at home although I haven’t used it for years.

It looks like this (although I never had flames like this):

The idea is that there is coal or another heating element in the middle chimney so the food in the outer bowl area cooks more quickly.

The Mongolian hot pot tradition originated from northern nomadic tribes.  Nomadic households used pots like this to save volume and weight during migration.

So, I was looking forward to trying this out cooked by someone other than myself!

We had some trouble finding this restaurant – turned out they had set aside 4 tables in Chin Chin Asian Restaurant.

The 4 tables all had an electric heating element on the table.  No coal here!

We all had seaweed salad, dumplings and steamed edamame (baby soybeans) as appetizers.

Then the waiter brought out the gingery broth for the Shabu-Shabu, white rice and 3 dipping sauces for each of us.  The broth included silky tofu and vegetables, including hakusai, chrysanthemum leaves, nori (edible seaweed), onions, carrots, shiitake mushrooms and enokitake mushrooms.

Then came the plates of thinly sliced beef which we put onto long forks and cooked quickly in the broth.

Then, a second plate of beef.  Had we finished all this, we could have had the broth over the rice for a final soup course but we never got that far.

Wonderful!

For dessert, rice ice cream in matcha (powdered green tea), coconut and azuki (Red Bean) flavors. 

Waiting for the show to start.

The show this evening was another Jean Ann Ryan Company production called Le Cirque Bijou.  What a great show!  Acrobats, aerialists, gymnasts, bungee jumpers hurling themselves from the 2-deck high ceiling.  People swung on trapezes, used scarves to swing from.  Amazing, the whole show.

At the end, they said that we could photograph or video the finale, so I did.  This was the last contract for this company, so it was their very last show (on this ship, anyway)

Today's Stats:
Forecast: Sunny, 82F/28C
Sunrise: 6:58am (We changed the clocks back today)
Sunset: 5:38pm