We left Christmas Day, flying down to LAX. The flight went very smoothly (unlike the return home). We spent the night in a hotel across the street from the Pier. The next morning I opened the curtains and the ship was there. We got pretty excited.
The view outside our hotel window
We couldn't board until 1pm, so we had to kill some time. There was a Mariners museum across the street too, so we visited it. It was pretty interesting. This is a large propeller from a ship. Doug, Ruth, and nephew Nathan posed.
After we boarded the ship, we went straight to the buffet and had lunch. Then we hung out on the deck until we shipped out.
We ate our first dinner in the main dining room. I had the best roast leg of lamb ever. It was so delicious. I can't describe the pleasure I had in eating my Bavarian Chocolate Cream for dessert either. Yum.....However, one hour later I started to feel sick. By the next morning I was very very sick. I haven't been that sick in a long long long time. I was so sick I wanted to die. Sweet Hubby finally insisted I see the doctor. I was so weak though that I couldn't walk all the way to the infirmary (other end of ship and 4 decks down), so they sent someone with a wheelchair.
The doctor confirmed my worst fear. I had the dreaded virus often caught on cruise ships, Norovirus. I caught it in less than 8 hours too. It's pretty contagious stuff. I found it hard to believe cos I washed my hands all the time, and everywhere we went on the ship nice young poeple in NCL uniforms were spraying our hands with antibacterial lotion (yech!). The good news, though, was that I would live to tell about it. I was actually relieved to hear that. I worried that Doug and Ruth would get sick too, but they didn't.
I spent the two days at sea in bed in our stateroom, missing out on all the fun and food. Sigh. The illness really knocked the spit out of me. I was so weak it took several days for me to get my strength back, so I had a hard time enjoying myself when I felt so crappy. However, as the days went by, I continually improved, and the cruise got more fun.
Our first stop was Acapulco. Didn't like it. Acapulco smelled bad-from the balcony of our stateroom. It stunk like a garbage dump. It's got almost 3 million people living there, crowded, poor, and living in garbage. We had a shore excursion that required a bus trip to our destination--a freshwater lake for kayaking and lunch. We got a real good look at what Mexican poverty is like on that bus ride. People living in tiny hovels, filth everywhere, and the garbage. Every spare spot that didn't have a building or a car on it was piled high with vile stinking garbage. It was a filthy stinky city.
Our shore excursion was a disaster. Our ship was 2 hours late getting to port, so they decided to combine our group with another group. Poor decision. This was supposed to be a quick trip by bus to a quiet little jungle lagoon where we would kayak around and be fed lunch. 3 hours max. HA!
First, it was a large lake with power boats and jet ski's all over the place. Very noisy.
There were not enough kayaks. So we had to divide up into groups. Our group waited 2 hours before it was our turn. We sat at tables in a really charming open air restaurant right on the lake.
Sweet hubby chatting.
After awhile we got thirsty. It was a hot day, and we'd been waiting a long time, so Sweet Hubby and Dan started taking turns buying stuff from the bar. I had a very tasty mexican beer.
When it was our turn, we approached the waters edge. Someone handed me a child sized life jacket. I protested. He said "It's okay. Just for government, safety." He then handed me a paddle that was broken and held together with duct tape, and told me to get in the kayak. I complied. I could hardly paddle cos the life jacket was so tight around my shoulders I couldn't put my arms down. There was no back on the seat of the kayak either, so I had to lean forward with my knees up in the air. Really uncomfortable with my arms up. After about 2 minutes my back seized up into agonizing pain. I told our esteemed guide there was no way in heck I was going anywhere in that kayak with that equipment, and I got back on shore. They left without me.
I waited about half an hour for the group to return. They got back just after the sunset. Then the last group got to go--in the dark. I was glad we weren't them. After that group returned we were finally served our lunch. It was 6pm. It consisted of a couple chicken enchiladas. That was it. Good, but 3 hours past when we were supposed to have it, it wasn't enough.
We then boarded the bus back. Traffic was INSANE! It took 2 hours to get back to the ship. By then I was very unhappy. Our 3 hour little kayak trip (on the non-existent jungle lagoon) turned into a 6 hour misery. We got back on board the ship, and couldn't leave Acapulco fast enough.
The next day we arrived in Zihuatenejo. Oh what a wonderful little place. It's very clean, smells wonderful, and had the most delightful little shops along the beach. It was beautiful, too, with palm trees, white sand, jungle, and the water was so blue. The guys (Doug and Dan) were scheduled to go deep sea fishing. Ruth and I had decided to go with them. Big mistake.
Leaving Zihuatenejo on the fishing boat.
I don't know what I thought I'd be doing , but it wasn't what we did. Deep sea fishing consists of 5 hours of tourists, in this case me, Ruth, Doug, Dan, and a fellow from Arizona named George, sitting on seats in the fishing boat while the cute Mexican guy loads bait on all the hooks, sets up all the poles, and gets everyone beer. Five hours of just sitting, drinking beer (or water-like me and Ruth did. I can't drink beer at 8 in the morning) while he did all the work and the captain steers back and forth, back and forth-hoping to snag a fish. Ruth and I were bored out of our minds. I kept asking myself "Why didn't I bring my knitting?"
Sweet hubby says "Ahhh, this is the life"
Lest you think we were skunked, we weren't. One of the poles had a silver fish on it for bait. As we trolled across the water, it bounced on the surface, flashing it's silveriness in the sunshine. A sea gull flew by. It saw the bouncing fish. I thought "Uh oh---naaaaaa, it wouldn't do that" just a nano second before the gull dived for the bait and got its wings all tangled up in the line. Cute Mexican fellow reeled it in, untangled it, and it flew away-hopefully a little smarter.
We got no bites from fish. As we were returning back to the dock, the cute little Mexican fellow passed out comment forms. I said what I felt. I was bored to death (I would have liked to learn how to bait the hooks, and hold a pole once in awhile. There were pole holders on the boat. Pole holders ! No human had to hold them. It was depressing). Eventually I found myself holding all the filled out forms. I couldn't resist. I read what the guys wrote. "Excellent, excellent, great fun, loved it!"
Huh????????
It's gotta be a guy thing.
I will tell more tomorrow.
Have a nice evening.
No comments:
Post a Comment