Tuesday, November 30, 2010

T IS FOR...

TROUBLE!


Oh dear I'm in Terrible Trouble!  I miscalculated.  I was sure it was 'S' this week and have been Tootling along under That Thought, forming my 'S' blog in ma Tete (head) and now here it is Tuesday evening and no 'T' blog ready.

So the above paragraph will be my entry, but since I missed 'S' and I have some good photos from our recent Trip I'm going to pretend that I didn't know the difference.

Speaking of 'difference', do you know the difference between a ship and a boat?   Well, without getting into a lot of semantics, a good general definition seems to be that ships carry boats, but a boat can't carry a ship.  To the purist there are other more technical reasons, but that should do us for now.

SO...here are two photos of our SHIP that  I was pleased with, (the MS Rotterdam).


Our Ship surrounded by boats!
Barry took this one.


A second cruise ship joined us here.  Ours is the smaller one and more elegant I think.
I took this photo.

The most obvious 'S' that occurred on our trip was SECURITY and we didn't even have to fly.
There was the utmost security everywhere we went, not just for us getting on and off the ship, but also all around us where ever we went.
Here is a sampling of security in every port  and shore cruise:


In the markets


On the pier



Accompanying the buses


Gun boats in the harbor!



On the pier again.


In the towns


Riot gear??








I have to admit, the last few were taken in Lima, Peru where unknown to us at the time, the President of Peru and the President of Brazil were meeting in the Presidential Palace. So those of us who went to take photos of the changing of the guard in Lima were met with more police presence in riot gear than we had bargained for.

All the same, the police presence was noticeably there wherever we went and after a while I began to wonder if they knew something we didn't!
Still it was nice to know the security was so good.

Next week I'll do it right, and do ABC WEDNESDAY with 'U'




Monday, November 29, 2010

WHAT WE SAW --

ANIMALS in the wild:

Capuchin Monkeys




 We saw these in Costa Rica. as we were about to board our boat for the Jungle River Cruise -- think Disneyland, only these animals were real.  The people at the hacienda put out fruit to attract the monkeys for we touristas.

 CROCODILES




Enlarge, to see the teeth. (Click twice) He was getting a little aggravated with us.  He did a beautiful swirl and submerged.




Big and fat! Probably 8-10 feet.


SLOTH
 Yes, that's moss growing on his back

Sloth swimming 


Up a tree!


Toucan

 Toucan flying


Parrots





CORMORANTS

The above photos were taken by our friend Miguel, a crew member who had a better camera than ours.  He kindly shared these with us.  
We saw all of the above in Costa Rica and Panama -- for me, the most exciting part of the trip.

The jungle river was beautiful.








The steamy mist rising out of the jungle just added to the atmosphere.  Yes, it was hot and wet.

NEXT UP... THE LETTER 'S' ON OUR MEMORABLE CRUISE 
in honor of ABC Wednesday.

Friday, November 26, 2010

We're Back !

WHERE WE'VE BEEN


We took the Incan Cruise on the Holland American Line's Rotterdam
We left from San Diego (Hooray-- no flying!) on October 23rd and arrived back November 22nd.
We visited several ports in Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador and Peru.
Perfect weather!  Saw lots of things, did lots of things.  Great cruise!
We were among the youngest on board - imagine! Everything was outstanding -- food, weather, accommodations, tours.
Photos and details coming up.

So good to be back.  I've been peeking at the posts of all my blogging friends and now that we are out from under the major necessities of our return, I plan to start blogging again.
Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.