Long Week
May blessings be heaped on air conditioned busses! We took an excursion to a coffee plantation in Costa Rica, and a rum factory in Nicaragua, traveling to and from in cool busses. All locations were hot and humid; my clothes were sopping in minutes outside the busses and ship.
In Guatemala we walked off the boat into the heat long enough to look at the Jade Museum outlet and the small market set up right at the end of the pier, and drink a beer. The Jade Museum was small, but I found my perfect jaguar there. He is labelled as sleeping, and he's much nicer than the angry jaguars that predominate the carvings for sale in the market. Sadly, there were no copies of him, and we didn't get a picture.
I am still flummoxed by the great difference between Latin American ccountries. Costa Rica is peaceful and prosperous, well educated. Infrastructure is continuing to be built for the benefit of all, poor or rich. Electricity and clean water is available to each house. They eliminated their army years ago. Ask anyone there how they are, and the answer is always "pura vida, "pure life" indicating they are happy and well and proud of CR, differentuating themselves from their neighbors. The coffee factory is a cooperative of small farmers. Nicaragua still is a troubled country; the town and area we were in depends on the good will of the local major industry, the rum factory, which provides jobs, endows schools, builds hospitals and futbol pitches. A company town.
We stopped in Cabo for an afternoon. No idea why. It's a huge resort. Or rather many resorts and really big yachts. JL and I decided to get off ship and get on an older fashioned sailing ship (with no sails) ostensibly for whale watching. The shtick was pirates, and much silliness. No whales, as they have migrated north for the season, but we saw sea lions and a turtle, and lovely rock formations pounded by the waves.
Tomorrow Victoria, then Friday, Vancouver and home. At last.
In Guatemala we walked off the boat into the heat long enough to look at the Jade Museum outlet and the small market set up right at the end of the pier, and drink a beer. The Jade Museum was small, but I found my perfect jaguar there. He is labelled as sleeping, and he's much nicer than the angry jaguars that predominate the carvings for sale in the market. Sadly, there were no copies of him, and we didn't get a picture.
I am still flummoxed by the great difference between Latin American ccountries. Costa Rica is peaceful and prosperous, well educated. Infrastructure is continuing to be built for the benefit of all, poor or rich. Electricity and clean water is available to each house. They eliminated their army years ago. Ask anyone there how they are, and the answer is always "pura vida, "pure life" indicating they are happy and well and proud of CR, differentuating themselves from their neighbors. The coffee factory is a cooperative of small farmers. Nicaragua still is a troubled country; the town and area we were in depends on the good will of the local major industry, the rum factory, which provides jobs, endows schools, builds hospitals and futbol pitches. A company town.
We stopped in Cabo for an afternoon. No idea why. It's a huge resort. Or rather many resorts and really big yachts. JL and I decided to get off ship and get on an older fashioned sailing ship (with no sails) ostensibly for whale watching. The shtick was pirates, and much silliness. No whales, as they have migrated north for the season, but we saw sea lions and a turtle, and lovely rock formations pounded by the waves.
Tomorrow Victoria, then Friday, Vancouver and home. At last.