My parents: the 'almost' criminals
This is really too good not to share, but I ought to have posted a part 1 first, so here's
My mum and dad have taken themselves off on a organised Caribbean cruise for 5 weeks, and my aunt, my dad’s twin sister, has also gone with them. What’s so funny and lovely about this trip for my parents is that they met on a cruise ship a few centuries ago. Yes, they truly did. That particular cruise happened to be a South Pacific one, visiting places like Fiji, Vanuatu, the Cook Islands, Tonga, Tahiti. Sounds dreadful, doesn’t it? ;-) You get the general idea. So in a way, my parents are reliving their green and salad days.
They started off doing the usual commute from Auckland to LA à then to San Jose, in Costa Rica for a few days’ pootling around on shore, before embarking on the ship. I should say that it sounds as though there are a very small number of passengers aboard - perhaps 90-odd at most, so this is not some huge floating city we’re talking about here. After spending a few days along the Costa Rican coast, they headed to Panama and, at the time of writing, they’ll have just gone through the Panama Canal. I’ll have to ask my mum how this compared to her trip through the Suez Canal.
The days to come will see them travel to the Netherlands Antilles à Venezuela à Trinidad à Grenada à Tobago Cays à Bequia à St Vincent à St Lucia à Nevis à Antigua à San Juan à Miami à home. This is the potted version to save any of you dying of boredom.
I certainly didn’t die of boredom upon receiving the latest e-mail from my parents. Struth!
My mum has done a great deal of travelling in her life, including from Africa to Europe, through Europe, and from the UK to Oz and then NZ (not in chronological order!), so she’s reasonably travel-savvy. For my dad, however, this is the biggest trip he’s been on, and I’m sure all is new, strange, and often very weird - I do hope he’s enjoying himself! Gregarious as he is (I know where my brother gets it from!), I’ve had it on good authority that he’s talking to anything that moves. I digress, however.
The olds’ nascent criminal career appears to go something like this, taken directly from my mum’s e-mail [includes my asides ;-)]:
‘Here we are in Golfito, very hot, sticky and nearly found ourselves maybe in a Costa Rican jail - taxi driver thought that we were try to rip him off…. The near arrest came about because we had been told on the boat the taxi was $1 and although we did ask whether that was the ride or per person we were told the former. So we paid that but the taxi driver was not accepting that and with neither of being able to get the information across [neither of them speak Spanish or anything resembling it], we walked away. The taxi driver got on his cell phone and tailed us. The next thing was the sirens, not just one police car but two plus two on motor bikes. [What!?!!] There was some discussion but I could see that we were not going to win this one, so paid. We will say nothing of our adventure and see how quickly the 'whispers' get around the ship!!!!!! One of the police made the mistake by saying that the taxi driver was his friend. Yes I thought - probably your brother-in-law’.
That last sentence certainly sounds like my mum! LOL! I do wonder whether my dad’s stubbornness contributed to the situation, as I can just hear him saying, ‘No, bugger it. We got told $1 for the fare, so why should we pay more? We’re being ripped off. Let’s go.’
At least I know that whatever trouble these two may get themselves into, they’re safe from Hurricane Wilma. Now I just have the anticipation of waiting for their next e-mail. What’ll they have got up to next??!