Wednesday, November 18, 2009
One thing I forgot to tell you is on our Panama Canal lecture Milos said many of the same practices are used today as when the canal opened. I posted a picture of two men in a row boat in our Canal pictures. He said the row boat is used to bring the cables to the ship that are then attached to the mules. He said when outboard motors were invented, they thought rowing should be replaced with outboard motors which would make the job faster and easier. What happened is what still happens with motors of this type—sometimes you have to pull the cord more than once to get it started. Milos said one such incident they couldn’t get it started and the other man was heard yelling at the one pulling the cord on the engine “ship’s coming”. We all laughed and now that has been the saying for this cruise because this captain doesn’t like waiting for anyone nor does he like anyone getting in his way. This morning on our approach to Acapulco he blew the horn at least a dozen times wanting the small boats to get out of the way—“ship’s coming”. It was a beautiful day here and got very hot and humid. We were on a…. sing it Kay “3 hour tour” which was the “Bay Tour and Cliff Divers”. We had to meet our tour on the pier and then they walked us as a group to this “transport vehicle” is the only way I can describe it because I had never seen anything like it. It was a flat boat with benches on each side and down the middle. On each end there were stairs. They loaded it up and then moved us out to the 3 level catamaran for the cruise. They made 4 trips to get everyone to the catamaran. It was a very nice setup, even better than Huatulco but Debbie and I were trying to figure out if the guy that was our “guide” was a gay albino—I had trouble looking at him although he was very good. They took us along the cliffs showing where the stars houses were (although they could have told us anything and we wouldn’t know if they were lying). We saw Bill Gates AND Oprah’S houses (1 of their many) and Hedy Lamar’s house and nightclub she had built and Tyrone Power, Lisa Minnelli and on and on. We get to the place where the divers dive from the cliffs and it was amazing to watch them. Then 3 of them swam to the boat of course for tips and photos. There is a picture of them posted here. The boat had a Mexican buffet lunch then took us back to where we got on. Debbie and I went back to the ship and again the cold towel Celebrity thing is very nice. We dropped everything in the cabin and headed back out on our own. We weren’t out of the port gate before the harassment began—now this is the Mexico I know and hate! They had beggars, women, children and cabby's following us up the street. Debbie wanted some authentic Mexican chips and salsa so we were on a quest. Luckily after taking our life in our own hands just crossing this street to get the other side, we found one close and there were lots of the crew members in there so I felt better. We enjoyed a Corona with limes of course and some guacamole (I thought of Bob Shari since he makes his own) and chips and then tacos—all extremely good. It was so hot though as it was open to the street and the vendors drove you crazy coming to the tables trying to get you to buy what they were selling. We walked back to the ship and got yet another cold towel and got showered and headed to Michael’s club to meet Dave and Diane. Somehow we got to talking about “speedo’s” and there were a lot of funny stories. Off to dinner with Leslie and Susan then to the casino. Debbie had a great night at the 3 Card Poker table, then we played blackjack and had a ball. They are always playing music on a tape I guess and last night we had a fun group at the blackjack table and the music was Dean Martin singing “That’s A’more”. I started singing it then the whole table was singing it then everyone in the casino was singing it—pretty funny. It was a fun day and night. Tomorrow is a sea day then our last port of Cabo San Lucas.
One thing I forgot to tell you is on our Panama Canal lecture Milos said many of the same practices are used today as when the canal opened. I posted a picture of two men in a row boat in our Canal pictures. He said the row boat is used to bring the cables to the ship that are then attached to the mules. He said when outboard motors were invented, they thought rowing should be replaced with outboard motors which would make the job faster and easier. What happened is what still happens with motors of this type—sometimes you have to pull the cord more than once to get it started. Milos said one such incident they couldn’t get it started and the other man was heard yelling at the one pulling the cord on the engine “ship’s coming”. We all laughed and now that has been the saying for this cruise because this captain doesn’t like waiting for anyone nor does he like anyone getting in his way. This morning on our approach to Acapulco he blew the horn at least a dozen times wanting the small boats to get out of the way—“ship’s coming”. It was a beautiful day here and got very hot and humid. We were on a…. sing it Kay “3 hour tour” which was the “Bay Tour and Cliff Divers”. We had to meet our tour on the pier and then they walked us as a group to this “transport vehicle” is the only way I can describe it because I had never seen anything like it. It was a flat boat with benches on each side and down the middle. On each end there were stairs. They loaded it up and then moved us out to the 3 level catamaran for the cruise. They made 4 trips to get everyone to the catamaran. It was a very nice setup, even better than Huatulco but Debbie and I were trying to figure out if the guy that was our “guide” was a gay albino—I had trouble looking at him although he was very good. They took us along the cliffs showing where the stars houses were (although they could have told us anything and we wouldn’t know if they were lying). We saw Bill Gates AND Oprah’S houses (1 of their many) and Hedy Lamar’s house and nightclub she had built and Tyrone Power, Lisa Minnelli and on and on. We get to the place where the divers dive from the cliffs and it was amazing to watch them. Then 3 of them swam to the boat of course for tips and photos. There is a picture of them posted here. The boat had a Mexican buffet lunch then took us back to where we got on. Debbie and I went back to the ship and again the cold towel Celebrity thing is very nice. We dropped everything in the cabin and headed back out on our own. We weren’t out of the port gate before the harassment began—now this is the Mexico I know and hate! They had beggars, women, children and cabby's following us up the street. Debbie wanted some authentic Mexican chips and salsa so we were on a quest. Luckily after taking our life in our own hands just crossing this street to get the other side, we found one close and there were lots of the crew members in there so I felt better. We enjoyed a Corona with limes of course and some guacamole (I thought of Bob Shari since he makes his own) and chips and then tacos—all extremely good. It was so hot though as it was open to the street and the vendors drove you crazy coming to the tables trying to get you to buy what they were selling. We walked back to the ship and got yet another cold towel and got showered and headed to Michael’s club to meet Dave and Diane. Somehow we got to talking about “speedo’s” and there were a lot of funny stories. Off to dinner with Leslie and Susan then to the casino. Debbie had a great night at the 3 Card Poker table, then we played blackjack and had a ball. They are always playing music on a tape I guess and last night we had a fun group at the blackjack table and the music was Dean Martin singing “That’s A’more”. I started singing it then the whole table was singing it then everyone in the casino was singing it—pretty funny. It was a fun day and night. Tomorrow is a sea day then our last port of Cabo San Lucas.
How come no picture of the gay albino? Does Oprah have houses everywhere? When we took a helicopter ride on one of the Hawaiian Islands the pilot also pointed out Oprah's house. No Hedy LaMarr though. Nice pictures.
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