Amateur Traveler

We had another early start (and to our surprise another time change to Central Time) in Costa Rica. Both at Panama and Costa Rica large numbers of passengers were doing shore excursions so we were gathered in the Frans Hals lounge (the largest theatre) where we were each tagged with a colored number sticker by tour group. With the rest of the red #7s we boarded a bus with a very articulate local guide. We transferred from the bus to a train for a ride through the rain forest and banana plantations. Living up to the name rain forest, it rained our entire day in Costa Rica. At times it rained quite hard. Our guide told us that the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica has two seasons: the rainy season and the rainier season. Some of our bus/train/ship mates still grumbled about the rain. We stopped at a banana packing plant but for some reason they were not working that day. They normally work every day and our guides were caught by surprise. Our bus driver works at one of these plants and is part of a program where he trained to be a driver and drives a couple of days a week. We learned that a banana plant will bear one and only one bunch of bananas (in about a year) and then will be chopped down. So they leave two younger plants growing from the same root system so that the same root system can bear 3 bunches of bananas in a year.

After our train ride we stopped for a break with music, shopping, fresh fruit and fruit juice or beer (Imperial from Costa Rica) before boarding a boat where we cruised a short distance along the rain forest. We saw a sloth (curled in a ball against the rain) and several different types of birds: toucans, egrets, etc. We also saw small bats, which we would easily have missed if not for the sharp eyes of our boat driver.

We arose early (thankful for gaining an hour in the time change as we sailed West to Panama and Eastern Time) to watch the ship enter the 3 locks that took the ship up the 85 feet from sea level to the level of Gatun Lake. The canal has 6 sets of locks total but the ship just went up halfway and then back down again to the Caribbean. We left the ship in Gatun Lake for a 7 hour adventure across Panama by bus to a ferry on which we rode out the 3 remaining locks to the Pacific ocean. Being in the lock in a small boat is a different perspective from the big cruise ship. The canal seemed surprisingly small to me. We saw where they are starting the new expanded canal, which will allow the canal to carry larger ships. I was also surprised at the Gaillard Cut how small the cut looked. It is hard to believe that 20,000 people died in the French effort at this spot alone (of the 22,000 deaths). The area around the canal looks more pastoral than jungle these days. We had rain on our trip, which is not that surprising in an area that gets 250 inches of rain a year. We had a good local guide whose English we usually able to make out. Although when he said we were moving towards our "destiny" (when he meant "destination") that sounded pretty ominous.

We had booked a cruise and snorkel excursion through http://ShoreTrips.com for Curaçao. Since we were not booking through the cruise line we were the only people from our ship on the excursion and had to wait by the port's gate for almost a half hour after the time they had given us before the van picked us up. The van took us to Spanish Bay, which was a distance away. Unlike Aruba, much of Curaçao looked attractive and I would like to spend more time there some time. At Spanish Bay we took a Zodiac out to the sailing schooner Bounty. The ship had about 40 passengers and a crew of 5. We motored out of the bay and then raised the two jibs to sail to our first snorkel destination. There was a free open bar on the boat so I got my diet coke fix and a rum punch or two during our 5 hour voyage. The visibility was better at Curaçao than we had seen at Aruba and both the outing before and after lunch were quite fun (so fun that I did not notice how fried my back was getting in the tropical sun). After a nice lunch on the boat we motored a short distance to the wreck of a tug boat. I was able to shoot underwater video that reminded me of the Titanic. All in all it was an excellent outing which left me grinning profusely and fried to a crisp.

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Chris Christensen
Amateur Traveler podcast
Tripinator - Travel 2.0

Our ship was not scheduled to arrive in Aruba until noon so I attended Robin Williams' (not that one) class Fourth Wall? What Fourth Wall? The Elizabethan Stage. Robin showed pictures of the old globe and the new globe in London and talked about how actors in the New Globe gained new insights about Shakespeare's plays when they performed those plays on a stage similar to that which he used. Particularly it became clear how many speeches were aimed at the groundlings who stood at the very edge of the stage. She also introduced us to the Wheel of Fortune and the Great Chain of Being and we learned the proper use of thee/thou vs you in Elizabethan English.

After that I went to a session on podcasting by Randal Schwartz on the Macmania track. I can only hope that my comments were helpful as I did not go as much to learn as to share.

For our shore excursion we did a sea kayaking and snorkeling trip. We had 3 very nice guides who showed us how to paddle and un-capsize a kayak (fortunately the second set of knowledge went unused). We had never kayaked before but had wanted to try it. We did not steer anything like a straight course but did manage to get to and from a park down the coast which we used as a base for snorkeling. I had brought my prescription swim goggles so I went out without a mask and snorkel which made the snorkel part of the excursion more work. There was not really great visibility but at least I was able to start getting the hang of the underwater video camera (Sanyo Xacti) that I had recently purchased. The guides made us wear life vests which just got in the way. Mine kept coming unzipped which just gave me one more thing to fuss with. We were warned by the guides that fire coral which was prevalent in the area would give us a painful and permanent tattoo should we touch it.

After the excursion we walked around the port area of Aruba but only had to venture a block or so before the city started looking pretty seedy.

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Chris Christensen
Amateur Traveler podcast
Tripinator - Travel 2.0

Our morning started with a lecture on violence in Shakespeare from Christopher Duval. He talked about the weapons (rapier) and styles of combat in Shakespeare's day. He also said one census from the time had 130 men for every 100 women which caused great sexual tensions which are played out in Romeo and Juliet.

The next talk was again with Bill Rauch talking about the 2008 OSF season. Joan attended but I worked out in the gym instead. It is surprising that on a ship of 1400 people it is not hard to find a free machine in the gym. They had maybe 20 aerobic machines of which no more than 10 were in use at any given time.

After lunch I attended a question and answer session with 4 of the actors, which Joan skipped so she could work out. The stories the actors told often left us in stitches. My favorite was a story of a production of Julius Caesar (not at OSF) where just after Caesar was killed in a very dramatic fashion with lots of stage blood, the assassins paused to let the audience take in the moment. In the silence a phone started ringing off stage. No one knew what to do until one of the actor's ad libbed "what if it is for Caesar?"

The second session was watching the film Romeo and Juliet from 1968 by Franco Zefferelli. Barry Kraft gave some introductory remarks about what to watch for in this particular production. The theatre was warm and more than one head nodded off when the lights went out. It was a good production but I was not the only one hoping that just this once it would not end so badly for our star crossed lovers.

I stayed in the same theatre for another 2 hours to hear Jason Snell of MacWorld give a presentation on Leopard 101 (Mac OS 10.5). I knew much of what he was presenting but there was enough that I did not know to make the presentation (which was well done) worthwhile.

Dinner was our first of 3 formal dinner evenings, so I rushed quickly from the Mac talk to the room to change and then on to the dining room. Yet again we had wonderful dinner table mates. We can't join in the discussions on the most recent OSF productions, but also found may other things to talk about. Our table had 2 doctors and their wives (a hand surgeon at Shriner's hospital in LA and a Ob/Gyn from Bellevue Washington). They each had a couple of stories of being asked "is there a doctor in the house... or on the plane...”