Last of the Latin

Time: 2:35pm

Location: at sea on the way from Puerto Vallarta to Los Angeles

Weather: sunny, 28C

Back to the last month and a bit on the Island, which seems like ages ago compared to now. In the end I was actually really sad to be leaving just as I was finally getting to know people. Maybe it's because I'm still relatively new to ships but I would say it takes a good month or more when you join a brand new ship to get your bearings and figure out what everyone does. 

One of the highlights of my last cruise there was of course Halloween. I've never gone crazy with costumes for Halloween even as a kid, but I still muddled over what I was going to be seeing as it's a pretty big thing on ships. The one chance I had to buy something in Fort Lauderdale I chose to go to the beach just so I could say I've actually been to somewhere other than a store in Florida. 

So in the end I settled to be a cat with some borrowed some cat ears and drawn whiskers, much tamer than some of the other amazing figures seen at the party that night.

I only got one opportunity to go out into both Cartagena, Colombia and Aruba but it was enough that now I can say I have been to South America and checked off another island in the Caribbean! Cartagena Old Town was very colourful with its cobblestone streets and colonial architecture. In the little time we had, my friend Holly and I managed to powerwalk through the major sights with a quick drink stop as well.  For someone who doesn't have the sharp eyes for architecture, at some point you realize all of these colonial towns are very similar and they start to blend into one another. What I do remember well though is that Cartagena wins for the most awesome terminal I have seen so far. There is an aviary right as you walk away from the ship complete with flamingos, macaws, toucans... even red squirrels and monkeys. The only thing missing is free WiFi but that's unheard of at any of these places.  

Aruba was just as gorgeous as everybody had told me with its turquoise waters melding with white sand beaches. The one thing that surprised me was how arid it was. The island is essentially a desert with cacti growing everywhere, very different from the tropical lush jungles that typically comes to mind. I went on a very interesting 4WD Jeep tour that zipped us all over the major sights of the island, including directly on the sand at times. 

To me, Puntarenas, Costa Rica and San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua were again two very similar places, albeit I only went out in the latter once. In contrast to Aruba, both were full of green green jungles and volcanoes. Sadly I also saw a lot of poverty, passing by houses that looked very makeshift with pieces of tin. The friendly waves you received were very heartening as you witness how happy you can still be with not having much at all. 

From a rainforest arial tram to river cruise to train, I somehow managed to go on all methods of transportation in Puntarenas. 

In San Juan Del Sur, I was lucky to go on a comprehensive tour that brought us to Lake Nicaragua, a hike around the Mombacho volcano crater, and a very quick lunch stop in Granada, another beautiful UNESCO colonial city. And guess what, it involved another 4WD ride, this time on the back of a converted truck up some 40% grade roads, some of the steepest in Nicaragua. 

My last port in Puerto Vallarta was spent blissfully with a trolley tour of the city centre, multiple tequila tastings, Maraichi show and of course beach. As developed for tourism as Puerto Vallarta is, surprisingly I actually found it the most laid back in terms of touts on the street trying to sell you things. The Sierre Madre mountains meet the Pacific Ocean just like they do back home and it's easy to see why so many Americans and Canadians flock here to take residence for a part of the year. 

Panama Canal

Time: 1:53pm

Location: on the way from Huatulco, Mexico to San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua

Weather: sunny, 37C degrees

I write this from the sun deck loungers of our ship on an afternoon tanning break, complete with cheery Caribbean music playing in the background, which has become somewhat of a daily ritual as I make it my goal to get more sun and fresh air everyday. When this will get published is another story given the non-existence of free WiFi at these ports (17 days and counting since I last had internet! Good thing I'm good at living without it). It has been almost a month since I've joined the Island Princess in Los Angeles, and things couldn't be more different here, on what they call a "normal" ship in the regular market. When you come from 3 and 4 day cruises with no sea days, the 2-3 week cruises here feel like eons. My first 19 day cruise was quite the drag especially in the latter half with what felt like endless sea days due to canceled ports, crappy weather, and me waiting to take over my job. Now that it's over, I'm finally really enjoying this 15 day cruise, which may be as well because crazily I only have another cruise here left. I found out right before I joined that I was getting trans-shipped back to the Sapphire Princess on Nov. 11, so it's back to Asia, but this time Southeast Asia, I go! It would have been better if I had more time here to make the most out of these exotic  (to me) Central American ports and unfortunately this means I no longer get to do South America on this contract, but I also look forward to going back to a familiar ship with familiar faces and hey I'm getting my dream of returning to SE Asia including many new places answered after my original backpacking trip in 2015 and 2016!

Back to the latter half of September, I was somewhat lucky to have an early morning flight to LA that gave me a good part of a day in the city beforehand, which I spent checking out Venice Beach and Santa Monica on a beach cruiser. Both were very good for people watching and I managed to catch a wicked sunset off the pier in Santa Monica.

 The next day it's bam back to work as I tried to remember things from 2.5 months ago. It was a lot less overwhelming than the first time since I knew what to expect and there was way less training, but I still got lost going around as the configuration of this ship is completely different from all the others in the fleet. When the passengers arrived I knew things were going to be the opposite of what I was used to; they were much older, predominantly American, but more importantly 88% of the ship was filled with repeat guests which justified my sole job of managing the loyalty program. Throughout the cruise we did many events I had never seen before as Rachel who I am replacing showed me the full spectrum of the Captain's Circle Host. My boss from head office was also onboard for 6 days to train the Future Cruise Consultant (who was in my position here just months ago so I was in good hands if I ever don't know something), so I got to meet her and go out for dinner at Bayou Cafe within days of joining. 

In other news I went to my first ever open deck party and then some others which are always a blast and am finally beginning to remember people's names and where things are. I haven't been sick (knock on wood) which probably has to do with my conscious effort to drink less and sleep more but clearly it's working and already beats my record on the last contract. The shows onboard are excellent (at last not the same stuff over and over again, the same can be said for the menus!) and I make it a habit to go see something everyday. 

Here are some shots from Puerto Quetzel, Guatemala when I went to Antigua, a beautiful colonial town that reminded me of Trinidad in Cuba, and came back an hour later than I thought 😬, we will just leave it at that. Can you see the Mayan head below?

A highlight of last cruise was definitely passing through the Panama Canal, which I got up ridiculously early for and ran around all over the ship in the sweltering heat to try to catch the best views whenever I had a break during the day. Because we were doing a partial transit and coming back to LA, we anchored off at Gatun Lake at the Caribbean side and got 2 days to see the passage through the locks. At the beginning you can see the skyline of Panama City but in many parts there is only jungle on the shore which makes you appreciate how laborious the effort must have been to cut a waterway through here. There are 2 main set of locks where the ship has to be raised up to the equal water level before passing and the precision with which the ship has to maneuver into them is incredible. You can bet that I will be running around again this cruise when we do the full transit. 

 

To celebrate Rachel's last port, we went for a quick beach day complete with beers and tacos at La Hacienda in Manzanillo. It took me like 17 days to get in the tropical water and I was a happy fish. 

This cruise I finally got the opportunity to be an escort on some of our tours and so far it's been a lot of getting off the ship to get on another ship. In Puerto Vallarta I went on a pirate ship adventure which I thought was going to be tacky but turned out to be really fun complete with live shows, an open bar, snorkelling, banana boating., kayaking, and some r&r at a secluded beach at Las Caletas.

And in Huatulco, I was on a scenic catamaran ride out to 5 of the surrounding bays with two other coworkers. We had a delicious lunch complete with beers and margaritas afterwards by the pier and then I decided to go for another dip in the beach right by the ship. 

Last wakes

Time: 2:45pm

Location: Okinawa

Weather: 28C sunny

Happy very belated Canada Day to all my friends back home! I am ashamed to say that I did absolutely nothing patriotic to celebrate onboard, mainly due to having to work until very very late on that particular day (think 2:30am). With my third and final extremely busy long cruise behind, somehow there remains less than a week until the end of my contract and me going home. 

These days, faces of the ship are changing rapidly as many of my friends also finish up their own contracts, and as cheesy as it sounds, feelings of bittersweetness arise when I think about leaving the ship. My 4.5 month contract is very short in comparison to many other crew members, and I wouldn't mind staying even 1-2 months more especially now that I've become a lot more comfortable with life at sea. As I've said before, you bond really quickly and closely with a lot of your coworkers on the ship and saying goodbye to the people you have spent every day of the last few months with is never easy. The whole nature of working on ships is a metaphor for real life; we are all on our own tangents going in different directions with different contract starting and ending dates but somewhere along the way paths cross which can leave lasting impressions and change everything. It has been a fantastic experience in all aspects and I am very thankful that I listened to some wise people and my gut feeling to have taken this leap of faith. I am also super happy to say that a few weeks ago I finally received my next rotation to join on September 13 in nowhere else other than Vancouver for an Alaska, Panama Canal and South America itinerary on the Island Princess, where I will fully take on the role of Captain's Circle Hostess with a lot more event planning and hosting duties.

At the same time I also cannot wait for my two months vacation in Beautiful British Columbia during the best time of the year where I can hike, bike, swim, kayak, camp... to my heart's galore. This is what I miss the most from being on a ship, although especially lately I've been trying to fit as much in at the ports as I can, as you will see below. People also ask me what I don't like the most about working on the ship and frankly I was a little bit surprised that I could come up with very little things. The biggest thing for me is how easy it is to get sick in this confined environment; I think I can count at least 6 times that I've had the sniffles (sometimes much more than that) in the last 4 months. 

Starting from where I left off at the previous 7 day cruise at the end of May, I finally got to explore more of Kochi and Beppu. In Kochi my friend Yan and I did our own sea to sky tour on bikes to Katsurahama Beach and Mount Godaisan. 

And in the second and last port of Beppu even though I had merely 2.5 hours between work I managed to check off 3 more "hotspring hells", the second picture being a geyser like the one in Yellowstone National Park, albeit much smaller. 

The month of June flew by even faster with only one sea day on the month-end cruise, and I got to know Okinawa, Ishigaki and Miyakojima very well, from caves at Okinawa World to stunning beaches on the two small tropical islands, many times thanks a few more opportunities I got to be a tour escort.

My last time to the Japanese mainland, I finally had a chance to visit Miyajima, the beautiful small island with a multitude of temples and wild roaming deers in Hiroshima, made even better because we got hike to its highest peak Mount Misen at 535m.

In Kagoshima I revisited Sakurajima once more, this time huffing it up on wheels to the 373m Yunohira Observatory which apparently is the highest publicly accessible spot on the island.

Lastly I cannot forget Keelung! Honestly every time we dock back there it feels a little bit like coming home. As a reminder of why I love Taiwan so much, I'm still making new discoveries of hidden gems every time, thanks in part to everyone who's come to meet me so far!