September 7 -Huatulco, Mexico

Land at last!  We could not wait to get off the boat!  Huatulco is a seaside resort begun by the Mexican government 25 years ago.  It is beautiful, clean, and completely unfinished.  So much for government involvement!  We took a boat ride away from the port.  There are many bays and beaches - all beautiful and pristine and unoccupied.  Some of the beaches are environmentally protected.  It is amazing was that, after 25 years, there were many unfinished buildings intended for condos and hotels.  Also, the Mexican government chose a place that has no agriculture, no farming.  So all food items must be brought in from other areas.  Access to the area is limited.  There were many unfinished roads to go with the unfinished buildings.

A few pictures below.  This is probably not a place to which we will return.

Lots of Days at Sea

Above is pretty much what we saw out the window, over the rail, from the deck.  Lots of water - lots and lots.

September 2 to 7 is all at sea.  There is a hurricane - Norbert - who is messing with our plans.  We skipped Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Villarta.  While this is a long time to spend in the middle of the ocean, it was also peaceful and reflective.  We had no internet, no phones, no way to contact the "outside" world.  What did we do?

1.  Enrichment lectures.  This might sound boring but it was not.  The speaker was former Ambassador to the Middle East Edward Peck.  He was interesting and funny.  If my college professors had been like Ambassador Peck I might have gotten my Masters.  Or even Doctorate!

Did you know that, if there were only 100 people in the world:

60 of them would be Asian          8 South and Central America
14 African                                    5 from US and Canada
12 European                                 1 from Australia and New Zealand

Of the same 100 people:

14 would speak Chinese              7 Spanish
8 Hindi                                         4 Russian
8 English                                      4 Arabic
55 all other languages

And here is how those same 100 people would worship:

33 Christians          14 Agnostics
22 Muslims            6 Buddhists
15 Hindus              10 other religions

2.  Rest - my favorite spot was on deck - in a deck chair - listening to the hum of conversation, the wind, the rocking of the boat

3.  We had a block party.  One evening everyone came out of their cabins and met their neighbors.  The ship's crew came by and greeted everyone on board

4.  Workouts - my trainer Grant had written some cruise workouts.  When the boat was not rocking it was fun!

5.  We had a "which state are you from" party.  Different locations for different states.  We met 2 couples from Midland, folks from San Antonio, a couple from New Zealand that got lost and ended up in Texas.

6.  Tea Time:  Every day a group of us - 6 in all - would meet for tea, needlework and trivia.  Our team of 6 won only once.  But we enjoyed playing so much.

7.  Eating - oh my.  We usually had breakfast in the casual dining room, lunch wherever, and dinner at either the Compass Rose dining room or Prime 7.  We especially enjoyed our waiter in the Compass Rose - Sherwin.

September 1 - San Francisco

September 1 - As we left San Francisco, we sailed past Alcatraz and under the Golden Gate Bridge - which is of course not golden at all - but bright red!  The tug boat helped us out which was very kind indeed.  As we got under way, Tony Bennett's song "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" was playing on the speakers.  Everyone was on deck taking pictures and singing along.  Sounds cheesy - it was fun.  These were the people we were going to get to know over the next 22 days.  

Welcome to the Travel Blog!

We do love to travel.  On our latest trip I tried using an online travel journal.  It did not work as well as anticipated and I wished for a blog to post pictures and such.  This blog will start with a trip already past and hopefully move forward to trips of the future.  I hope you enjoy the trip as much as we did.