Riding the Ocean Waves ...

We are staying at the Hotel Coral Suites. It is humble ... but ... spacious and exceptional in many ways. Our total bill for four nights is only $242.38. That is less than $60 per night CAD. Sheesh .... we paid just a wee bit more than that for our lunch in Houston yesterday!!! And, we have a rooftop pool! We are going to need it! It is HOT here. 32 degrees celcius today but feels like 36 degrees!

Our first order of business for today is to get a few groceries and get our bearings for where we are situated! And the location is phenomenal! We wandered about this morning and came across oodles of restaurants and grocery stores and shopping!! It feels a lot like Cuba to us. Beautiful people ... rustic concrete ... nice cars. The old boy picked up a nice light white shirt ... and .... I got some gorgeous sterling silver hoop earrings for $28USD. I know they would be over a $100CAD in Canada. I'm just hoping they have no nickle in them. If they do ... I will be sad. There is not much English here so we are wishing we had polished up on our Spanish a bit more! We have no excuse with Spanish speaking family members! Maybe I'll have to be more committed to learning more of this beautiful language once we are home.

I also picked up a pair of flesh colored sandals for on the cruise. Cheap like borscht at Payless here! But the best of all so far today was our breakfast!! We stopped at the bakery just up the street. We ordered two coffees (one was a cappucino) and had Ranchero eggs and an omelette. They each came with two fresh baguettes and then the old boy got a pastry too! Oh ... I got a bottle of water too. Our entire bill was less than $10USD. They have daily specials for lunch and supper ... so ... we will definitely return! I was initially going to buy some eggs so we could have breakfast in our room ... but ... at that price and convenient location .... we will forgoe the cooking!

We had so much fun shopping and exploring until the heat caught up with us. We were eager to get back to the room to cool down and head to the pool. Before I got my ass whipped at Clever, I took a little video of your room to give you a sense of it, but it didn't want to load. I'll add some photos and try to include the video later from my phone once I have uploaded it. Also of note ... the room keys have no information on them at all. They are completely blank. I am assuming this is to reduce any kind of criminal activity ... in case you lose your keys.

So, I got brave while I was changing into my swim suit ... I used the bidet! I had no idea you had to let the water warm up!! At first is was so uncomfortably COLD ... until the old boy suggested I turn up the volume! He was right ... it wasn't horrible once the water warmed up, but, oh my, it was wet!! How is a person to sop up all that wet?? The cord on the blow dryer was not long enough.

Our time at the pool was fabulous! Some clouds threatened to move in some rain ... but ... it is so hot here the cover was welcome!! We met a lovely woman by the pool from Nova Scotia! We just hit if off with her so nicely! Her husband was not feeling well so he was sleeping. We lazed around the pool and enjoyed the laughter and languishing immensely. She invited us to join her and her friends for dinner. So we did!

We had a nice meal and are ready for bed. We are headed off to do some sight-seeing tomorrow around the old town. And ... given the heat ... I expect we'll be back at the pool by afternoon. Talk to you then.Läs mer

Well ... embarkation day is off to a very, very "shitty" start! The thought crossed my mind when I was eating the soup yesterday that I had wished it was hotter ... aka ...hot enough to kill any bugs. Then, I chided myself for always being such a worry wart and simply enjoyed the soup. I have no way of knowing for certain, but I awoke in the night with stomach cramps and have a severe and solid case (or should I say 'not so solid' case) of travellers diarrhea. Gahhhhhhhhhh.

In all our travels, this is the first time I have EVER experienced it. I am always so super, ridiculously cautious. I only consume cooked things. I avoid fruit or salad. I don't typically have drinks with ice in them. I followed all my best efforts here in Panama too .... but then ... the soup.

I searched my bag for Pepto Bismal in the night ... only to realize that the vial I had was EMPTY!! I found a few tablets in my make up case that were best before 2016! I downed two. By the time the old boy was awake in the morning, I was struggling. For some reason, we didn't have any immodium. I was desperate for this to pass because we had a day of transit ... getting an Uber to the hotel where the shuttle picks us up ... then getting checked in onto the ship. I really didn;t want to have an accident on route!!! Eeeegads. It was fierce. This certainly not the way I wanted to say "Bon Voyage".

The old boy was a saint and went to the pharmacy to get some immodium and more pepto bismal. They don't sell immodium here. The pharmacist gave him two different products. Lomotil is controlled substance that the internet says you can't get without a prescription. The side effects didn't sound good. The Enterogermina is a pediatric probiotic ... I took two at 8:00am ... and then ... after having little relief decided to risk the Lomotil before we had to call the Uberr at 1:00pm. Wouldn't you know it ... the Uber driver took forever to arrive to pick us up ... and then ... got lost. Yep. I even sat on the old boy's jacket in case I had an unexpected blow out!

Thankfully, the lomatil did the trick. It's 10:00pm now and nothing has moved! I guess that is good news. Hopefully, I'll have a good night and be able to put this nightmare behind me. Keep your fingers crossed, okay? I think we will forgo our excursion tomorrow so I can stay close to the restrooms. Good thing we had a few days in Panama before we embarked!

The ship is gorgeous. We had to use the map of all 8 levels to get acquainted with it. We never made it to the sports deck on level 9 yet. We enjoyed some great music in the Explorers lounge ... the guy sang the Beatles, Garth Brooks and many other infamous artists! If we weren't so tuckered we'd head out for more ... but ... not tonight.

We also enjoyed a really interesting talk in the theatre on the making of the Panama Canal. Part 2 is tomorrow. And, on Monday, we get to experience crossing it ourselves. We are looking forward to it ... and ... our stateroom is going to give us a bird's eye view. We are in the middle of back of the ship ... we are positioned so we can see both sides from our balcony! I'm hoping to see some nice sunsets from here too!

Okay. We are headed to bed now. And, looking forward to a nice leisurely day getting comfy on this ship tomorrow! Hope you all sleep well too. I will have to add the pictures tomorrow. I can't log in on two devices at one time. So ...Läs mer