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Part Five, 5/6/07-5/7/07, is here.

May 8 (Tuesday, Day 12, Cabo San Lucas)

We were only anchored in Cabo San Lucas for four hours.  Bill, Phil, and Janet got off the ship and wandered around.  Since Phil and Janet had been there three weeks earlier, we were able to be the tour guide for Bill as we were walking around.  We managed to find a “gallery” at the end of a dead-end alley and the woman painted Cabo scenes and then framed them with cactus pieces from her father’s ranch in another part of Mexico.  Dried cactus looks like rustic wood, but is extremely lightweight.  Anyway, we found a framed painting that is 3 inches by 3 inches of the famous Cabo Arch (a natural rock formation close to the harbor and very close to where we dropped anchor).  She said it was 100 pesos and Janet figured $10 wasn’t worth bartering over since she was the artist.  Bill bought a painted tile for $10, too, and didn’t barter.  This store was the only store that had anything unique in it since it was all painted by her.  All the other stores were typical Mexican junk (probably made in China).  So, we were pleased to have found our travel wall picture souvenir commemorating this trip (and our 5 night stay in April, 2007 in Cabo, too).

Cabo Arch

Cabo crabs

Pelicaaaaaannnnssssss!!!!

More Pelicaaaaaannnnssssss!!!!

Husband for Rent in Cabo

Mariner at Cabo

Mexican patrol boat

Later in the afternoon when we were at sea, Phil and Janet saw two groups of 30 or so dolphins.  I called Mom and Dad’s room, but by then they were gone.  Phil also saw a hammerhead shark when he was out on the balcony looking straight down.  But, by the time Janet got off the bed and ran to the balcony it was gone.  We have the perfect set-up: Phil sits on the deck with his headphones on while listening to short-wave radio (Radio Japan, Radio Bulgaria, etc.) and watching the waves and when he sees something, he bangs on the sliding glass doors and then Janet runs outside.  She is usually reading or surfing the internets while on the bed.  (In-cabin wi-fi is really nice, but cuts down a lot on socializing with the other guests.)

While at dinner we all saw another pod of dolphins.  When we got back to our room we had an invitation for dinner tomorrow night with the Travel Concierge (the woman in charge of shore excursions).  The funny thing about that is that Bill was excited earlier today since he just got an invitation from her for tomorrow’s dinner.  Now we know that we’ll be joining him (and her)!


May 9 (Wednesday, Day 13, At sea)

Sunrise at sea

Janet enjoyed room service breakfast in bed and Phil went to the 10 AM naturalist’s lecture on whales.  A few days ago he said that he wanted to go see whales on a 2009 trip so Janet started that research and focused on Alaska.  Well, after the lecture he said that it seems like Maui and the Baja Peninsula (where we are right now) are the best places in the winter.  Janet likes the idea of Maui in the winter rather than Alaska in the summer!  She told Phil that she would stop the research and we would do a Hyatt December trip in a couple of years to Maui/Kauai. 

This afternoon Phil was out on the balcony in his pants and coat (it’s kind of chilly with the wind and the captain said it was 62 degrees).  He spotted whales and called Janet out to the deck.  There were two or three whales that we could easily see their “blows” (water spouts) and the back of one.  We figured it was a mother and her calf(s).  Then a few minutes later we saw another two or three, including the fluke of one of them and he even got a picture of that.  So, that was pretty neat!  I’m amazed at the quantities of sealife we’ve seen from the ship on this cruise – turtles, dolphins, whales and stingrays.  We haven’t just seen one or two of these creatures, but lots.  (Janet consider 5 whales a lot since we’re on the tail end [no pun intended] of their migration season and really shouldn’t have seen any.)

Whale fluke

As mentioned previously, our dinner tonight was with the Travel Concierge Manager, Christina Andrusyshyn, and her colleague Nico.  They are in charge of the shore excursions.  It was formal night and the crew did their talent show before dinner.  It seemed to be the same one that Phil and Janet saw last year, but since it had different crew in it, it was different.  And, since it is totally voluntary and they have to rehearse at midnight, it’s appreciated by the passengers even though the soloists really couldn’t sing like the professionals!

The story concludes in Part Seven, 5/10/07-5/12/07.