We drove to the Hearst Castle. Just before arriving, we stopped in Cambria. Most of the towns we went through were rural agriculture communities. Cambria is completely different. It’s the “perfect” tourist town. Downtown is filled with eateries, arts, organic foods, etc. The parking is a great bargain. One can park anywhere for free. This is really good because everything else in town is very expensive. If you are ever in Cambria, I suggest you check out the ice cream / bakery and get a scoop of “motor oil” ice cream. It’s very good.

Normally, tours at Hearst Castle sell out months in advance. Today we could have walked up and purchased tickets for any tour we pleased. Quite frankly, the biggest surprise is that this state park was still open at all. Danita really enjoyed the tour, but I didn’t. So far as I can see, Hearst dumped about half a million dollars a month (in today’s equivalent money) into this rambling complex until he ran out of money. His companies were taken over by the court and restored to financial health. Then we went back into dumping money into this complex. His father didn’t trust him with money and gave the estate to his mother. (Very unusual for the day.) His mother wouldn’t let him start building the complex as long as she was alive. Any sense of coherence was due to Julia Morgan, the first female architect. She did over 500 projects. About 499 of them were on time and below budget.

We took the “back road” from there to Hearst Hacienda. Our tour ran long, it was late in the day, there was a lot of fog, and we had to drive through the mountains on a very narrow, very curvy road. There were two places where I couldn’t see the road and had to guess where the road is. (I’m a good enough guesser, it turns out.) We made it without incident, but Danita was pretty distressed. The Hacienda is on an army base. It’s a wonderful building. We stayed in one of the towers. The room was warm, dry, safe, and clean. But the WiFi didn’t work. Danita said she could see my withdrawal pains.

The army base is quite isolated. The only place we could eat was at the bowling alley. We had loaded hot dogs. How can one possibly have a more American experience than eating loaded hot dogs at a bowling alley on an army base?

All the pictures are from Hearst Castle. Fog prevented any outdoor shots.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Our main objective was to get from San Diego to someplace north of LA.Our plan worked out well. We took Amtrak to Oxnard, then took a cab to the airport, then rented a car. It was a 2-hour drive to Embassy Suites in Lompoc. But it took us longer because we took a detour to the Chumash Painted Cave. It was cloudy and late in the day. So I shined my cell phone’s LED light into the cave to catch this pic. I am amazed at how well it turned out.

The drive up to the cave was amazing. Basically we turned East at Santa Barbara. We saw amazing mountain scenery (50 shades of green, at least). Then we turned onto Painted Cave Road, which went up into the mountains on a 1.5 lane road with the tightest switchbacks I have ever driven. We drove past the cave because the turn-off is so small I couldn’t believe we were there. I turned around on the narrow curvy road with Danita in serious distress. We got back to the turn-off and trusted to luck parking our rental car on such a narrow road. We’ve seen other painted caves, but this was a good one. This pic was taken with my pocket camera illuminated by my cell phone’s LED “flash” light and the camera lens poking through the grate.

From there, we drove to our room at the Embassy Suites. We have taken full advantage of the happy hour. I don’t know what we’ll do tomorrow. Danita and I are saving that conversation for tomorrow after the wine has worn off.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

We couldn’t believe our good luck today. It started first thing in the morning. The weather yesterday was cool, cloudy, and rainy. The forecast for today was cool and cloudy with showers. In fact, the sun came out and we had a fantastic day.The good luck continued when they let us disembark. If you’ve been watching the news, you know that doesn’t always happen these days. Our original plan was to take the Green light rail from the port to our hotel in Old Town. When I looked it up on Google, I saw warnings of some flooding, so we decided to take a cab. We got the suitcases locked away in the liquor closet (which I figured was probably the most secure room in the hotel). The next order of business was to make sure we knew where to catch the train tomorrow morning. We spent quite a bit of time wondering around, mostly because there is no passenger terminal in Old Town. We finally found where to board the train, and we found the ticket printing machines, and we got our tickets printed. Excellent! Then we wandered off to Old Town looking for information. We found the information desk just 10 minutes before the free morning tour. The day couldn’t have possibly gone better.

We learned that San Diego was a desert area with very limited vegetation and almost no natural resources. Nobody wanted it. We’ve seen plenty of exhibits about the 1850s and given quite a few tours. But we still saw some new stuff. The bedroom of one house had hanging shelves to protect valuables against damage during earthquakes. The walls were stenciled near the ceiling. The red lines are tree branches and represent the man. The flowers represent the woman. The two are tied together at the very left side of the picture. This is where the couple’s bed would have been in the original house. There were only a few houses built, and they were built with adobe due to the lack of other building materials. The second house we visited was built with whitewashed brick because — big surprise here — the Mormons helped build the house. I had no idea the Mormons were ever in San Diego. It turns out to be an interesting story in its own right, but far too log for this blog.

The bed netting is because of biting insects — fleas in this area. The outdoor stove shown burned cow dung because there wasn’t any other fuel available. Our guide speculated that pizza probably had a unique, pungent flavor. The next picture is of the first school house. It was built very quickly with scrap material from a ship wreck so they could qualify for a government grant. As it happens, the wood they used was Cyprus. Local termites don’t like Cyprus, making this the only wood building from that era that still stands. The last picture is of me getting ready to be a Mormon soldier.

It’s time to get ready for dinner. Our hotel has a large restaurant. After dinner, we’ll go to a play. The theater is just a block away. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

The previous day in Manzanillo we spent an hour sitting in the middle of the harbor waiting to dock the boat. They announced the delay was caused by more careful health inspections. This announcement was readily accepted by everybody as being totally reasonable. It was also a lie. This morning, at “Ask the Captain”, we learned that the delay was caused by trying to dock a boat on Saturday afternoon when everybody was on siesta. The captain was not pleased.

Yesterday (Sunday) we visited Puerto Vallarta. This is a large tourist area with new, modern attractions. Danita, I and 18 other brave souls skipped all of that and boarded military trucks to go back country. The tour was a blast. I was relieved to see a much wealthier area than we saw in Manzanillo. Everywhere we went, we saw good access to electricity and modern plumbing. We saw plenty of buildings with satellite dishes and even quite a few air conditioners.

Our first stop was at a chocolate museum. There were no glass cases here. They had cocoa trees. We opened a ripe cocoa pod and tasted the seeds (quite sweet). Plus there was the standard chocolate samples and discussion of chocolate (which is an Indian word that means “bitter water”). If you look at the pics, you will see an immature pod above a small white flower. The flowers are pollinated by a specific species of mosquito.

From there, we visited a back country village. Then we took off on dirt roads. We saw a modern Mexican cowboy leading a train of horses and mules, several examples of very healthy looking irrigation channels, etc. The pictures look a little rough because they were taken from a moving truck bouncing down a dirt road at a high rate of speed. (From where I sat, I could clearly see the speedometer was disconnected.) I was convinced the drivers were randomly driving around until we came to a fence. Instead of turning around, out guide opened the fence and we entered Vallejo Ranch.

This is owned by a family that is trying to preserve wildlife and especially the Camporno tree. This tree needs protection because its raw fruit is sweet and cows love eating it. Cows like it so much the tree can’t reproduce itself. Camporno fruit is much like coffee, but contains no caffeine. It makes a drink that tastes much like coffee but is 100% decaffeinated. The ranch also has a way cool tower. One of the other fruits we saw while at the ranch was Habillo. These beans look and taste like good food, but the cause severe diarrhea. High doses can cause convulsions. The story is that Montezuma added a good measure of Habillo to the water of the Spanish conquistadors, which is the origin of “Montezuma’s Revenge”.

We finished the tour at a Mexican grill at a lovely lake. The featured drink was tequila with hibiscus water. It goes down easier than sangria and it’s every bit as potent. It’s guaranteed to put you in the mood for a nice siesta.

This was our last tour and a great cap for the cruise. We are at sea today and tomorrow. We’ll disembark in San Diego Wednesday morning, where we will start the last week of our trip.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

We had heavy weather Friday. It started about 2 AM. Winds were 80 MPH with 100 MPH gusts (hurricane force). The outdoor decks were all closed. The storm was very localized. By 9:30 we were back to sunny skies and calm seas. The ship did well. The only damage was to a room on our deck that had a defective door seal. The carpet was wet all the way out to the hallway.

Yesterday we stopped in Manzanillo. It’s the largest commercial port in Mexico, but they don’t normally get tourists. The town’s economy is all about the port. Colorful houses climb up the hill. The pretty picture masks the poverty. Our guide said that most of the houses we saw don’t have running water or electricity. People get to the houses by walking up steps — there are no streets going up the hill.

Our first stop was at an area where people extract sea salt. The activity started before irrigation. Tere wasn’t much to do during the dry season. Sea water is pumped into shallow pools. It sits in the sun evaporating for two days. Then they sweep the salt out with brooms. The locals found a market for a premium salt which is skimmed from the top of the pool after one day. The claim is that the premium salt has less sodium. The claim makes no sense, but I don’t begrudge any extra income these people can find. From there we went to a plantation and harvested some tropical fruit. Then we visited an area that makes clay bricks. The brick making demonstration was interrupted by a shaved ice car, complete with a speaker mounted to the roof broadcasting bad music. We finished the day with a snack at a restaurant on a black sand beach. Poverty and abandoned buildings are everywhere. I included one picture of the deck of a restaurant that is falling apart. They shoved broken masonry under the deck to prop it up. But they have nice bike lanes.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Today we visited a coffee plantation and the city of Antigua. Guatemala has many of the same problems as Nicaragua. Only about 70% of the children go to school. They have many poor and a few rich. But they seem to have avoided the worst of the poverty. We saw no horse drawn carts. The horses we saw were well fed. There were no human-powered 3-wheeled bicycle taxis. We saw several “motorized rickshaws” called Tuk-tuks. There was one picture I wanted but didn’t get. They use “Chicken Buses” for public transportation. These are retired US school buses. They paint them vivid colors. They add chrome bumpers, grills, and roof racks. They add running lights and signal lights. Sometimes the driver will paint his girl friend’s name on the bus. It’s the ultimate in bus bling.

On the way out, we saw one of the volcanoes smoking. A village along our route was destroyed by volcanic ash. About 5,000 people lived in the village. The government claimed that they saved 2,000 villagers and 1,000 died. Most people think the government purposely understated the number of deaths.

At the plantation, we saw the entire coffee process. This plantation sells most of their coffee to Starbucks. They roast a little of their coffee for local consumption. We picked a few coffee beans and tasted them. They taste sweet.We saw the entire process. Most of the processing is done by hand. I was quite surprised to see workers walking on the beans and shoveling them with sturdy shovels. After the tour, we had an excellent lunch at the plantation’s restaurant.

After lunch we went down the street to Antigua. We were continuously accosted by people wanting us to buy flutes, table runners, and coffee bean jewelry.

Tomorrow is an “at sea” day. We’ve enjoyed excellent weather so far. The forecast is for the winds to pick up tomorrow. We expect 20 to 50 MPH winds with 30 foot waves. They moved our next port to a different one with a more protective harbor.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

The day started with a lot of tension. I am administrator of our neighborhood website, snowdenoverlook.com. Our web site host provider decided to move our site to a new server while I was on vacation. This morning our site was moved. I had to make a few changes. But every time I tried to do something, the program I was trying to use decided it urgently needed an update. In the mean time, our ship had docked and right outside my window was a very loud, very enthusiastic, and not very good band. I’m sure it was a nice welcome and quite colorful, but what I needed was an internet connection that could at the very minimum download those updates just a little faster. All’s well that ends well, as they say. So far as I can see, our website was migrated successfully.

Our visit to Nicaragua was an eye opener. I’m sure everybody reading this knows that there are countries that aren’t as rich as the US. But Nicaragua’s poverty was an incredible shock. It was even more of a shock when our tour guide told us that the country used to be the richest in Central America. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a country that relies on horse drawn carts for some of their transportation. And the horses are emaciated. If a citizen wants a taxi, they are likely to take a 3-wheeled bicycle powered by a strong young man. This is a country that if a young couple, both employed, gets married and shares expenses, they can’t meet their basic living needs. It’s a country where only 70% of the children go to school. I was too embarrassed to ask what the literacy rate is. (It’s 97% for Costa Rica.) We saw a house without plumbing. These houses have a well, typically 40 to 60 feet deep. They put a bucket on a rope, hook the rope up to a horse, and have the horse pull up their drinking water.

We visited Leon, which has a very nice square. I would have a better picture, but pointing a camera at an individual is an invitation to offer tips. One of our first stops was at the Cathedral. We were delayed at the steps while children performed a “traditional dance”. The idea was to make fun of the Spanish. But there’s no doubt the children were more interested in the tips than in the authenticity of the dance, or any other part of their history. When we gained access to the roof of the Church, we had to remove our shoes because they had just painted part of the roof.

After visiting Leon, we visited a school run by the Cohen family, This is one of the richest families in the country. Their estate, if you can gain access, has beautiful horses, any one of which is worth more than the entire residence of 10 average families. As it turns out, the Cohen family is enlightened. They run a school that educates poor children and includes a pre-Colombian art museum. (That’s one school for the entire country. But hey, they also contribute to the cost of “one computer for every child”.”) Our tour guide was a very self-assured 14-year old female student who had an amazing knowledge of pre-Colombian artifacts. She doesn’t speak English, so our bus tour guide had to translate. One of the many things she explained was that the Spanish were very interested in gold when they arrived in South America. This was very confusing to the natives, because they valued jade over gold. Only royalty could own jade,.

I wish the best for our nameless tour guide, and for the entire country. I hope this finds everybody doing well

Yesterday was an “at sea” day. There was plenty to keep us busy. Today we stopped in Costa Rica. Danita and I took a Mangrove River wildlife tour. If you click the link to see the pictures, you will see my wildlife pics. I was amazed that any of them came out. I’m not going to try to identify the species of animals. Image 2744 is an iguana. 2726 is an 18 foot long crocodile. The rest are all birds.

It’s time to get ready for dinner. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Today’s story begins with yesterday. We’re traveling with Ed and Lynne. Ed is really good at seeing things. He took us to the bow of the ship and showed us lots of flying fish. His theory is they were trying to get away from the ship. It’s impossible for me to photograph, but it was quite an impressive site. We spent quite a while watching flying fish, and gulls fishing.

Today we crossed the Panama Canal. It took 10 hours, which is typical. The thing that impressed me most was the lock doors, called leafs. The original leafs are still in use. They are massive. I think I heard 7,000 pounds, and I think I heard 9 tons. Either way, that’s heavy. However, they are hollow. They float. When the canal first opened in 1914, they were operated by 30 HP electric motors. Now they have hydraulic rams. Sometimes they refuse to open. When this happens, they can be opened by hand — just by turning a wheel.

It was all cool. It turns out that our lanai area was exactly where the pirates pilots boarded our ship. I was also impressed with the Culebra Cut, the toughest excavation and the site of numerous mud slides. Even today, it is narrow and crooked enough that ships prefer not to pass each other while in the cut. If you choose to look at the pictures, you will see many details of the canal.

After an exhausting day guiding the ship through the canal (and also enjoying a some wine, just as the French did when they were in Panama), it’s time to rest up for dinner. I hope this finds everybody doing well.