Ports a calling

I'm sitting on the back of the ship in glorious 80 degree Mexican sunshine. To my left is Cabo San Lucas and to my right is the open Pacific, Land's End, El Arco (Cabos' famous Arch rock), and Lovers Beach where within a hundred yards or so you can walk between the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific. Cabo is a magnificent site, as have been all the ports of call we've made in the last couple of weeks. Sailing from New York past the Statue of Liberty seems ages ago.

Just yesterday we were whale watching from Zodiac speed boats off Puerto Vallarta. Before that we snorkeled in Zihuatanejo. We've walked suspended bridges in the tree canopy and watched crocodiles in Costa Rica, seen active volcanoes in Nicaragua and Guatemala, and visited mesoamerican ruins and Spanish forts in Columbia. We took this specific cruise because it went through the Panama Canal so all the other stops were icing on the cake and have been a great sampler, a teaser if you will, of much of what Central America has to offer.

Cabo is a great vacation destination but perhaps a little (or a lot) too crowded for my taste. Both Cabo and Puerto Vallarta boast Walmarts which for me pretty much disqualifies them as truly exotic places to go. As I write this there are two other cruise ships (the Carnival Panorama and the Royal Princess) also visiting Cabo which means more than 6,000 tourists were added to those that flew in or arrived via private yachts. George Clooney, Jennifer Aniston, and our illustrious President all have humble (not) abodes on the hillside in front of me. The locals boast that in Cabo we're on the fun side of Trump's Wall and were more than willing to sell me a shirt saying so for just $20. It's good to have a sense of humor about such things which is something us Norteamericanos have perhaps forgotten. I haven't watched the news since we left but I'd hazard a guess I'll be having the chance to get all serious soon enough. Better to sit here and watch the colorful parasails drift lazily by. I'd hazard a guess that most of your daily worries take a respite when one is suspended several hundred feet in the air.

My wife spent months watching for a good deal on a cruise such as this. When she found it, it seemed too good to be true but too good to pass up. So kudos to my better half and her eagle eye for a great deal. She managed to get a 3 week cruise for what you might spend on a weeklong trip. If it wasn't for her I wouldn't be sitting in one of the world's prettiest ports reminiscing about a trip that will too soon be over but that will live on happily in our memories.

Land's End and Arch at
Cabo San Lucas