It was another glorious day aboard the Sea Lion.
Some folks were complaining bitterly about the rocking and rolling last
night, but Bill and I never felt anything and slept like logs. When we
woke, we were in a large group of small islands called the Pearl Islands in the
Bay of Panama.
Bill's alarm went off at 6:15. He was doing
the "early bird" Zodiac tour at 6:45 and then coming back
for breakfast. Half the boat signed up for the early bird, and the rest
of us stayed on board for breakfast at 7:30 and then the Zodiac
tour at 8:20.
Breakfast was another buffet with juice, coffee, regular
scrambled eggs, hot and cold cereal, huevos rancheros, torte de elote.
The huevos were rather interesting, almost like a Spanish eggs Benedict -
a soft flour tortilla square with refried beans, a poached egg and topped with
queso fresco. The torte was a cornbread kind of thing with onions and
some jalepeno.
Bill got back just about the time the late risers were
ready to go on the hour long Zodiac ride. There were 7 of us on our boat,
and we went from island to island going along the shoreline checking out the reptiles
and birds. We saw spotted sandpipers, great egrets, spiny black iguanas
(of various sizes), sanderlings, whimbrel, oyster catchers. I was rather
impressed with myself when I spotted a spiny black iguana in a tree. It
was our first reptile siting. The weather was amazing, sunny but not yet
too hot, the water was gorgeous.
While we were out, the Sea Lion followed us and anchored
a way out from a lovely large bay with a sandy beach. We went back to the
Sea Lion to change into swim suits, slather up with sun screen, grab our beach
towels that came in our rooms. The zodiacs shuttled back and forth from
the beach to the ship whenever anyone wanted to go.
The staff had brought the kayaks and some lawn chairs to
the beach. The water was just right, and we swam for a while. Bill
had brought his snorkel equipment to check it out, but there really wasn't
anything much to see. That will be tomorrow.
I took a single kayak out for a while, and it was just
gorgeous out there without the crowds. We spent about an hour on the
water before we took a zodiac back to the boat. We hosed off, but I still
dropped some sand in the room when I took off my suit. We showered, and
now we are left with wet stuff. There are two dryers on an upper deck
that we might end up using.
Lunch was a salad buffet. We sat with some fun
people and had some roasted red bell pepper soup before the salad bar.
The soup was rather spicy but quite good. The salad bar had a large
assortment of good stuff including hearts of palm, the regular onions,
mushrooms, etc. The interesting item was called pejibaye which is a fruit
from the peach palm. The guys told me it must be boiled. It has a really
interesting taste and texture. Dessert was peanut butter cookies. All
of the bread, desserts etc are made on board by a chef named David who I have
yet to see.
After lunch (almost 2pm) we sailed all afternoon on
the 150 mile journey to Coiba National Park which we will see tomorrow.
It was fun to see people fuss over the dryers. Mid-afternoon
the staff had a fire drill, so we all had to stay out of the way. I read
and sat on the upper deck in the shade.
They showed a TV special on the Panama Canal in the
lounge. Then at 4 they had a photo lecture. This is supposedly a
photo exhibition and there are photo staff galore on board. And people
with mega-cameras. I sort of ignore it all.
At 6:40 we had our first "daily recap".
The photographers talk about our day and show photos. They also
discussed what we would do tomorrow. The seas started really getting
rough. It was rather fun watching everyone try to walk around. We
were coming out of the Bay of Panama into the Pacific, so there was lots of
competing winds, seas, and currents.
Dinner was served at 7. It was our first served
meal, but at least a third of our companions didn't show, about 20 people who
were sicker than dogs. I sat with Bill and 3 other guys. We started
out with a tortilla soup which was a bit too thick and spicy for most of us.
I had ordered a small portion of black snook with a
citrus sauce. This came with green beans and mashed sweet potatoes,
neither of which appealed to me. I also got a small portion of the
vegetarian entree - quinoa and avocado with an aoli sauce. That was
really good! For dessert we had chocolate pot au cream which was
amazingly good.
It calmed about 9:30. There was finally a
dryer open, so I put our wet t-shirts and my beach towel in.
As I sit here, there are two of the Nat Geo naturalists
playing with their computers and one little old lady who was terrified during
the worst of the seas that she was going to die. She is a sweet lady, but
I think she just wants to chat!
It was a really good day, and I hope tomorrow is a
repeat!
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