Panama Canal Trip Photos

I've posted the photos for the trip on Picasa:
Toronto, Miami, The Ship, Cartagena, Puntarenas, Huatalco, Acapulco, and Cabo San Lucas. If you'd prefer to see them in un-chronological order, they're here.

Travel Hacking

Signed up this afternoon for Chris Guillebeau's Travel Hacking Cartel ... in it I hope to learn the secrets of how to travel far and often - for little (or no) money. One of the cornerstones is to use frequent flyer miles linked to credit cards - as luck would have it, Alaska Airlines gave me an application on our way back from LAX - 25,000 free miles just for signing up.

Minnekhada, Part II

I'm fortunate enough to have a friend in Bruce that's willing to slow down and take his time (so I can keep up) no matter what we're doing - riding a bike or hiking up a trail. This afternoon we did Minnekhada Regional Park (for the second time in a month), but this time all the way to the top (High Knoll). I was a bit of a mess the last part of coming down, but for the most part survived OK. Thanks, Bruce!

Home Again

It's Monday, and I got home Saturday night. In all, the journey home took us the same amount of time as the trip from Vancouver to Miami ... the off-loading from the ship was late, the buses were late, and the flight was late. Overall, though, they say that the sign of a good vacation is you're anxious to leave for it and anxious again to leave from it, so I would say that it's been good overall. Although I was the only one on the ship (sans the captain and some crew) that was fifty-something, I did manage to meet a few people that interested me.

One thing that always impresses me is that the British, almost as a race, love to travel - and they don't seem to mind roughing it if the circumstances dictate. They'll go anywhere, anytime, and pretty much at any cost (figuratively and literally). The Americans - not so sure. The Germans are everywhere. The Canadians are a fairly well represented minority, based on our population, and I think we can travel on the down-low when we have to. That's a skill I need to re-aquire.

I can pretty much say, though, that inasmuch as the cruising life is incredibly easy (bring your own hotel), it's not for me. Although mom and dad would get angry at me for saying this, I'll say it anyways - cruising is not touring. There's been such an industry built around the wealthy people coming off the ships in every port, what they (and me) see is a sterile version of what the locals want you to see. And any port big enough to fit a cruise ship is a port I'd likely avoid. Just imagine what people see when they step off a cruise ship in Vancouver. If you're lucky enough to be at the Pan Pacific, you could walk to Stanley Park. But what if your ship is docked at the seedy eastern edge of Gastown?

My old boss, Don, was big into home exchanges for months at a time. He got linked up with people all over Europe. I think living somewhere for a month or more gives you much more (for maybe much less).

Cabo

Yesterday was at sea, so nothing much to report, other than the weather has turned cooler (18C) and the wind has picked up - long sleeve time.

Cabo San Lucas has changed since I was last here in late 2006. The street hawkers are being kept to the very sides of the sidewalk (by the police), so they can't get in your face ... although they can still yell at you. Again, they don't seem to bother with me ... in all of Mexico it's been the same. Maybe it's because I'm single and without a waist-belt-pouch-thingy or have a camera slung over my shoulder.The entire waterfront looks new since 2006, and the development must have been driven by the three cruise ships here today (and every other day I assume). I would guess today, there are 6000 of us landing in Cabo, mostly to shop. It's still hard to understand why Cabo has no cruise dock, while small towns like Huatalco do.

Cabo is still all about shopping. You could take a tour, but we have very limited time here (all aboard by 1:30pm, and the tenders started up about 8am). "Diamonds International" seems to have created an industry from the cruise ship trade. they are very unapologetic about talking them up on board. . I admit I did walk through one to try to get something for Laura, but the high priced stuff in the display cases, plus the calculators everywhere to show you what your "special price after awesome discount" kind of turns me off. Laura will have to settle for something a bit more practical than Cabo jewelry.

I want to sail here, and stay in the Sea of Cortez for a season. Then sail south to Panama, take the canal to the Atlantic, and then another season in the Carribean. Then maybe on to the Med. You only live once, yes?

Stroke recovery update - January 2011 - 16 Months

This will be another stroke update, some sixteen months after the event.

When I came home, over a year ago now, I had noticed that there were a couple of places on my body where there was numbness - almost like the novocain you would get from the dentist. There was a large area on my left leg by the knee that had no feeling, as well as the fingertips of my right hand thumb (I guess that's not a finger - although the very end of a couple of fingers were affected as well). Also, when I would open my hand fully (spreading all the fingers and thumb), it would be painful. This started with the right hand, but then seemed to improve - and move to the left hand.

This morning, on the cruise ship, I re-evaluated all these problems. Most of them have now gone away. You might ask "wouldn't you have noticed right away?", but these took months and months to disappear - and now they're mostly gone.

I've tried to walk around the deck on the ship, but found that I really can't. There's too many people also walking on the track (and I get in their way), and my balance is still not great - I tend to find it hard walking with the subtle movement of the ship. I'm going to also say that I've always dislike gyms, so I'll use that as my excuse for not visiting the one on board - even though it never seems that busy (I make no comment on the reasons why).

Sleep continues to be my cross to bear. Many people have asked why I'm so obsessive about it, and I have to answer that "you might be frustrated by the odd night of poor or limited sleep - maybe only a couple of hours - but my issue is that, without sleep meds (mirtazapine), I get little to no sleep, and this happens night after night". Once I get off lorazapam (Ativan) sometime in the next couple of months, I'm really hoping the sleep thing becomes a non-issue.

So that's the update for the end of January, 2011. Overall, progress is good and it continues. My speech is very slowly getting better, my walking is getting longer and all the ancillary quirks of the stroke seem to have been going away. Once sleep is handled, life will approach the "new normal".

Huatalco, Mexico

This morning we arrived in Huatalco, Mexico. How a quaint little village (from what I can see, about 1/100 the size of Cabo San Lucas) can afford a cruise dock, I don't know. The village is typically Mexican, but the bay that it's in is spectacular. Apparently, this is just one of eleven bays in the area along the Mexican Pacific coast. I spent the morning sitting in the village square, just people watching. For some reason, all the guys hawking trips and restaurants and boat rides and tours leave me alone. When I'm with mom and dad they'll approach, but by myself I'm left on my own. Maybe I look like a narc?

Day 8 - At Sea Between Puntarenas and Huatulco

Yesterday, we were in dock all day visiting Puntarenas, Costa Rica. I took a tour of an organic coffee plantation - an hour and a half drive from the docks to the farm. Costa Rica was much like I imagined it - poor like Mexico or Turkey, and very lush and green. The poverty line is about $450/year, but they say if you have rice and beans and something to wear, you're not poor. Overall, it's a place I'd like to come back to and spend some more time (Panama too). It would be really neat to drive down the Highway of the Americas from Alaska to Chile. As luck would have it, there was a BBC program on the ship's TV about such a drive with an electric car.

Once we got back on board (the tour was 8:15am to 3:30pm), and had left the docks by about 5pm, we had a medical emergency on board. They stopped the ship, lowered a lifeboat/tender, and evacuated the person back to Puntarenas. Once we get back underway, I saw how quickly we were moving. I went to my cabin to check he ship's speed - 23 knots. Should only take about 3 hours  to make up the lost time.

Today is a sea day, and it's cloudy with showers outside. A nice day to sit and read...

--
Doug's Blog

Day 6 - Panama to Puntarenas, Costa Rica

The Pacific Ocean is today much like it was when discovered by Europeans -  Pacifico, or calm. There's a very small, slow swell, and we're motoring along at 20 knots burning unconscionable amounts of fuel (presently, 13 gallons a minute).

I attended a Q&A with the Executive Staff today, and learned some interesting facts about the ship:

1. There are 4 x 40kw diesel generators that generate all the power for the ship.
2. The propellers are 18' in diameter, and rotate 360 degrees for steering (they act as the ships rudder).
3. At cruising speed - 13 knots - the ship can stop in 8 minutes, and less than 5 ship lengths.
4. The cruise will use up as much food in the first 4 days, than they will in the following 9.
5. The duty cycles vary from 2 months on - 1 month off (Captain) to 9 months on - 2 months off (room stewards).

Tomorrow - off to an organic coffee plantation in Puntarenas, Costa Rica...

If it's Thursday, this must be Panama

I woke up about 6am this morning, turned on the light, and switched on the TV in my room to have a look at the bow camera. What is saw was that it was already dawn, and there were a few hundred people already on deck. I pulled on my clothes, didn't shower, didn't shave, didn't have anything o eat or drink, and came straight up to deck 13 (actually, deck 13 1/2). I stayed there for 2.5 hours watching the whole locking process - it really is amazing to see. Our ship (NCL Star) is considered a "Panamax" ship, and is the largest sized vessel that can transit the canal - until 2014 when the new canal opens - larger in every dimension (965'x110'x42' versus 1200'x160'x60') for larger ships. I heard someone on shore (on the PA) say that we would be the largest ship to transit today, and that it would cost $435,000 USD to do it. At a canal seminar today, I heard a "pre-2010 price" of $365,000.

I met up with mom and dad for breakfast, and then back to  my room for a shower and a shave. The rest of the day was spent watching us go through two more sets of locks - Pedro Miguel and Miraflora, and then a sail by Panama City and under the Bridge of the Americas. Panama City looks spectacular - I wish we were sailing closer to it.

Tomorrow is an at-sea day, and on Saturday, I have a coffee plantation tour in Costa Rica.

Cartagena, Part II

OK, so I did make it off the ship. What I found was pretty much as expected. There's another, smaller, cruise ship docked here with us, and most of their passengers seem to have left on buses too. There's a small cruise ship terminal, which looked closed up, and a coffee shop near the entrance to the container port. I'll be on deck as we leave Cartegena in a couple of hours, so maybe I can catch a glimpse of what I could have walked to.

Cartagena

This is somewhat pathetic. All the tours (except some space left on the shopping tour), are sold out. Learning this, I planned to get off the ship and do a little exploring on my own. The Captain was on the PA system at 7:00am this morning to let us all know that we had arrived in South America. I knew this had happened about an hour earlier, as the bow thrusters could be heard quite loudly in my room. So I got up about 7:30am, and went on deck to get breakfast and have a look around.

I was expecting to see a quaint fishing village, but I should have known better. Cartagena is a city of between 600,000 and 1.3 million people (depending on how you measure). The actual city center is across the harbour from our ship, but it's only 1km or so, and you can see across to it easily. Where we're tied up is the "Cruise Ship Facility". This is right beside the "Container Ship Facility". Actually, right beside us is a container ship being unloaded (maybe 20m away). There is nothing obviously close - just acres and acres of containers. Not even the normal gauntlet of local street vendors or tour hawkers. The only thing that was outside the ship this morning was a dozen or more tour buses.

With this observation, I think I'm going to stay on the ship (we only have a brief time here - everyone is supposed to be back at 2:30pm for sailing at 3pm. I may regret this when I hear about the local market just around the corner, but from my my look around, all I can see are men unloading ships.

I won't go so far as to say this is the Americanization of the world (no more exotic ports), but I would venture to say that, if a port has a cruse ship terminal, it's not quaint.

Deep blue sea - Day 2

The ocean here in the Caribbean is a deep, dark blue. Very different from the "almost black" color of the water in the Pacific Northwest. Today would be fantastic for sailing ... 30 knots of wind on the bow, and this ship is traveling at 20 knots. That makes for 50 knots of apparent wind - it's very blustery up on deck, and the ship is rolling a moderate amount. At home, small craft warnings would be out, and I think there's about a 1-2 meter swell with whitecaps. I heard someone next door being sick in the middle of the night, and I know mom has felt queasy for the last day or so. Me, I seem to be OK - although I got no sleep last night, partially due to all the banging and crashing around as the ship hit a wave wrong, but mostly because I don't sleep.

I tried to sign up for a Cartagena shore excursion tomorrow, but they were all sold out. The only trip that had some room left was one that involved lots of "shopping opportunity". I'll pass - and take my chances seeing what I can by simply walking off the boat - I'm sure there will be a "shopping gauntlet" to pass through. I learned yesterday that the number one reason for people to cruise is eating. Number two is shopping. Never-mind about seeing things you might otherwise never see ... eating and shopping are the most important factors in this kind of tourism. Perhaps camping out at the food fair in a shopping mall would be less expensive. Or if you were really high end - stay at the hotel attached to the mall.

I'm here for two reasons. First, because mom and dad asked me to come along, I imagine thinking I could help out navigating airports. The second is to see the Panama Canal. Perhaps it's important that we aren't actually stopping in Panama - more shopping! But we are doing a daylight transit, so that makes for an all day affair on deck looking around. I know Ed, our close friend, did this a couple of years ago and spent the entire day on deck, marveling at how this was actually completed. 

So I'm into day two of thirteen days - our second full day at sea. It's quite warm and humid outside, and like I said very windy. They expect this weather to last all day.

 

--
Doug's Blog

At sea ...

In all my aspirations to go off sailing, I never realized just how dark and empty the ocean can be at night. Lat night, standing on the bridge like Leonardo DiCaprio, I gazed into the dark, silent ocean - it was mostly cloudy and windy, and the wake of the ship is all you could see. I then decided it would be a little unnerving to do this on a little sailboat with only 1/2" of fiberglass between you and the deep.

We're "sailing" (I don't know why we use the term - there's no sailing involved), off the coast of Cuba, a respectful distance from their territorial waters, heading east. Once we round the island, we'll turn south towards our first port of call - Cartagena, Columbia.

I would have photos attached to these blog posts, but for now I'll just post text. Internet access from the ship is $0.75 a minute, so about all I can do is sync my email - nevermind uploading photos (will post here when I get home).  So far, I've run across no free access to WiFi in the USA, but at the hotel and two airports in Canada it was free for the taking. I wonder if that says something about the economies of the two countries - one finds itself relatively rich (so giving stuff that costs almost nothing for free makes sense), and the other is scrambling to make a buck any and everywhere it can.

Long day .... Vancouver to Miami

Yesterday, we spent the day traveling from Vancouver to Miami via Toronto. The flight from Toronto to Miami was about two hours late, so total transit time was (leaving the Sheraton in Richmond to arriving at the Miami Marriott, Vancouver time) 6am to 7:30pm - about 12.5 hours. I guess the delay in Toronto was business as usual (Air Canada -so unavoidable), but waiting for a bus to take us to the hotel from the Miami Airport was something I probably wouldn't do - the "old me" would have just taken a cab and be done with it. Free WiFi was available at both the Vancouver and Toronto Airports, but once we got to Miami the charges started. No free WiFi at the Miami Airport, and the Marriott hotel here wants $14.95 a day for access. Today, with the ubiquitousness of the Internet, that is gouging. I've searched around the hotel property for something free, but no luck.. That's my rant of the day - WiFi should be provided free everywhere. It costs almost nothing, and can provide a public good. Soon, we'l be enroute to the cruise ship - where I expect they'll gouge again for access (guess - I could guarantee!).

--
Doug's Blog

While they play chess...

I received my daily newsletter from Simon Black (Sovereign Man) today, and he talks about the recent decision of the Chinese to try and make the renminbi a new international currency. The current world currencies (or fiats, as they're sometimes called) are the US Dollar, the Euro, and the Japanese Yen. These are the only three currencies today that have a large enough circulation (and subsequent backing of government)  to be able to absorb massive investment or divestiture of those same currencies. Imagine a $100B investment in any other world economy, and you can see what a large percentage of the local economy it would be - the local currency couldn't absorb it. The Chinese, I think, are interested in creating a fourth - or, more significantly, becoming the de-facto standard for world currency (much like gold or the US Dollar have been in the past).  The rest of the world goes merrily along minding it's own business, while one nation sets in motion a plan that may take a decade or more to complete.


Therein lies the rub. The Chinese have a distinct advantage to all other Western-style economies. Ours are based on democracy and elections, and theirs are based on strategy and long-term thinking. We make decisions that will seem popular for the next election cycle, and they make decisions based on their country's position in a decade or more. They're busy playing chess, and we're busy playing checkers...http://www.sovereignman.com/expat/opening-a-renminbi-savings-account-in-the-us/

An Enigma Wrapped In A Riddle...

For several months, my walking would max out at 3km. No matter how often or how far I walked, my right leg basically fell apart at the 3km mark. Since Christmas, though, there's been a remarkable increase in "distance-before-useless". Last week, as I said here on the blog, I walked 4.75km with Bruce through Minnekhada Park. Today, I walked to Save-On Foods and back - a distance of 6km. No resting except for standing in line at the grocery store.

I still struggle with sleep. The remarkable thing is that I did the walk today after two consecutive nights of no sleep. The only thing that I really notice after a sleepless night is an increase in emotional lability. It mostly appears when I'm by myself or with Laura - not very often when around other people.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with myself about all this.

Shooting in Tucson.

Yesterday in Tucson, Arizona, in case you were living under a rock, there was a tragic shooting which left six people dead and fourteen others injured. Among the dead were a nine year old girl, a Federal judge, a congressional aide, a retired church worker, and two other retired ladies. Among the wounded was a forty year old Congresswoman, which elevated this shooting onto the front page of every American (and Canadian, and British, and ??) newspaper and news website. Otherwise, unfortunately, this event would be nothing but a news ticker on the bottom of the CNN telecast. It probably would have made a story, and you would hear about it on the news, but they never would have preempted "Your Money" for it.

That's only one of the issues that raise their ugly heads after a tragedy like this. Regardless of the motives (or lack thereof) of the gunman (and possible accomplices), it's our reaction to these events that are telling. You can expect a bunch of rhetoric about the "softening" of the political dialog in the US, the questioning of second amendment rights (why is it that anyone can go and legally buy a handgun with a thirty round clip?), the questioning of Arizona's gun law (where it's legal to carry a handgun without a concealed weapon permit), and many others. But, in the end, nothing will change. A lunatic white man shooting at a crowd of people is seen as less threatening than some foreign born brown person with a different religion than most. The second changes our behavior, the first causes us to talk a lot, but changes nothing.

You're never going to filter out the nutbars when you make it easy to own a weapon like the Glock 9mm that Jared Lee Loughner had. The only good thing that could come out of this mess is the one thing that never will:

• Make it very hard to follow through on your deranged thoughts. 

What if we made owning a gun as hard as lighting a fire without matches? What if you made it distasteful to run attack ads or incite hatred of your opponent? What if you could take away most of the potential "triggers" for a madman?


UPDATE: If you watched the Rachel Maddow Show tonight on MSNBC, she goes through a truncated list of all the firearm/handgun related mass-murders in the US over the last twenty years. You forget just how many of them there were...

One year..

Today marks the one year anniversary of my escape from "the big house". While the progress can seem minimal at times, when you look back over the course of one year, it's quite remarkable. Yesterday, my friend Bruce and I took a hike through Minnekhada Park. It's been over a year (duh!) since having done any walks through the wilderness, and I really thought that attempting a hike would be a springtime affair. Regardless, Bruce and I went out for a walk in the woods. I surprised myself - didn't have any major problems navigating roots, rocks and hills - and completed the 4.75km circuit without completely falling apart. I can now see that hiking is something I will be able to do (and can already, in a limited sort of way). Thanks to Bruce for taking the time to invite me, and to "spot" me on the (sometimes icy) tricky parts.

Over for another year...

We took down all the Christmas decorations this morning. We didn't really have all that much up this year, and after Laura got all the ornaments off the tree, the whole process took no more than a half hour.

Now on to the soon-forgotten New Years Resolutions:

(1) I'm going to up my walking by 200m per week (about 10km in a year). I can now walk, without much discomfort, 4.25km - so if I can add 10km to this that would be about as far as I used to walk. It also puts short hikes into the equation. If I walk every day - rain or shine - I think this is doable.

(2) The progress on sleep is very slow and (pun intended) tiring. I'm doing everything the books and programs say to do, but with very limited success. The problem today seems to be "fractured sleep". I fall asleep OK, but cannot remain asleep very long. Then I'm up and down for the remainder of the night (mostly up). I will continue on with this holistic program, and continue the Ativan taper (now on 0.5mg) and hope that when the drugs end, my sleep improves.

(3) The plan for what to do with the rest of my life has reared it's ugly head. Both Laura and I agree that I need a plan, and that sitting at home for decades more is out of the question. Although sitting at home with some kind of business would be, for me, ideal. I need to get the main health question (sleep) out of the way before I can seriously address this one.

(4) As time goes on, my speech continues to get better, in an almost unnoticeable way. Those that don't see me for a couple of months notice a difference in the speed and my ability to get more words out without taking a breath. Not quite "reading" pace yet, but close. The only therapy I'm using for my voice is to keep talking. I'm even adventurous enough to try and tell a joke or two (I tend to laugh at my own jokes - always did -- so this makes it even harder).

So I've basically got two resolutions that are new this year: first is walking, second is developing a plan. The other two areas (sleep and speech) have lives of their own, and they are ongoing from last year.

Onward and upward! Kathryn gave me a small plaque over a year ago while I was in the "Big House". It says "If it's in your way, climb over it".