A Collection of Daily Wisdom by Dennis Sylvester Hurd since September 2003.

Here's another day at sea and the last complete day aboard the Carnival Pride. Since leaving yesterday afternoon, we've been heading north to the west of the Baha California peninsula. Early tomorrow morning we'll enter US waters and continue back to Long Beach, California.

This day wraps up the trip. We can eat some of the remainder from last night's Midnight Buffet. The food has been fantastic, varied, and all too available.



It appears a fair number of people consider a cruise as an excuse for overindulgence. The amount of food that is available on this boat borders on being obscene. The amount I've put in my own mouth is enormous. I'm in good company, however. I have never seen such a large number of frighteningly obese people in one small area. Lord, many have asses that would take up three plane seats. Really! I am sure I'm going to weigh an extra four kilograms when I get home. I will still be able to fit into size 36" pants though. This trip has been a real encouragement to continue loosing weight in the long term.

Labels: cruise, Mexican cruise, weight loss

Oh how trendy! What a lot of money has made its way into Cabo San Lucas. The harbour and waterfront strip was nice. I sucked on a $4 Margareta while looking at the million dollar yachts. We also walked around the city. It is so much drier than the tropical south. The sun was brightly shining on the tip of the Baha Peninsula. It also continued to add to my sunburn. I wish I'd bought some lip balm on shore. This is going to hurt in the future!

Labels: cruise, Mexican cruise, Mexico

Another day, another port!

On the stateroom TV, right after waking up, we noticed we were entering the Mazatlan harbour area. We did not sign up for the various tours offered through Carnival cruises.

This was our first time visiting Mexico and this trip was a sort of fact-finding mission. We wanted to get out and see three, oft-mentioned west coast ports. There are tons of winter specials for Canadians wanting to get away during the winter. People even flee from Vancouver not so much because of cold weather but due to seemingly endless rain. We thought a cruise fit the bill as far as being about to take in different places while enjoying the comfort of the ship.



Mazatlan is a bit more industrial and a city in its own right. Most of the tours whisked people off to adventure activities such as whale-watching, scuba diving, or trips in an ATV or Jeep. The remaining ones brought people over to the so-called Golden Zone. There, there was the choice of visiting luxury resorts or trying the international shopping. To which I can comment both counts a resounding "Yuck".

We walked out and around to the church by the town square and the market. I think we probably enjoyed the day more than those who were rounded up like cattle on tour, for those people had a chance to only interact with other tourists.

We left the city right at sunset. It was a rather stunning one from the aboard the Carnival Pride.

Labels: cruise, Mexican cruise, Mexico

Okay, this is it. Puerto Vallarta is nearly perfect on account of being both tropical and close. Our ship got into port before seven o'clock and well before we had breakfast. We still got out and to downtown Vallarta by mid-morning. The new port is in a harbor area across the street from a Walmart Store. But if one gets past the traffic down to the Malecon and the old town, one can find the original allure of the resort.

As the Carnival Pride wasn't due to set sail until 10:00 pm, we rode back to the ship for lunch and showers and returned to walk around some more. I have some nice sunset photos to prove it. We used the regular bus service. It costs the equivalent of fifty cents to use public transit. I prefer to travel with the locals. I hate tourists who never really step out into the actual environment of the places they visit.

Labels: cruise, Mexican cruise, Mexico, Walmart

We got up fairly early considering there was the formal dinner last night. We asked and were scheduled on the second seating which begins at 8:15. So by the time we finished it and the show in the Taj Mahal theatre it was nearly midnight.

Today, we finished finding everything on the ship. There's a gym with sauna and nice hot tub in the front of the ship. We lucked out with an eighth deck room. Walking up to the Lido deck is a snap. Similarly, going down to deck 2 or 3 is easy in the elevators. Most things can be found on these three levels.

Of course there was some nice weather outside. Things are warming up a bit as we travel at about 19 knots an hour southward. We saw the end of Baha California today but we stay pretty far away from the shoreline.

Labels: cruise, Mexican cruise

This boat's not too big as it holds only about 2100 passengers and the 900 crew to take care of us. It does have quite an amazing atrium with as strange mixture of Italian and Greek artwork throughout.

Oh my! The Lido deck has not only these pools but more food than I've ever seen in one place.

Labels: cruise, Mexican cruise

We are leaving for the airport in a taxi at 4:30 am. We'll be at LAX by 9:30 in the morning. Well make it to Long Beach well before the afternoon boarding of the Carnival Pride. Next week, it'll be three full days at Mexican ports!

My laptop is staying home. I will not use the on-board Internet at all. I'll see what it's like to be completely Net-free for a week. So, expect a deluge of notes and photos after February 17th. I'll keep a paper journal and enter my thoughts here after returning.

See you in a week!

Labels: blogging, cruise