Panama Canal Cruise, Day 10 ?

Day 10, I'm pretty sure.
We are just leaving Punctarenas: lots of adventures the last few days.Looks like I've been absent a bit.
On day 7 we were at sea all day, trying our best not to starve; more like trying our best not to miss anything even remotely edible. Susan was still sick, I was at 75%, getting better. Was a good day reading on deck, lounging by the salt water hot tub up front, and went to a couple of real interesting lectures. One guy is traveling with us and talks about the forensic use of DNA going back to the mid-90’s. He’s a professor somewhere specializing in cold cases and he has some great stories.
On day 8 we docked in Nicaragua. Now THAT’s an interesting but poor country. We got off the boat, each was assigned a machete and/or AK-47, and plunged into the jungle. Well, not exactly but close. We had a great tour leaving the coast and went deep into the country. We arrived at Lake Nicaragua, fairly large, and it has about 300 small islets around the shore, very tropical with a big central island of active volcanoes. We took a little boat tour in and around the islets, seeing some primitive homes and some really nice ones. We saw beautiful flowers, birds, and monkeys, and how some of the islet people fished and lived.
Everyone seems to have a close eye on the next election, at least our guide does, and hopes the “Ortegan’s” do not regain power. We didn’t run into any Contra’s or Sandinistas this time, but they are out there I guess. After the boat tour we traveled into a little town called Granada. This is the oldest town established on the western hemisphere, North or South America, and was started exactly Dec 8, 1522. That’s where we had lunch, and then started the long and bumpy bus ride back to the ship. We did have a good guide, lots of great discussions, and scenery is beautiful. After we got back we cleaned up, and came back into the American 21st century. We had signed up for a wine-pairing special dinner that night, and it was even more spectacular that what we’ve had thus far. The Cruise Director joined us, we had about 6 courses, each accompanied by a special wine. What a treat.
Today we got up early, found ourselves in Puntarenas, Costa Rica, and had another fun day. We had to travel 3 hours in a bus on little, narrow, twisting mountain roads, through jungles, deep into the country in the mountains, crossing a couple of mountain ranges. The area is punctuated by several volcanoes, still active. There is a resort "way up there" that has diverted a naturally hot little stream into a series of waterfalls and pools and it is an amazing place. We had our swim suits and in we all went! Beautiful flowers, hot flowing mountain/volcano water, etc. Had a nice lunch up there, just got back, and we are ready to go “out”. What a wonderful couple of days, and can’t wait to show the pictures and hope we get the opportunity in near future. Tomorrow we will wake up entering the Panama Canal, take the day to travel that into the Caribean, then head for Cartegena and Mark! What fun!!! Now it’s off to eat Escargot, Cornish hen/pheasant breast/duck combo. It just seems to go on and on. Tomorrow I diet….Love to all, UR/DAD