On sea days I’m focussed on attending talks. Ted is focussed mostly on staying up to date with world events on his iPad. Other than that, there’s food and walking off the food: 3 laps around the Deck 3 outer promenade is apparently 1 mile.

FRIDAY

8:45 a.m. Grabbed a large latte and a very small chocolate brioche at the Pinnacle Bar, whose espresso machine maybe the ship’s best kept secret, midship on Deck 2 and only available between 7 and 10 a.m.

---

9:00 a.m. Coffee Chat with our new Cruise Director Bettyann, and Staff Captain Vincent. He’s not the Captain of the staff, but rather second in command to the Captain, supervising the navigation and engineering teams. He joked that he does everything the Captain “should” be doing, but that the Captain would say that Vincent does the things that he (the Captain) doesn’t want to do. Vincent works 3 months on, 3 months off, so he says he’s pretty much 50% retired already, after only 20 years into his career. He has no intention of actually retiring any time soon.

At his rank, one of the perks of his job is that he can have his family on board – his wife and 3 young children are on the Eurodam for his entire current contract, living in his suite, and being home-schooled. They are the only children on board this trip! Vincent talked about how hard his wife works caring for and educating their children, and that since his job is easier he is always glad to take over childcare in the evening so that she can enjoy the ship.

When we go into the Panama Canal, Vince will be at the controls, which he did just this past April when the Eurodam repositioned in the opposite direction. Transiting the canal costs about $350,000USD, and is based in part on the number of passengers on board as well as ship size.

During the session I sat beside a lovely lady, Darlene, who was from … MAPLE RIDGE, B.C.!! You just never know who you’ll meet on a cruise.

The Coffee Chat was just 20 minutes long today, so there was time to pop up to the Lido Market for a bit of luscious Greek yogurt topped with prunes, taken out onto the Seaview deck. It’s a perfect 20°C/68°F morning for sitting outside, cruising about 24 km/15 miles off the coast of Baja California, Mexico.

---

10:00 a.m. The “plan” was to walk a few laps of Deck 3, but it was being swabbed (check out that marine lingo!) which made it slippery, so my walk will have to be put off until this afternoon.

---

Instead, I went to join Ted in the Crow’s Nest Café for a cup of coffee, and to read a few chapters of my current book, The Glassmaker, by Tracy Chevalier, which takes place across centuries of life in Venice, via the story of a young female glassmaker on the island of Murano, where time passes differently, and glassmakers don’t seem to age. 

11:00 a.m. Down to the World Theatre for the first of two “Up Close” talks today, Mexico Up Close : The Great Empires. Unlike the talks that took place between Vancouver and San Diego, where there were few people in attendance, this time the theatre was almost full. That’s a positive testament to the fact that folks like to learn while cruising.

Our first leg Cruise Director, Valerie, was a terrific speaker. Bettyann is equally dynamic. The talk took us through the many ancient civilizations of Mexico: the Olmec, or “rubber people”, who first developed the concept of zero; the Maya, with their intimate knowledge of astronomy and creation of amazing written codices; the Zapotec; the Aztec with their manmade canals and agricultural islands. The reminder that the Spanish often intentionally infected these peoples with diseases like smallpox in order to subdue them is chilling. Beyond that, cultural records were burned. Only 4 Maya codices survive (one in Dresden, which we hope to see in 2026).

A large part of the presentation focused on the ancient Mesoamerican ball game which Ted and I were privileged to watch in Mérida, where they call it pok ta pok. Episode 376. For thousands of years, and in thousands of stadiums – until it was banned by the Spanish who believed the bouncing rubber ball was somehow possessed by the devil – it was a game that united cultures.

12:00 noon. Lunch, plus conversation at a shared table in the buffet.

---

1:00 p.m. Time to get in a few laps of Deck 3, while enjoying a strawberry soft-serve cone (really more the texture of sherbet than soft-serve ice cream, but delicious!). As I was eating and walking, I heard “Yoo-hoo, Willy!”, which is a family in-joke since it’s how my mom always called my dad home from wherever he was in our neighbourhood, or called to him in department stores!! It couldn’t have been anyone except Ted, also getting laps in. We did a few together, and then split up again to do our own things until dinner.

---

2:00 p.m. Back to the World Theater for another “Up Close” talk Magnificent Mexico, touching on topics from geography and history, culture, economics, food, and music, to the misconceptions that other North Americans have about Mexico.

3:00 p.m. To stay or to go? There’s an afternoon movie in the theater, a rom-com called Everybody Loves Somebody (I watched the very funny action move The Fall Guy, on one of our early sea days), but my book is also calling. The book won, so I found a comfy chair in the quiet Ocean Bar above the Pinnacle Restaurant, and read to the backdrop of the jazz trio. How lovely to read while listening to live music!

---

6:00 p.m. Joined the line for open seating in the dining room. Dinner tonight was veal tataki with black garlic wasabi and yuzu juice, followed by filet mignon with peppercorn sauce – both tasty, but neither photo-worthy.

7:45 p.m. Back to the Ocean Bar, this time with Ted, for another set of acoustic music.

9:00 p.m. A new production show in the theatre, featuring two very talented singers and a cast of 6 dancers. This was the first time on this cruise that we’ve seen the screens on the stage so effectively used to create dynamic backgrounds for each number. It was thoroughly enjoyable.

---

9:45 p.m. Time to relax in the Crow’s Nest on Deck 11, alone except for one other couple playing cards. The café and bar both close at 10 p.m., which is a shame because the space empties out. On the plus side, having it all to ourselves makes it feel like we own a huge private yacht!

---

10:30 p.m. Ted discovered last night that the Lido buffet re-opens from 10:30 until 11:30 serving late-night snacks. We definitely don’t need more food late at night, but I did want to check out what kinds of things are offered, to compare it to Mamsen’s late night snacks (largely European style cold cut plates) on Viking’s ocean ships. HAL offers quite the late night spread, and I couldn’t resist the crispy empanadas with spicy salsa. If I don’t sleep well tonight I will have no one to blame but myself.

---

Back to our stateroom for the night, where we were greeted by a towel elephant and squares of Holland America branded Dutch chocolate.

---

Clocks go forward an hour tonight, meaning one less hour of sleep. I may not make it to the 9 a.m. coffee chat, but am aiming for the 10:00 talk about Mexican art and architecture. We’ll see.

SATURDAY

9:00 a.m. With the time change, we’re just getting out of bed, so as predicted I missed the Cruise Director’s coffee chat. Ted headed right up to the Crow’s Nest for coffee while I got into the shower.

10:00 a.m. In the World Theatre for another curated talk, Mexico Up Close: A Living Gallery. As always, the talk featured wonderful photography, emphasizing the amazing colours and flavours of Mexico, as well as the many historical and cultural influences that shape modern Mexico. Pre-Columbian ruins contrast brightly-painted adobe homes and modern glass and steel skyscrapers. Mariachi bands incorporate the accordions that German immigrants brought in the early 20th century. Mexico’s iconic al pastor tacos use meat cooked exactly like shawarma, for good reason because there are thousands of Lebanese immigrants who brought that cooking style with them.

---

Mexican folk arts and crafts represent the diversity of Mexico’s many regions, and include everything from jewelry to textiles to pottery. We learned about the history behind “papel picado” (the amazing lacy tissue paper “flags” that are strung across streets everywhere in the country), combining Aztec patterns – which would originally have been carved or pierced into thin pieces of bark – with southern Mexican colours.

In Oaxaco, the area’s famous silver jewelry combines indigenous and Spanish designs and traditions, while the gorgeously coloured textiles owe their colours to pigments from crushed insects – Oaxacan red has been used in paint pigments favoured by famous artists worldwide!

We learned about the Mexican “mural” movement begun in the 1920’s in order to capture both the country’s history and its vision for the future. All the incredible wall art was created to tell Mexico’s story to everyone, even those who could not read. We also heard the abridged story of Frida Kahlo, Mexico’s most famous modern-age painter, who was married to Diego Rivera, one of Mexico’s most famous muralists. Both Frida and Diego painted their individual visions of post-revolutionary Mexico; their traditions are carried on by young Mexican muralists and painters today.

We should see lots of murals in Puerto Vallarta and our other stops here in Mexico.

11:00 a.m. Cooking demonstration by Executive Chef Menil in the Rolling Stone Lounge. This time it’s Bahamian Grouper with Bacon Grits that’s on the menu.

---

As he did in his previous demonstration, Chef talked about Holland America’s sustainable seafood program, their awards for seafood sourcing, as well as the fact that each port stop means fresh provisioning of local specialties. In Puerto Vallarta the highlight will be the region’s famous mangos, but we’ll also be picking up fresh local grouper and swordfish.

Today’s hint: always score the fish skin so that it stays flat when cooking. And yes, it looks nice too. He also shared that you know fish is cooked as soon as a tiny bit of white “juice” appears; that’s the amino acids beginning to escape, which happens when the flesh is fully cooked – no need to cut into it!

---

11:30 a.m. Finally …. “breakfast”!

---

1:00 p.m. After clearing up some mystery credit card charges (apparently HAL put a “hold” of $30USD per person per cruise day on passengers’ credit cards to allow for a faster disembarkation process), I headed onto the outdoor promenade on Deck 3 to walk a few laps and then settle in to read. It’s a balmy 30°C/85°F today, but in the shade of the overhanging lifeboats, and with a slight breeze off the water, it’s perfect.

---

I have a new book to start: The Flight Girls, by Noelle Salazar, about the Women Airforce Service Pilots whose courage during World War II turned ordinary women into extraordinary heroes. I realized as I was reading that maybe I should have saved this book until January, when we’ll be visiting Pearl Harbor.

4:00 p.m. The Puerto Vallarta port talk Question & Answer, back with Cruise Director Bettyann in the World Theater.

She shared a couple of maps, but not much else. The Malecon (boardwalk along the coast) connects the Zona Hoteleria to the Zona Romantica, going past the Parroquia de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (the Cathedral dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe). Getting to the cathedral involves an almost 6 km walk; tomorrow is going to be very hot, so Bettyann recommended using transit (Uber) from the port. Unlike our experiences with both Viking and Princess, Holland America is not offering a shuttle service.

4:30 Caught a bit of the music set in the Ocean Bar, chatted with a lovely couple from Iowa, said “hi” to Cathy and Don from one of our dinners, and ordered a pre-dinner Bombay Sapphire extra dry 3-olive martini…

… which at 5:00 p.m. I took upstairs with me to join Ted in the Crow’s Nest, finding him all gussied up for dinner after his 9 laps (3 miles) of deck 3.

5:45 p.m. Time to line up for dinner.

---

7:30 p.m. Live music by Third Avenue West in the Ocean Bar.

9:00 p.m. Tonight’s main-stage show: Impossible Guitar featuring Paolo Schianchi who plays instruments having 6 to 49 strings, the latter guitar by luthier Carlos Roberto Michelutti reminding us of our musician friend Terry Tufts, who plays the 50-string Manzer Palette guitar. Paolo didn’t bring his biggest guitar on board, but did play an 18-string.

10:30 p.m.

When this old world starts getting me down
And people are just too much for me to face
I climb way up to the top of the stairs
And all my cares just drift right into space
On the roof, it's peaceful as can be
And there the world below can't bother me

“Up On The Roof”, by Gerry Goffin & Carole King

---

Tomorrow: a day in Puerto Vallarta.