Yesterday was a sea day, which I spent re-doing my pedicure and reading a really fun murder mystery called The Busy Body, by Kemper Donovan. At only 266 pages, it was the perfect book to fill a day that had no lectures to attend or appealing (to me, anyway) activities. There was a cooking demonstration just before noon, but the dish was so similar to the others already featured that I stayed with my book instead.

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Ted and I uncharacteristically met for lunch, enjoying our first burgers and fries of the cruise, from the poolside Dive In grill.

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After lunch we split up again – me back to my book, and Ted off to do 12 laps (4 miles/6.5 km) around deck 3. He definitely deserved his dinner more than I did, but we both had prosciutto appetizers, rack of lamb as our main course, and pistachio ice cream for dessert.

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The best part of our day though, for me at least, was the evening theatre performance by vocalist Staci Wilson, who took us through a selection of the songs that shaped her life. She’s the granddaughter of Otis Blackwell, the Black American songwriter whose work greatly influenced early rock and roll. His compositions include Fever, Great Balls of Fire, and All Shook Up (all 3 of which Staci performed), plus Breathless, Don’t Be Cruel, Return to Sender, and Handy Man (which she didn’t).

Staci also did true justice to Tina Turner’s Proud Mary, River Deep Mountain High, and Simply the Best, including Tina’s high energy dance moves.

But here’s the icing on MY cake: I got to be a Supreme!! Staci sang backup for Mary Wilson (one of the founding members of The Supremes) for several years in Las Vegas, and performed a couple of iconic Supremes numbers for us that she clearly felt needed her own backup singers. I’d say that John and I were not particularly “traditional” Supremes, but we did our best to follow Staci’s choreography! I definitely do things on cruise ships that I’d never dream of doing elsewhere.

Here’s the proof: Stop In the Name of Love followed by Baby Love. I’m not convinced we got better with “experience”, but Staci was so forgiving !!

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Early this morning we docked in Puerto Caldera, the cruise ship terminal for Puntarenas. We’ve been here before, in December 2019 Episode 50 , and again in January 2022 Episode 173 (Rose) & Episode 174 (Ted), and will be here one more time this December.

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Our original plan for today was to do together something similar to what Ted did on his own in 2022: visiting a Scarlet Macaw Sanctuary and a mangrove swamp.

But….. rain…. and possible thunderstorms, made us decide to cancel that excursion a couple of days ago while we were still within the 48 hour cancellation/refund window.

Naturally, there was no rain.

Without a planned excursion, we chose simply to go ashore and stroll along the black sand beach and past the vendor tents. In Costa Rica, unlike some other countries we’ve visited, all beaches are public; hotel chains are not allowed to “claim” waterfront as private.

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It seemed to me that the port area around Puerto Calderas is more run-down than it was when we last visited. Up close, parks are overgrown, shops empty, paint peeling, and sidewalks not maintained. It’s as if – because all the tourist sites are inland and excursions take place either in the province’s wildlife and nature reserves, in coffee plantations and ranches, or on the water – this little peninsula/island town has given up.

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But there’s still beauty to be found, whether in the colourful murals painted on hoarding and on crumbling walls, or in the faces of the mischievous children playing tag on the Puntarenas sign.

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We had an early departure time set for 3:30 p.m. but delayed about an hour while a couple of stragglers were verified as being on board.

Ted went up onto decks 9 and 10 to take some photos during sail-away. This evening, pelicans were out in full force, cadging from the fishermen.

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Sunset is early here near the equator: 5:20 p.m. today!

There weren’t a lot of colours in the sky tonight, but the reflection of the setting sun on the water was lovely.

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Once the sun was down it was time for pre-dinner drinks and live music in the Ocean Bar. We finally headed for the dining room around 6:30 p.m.

We’ve been eating at a different shared table every night, and always enjoyed the company, but tonight with Chuck and Sharon was especially fun.

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And so ends another day: coffee and a digestif in the Crows Nest, looking out at a starry sky.

Coming up we have 3 days on the water, two of which are sea days bookending our Panama Canal transit, before we reach land again in Aruba which is a new destination for us. I’m looking forward to the scheduled talks about Panama, the Canal, and the Caribbean before we get there.