DAY 19 DAY 8 SERENITY

WELCOME TO SAN JUAN Del Sur NICARAGUA

Not the prettiest sight to see but this  was Keith's  remembrance of getting hit playing  Paddle Tennis  yesterday  afternoon.  Good news is it could have been much  worse without wearing the sunglasses  and  it will go away.

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We had a wonderful time on Serenity last evening.

We went to the show starring Jim Brochu called Character Man.  It was amazing.   We have  known Jim  for many years and have seen him perform several times and this show is sensational.   It  brought tears to our eyes.

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We returned to Waterside for dinner.

These are the restaurant menus.

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Dinner was great.   We  both had the Wild  Mushroom Tart (absolutely delicious), we  asked for a mixed green salad which was not  on the menu and for our  entree  we enjoyed Ahi Tuna.   Everything was great and  as  usual the wait-staff team was fantastic.
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After dinner  we attended  the Crystal Society Reception which recognizes some of the Crystal Society Member who achieve  special milestones.   We spoke with many guests  at the reception as well  as Senior  Officers, Officers and senior staffs.  There was a large turnout.

Following the reception we watched a portion of the National College Championship in  our room.  The game was also shown in one of the public rooms.

The good news is before we went to sleep we turned the clocks back one hour as we sail into a new time zone.

The seas remained calm as we  sailed to  or  next port of call.   We slept well and began today with our norma route of exercise for Keith and breakfast in our room.  

It's going to be a few more  days before Anne Marie starts back to exercise.

We arrived at San Juan del sur which is a coastal community of Nicaragua.  This would have  been our first visit this port  of call.
 
It is home to 15,000 residents and is a popular vacation destination for   many Nicaraguan families and foreign tourists.  It is known for beautiful beaches and for surfing.  Its dry season is from December to May and It temperature remains constant throughout the year.

It is a poor country  and second in the region to Haiti.   


Major attractions include:

A very  large statue  of Jesus Christ.

An area that is  popular for those who surf and a vacation  spot for families.

​The Art Warehouse which house a permanent area gallery, workshop and event space under one roof.

​Plaza  Del Arte  where you can find local artisans selling art  work.

​Merdasdo Centeral  which is an open  air market seeing local  items.

As it turned  out we enjoyed  an unexpected  day at sea.  As much  as  we have cruised when we looked  onto the verandah  this morning we  had a  good sense  it  would be unsafe for the tenders to run between the ship and San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua.  It was windy and  the white caps were really moving.  From a distance  we  could see one of the tenders in the water.  It was  too far away to see if it was  being pushed all around.   

Keith decided to take a run on the Promenade Deck where he saw Mary the wife of Instructor Stan  who teaches the Everything Apple Computer Course.  Mary  often escorts tours and she confirmed our thinking  and said the port stop had been cancelled.  While Keith  was running while Anne  Marie  was walking up to the pool deck from our room  she  saw Captain Birger  who also confirmed  we would  not be stopping at the port  as we  had suspected.  Therefore, today became an unexpected sea day. Safety must be the top priority.  At 9:00  AM when Captain Birger spoke from the bridge he noted that with the wind gusts that the wind speed ranged from 42 to 60 knots.   Also, when the pilot came on-board  he noted that the forecast  called for even more severe winds by  Noon

As  Keith was  half-way through his run he saw  the Regent ship which was behind us  in  the Panama Canal who was just  starting to anchor.     He’s   really enjoying running on the ship.  He started  up running again a  couple of weeks after Anne Marie arrived home from the hospital since for the next two months Anne Marie was not walking outside and it provided away to get exercise and not leave Anne Marie at home alone for too long.  He’s been running most days  since we’ve been on the  ship on the outdoor Promenade Deck.  Starting yesterday he realized he can go greater distances on board Serenity since the ships deck is  flat  unlike running outside at  home.  Since it was  very windy he could run on one side of the deck because as he made the turn it was so windy either his hat would blow off, one or both AirPods would blow out of his ear and possibly off the ship or maybe even Keith would be blown off the ship.  LOL, but always a possibility.  When he finished his run he noticed a visitor taking a rest on the Promenade Deck

As part of the unexpected sea day they put out a revised  program with lots of sea day activities.


When Cruise Director Rick made the announcement about the activities he highlighted two morning presentations.


First up at  10:00 AM  by  Bob Ray about guess who???????  No  not  the  Who.   But  about the four lads from Liverpool.  Who could that be?  Yes, the Beatles.  There  was  some Beatles Trivia embedded in his talk and Keith knew lots of it. During the talk he conducted lived interviews with two people; Cousin Brucie we remembered from growing up in New York and another person who was the last person to be with John Lennon other than Yoko the day  he was murdered.


​​​​​​​At 11:00 Jim Brochu will gave a talk about Fred Astaire.  Again learned many things we didn’t know.   


Both have additional talks planned  and  we can’t wait  to see them.


Between lectures and  Paddle  Tennis and of course lunch and getting together with friends it has been a great day.

This is the daily Reflections Program for today.