Author Archives: sam
Fauna Galore
On our last day in the area around Puntarenas, Costa Rica, we hired a private taxi to drive us to Villa Lapas in the forests of the Carara Biological Reserve. We enjoyed a private ecological walking tour across five hanging bridges nestled right in the rainforest. It was an exciting day of beautiful vistas and […]
Laughing with another Rolando
On Shannon’s b-day I got separated from her and the previously mentioned Rolando for a couple hours while I rode on the other bus from our ship performing my duties as a tour group leader. Coincidentally, my guide was also named Rolando. He was very happy and had some great insights to share: “We have […]
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Tagged Costa Rica, quotes, SaS, Semester at Sea
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Rows and Rows of the Finest Virtuosos
In Nicaragua we visited the Betania Foundation where a set of primary, secondary and vocational schools as well as a hospital clinic and gardens were built in the 1990s in order to break the cycle of poverty for the many families of Chinandega and its surrounding communities. The kids were working diligently learning skills and […]
Drop that “e”
Today, we had the exquisite pleasure of listening to a lecture about the production of fine Scotch. Well, more like Shannon played barmaid and served a million little communion cups of whisky to 25 eager participants while I sat with friends soaking up knowledge into my brain and alcohol into my blood stream. Like all […]
Lessons in beauty and simplicity
Residing in the hills of Panama are a beautiful native population known today as the Emberá Indians. They live a simple community-focused life in much the same manner as their ancestors going back before Columbus landed in the Americas. We were lucky enough to get to visit one of their villages. They served us a […]
Locks of Miraflores
Here’s a quick shot of us going through the last set of locks in the Panama Canal today. If you zoom in you can see the black pixelated blob that represents the baseball cap I was wearing while hanging out on the observation deck. Poor Shannon was working in the library during this set of […]
Traversing the Panama Canal
Bright and early tomorrow morning we will begin our first trip through the Panama Canal on board the MV Explorer. We are scheduled to enter the first lock at approximately 7:00 EST (that’s the same as 8:00 Eastern Daylight Time for all you northern and eastern landlubbers observing daylight savings time). The canal has webcams […]
Garifunas
In 1665 two ships full of Africans who were to become slaves in British colonies in the Caribbean sank near the island of San Vicente. The would-be slaves swam to island freedom and soon intermixed with local Arawak tribes to form a new society known as the Black Caribes or Garifunas. It was our privilege […]
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Me Encanta Guatemala
The welcoming people, lush rainforests, and picturesque landscapes of Guatemala won our hearts as we enjoyed a long and beautiful trip through the Garifuna village of Livingston, up the Rio Dulce River Canyon to the Ak’Tenamit boarding school/community development organization, and around the Mayan ruins at Quirigua (pronounced kitty gwah). The coast of Guatemala is […]
Lamanai Archaeological Reserve
I’m trying to find time aboard this fun and busy ship to write about Guatemala and Honduras, but in the meantime here are a few more photos from our trip to the Mayan ruins at Lamanai in Belize.