Category Archives: Travel
Rolo is numero uno
Back in elementary school when I learned that Costa Rica means “rich coast” en Español, I never dreamed I’d spend my 31st birthday there. Sam and I shared May 21st with our favorite tour guide in the whole world, Rolando, with whom we’ve been lucky enough to enjoy two full tours and several chance meetings […]
Tagged Costa Rica, nature, SaS, Semester at Sea, wildlife
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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 […]
Tagged band, music, Nicaragua, SaS, school, Semester at Sea
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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 […]
Tagged alcohol, SaS, Scotch, Semester at Sea, whisky
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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 […]
Tagged Panama Canal, SaS, Semester at Sea
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Slow is Beautiful
In 1722, a French naturalist named Georges Buffon wrote, “These sloths are the lowest form of existence. One more defect would have made their existence impossible.†Buffon was not alone in his opinion. Sloths have been seen for decades as primitive animals incapable of adapting–lazy, stupid, and inept. One of the seven deadly sins, the […]
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 […]
Tagged MV Explorer, Panama Canal, SaS, Semester at Sea
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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 […]
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 […]
Tagged Guatemala, mayan ruins, SaS, Semester at Sea
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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.
Tagged Belize, mayan ruins, SaS, Semester at Sea
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