Stories

In San Salvador we had 15 free minutes before the bus left. Of course we ran for coffee.  We entered this great air conditioned place with my future photo in it.

People were trying to order coffee and having a tough time.  So I used my phone translator to get the words in Espanish for “coffee with ice and milk and sugar please”.  I show the barista and he says “Oh, iced latte?” 

Duh.

Then a different barista starts to make this specialty and I ask “¿Cuanto Questa?” Or something close to that, and the barista tries to say it.  He can’t, so he holds up 3 fingers. This would be $3, because for some reason El Salvador uses the American dollar for its currency. The barista tells the first guy I talked to, the price of the coffee.  He looks at me and tries to say the price in English.  He says, ” Seven fr…en…k”

I clarify, “So, Seven Francs?”.  The whole place and workers laughed out loud.  It was such a fun moment.

Turns out it was $6.50.

This is another thing that happens at every stop.  I wonder how many coats of paint and varnish are on this ship.

When we were in Antigua, Guatemala, I was waiting for Tony to finish a very cold beer.  We were in this really cool little hotel with a courtyard.

I went to the little gift shop and sat on a bench there and looked at the riot of color that is in everything you would buy there.

A man and maybe his mother in law sit down beside me and try to converse with me in Espanish.  It’s a really nice gesture.  The Man says there are lots of tourists but they don’t buy anything today.  I know enough Espanish to say “I am sorry, that’s me” His mother in law laughs and he goes away. The mother and law and I sit. I tell her how beautiful all the items in her shop are.

If you saw my Antigua post, and if the pictures came through, you can see how gloriously colorful it is there, the clothes , the buildings, even the trucks arem painted up in bright colors.  A woman walks in to the store, and my new best friend smiles and says “Mi hija”  we all say hello, it’s very hot, how are you.

And then I say ” Grandbabies?”

And off we go.That was another sweet moment.

Here’s what I bought there because they were so kind.

There was una tourista who compra something that Dia.

And mi esposo had un cerveza muy frio.

When this posts, we will be in Miami on Halloween (Day 21) after 20 days at sea. These days were fun, actually!  We may be getting used to this life.

The first of the two sea days after Cartegena we relaxed and watched Back to the Future in bed in the morning.  Then we went up to the observation deck and Tony wrote and I worked through the Espanish workbook I downloaded.

We split up and I went to the last Espanish class and he went to the last Art Auction.  We get a print every time we go to an event.  I am open to suggestions as to what we will do with these, but it is motivation to attend art events.  Also free champagne…

Ooooo!  We found out we do get the upgrade Tony was a genius to request!

We walked upstairs to level 10 and found our next room is a balcony on the portside aft!!  

Whoop!  We are looking forward to more space in  our next balcony suite!! 

One more:

Our other best friend, Hendrick,  the art gallery director, has gotten an infection in his face.  He is on antibiotics and it hurts him to laugh or smile.  He did a whole auction this morning.  We went in afterwards to settle up and get our 3 free works of art.

Yah.

So much winning!

I have won 4 raffles in my life.  Three were on this ship!

Another best friend, Mandi, from South Africa, was helping us sort it all out. Hendrick, also from South Africa,  peeked around the corner and said, ” Sorry guys, I’ve been avoiding you because it hurts to laugh.”

Hahaha!  We’ll leave you with that.

We’ll be in New York on Nov 3rd. We are planning our days according to having internet service! 😀 

We’ll be in touch.

Thanks for checking in.