Day 5- December 28- Cartengna, Columbia

Okay, so that "little break" I said I could take from this blog because I had finally caught up?  I little bigger than little.  My procrastinative nature took over and it is now Day 9.  I've decided that in order to keep you all (and me) from getting bored, I'm going to try and shorten these up a bit.

Some of you may be wondering what happened to Day 4.  Well, Day 4 was pretty boring.  We were at sea, so we didn't really do much.  We spent the day relaxing.  We decided not to gamble that night because of our 2 night losing streak.  I don't remember what we got for dinner, but I do remember Becki won, making the score 2-2.

As for Day 5, far more interesting than Day 4.  We slept in a tad before heading out to Columbia.  After a nervous encounter with a sketchy street full of Columbian taxi drivers offering us rides, we decided to just hang out at the one store at the terminal, so we didn't really see much of Cartegna.  It was one of those things that would have not been such a big deal if we were traveling with our dad or with Will, but just Becki and I weren't comfortable with it.  It turned out ok though.  The shop had a big selection.  I got an awesome gift for Nicole (you will love it!  come back to AZ and get it!) and both of us bought Columbian coffee for our parents.  Plus there were some cool parrots outside and a fake mine exhibit where you could see how they mine the emeralds Columbia sells.

We were way hot and gross from the humidity, so Becki and I decided on another swimming trip on deck to cool off.  I don't remember what we had for dinner, but I think I won, making the new score 3-2.  After dinner, Becki went with Adam to play pool, while I went with Zachary to watch a comedian, which was fun.  We were still discouraged from losing our money, so we didn't do any gambling that night either.  The other exciting thing we did that day was book an excursion for the port of Costa Rica.  We would be horseback riding through the rainforest.  Becki was so excited because it was the excursion she wanted and I was happy because there was a chance of seeing the colorful poisonous frogs found only in the rainforest.  We went to bed happy.

Day 6- Dec 29- Colon, Panama

Wow, what a jam-packed day this was!  We got up early because our excursion started at 8.  We took a bus ride through the rainforest to the Panama Canal.  That part was pretty boring, although it was cool to see the rainforest.  I also learned that in Panama, they celebrate Christmas until January 6th, so it was all decorated fancy there.

 Not quite the beautiful blue we saw in the rest of the Carribean.

 In Panama, they import old school buses from the US and paint them and use them as public transportation.

The Panama Canal was awesome.  I'm so glad we did this excursion.  We got to see ships go through it and there was a whole museum about its construction, how it works, and the area surrounding it.  It was totally worth the long bus ride, and besides, why wouldn't you visit the canal if you were in Panama?

After finally getting back around 2 or 2:30, we decided to shop.  Mostly, the shops had the same useless stuff that the other ports had.  I did manage to find a way cute dress and a great gift for Jessica that I KNOW she's going to love.

 Rainbow!

 CRAZY humidity hair!

I won dinner, so it was 4-2, my favor.  We checked out the casino again that night, but it looked like people were losing, so we decided not to risk our money again.  We got bad news back at the room: our horseback riding excursion had been cancelled due to weather.  Becki was devastated.  I was disappointed too.

Day 7- Dec 30- Puerto Limon, Costa Rica

This day was an excellent one for us.  After getting up so early for the past several days, we slept in.  We WERE on vacation, after all.  For the first time on the whole trip, we got breakfast at the buffet.  Before, we had either ordered breakfast ahead of time so we could eat in our room or we had just skipped straight to lunch.  Let me just say, the breakfast buffet was better than the lunch buffet.  Not the greatest food there.  It wasn't terrible, of course, it was just... buffet-y.  Not cruise-y.  The dinners in the dining room were far better.

After eating, we left the ship for the country of Costa Rica.  This port was similar to the past few ports, in that you couldn't see very much of it unless you hired a taxi.  It didn't matter, though, because the sheer amount of shops in the ship's terminal kept us PLENTY busy.  Where Columbia and Haiti had the same useless islandy junk in their stands, Puerto Limon's wares were different and interesting.  Becki and I both brought $100 each, and we spent it ALL.  It was souvenir central.  It was the most intense, awesome shopping ever.  We had a blast.  Got some stuff for Will, some stuff for our parents, Becki's roommate, my co-workers... and, of course, ourselves.

 One of our souvenirs.  It had sticky things on its feet so we hung it up in our room.

The reason our excursion was cancelled.  Look closely, everybody.  Rain from the rainforest!

We returned to our room to examine our spoils.  Becki and I decided to put off the contest that night, so it was still Becki- 2, Paige-4.  After dinner, we went to see the magician, who was okay.  Really simple tricks, nothing too flashy.  We decided to leave the casino for the next day, when we would be at sea.

In case you were wondering why there are no pictures of Costa Rica, it is because our cruise ship was surrounded by two other cruise ships, and we just went to the terminal.  So the reason you don't get to see Costa Rica is because we didn't really see Costa Rica either.  Blame the weather for ruining our awesome rainforest excursion.