panama a a a a

I would like to start this blog by saying that I loooooove this job. Here’s your latest on what I’ve been up to! We’re still playing a few sets a night, and musically things are going well. Non-musically…………

In Acapulco we got a taxi to walmart, where we bought squirt guns and beach toys and sunscreen. It was kinda nice, cause the Walmart smell is the same whether you are in Tennessee or in Mexico.
Then we went to the place we went before to go bungee jumping, Paradise, where we got a Coco Loco (the best drink in the world, served in a coconut) and I rented a beach chair under an umbrella. We laid around and hung out and ate a bunch and played in the ocean and in the pool.

We went back to Costa Rica, and went ziplining this time! It was the same place we went horseback riding, so we already knew that it was beautiful and amazing and affordable and not many people knew about it. We met this older couple that was on their honeymoon, and they were in our group to go ziplining, so there were 6 of us. The couple were ziplining connoisseurs, and they were just going around trying all the ziplining places. They said this one was one of the best they had ever been on though. It was SO cool! The last line we did was almost a half mile long, across this huge valley. I felt like a bird, and I wanted to fling my arms out and yell I'm KING OF THE WORLD. It was glorious.

Two nights ago we got a night off – we played for the Captain’s Club party in the afternoon, which is an exclusive event for the people who have spent the most money on the ship, and they always honor the couple who has been on the most cruises. This cruise, the winning couple had been on 140 cruises, incredible. In any case, we had an evening off for the first time in a long time, we wanted to go to the fancy restaurant, the S.S.United States, but it was full and we couldn’t get a reservation. So we went upstairs and ate pizza from the Oceanview Café, and walked around and listened to the other musical acts that didn’t have the night off. There’s really not much to do on the ship, and I can see how someone would get a little crazy after a few months here. It hasn’t gotten old to me yet, but I still sometimes wish to run to circle k in the middle of the night. Or IHOP.

Yesterday evening we stopped in Panama. I only had about 30 minutes because although crew didn’t have to be back on the ship til 9:30, I had to play a set at 7:45, so I got off and walked around a bit, but we couldn’t really go anywhere except this one little bar/restaurant right on the dock, so we sat on a bench outside that and got a drink and talked. It was too dark to take pictures, but we’ll be back through once more, so I’ll get pictures and souvenirs then.
Sea Day today, so boring. Slept til 2. :)