Day 9 - Sat August 18, 2018 San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua - Crystal Symphony - San Francisco to New York

Day 9 - Sat August 18, 2018 San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua

Sunrise was at 5:33 am.  We didn’t start our daily walk until about 6:45 am.  There was a fierce headwind on the starboard side of the ship and rounding the bow was certainly a workout.  This was the most difficult walk we’ve had, but we got our hour of walking in.

Today is our son, Alex’s birthday. We used wifi texting to communicate birthday wishes, and tried to reach him via wifi calling prior to his going to work, but were unable to connect with him.

This morning we attended Jim Brochu’s lecture titled “That Yankee Doodle Boy-James Cagney.”  Jim presented the progression of Cagney’s career from his humble beginnings in New York City, to a vaudeville song and dance man, and then on to becoming an Academy Award-winning star.  When Jim was 21 he had the opportunity to meet Cagney at the Player’s Club in New York and kept in touch with him until his death in 1986.

We anchored off San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua at noon.  The scenery was beautiful.

A small bay with an interesting rock formation a few miles north of our anchor point. 

79 foot tall "Christ of the Mercy" overlooks the harbor.

A lighthouse on the bluff.

Only 2 shore excursions were offered – a Zipline Adventure and Bicycling.  We were not interested in either.  Our plan had been to just stay on the ship again due to the US Government having issued a Level 3 Travel Advisory to “reconsider travel” and having removed all non-essential US Government personnel from Nicaragua.  As we read a little more, San Juan del Sur is a very small town and has not experienced any violence from the civil unrest.  We decided to take the tender in and take a short walk along the shore. 

Tender about to be lowered into the water.

A pair of tenders passing each other.

We took one of the first tenders to shore.  As we exited the tender there were many professional and amateur photographers taking our pictures and filming as well as ordinary citizens filming us on their iPhones.  It was like being a star of some kind. They would even take pictures, grab their cameras and tripods, leap frog ahead and take some more pictures. This happened even as we walked down the street.  Honestly, it was a little bit creepy.  We couldn’t quite figure out what the purpose of all this was and there were so many filming us that it was a bit unnerving.

There is a beautiful crescent shaped beach that was clean and uncrowded.  

Bars and restaurants lined the beach and looked quite nice.  There was a very large police presence – even the local hotel had security with a rifle out on the front porch.  We walked for about 30 minutes and decided to return to the Symphony.  

Police presence

The number of power lines on this one pole was mind boggling.

She looks great!!

Later we heard that Alexis and Dao had intended to walk to the lighthouse that was visible from the tender port, but were told not to, as they would be robbed.

We returned barely in time for lunch and decided to go to Waterside. Since we forgot to take photos last night, here are some lunch ones.

We both had the Beef Empanada (very yummy)

Julie had Salmon Piccata (which came out breaded).

Bob had a grilled ham and cheese.

Julie got the berries sundae (Bob helped again).

We were able to make the 2:30 pm movie in the Hollywood Theater: “Finding Your Feet” – Julie loved it, and Bob also enjoyed the movie.

We met up with some Cruise Critic members (Muriel, Becky, Celeste, Terry, Phillip, Roy, and Carol) at 4:55 pm in the Computer Room.  There is a live webcam there and we went there for a “group photo” so that the remaining fellow Cruise Critic members at home could log in at 5:00 pm and see us.  A good time was had by all.

The webcam view.

We enjoyed cocktails in the Crystal Cove with Mike and Marcia (also Cruise Critic members).  They had also attended the Mexican cooking class that we did – they were on the winning team that received those large tequila shots.

Dinner was in Umi Uma – the Nobu Japanese specialty restaurant.  The food there is always wonderful.  We shared a Salmon Roll, both had the Nobu Style Lobster Tacos (ok “tacos” seems strange in a Japanese restaurant – but, they are served on a single thin tortilla chip), Bob had the Shrimp Tempura and Julie had the Rock Shrimp Tempura with a creamy sauce. 

Lobster tacos 

Regular shrimp tempura

Rock shrimp tempura

For entrees, Julie had the Broiled Salmon with the Anticucho Sauce 

and Bob had the Australian “Wagyu” Beef Filet Stead with Anticucho Sauce.  

We passed on dessert.

Tonight was a presentation of the production show “5  6  7  8” with the Crystal Ensemble of Singers and Dancers.  We enjoyed the show.  

We had drinks in the Palm Court and then attended the Liars Club show, featuring two of the lecturers – Dr Jay Wolff and Jim Brochu, and the Ventriloquist, Mark Merchant.  It was entertaining.

Today we walked 18,461 steps, 8.13 miles.