Come Sail a Way with us LIVE as the Westerdam meets the Sail a Way Gang

[kazu]

The next day was Corinto in Nicaragua.

 

We headed to Leon to see the sights.

 

 

Our guide took us to the local market.

We were lucky it was a Sunday as the market is normally very crowded.

 

 

 

Food was being cooked there and our guide bought some for those of us who were brave enough to try it. I

 

 

Really good!!!

Edited May 11, 2015 by kazu

[kazu]

Leon is an older city, in typical Spanish colonial style.... listening carefully to the guide..

 

 

 

beautiful churches

 

 

 

Edited May 11, 2015 by kazu

[kazu]

We then went to lunch where Julio had some entertainment planned for us:

 

 

 

 

there was also some interaction with the audience and one of our roll call members showed off his dancing skills

 

 

and there were even prizes!

 

[kazu]

that evening was the Master Chef's table. I already posted some pics of the table - but here's one more and then the food porn

 

 

lovely dishes!

 

 

 

 

[kazu]

more food from the Master Chef's table

 

 

 

 

 

The petits fours went over so well with some at the table that they had bring a pile more!!!

 

 

 

 

 

We really enjoyed our dinner that night as did the other roll call members that attended and would recommend it highly.

[kazu]

Our next day was Puerto Quetzal - Guatemala.

 

We were heading to the town of Antigua & the children's school today so we were all full of anticipation.

 

Antigua is a Unesco site and is called the Athens of Central America.

 

Very quaint.

 

 

 

 

and yes, there are vendors, but if you say "no, gracias" they don't persist. You can really bargain here if you are up to the challenge

 

 

Edited May 11, 2015 by kazu

[kazu]

This church is very beautiful and very old. He has been hit by earthquakes though so only a portion of it has been restored. What has been restored is beautiful (mostly from the original pieces.

 

 

 

 

 

[kazu]

Because it is a Unesco site, they are not allowed to restore any more. It has to be maintained as it is. So, it can be protected but no further restoration is permitted.

 

It is amazing and I can see why they are calling it the Athens of Central America.

 

 

 

 

you can still see the sculptures on the walls

 

 

[ger_77]

Many thanks to Lizzie58 and Mumsysailor who organized it and had lovely prizes for the wine tasting. It was held in our cabin and now you can see the real question answered - how many people can you fit in a Neptune Suite?

 

I think I counted 18 . . . am I correct?

 

Smooth Sailing ! :) :) :)

[kazu]

The Church continued which was a central place at one time.

 

For those of you who have been to Ephesus, this might seem familiar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back later with more -........to be continued....

Edited May 11, 2015 by kazu

[kazu]

I think I counted 18 . . . am I correct?

 

Smooth Sailing ! :) :) :)

 

 

ha! ha! actually 22 - not bad for a Neptune Suite, eh?

 

We brought in the stools and a couple of chairs from outside and faked it fairly well.

 

Lots of fun :)

Edited May 11, 2015 by kazu

[Lizzie68]

ha! ha! actually 22 - not bad for a Neptune Suite, eh?

 

We brought in the stools and a couple of chairs from outside and faked it fairly well.

 

Lots of fun :)

 

And quite a few of us ended up outside, in spite of the heat!

 

Great photos, Jacqui, so good to relive the memories.

[albingirl]

Very lovely review. Thanks for all the beautiful pictures.

[Lizzie68]

I don't recall if kazu has mentioned already the interesting conversation we had with some staff about Cruise Critic - they certainly know about it and remember some members and had some very interesting observstions about some of the stories they have read - so we are being careful to be very factual.:D (Hi to any of them reading this, we miss you!) But it is good to know they read our posts.

[kazu]

I don't recall if kazu has mentioned already the interesting conversation we had with some staff about Cruise Critic - they certainly know about it and remember some members and had some very interesting observstions about some of the stories they have read - so we are being careful to be very factual.:D (Hi to any of them reading this, we miss you!) But it is good to know they read our posts.

 

I forgot to post that Lizzie. It was a very interesting conversation indeed.

 

They certainly know some posters very well!

[taxmantoo]

I forgot to post that Lizzie. It was a very interesting conversation indeed.

 

They certainly know some posters very well!

 

I'm sure I could name a few but my post would very quickly disappear ;)

[1of4]

I forgot to post that Lizzie. It was a very interesting conversation indeed.

 

They certainly know some posters very well!

 

:eek: :o :eek: :o

 

I hope my spelling (or lack of spelling skill) hasn't upset the apple cart!

[kazu]

:eek: :o

 

I hope my spelling (or lack of spelling skill) hasn't upset the apple cart!

 

:confused::confused: Your spelling is fine. Do you mean because of your thread? It's tremendous and very enjoyable.

 

YOU could NEVER upset an apple cart :D:D

Edited May 11, 2015 by kazu

[kazu]

After seeing this lovely Church in Guatemala, it was time to continue on with our walking tour. Guatemala was so lovely it was hard to resist taking pictures of some of the flowers and the interesting accents of the houses.

 

 

 

 

 

[kazu]

There are many Churches and Convents in Guatemala. Most are closed now, but at the time the convents were used to educate the upper class women. And the architecture of the older buildings was just beautiful.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 12, 2015 by kazu

[kazu]

We saw something similar to this in the ruins.

 

This is still a working spot in the centre of town. It is for people who want to wash their clothes! Yes, seriously!

 

 

Beautiful spot, but I would have never guessed it's purpose without our guide.

 

We continued on our walk and saw more beautiful buildings and churches.

 

 

 

It was getting hot (noon time) so our guide asked us if we would like to stop for lunch. We were all in the mood to stop so off we went to eat in a real, typical Guatemalan spot.

 

 

There was all kinds of food. You chose what you wanted and then it was delivered to you at your table.

 

Here is our group waiting for their food

 

[kazu]

There was lots of choices at the restaurant and we enjoyed every bite of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

after a lovely lunch and a bit of rest, we were ready to carry on. Nothing was stopping us no matter how hot it was as we were shortly heading to the children's school.

[kazu]

We drove into a small town which was obviously not well to do to get to the Children's School. It is primarily a town of Mayan's. The teacher came out to meet us and walked us down to the school. First she showed us the new construction they were doing. No hard hats here and it is obvious everything is being done manually.

 

If they can get the construction completed, they will be able to take in 25 more children.

 

These children would not have an education without this school so it is a very worthwhile cause.

 

We went into the school's main courtyard with anticipation and the children came out. First, to make everyone aware of their need!

 

 

You should have seen the shock on their faces when I went up and gave them some cash. We had a poker run on the ship in conjunction with the cabin crawl and the roll call agreed that 1/2 of the proceeds would go towards helping the school.

 

Each child came up and introduced themselves. Some speaking Spanish and some had already learned English!!!! They wore regional dress of Guatemala and told us their ages.

 

The boys were charming swooping their hats off and bowing.

 

The girls were just too sweet for words. It was very touching. Especially because we knew that we had a surprise for them. I had asked our guide Carlos to keep our gifts a secret unless they needed to know. He agreed that a surprise would be wonderful as all the supplies were desperately needed.

 

 

 

you can see the little lineup forming here as each one came to tell us a bit about themselves.

 

 

[kazu]

After the introductions, they then performed for us with both music and regional dances.

 

here are the musicians and yes, they are all students in the school!

 

 

Here they are preparing to set up:

 

 

 

 

They were all concentrating very hard to do a good job and they certainly did!

 

 

 

and then the dancing began:

 

[kazu]

I am trying not to repeat pics that were shown earlier in the thread.

 

The dance for thankfulness of corn:

 

 

 

 

the charming boys performing

 

 

there were several performances which were done very well - representative of Guatemalan culture and no need for translation!