Out of Cyprus Summer 2018: Taking our time returning to Europe

After saying goodbye to our family, and walking away from the Logos Hope in Panama for the last time, we returned to the guest house where we had been staying. The journey was straightforward this time, and we had a good night's sleep despite feeling a bit sad to be leaving.

The following morning dawned bright and sunny. We didn't need to leave until about 10.30am, so we wandered around the outside of the place we had been staying. It's not somewhere we would want to take children; there's a small swimming pool beside the main house (where the owner lives) and although the three guard dogs are very friendly to family and visitors, there were a lot of dog messes in the grass and elsewhere in the grounds. It made us realise just how well-trained the dogs must have been in the Coronado villa, as I don't think we saw any dog mess at all on the property!

Anyway, the second guest house, much smaller, was great for the two of us and although we didn't visit the beach - at the end of the garden! - I did take some photos of what looked like a pleasant spot to sit and listen to the waves:

It was another striking contrast to the noise, pollution and general claustrophobic feeling of Panama City, just half an hour's drive away.

We said goodbye to our hostess and handed back the keys, then set off down what looked like a winding UK countryside road:

There were some very run-down village buildings, and a police check which we had become so used to that I got Richard's passport and driving license ready before we approached each time. But there was also a lot of greenery.

Then we had to drive over the bridge to Panama City:

By late morning the traffic was running at a reasonable speed, and it only took us about forty minutes to get to the airport. We returned the rental car and checked in... the queues were long but we had plenty of time.

When we looked at return flights to the UK, it became clear that we needed to do the transatlantic flight from Mexico City, where we flew to before joining the ship a month earlier. While, within Europe, it's often cheaper to get two single flights rather than a return, this does not seem to be the case for flying to the American continents. Thus we needed to find 'local' flights from Panama to Mexico City. Finding direct flights proved impossible, so it was clear we would have to stop in another country en route.

That being the case, Richard decided that we might as well spend a whole day in another country, as it's unlikely we'll ever travel in that area again. El Salvador was a possibility but I wasn't keen on going there; happily a better value route was via Costa Rica, a country which our close friends like very much. We would only be in the capital, San Jose, but it seemed like a good plan. We booked into a hotel, and also booked a morning's outing...

Landing in San Jose was a bit depressing; it was pouring with rain, and the hotel shuttle driver, who should have been there to meet us, did not appear. We landed at something like 3.30pm and it should have been a twenty minute drive to the hotel (according to their literature). Instead, when Richard managed to get through to the hotel on the phone, we were told that the driver was stuck in traffic and would be at least another half hour... so they recommended we get a taxi.

We refused all offers of private taxis, as recommended, and opted for a bright orange airport one which was metered. Traffic was appalling; the driver said it was always bad, and it took us nearly an hour and a half to get to the hotel!  With pouring rain and grey skies, it wasn't a great introduction to Costa Rica. Nor were we happy when a hotel porter opened the door of our taxi and grabbed our bags and insisted on taking them up to our room, clearly needing to be tipped. The whole tipping culture of the Americas feels not just alien to us, but condescending and somewhat awkward.

The hotel was adequate - not great, but spacious, and reasonably comfortable. There was a restaurant downstairs, and since we didn't want to venture out in the dark (it was still raining) we ate in the hotel and slept well. The following morning, breakfast was provided free, with lots of choice. The sun was shining, and the shuttle to our morning tour arrived promptly, and was very friendly.

Richard had booked us on a coffee plantation visit - a touristy one which was fairly highly reviewed online; while a bit expensive, it included two shuttle drives (at least half an hour each way) and a good lunch, so we thought it not bad value at all.

We arrived half an hour early, thanks to light traffic, and were able to wander around the visitor area of the plantation, and look in the gift shop, and use the facilities.  There were three or four other English-speaking people on the tour, and probably fifteen or so Spanish-speaking people; we were told that some of them were a group of teachers.

The tour started with a brief explanation of how coffee spread around the world:

The tour was conducted by a young and outgoing woman called Maria, who did most of the talking, switching between Spanish and English. It was like a stand-up comedy act in places, with a young man (whom she said was her cousin, although I didn't grasp his name) as the foil. There was lots of banter and teasing, a few innuendos, and a great deal of discussion of coffee-growing in Costa Rica.

There were times when the Spanish contingent interrupted, and asked more questions, and evidently made jokes and we seemed to miss quite a bit; Maria did her best to translate, but sometimes just shrugged and said it was impossible. However, on the whole it was very well done, and they kept us interested. I was surprised to learn that coffee has to be grown under controlled conditions, ideally in a mountainous climate on volcanic soil, and that it takes three years of growth and care before the first beans appear.

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We were also somewhat startled to learn that Costa Rica has over 100 volcanoes, six of which are still active.

We were shown the beans growing on bushes - still green here as it's not the harvesting season:

Then they produced a basket and showed us how the harvesting happens. At least, they were going to, when one of the teachers grabbed the basket and strapped it around herself, and mimed coffee picking - she said she used to work in the plantations herself.

Maria explained that coffee pickers are paid $6 for a full basket, which seemed like very little pay for what is clearly quite hard work. But they shrugged, and said it was fair; their company deals directly with farmers and treats the workers well. Someone asked how much a typical picker earns in a day, and they really couldn't answer the question. They said it depends on how many baskets they pick - and that it could be anything from two to about ten.  They said that too often people get distracted by chatting with other workers - that it's a great atmosphere, and very friendly. We had the impression that they employed a lot of casual workers - perhaps students - and that it's considered a good job.

We were surprised to spot a squirrel, with an orange body and grey tail:

After the main part of the tour - with various locations to taste different kinds of coffee - we were conducted to a small cinema area, where we saw films showing how coffee beans are processed - it's quite complex, with a variety of different machines, with fine tuning leading to different blends.

The lunch was buffet-style with plenty of choice - including coffee afterwards! - and then we had a few minutes in the gift shop before our shuttle driver arrived to return us to our hotel. And although the journey was free, we knew we had to tip the driver.

We could perhaps have fitted another local tour into our schedule, but we were quite tired. The tour had been interesting, but it was loud at times, and we had felt a bit overwhelmed by bright colours everywhere. So we and decided to stay in for a couple of hours, and read.  In the evening we went out for a walk, in the hope of finding somewhere suitable to eat.

The town was a bit spread out, and we rejected most of what we saw, either as dubious quality, or additive-laden fast food. But eventually we found quite a nice sandwich place that provided something similar to Sub sandwiches, only rather more nicely presented. As with Panama, the restaurant was noisy, not just with people talking but with loud music, and traffic outside.  By the time we'd walked back to the hotel we were both feeling exhausted after being bombarded with bright lights and continual noise.

In the morning the hotel shuttle arrived fairly promptly; we had allowed a couple of hours to get to the airport, so, naturally, the traffic was light and we got there in just over twenty minutes. The check-in process was pretty quick and we had lunch at the airport, in a food court - the food was good, but the place we sat was so noisy we could hardly hear ourselves speak.

I took a photo as the aeroplane was taxiing along the runway:

In the evening we arrived at Mexico City.  We were both exhausted, and quite hungry; we were booked into the smaller airport hotel, and had a light meal there before collapsing into a huge and very comfortable bed.

In the morning the sky was clear, and this was the view from our window:

We had a whole day - we had to check in for our flight about 8.30pm - and could see that there was some kind of metro system that might avoid traffic. So we looked online for recommendations about what to do in Mexico City in our circumstances. We didn't want to go far, or do anything too tiring... and were quite relieved when we realised that the almost unanimous recommendation was NOT to go into the city, but to explore the airport mall!

Breakfast was not included in the price of the hotel but there was a buffet breakfast available so we decided we might as well eat there, although the cost seemed rather high. So it was quite a nice surprise when our bill was for about half what we had expected. We queried it, thinking we'd been given the wrong bill, and the waiter told us that we had only had a 'small' breakfast, rather than the 'full' one. We thought we'd had quite a bit...

Mid-morning we walked through the hotel and over the bridge to the airport, which does indeed have a huge shopping mall - bigger than anything we've seen in any other airport on the 'public' side (ie before checking in). There weren't just gift shops and restaurants (although there were many of them) but also a lot of specialist shops selling clothes, shoes, bags... and even the first real local bookshop we had seen on our travels:

It was huge. And although everything was in Spanish, we went inside, and I felt so happy to be amongst books, browsing different categories. This wasn't just books to grab for a flight, but high quality ones in as many categories as one would find in a bookshop elsewhere.

But it was really the only oasis in a huge, bright and noisy environment. Richard loves shopping malls, and I don't mind spending a short time browsing shops, but every one played loud music, and there were flashing lights and more bright colours, and we both felt quite drained.

There's an entire food court upstairs, not offering local food but various chains - including the first Starbucks we had seen since leaving Europe, although we didn't buy anything there. We chose a sandwich shop that had a few inside seats, as neither of us could bear the thought of eating at the extremely noisy tables of the food court.

We were supposed to check out from our hotel by 2.00pm but had been told that, if we wished, we could pay an extra half-day's rate and check out in the evening. By this stage we were so overwhelmed with lights and sound that we thought it well-worth doing.  However when Richard went to book another half day, he was told that if he signed up to be a hotel associate - at no cost - we could not only check out as late as 6.00pm, we could get a 10% discount on all food at the hotel. The only disadvantage was that he'll be sent promotional emails - but it seemed well worth doing. We wondered why we were not invited to do this when we arrived, as we could have saved 10% on our evening meal and breakfast... but weren't going to quibble.

So we relaxed, and read in our room until 6.00pm, then checked out and left our cases with the concierge (free, but yet another requirement for a tip) and ate at the hotel restaurant because we couldn't face going back to the airport mall. And yes, they gave us a 10% discount because we had a hotel card!

Then we checked in at the airport, which all went smoothly; the only incident was when I opened the bottle of water I had bought, only to discover - when it sprayed itself over me, my seat, the floor and some of Richard - that it was fizzy rather than still!

It was 11.15pm when we took off and I was extremely tired; it was another 'dreamliner' aeroplane and there was an empty seat next to Richard so he moved up and I was able to curl up and sleep... albeit waking frequently to move as it wasn't all that comfortable.

We arrived at Heathrow at 4pm UK time the following day, picked up a rental car, and drove to Tim's flat in Surrey. The sun was shining and it was warmer than Mexico had been.  We drove down to see Richard's mother in Sussex on Tuesday, then Richard returned to Cyprus on Wednesday. I'm spending more time here with Tim and then my father, seeing various other people... and return in just over a week.

It's been a good summer, wonderful to see the family, and we all enjoyed the break in Coronado very much. Tim's suitcase eventually arrived on the Logos Hope about two hours before he left, so he was able to distribute the various gifts in it, and it arrived safely back in Gatwick when he returned to the UK about ten hours before we did. 

Out of Cyprus: last few days in Panama

It wasn't until we returned to near Panama City that we realised how good the weather had been during our break in Coronado. Perhaps that's why so many people have holiday homes in that area, and go there for weekends. When we returned the family and Tim to the Logos Hope on Sunday, we learned that it had rained, sometimes heavily, every day while we had been away.  In Coronado, we'd seen a few showers, some early mornings and evenings, but mostly it had remained fine and sunny.

We left the holiday villa around noon on Sunday 12th, and stopped for lunch at a Subway, followed by yet more ice creams at Gelarto. Esther fell asleep soon after getting back in the car, and it took us around an hour and a half to get back to the Logos Hope.

We wanted to see as much of the family as possible in our last few days, so we went onto the ship too on Sunday afternoon. Had I realised how high the tide was (and thus how steep the gangway was) I might have decided otherwise - but the pull of spending more time with David and Esther was strong. Becky acquired red 'shore guest' passes for us. We went to the 'fun deck' for a while with the children, as they had been stuck in the car and were full of energy. David showed Tim some of the ship, and we ate dinner there.  Afterwards, Richard read to David, and was joined by Esther:

We wanted to get to our guest house before eight o'clock if possible, and it was supposedly a half-hour drive. As the cabin was a bit crowded with seven of us, Richard and I departed shortly after 7.00pm.

Unfortunately Richard's phone navigation application isn't totally up-to-date for Panama. It tried to take us the shortest route, which was fine until we reached a barrier, with no way to get through. Richard phoned the lady who owns the guest house, and she spoke in Spanish to the man on duty at the barrier, but all we gathered was that we were in the wrong place.

So we back-tracked and tried a different route.. only to come up to another barrier, with another gated community (perhaps something military).  This time the guard was more helpful; he spoke a little English, and called a man on a motorbike to direct us. The man on the motorbike phoned someone else who told us in English where to go... and eventually we were on the right route, free of barriers.

In all, it took us over an hour and a half to reach our location. We could have got back to Coronado in that time! We were met by a friendly lady with reasonable English, who made us very welcome. She also has a padlocked high gate and large dogs - this seems to be very common here in Panama. We were shattered and slept well.

I didn't take photos of the guest house until Tuesday morning, by which time we had changed to a smaller rental car:

There's a little outside area, which we had to ourselves as the other guest room isn't yet finished:

Inside, the room is spacious and comfortable. The kitchen is well-equipped, with a fridge, coffee-machine and kettle. We hadn't been shopping, and were too tired to go out on a hunt for a supermarket after we arrived Sunday night. But we had some of Daniel's ground coffee with us for the morning, and some cereal bars which I'd bought in Cyprus for our flights.

When I opened the kitchen cupboard, I found various things, probably left by previous guests, including a jar of Coffee-Mate. This posed something of a moral dilemma as this product is made by a company whose products we don't buy, due to many of its unethical policies. However, we hadn't bought it ourselves. It appeared to be free of any ingredients that would give me a migraine or block Richard's ears, so we decided to use a couple of spoonfuls in the morning.

Thus we were able to have coffee and cereal bars for breakfast on Monday morning.

Just outside our room was a row of what my subconscious memory tells me are Amaryllis plants, growing in profusion.  Maybe they're something else (and they're quite bedraggled by rain) but they must be stunning when in full bloom.

We were due at the Airport on Monday at 9.00am to return our ten-seater van and pick up, instead, a smaller car for the two of us to get about. Our hostess told us we should leave by 8.00am. She would be leaving at 6.00am, she told us, to get her two teenage daughters to school - an hour's drive away.  She told Richard later that she does about six hours of driving every day to get her girls to and from school.  This kind of thing is not uncommon in a city with far too many cars, although a kind of over-ground railway system is being built, which should revolutionise the traffic problems in a few years.

We set off shortly after 8.00, and had no problem getting over the bridge (over the Panama Canal). But once in the town, traffic was appalling.  And what a depressing city, full of huge apartment blocks... and cars.

It was well after 9.30 by the time we got to the airport, but since we'd had problems collecting the van originally, they weren't going to object.

Having returned the car, we had to wait a few minutes for our replacement to be available, so we embarked on a search around the airport, to see if we could find out anything else about Tim's missing suitcase. We asked at a helpful information desk, and were sent to the 'lost and found' office, which was filled with shelves of suitcases, smaller bags and other lost items.

We explained our problem and were told that if the case had arrived at Panama, it would not be in the publicly accessible area of the airport - this was for luggage that had come through Customs. They sent us to Customs.

We found the Customs people - going past randomly placed suitcases of all shapes and sizes, though mostly black (Tim's case is red), and were told that we had to go somewhere else. We went somewhere else, and a guy checked yet more luggage... and sent us to the American Airlines office.

We had to keep waiting outside there while various people checked up, and a helpful guy called Jason said they had all the details of the case and were still looking.  But he seemed to think we were asking about compensation, and told us the path to follow. We said yes, we knew about that - but really our son wanted the case more than the compensation.  He didn't seem to hold out much hope, though.

By the time we left the airport it was about 10.45am. The rest of the family had booked a taxi to the Albrook Mall, largest mall in the Americas, and one of the largest in the world. Monday is the ship day off, and it seemed like a good idea to get out somewhere; Tim needed to do more shopping to replace a few more things from his case, and Richard very much likes malls.  We knew it didn't open until 10.00am, but had been in touch with Tim via WhatsApp. He had managed to buy inexpensive phone chips from the UK that would give free data and roaming in most of Latin America, so we were exchanging messages around Panama at no cost.

It should have taken us about half an hour, at most, to reach the mall from the airport. It took us over an hour and a half. Traffic was abysmal. When we found the mall we couldn't find the multi-storey car park and ended up parking at a somewhat expensive outdoor car park (where the tariff was 4 cents per minute, up to a maximum of $20 for a day) but it could have taken another half hour to drive around the mall to find somewhere else. We were tired and getting hungry.

Tim had messaged that we should meet at the 'Carrusel' - the mall is mostly organised by animals, so we entered at the 'lion' area, and went past a section with huge giraffes. The 'Carrusel' turned out to be a merry-go-round (or carousel - we're not entirely sure what the difference is) with a food court - although the shops were all fast-food places, mostly American. But that wasn't a problem. The endless noise was draining - all the shops seemed to be playing music, and there were bright lights everywhere, and the carousel itself was playing music.

There are only two storeys to the mall, but it must be a kilometre or more from one end to the other, and it branches off in different directions.

Richard and I had burritos for lunch, Daniel and the children shared a pizza, and Tim and Becky both opted for a shop called 'Suvlas' which sold something strongly resembling a Cypriot gyro... called a 'yeero'.

Afterwards, we'd promised David a ride on the merry-go-round, and he wanted to sit in the teacup. So he, Esther and Becky had a ride.

However there wasn't much else for children. And while there were lots of shops, none of them really interested us. We wandered around for another hour or so, looking in a pen shop (for Tim) which was very expensive, and a cloth/material shop (for Becky) which didn't have anything appealing.

The children were getting tired, so after stopping for coffee and more ice creams, we headed to the car park, via a supermarket where we bought some almond milk and fruit juice. We don't know what the laws are here, but since it was only a short drive to the ship, we put the children on laps, and headed back.

We had dinner on the ship, and played with the children a little but they were tired so we departed about 7.30pm. Unfortunately we missed the turn-off to Veracruz (the place where we're staying) and ended up going several extra miles down the highway.  However this had the benefit of taking us to a large supermarket, so we stopped and bought a few extra things for breakfast. We would have liked some fruit, but the mangoes and papayas and other tempting looking produce were so hard that it would probably have taken a week or more to ripen them, and we were only here for three more mornings.

So we bought some bananas, and yogurts, and little bags of fruit and nuts that were on special offer, and headed back.  Excluding the time spent at the supermarket, it still took over an hour to get to our guesthouse - and once again we were very tired and slept well.

Tuesday morning dawned bright and sunny. We had said we would meet the family on the ship around 3.00pm when David finished at the ship school, and Esther would have woken for her nap, so we had the morning to ourselves. Richard chatted with our hostess, and she suggested driving along a causeway not far from the ship, which her husband had helped to build in recent years.

We were both suffering from quite bad mouth ulcers (canker sores) at this stage. Probably because of eating high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), a product which is restricted and uncommon in Europe but which seems to be in just about every product here. It isn't a migraine trigger, so I had eaten breakfast cereals, ketchup and one or two other items bought here, not realising it's a common mouth ulcer trigger.  Not that there's much we could have done about it unless we had cooked everything from scratch, and that's not something I wanted to do on holiday.

I had brought a small amount of coconut oil with me, but had used it all up on my first batch of mouth ulcers; we had been unable to find any more. But research online showed that it could be found in some branches of a large supermarket called El Rey. We'd been to one in Coronado and hadn't been able to find any, so we decided to check one which looked as if it wasn't too far from the ship, albeit the other side of the bridge.

Driving over the bridge wasn't a problem, but it then took us nearly an hour driving at snail's pace through the outskirts of Panama City before we finally found the supermarket and a place to park.

Happily we were able to find some coconut oil, albeit rather expensive. But by then we were hungry and there was nowhere obvious to eat. We walked over the street to an indoor mall (much smaller than the Albrook, and not air conditioned). It had a food court, but when we went in the smell was unpleasant and none of the shops looked appealing.

So we bought pastries at a small coffee house, and they filled a gap.

We still had over an hour before we planned to go to the ship, so we set off for the causeway.  It was indeed well worth seeing - it's quite long, lined with trees, and (unusual for Panama) there are plenty of roundabouts to enable cars to return at any point. It connects three former small islands to the mainland, although there doesn't seem to be anything much on them.

There were lots of boats anchored somewhat randomly in the bay, so Richard got out and looked, though by this stage it was too hot and sunny for me to leave the car and there was no shade. Perhaps, as the trees get bigger over the next few years, there will be pleasanter places to sit.

We were intrigued by an odd-looking building with brightly-coloured roof pieces, so we parked and went inside.

It's a bio-diversity museum, with sections about animal and plant life, and one big section about the over-use of plastic.  A little ironic, then, that next-door to this is a restaurant serving drinks in plastic cups, with plastic straws....

As we came out, we were struck by the contrast between this peaceful causeway and the city just a few miles away:

We arrived at the ship in time to collect David from school; a good thing as Esther was still asleep, and woke up while we were gone. As ever, he wanted books read to him, and also asked for his playdough; so he and Esther spent some time peacefully playing with that:

After dinner, he got out his racing car tracks and Tim helped him put them together. David and Daniel were both feeling chilly, so they put on jumpers - and I was very pleased to see that the Postman Pat jumper I knitted over a year ago still fits!

By the time we left the ship it was starting to rain, and by the time we reached our guesthouse it was absolutely pouring.

Wednesday morning was our last time for visiting the ship, and Daniel had suggested we arrive in time for lunch. Since it was raining hard when we got up - so bizarre to lie in air conditioning hearing rain pouring down outside! - we had a lazy morning at the guest house, catching up on Facebook (and, in my case, starting this blog post), then got to the ship about 11.45.

After lunch, when David was back at afternoon school, and Esther was asleep, we played two more Settlers games with Becky. Then the fun-deck with Esther, while Richard read to David and played with him for a while, followed by dinner, and more stories, and then a sad goodbye.

It's probably a year until we will see them again. It's been wonderful spending time with the family, and getting to know Esther properly; she's so different from the nine-month old baby whom we said goodbye to a year ago in Cyprus.

.. and in stop-press news, for anyone who's read this far, Tim's case has finally been found.  In Gatwick (UK). Where it has apparently been for the past ten days, despite his having collected and returned it to the airline in Tampa (USA) on Sunday. Perhaps the helpful Jason whom we spoke to at Panama Airport on Monday finally managed to get something done. 

Not so good is that BA called and woke Tim at 5.30am, not realising he was still in Panama, and then spent ten minutes trying to persuade him that he could collect his case when he returned through Gatwick on Monday.  

He argued that half the contents were presents for the family here, and eventually they agreed to send it to Panama, to arrive at the ship (hopefully) some time tomorrow.  This is good news, if it arrives in time, but Tim flies out of Panama on Sunday, and they won't deliver it if he's no longer here. He had pretty much given it up for lost and had stopped worrying about it up to this point. So whereas it's good if it arrives safely, in time, it's going to be another stressful 24 hours or more trying to keep track of it, with not much time left....

Out of Cyprus Summer 2018: A couple of frustrating days

The family break was due to begin on Sunday 5th August.  Our few days in Panama after going through the Canal followed much the same pattern as the previous days. We had hoped to get the bus into Panama City one afternoon, only to learn that the buses weren't running to schedule. As there were various commitments on board, we couldn't sit around for up to an hour each direction waiting.

The initial plan for the Sunday was that Richard, Daniel and David would get a taxi from the Logos Hope to the international airport at 8.30am, arriving around 9.15-9.30, depending on traffic. Richard had booked a ten-seater car via Avis, the company we almost always use for car rentals as they are usually good value (when insurance etc is taken into account) and reliable. He has 'Avis preferred' status which, at least in the UK, means very quick service and we often get upgraded.

They hoped to get the car by around 10.00, and be back on the ship by 11.00. We thought it might take half an hour or so to load our luggage, as the car park is a five-minute walk from the ship, and then planned to have lunch on the ship around 11.45, and set off for our holiday AirBnB villa by around 12.30.  It's in a tourist town called Coronado, about an hour's drive from the Logos Hope. We thought Esther would sleep in the car, and that we would arrive by around 1.30.

Our other son Tim was due to arrive at Panama Airport at 8.30pm although we knew his connections at Tampa and Miami (in the US) were quite tight so were prepared for a call telling us he was delayed. Assuming he was on time, Richard would need to leave the holiday villa by about 6.30pm to allow for traffic, and I planned to go with him although we didn't expect to be back at the villa until at least 11.00pm. It was going to be a lot of driving for one day, but we then expected to have six days to relax together as a family.

So much for the best-laid plans.

On Saturday evening the four of us were sitting in Daniel and Becky's cabin after the children were asleep, and someone suddenly remembered that our passports were still at the purser's office. So Becky went to see if it was still open, and was told that we would not be able to get them until 1.00pm on Sunday.  Not necessarily a problem, as we could delay our departure by half an hour, so long as Richard didn't need to have his passport in order to rent the car.  We checked the paperwork and it didn't mention needing a passport, so we hoped for the best.

The taxi arrived at the right time, and Richard, Daniel and David were ready to go. Becky, Esther and I had a more leisurely breakfast, then I finished our packing and she sorted out some toys and a few other things to take on our break. We did have a moment's anxiety when a friend commented that passports are often needed in order to buy things in Panama. She said that they want to be sure that we're there legally, and have to see the visa stamp.

First (double) frustration:

At 10.00am Becky had a message from Richard on her phone. He had been told that he absolutely needed his passport, and, worse, that there was no 10-seater car available.

Becky said she would go and see a friend who worked in the purser's office, and see if she could beg them to find our passports earlier than one o'clock. We asked Richard if we could simply send a photo of the visa to his phone, and he responded that they didn't need the visa, just the passport. I reminded him that he had a copy of it on his phone... so he showed that and thankfully they accepted it.

However this didn't solve the problem of the lack of an available ten-seater car.  Richard had to be quite assertive, as they didn't offer solutions easily - he was not impressed. Eventually they said there was a seven-seater car at one of their other local Avis centres. But although we're only seven people, there's almost no room for luggage in these smaller cars.

So they came to an agreement: they would drive Richard, Daniel and David to the other centre and let them have the seven-seater for the day.  In the evening, when Richard had to return to the airport to collect Tim, they would have the ten-seater available. So it wouldn't be too much of a problem to call into the Logos Hope to collect extra luggage that we could not fit in the seven-seater. Except that either Daniel or Becky would have to go with him, to get access.

It was after noon when they returned with the seven-seater car, but Becky had managed to acquire all our passports from her helpful friend.  We ate lunch on the ship, then finally departed, with about half of our luggage, around 1.20pm.

Esther, in a borrowed car seat, fell asleep pretty quickly.  The drive was longer than an hour; but Richard took it carefully, and there wasn't too much traffic. It was about 2.45 when we finally arrived at our Air BnB villa, booked for a week. We were greeted by John, the friendly caretaker, who doesn't speak a word of English. This looked like being a further frustration as he showed us around the place, and explained various things. Becky's Spanish is good enough for basic conversations, but doesn't really extend to explanations about padlocks and other safety features.

However, due to modern technology they were able to use translation tools on their phones.  John spoke Spanish into his phone, and it came up in English. Richard spoke English and it turne it into Spanish. Not quite a babel-fish, but not far off!

David knew there was a tree-house in the garden of our villa, but thought a tree-house was something like the hole that Owl lives in, in the Hundred Acre Wood, in the Winnie-the-Pooh books. He was thrilled with the reality:

The villa is a large bungalow. There's a huge living room/dining room/kitchen which runs the full length, and four comfortable bedrooms. Three have double beds, and one has three sets of bunk-beds and is clearly intended for children.  All were made up for us. There are four bathrooms including two ensuites, with lots of towels, and there's a securely fenced garden. John lives in a little house in the corner of the garden, and there are three large, extremely friendly outdoor dogs.

However we quickly realised that we had to go shopping, not just for food for the following day, but for basics such as washing-up liquid.

Meanwhile Richard was messaging to and from Tim concerning the next major frustration of the day. Tim's transatlantic flight was delayed by 45 minutes, but the passengers had been told that since over forty of them were due to take the Tampa-Miami flight, the plane would wait for them. They had to collect their luggage, despite it being booked to go through, as this was their first entry to the US. Tim had an Estia, and had filled in lots of information on the plane, but he got asked many more questions and had to fill in more paperwork... and time was running out.

He located his suitcase on the carousel at Tampa, and his instinct was to keep hold of it as he didn't think he was going to make it onto the flight despite the reassurances. But an official told him to load it onto the carousel, so he did.

Then he didn't get on the flight after all. Nor did several other passengers from the same flight. As far as he can tell, US citizens got on the Tampa-Miami flight, foreigners did not.

American Airlines were quite helpful at this point, booking them on the next available flight (early the following morning), and providing food and a hotel. But whereas the other passengers' luggage re-appeared, Tim's didn't.  He spent about five hours in the airport, very hungry and tired, hoping his suitcase would emerge - and was eventually told it had gone on the flight to Miami.

He was not pleased.

Meanwhile, Richard managed (eventually) to contact Avis at Panama Airport, although it took a long time to get through to them - a minor frustration, in the scheme of things.  He really didn't want to drive all the way to the airport to collect the ten-seater that evening if he then had to go back again the following day. But there was a helpful person at Avis who said that the car was there, and it was fine for him to collect it at lunch-time the following day.

So we decided to eat out at the nearest restaurant we could find, and do some basic shopping. The nearest restaurant turned out to be a pleasant, reasonably child-friendly Italian place, and while the food was a tad pricey, it was very good.

There was a small supermarket over the street, so we went there afterwards and picked up a few groceries.

Esther was a bit unsettled - she doesn't seem to like change, very much, and didn't sleep at all well, and we had some trouble with the hot water, but those were just minor frustrations the following morning. 

Since there was still luggage to be collected from the Logos Hope, Becky volunteered to go with Richard on the drive to the airport, leaving about 9.30am. Tim, we gathered from further messages during the morning, arrived safely in Miama after an early flight, but there was no sign of his luggage. So he hoped it had been sent on to Panama. His final flight was about half an hour late, du to arrive at 1.00pm.

I stayed with Daniel and the children and we had a mostly relaxing day. David and Esther played outside and dug in the dirt...

It was hot, and a bit humid but nowhere near as bad as Cyprus is currently.  We got rather bitten, presumably by mosquitoes or similar, and they were itchy... another minor frustration. But we found some white vinegar in the fridge and that's pretty good as an insect bite soother.

Shortly after lunch Daniel's phone received an update from Richard, and also from Tim.  The first good news was that Tim had finally arrived at Panama Airport.  The second piece of good news was that Richard had collected the ten-seater van. 

But the final frustration was that Tim's luggage had not arrived. He spoke to a helpful official at the airport, who said that, according to the system, his suitcase had never left Tampa.  They asked him to phone the following morning, and said that they would phone John the caretaker to get directions for delivering it. Which sounded hopeful...

However, to jump ahead three days, for a moment, the luggage still hasn't arrived. Tim has had to buy some new clothes, the cost of which will be covered by his travel insurance, but it's still annoying and time-consuming.  But about half of his suitcase contained presents for the family - over a kilogram of Marmite, some chocolate, some rooibos tea ('robot tea', as David calls it), some late birthday presents for David, an even later Christmas present for Daniel, and a power adapter they need. It also had some books Richard had ordered for people on the ship.

So we're still hoping and praying it might be found... Tim is in daily conversation with American Airlines, but apparently they won't do anything further if it's not found within five days. They don't even seem to think it's all that unusual.  This seems quite shocking to us, used as we are to European standards (or the even more efficient Asian airlines).

However, it's great to be together as a family again, despite this ongoing frustration, and Esther having a hard time sleeping.  I hope to write another post in the next few days with some of the highlights of this holiday. 

Out of Cyprus Summer 2018: The Panama Canal

When we learned that the Logos Hope was due to travel through the Panama Canal at the end of July, we organised our visit to see the family on dates that would take in this experience. Friends told us it wasn't all that interesting, but for those who like ships and navigation, it's a 'bucket list' kind of adventure.

So the ship arrived in Panama waters around lunch-time on July 30th. We could see dry land... but had to be at anchor for at least 24 hours. This was so that a local pilot could come on board, to check that the ship followed all the necessary safety requirements, and also to familiarise himself with the navigation systems. The pilot would be responsible for getting us through the canal the following day.

All was okay, although our original lunch-time slot on July 31st ended up starting nearer 5.00pm. We went outside about half an hour earlier and watched the anchor being drawn up, which took quite some time. The sky was quite cloudy as we set off, and caught our first view of the initial bridge over the canal:

Lots of people in the crew and staff went outside on the viewing decks, to watch our progress. Esther was in the sling Becky made last year, switching between Daniel and Becky, and I mostly looked after David. However he has many friends on the ship, and several other people kept an eye on him and explained what was going on at various points, as we approached the canal. He and I went up to deck nine - at the top, where we had a great view.

The ship seemed to move very slowly, and David was quite worried as we neared the bridge, thinking that we wouldn't fit underneath. I assured him that the pilot and the Logos Hope officials would have measured it carefully, but he was still concerned. It didn't help that there was a (joking!) announcement made, asking those on deck nine to duck as we went under...

After we were safely through the bridge, and the Logos Hope was still intact, David spotted that there were some 'different deckies':

They had come on board to help with the locks. There was a local TV crew at the side, filming the ship - so lots of the crew were waving their national flags - and the 'line-up' team were spotted waving, too. These are the Logos Hope staff who spend two or three months at each port in advance of the ship, preparing for the visit and finding out how they can best help the local people.

I was surprised by how green everywhere looked; but Panama is quite a wet country, and this is the rainy season. My only previous experience of locks was the small ones in Birmingham canals in the UK; these were similar on a larger scale. At the side little engines pulled the ship slowly along, guiding it into each lock:

This is a view of the other side - there really wasn't a lot of spare room!

By the time we were through the first lock, it was dinner time; and it started raining. So we went inside to eat, emerging half an hour later with raincoats. More people had come out to watch, so Becky put David on her shoulders to see another lock filling up:

It was beginning to get dark by this time, but this just about shows the second set of lock gates closing:

It really doesn't look like much water coming through in the middle, but the ship rose surprisingly quickly:

By the time we were in the final lock of the first stage, it was getting dark:

Richard had been tracking everything with his phone. The next stage, he t. old us, was a lake with no locks. It's apparently full of alligators (or perhaps crocodiles; I'm a bit vague about the difference) but since they can't get on board ships, and nobody was planning to swim, this wasn't too worrying. Had it still been light, I might have stayed on deck a bit longer, but it was almost pitch dark by this stage.

Richard had said he was going to stay up until the end, but since that was likely to be at least 1am, probably later, and I need my sleep, I went to bed leaving him to watch with a few other hardy people:

The next thing I knew, it was morning and we were in the port near Panama City. It was good to see dry land after six days at sea, although nobody could leave until the ship had cleared customs, and dealt with everybody's passports. Richard told me it was about 3am when he finally got to bed. The last locks were like the reverse of the first ones - going 'downhill' rather than up.

I knew the port was fairly close to the Panama Canal, but hadn't realised quite how close until I looked out in another direction and saw the bridge at the other end:

So Richard has now experienced something he's wanted to do for years, and can also now say that he's visited all the continents other than Antarctica - and he has no desire to go there! 

Out of Cyprus Summer 2018 part two: The voyage from Mexico to first sight of Panama

I hoped to blog every few days while travelling. But since we left Mexico, the Internet connection on the ship was almost non-existent. I started this post on Sunday morning, 29th July when the Internet was working better than it has done all week; this isn't saying much, but I took advantage of an hour before breakfast to check email and Facebook, and catch up with some writing. I'm now finishing it a week later, after losing some edits I attempted in the past few days. I'll keep it dated at the 29th July and hope to write a couple more blog posts in the next few days.

My first post about our travels this summer covered our lengthy journey from Cyprus to Progreso port in Merida. By the morning of Sunday 22nd we were feeling almost human. Sunday is a working day on the ship, as many teams go out to visit local churches; but for those still on board there's a church-type service which lasts about an hour and a half. Daniel was running the PA and audio visual content for the service on that Sunday. Afterwards David helped him put away some cables, and then spent some time with the drums:

In the afternoon, Daniel was off duty so we decided to visit the local supermarket, to buy some juice and fruit, and have a walk. Esther was quite cranky still, a few days after her yellow fever vaccination, but was happy to snuggle in the Ergo carrier with Daniel. She didn't want me to take a photo of her, however:

The ship was at the end of a long quay, so we had to catch the crew bus for the 4km distance - if it had been cooler it might have been quite a nice walk, but it was hot and humid and the crew bus ran a shuttle service between the ship and the port gate. We walked a few blocks, David chatting all the time as he was very excited to show us everything. So much so that I didn't think about taking photos.

We found the supermarket and Becky made some purchases, then we walked on a bit further and found an ice cream shop. Stopping for half an hour was a good decision, and Esther was much happier when given her cone:

In the evening, unsurprisingly, we decided to play a game of Settlers. We use the 5-6 player expansion board when playing with four people, something Daniel and Becky had not done for the past year. So Becky was a bit puzzled to find that two of the expansion pieces were missing from her set. Probably packed away with their other Settlers expansions in storage in the UK.  It wasn't a problem having two sea pieces missing, but a bit tight fitting it on the small table in their cabin:

We left the port in Mexico on Tuesday. We had more or less caught up on sleep by that point, so I was a bit surprised to find myself getting dizzy in the evening. Apparently this is quite common on the first day of a sail with Logos Hope; the way it's built means that it rocks slightly from side to side in an unusual motion, unlike most boats, and it's not unusual to feel light-headed while getting used to it. Thankfully this sensation disappeared within the first day.

I'm not entirely sure where the last five days have gone, as the ship makes its way slowly through the ocean. I've been outside a few times; all that can be seen is water, in every direction. Mostly pretty smooth, though sometimes it's been a bit difficult to walk in a straight line.

The days have followed a similar pattern. I usually get up between 5.30 and 6.30, take a quick shower and get dressed, then make my way to the staff lounge, near the top of the ship When possible I have checked Facebook, and one of the news sites briefly, but it's all been rather slow and some days I couldn't connect at all. So mostly I've been reading on my Kindle.

Breakfast, most days, starts at 7.00am, and the family usually arrive about fifteen or twenty minutes after that. We have cereal, perhaps fruit (currently canned, with this long sail) and yogurt, and sometimes toast, or bagels, or (once) croissants. The bakers are always up early preparing food for breakfast and lunch, and we appreciate them very much. There's a coffee machine too, offering several variations; I have decided my favourite is cafe macchiato.

We're usually finished by about 8.00 or 8.15, then David has to go up to the family cabin to brush his teeth and get ready for school. Not that this is anything like school as most of us know it. He LOVES going to school. He's in a mixed nursery/reception class of nine children, with a teacher and assistant, so there is lots of one-on-one attention. I've seen his 'wow' book - a photographic record of the past year, full of things he's said, photos of him painting, creating crafts, playing with puzzles and more. On Sunday afternoon, when Becky asked him what he would like to do, he said, with a sigh, 'I WISH I could go to school!'

He started with just a couple of mornings a week, for two hours, last September, but liked it so much and did so well that this was gradually increased to five mornings a week, for three hours each time. For the last hour the 'nursery' part of the class play outside with the older toddlers while the older 'reception' age children have an extra hour.  He'll be Reception age in September, meaning he can also go for a couple of hours each afternoon. In preparation for that, he's just started going on two afternoons per week.  He has apparently been asking to do this for a long time, and was so excited to have afternoon school on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.  He was quite tired by the end, but clearly gets a great deal out of it. He's an extremely talkative, sociable child, and without parks to play in, or places to go, the ship school provides an ideal outlet for his energies and questioning, curious nature.

Back to our schedule... three mornings a week there's a baby/toddler group which Esther goes to, and for two of them, Becky gets a bit of space to catch up on things in the cabin. So I returned to the staff lounge and read some more while Richard has been working with Daniel in the A/V department. On the morning when Becky was staying in the toddler group, I stayed too to help, and enjoyed it very much.

One morning there was a ship voyage safety briefing, which Richard and I had to go to as we hadn't sailed with the ship in the past six months. Another morning there was a 'country orientation' - brief descriptions of what to expect, what Panama is like, where to go etc.  There will be a full 'port orientation' session on Tuesday evening.

Lunch is quite early, starting at 11.45am, but David doesn't finish his school until noon, so we go to lunch after that. Usually bread, with plenty of different kinds of salad vegetables, sliced cheese and processed meats.

Esther takes a nap after lunch, usually for about an hour, and Daniel is sometimes free for half an hour or so; he's had a couple of days off during this week, which we all appreciate very much. We usually hang out in the family cabin in the afternoons, at least while Esther is sleeping. David (when not at afternoon school) likes to do activities that are more difficult with a toddler around, such as painting, or sticker books.

Around three o'clock the children have some fruit and juice, then we might go to the 'fun deck' (where there are outside toys, a slide, swings and various other outdoor activities in a safe enclosed area dedicated to children. Sometimes we stay in the cabin.

The children have a lot of toys and books, and David has an almost endless capacity for stories. Esther has been a bit cranky; she's been teething as well as recovering from her yellow fever vaccination. And shes a very determined little girl with quite a temper when she feels thwarted. David didn't really do the 'terrible twos' phase; she is starting six months early and taking his share as well as her own.

Dinner/supper starts around 5.30pm - and inevitably, as on a cruise, we organise our days around mealtimes. It's good food, provided by the hard-working catering team, although there's usually only one kind of cooked vegetable, and they're rather limited at the moment. There's usually a vegetarian option, often some kind of eggs.   Daniel is a vegetarian, as are a few other crew members, and my tendencies are that way; it's possible to be vegetarian on the ship, though not easy. It would be impossible to be vegan. Richard eats meat but not dairy products if he can avoid them; that's been remarkably difficult.

As with a cruise, it's all too easy to eat too much and exercise too little. I'm going up more stairs than usual, which is good; the first time we climbed from deck 2 (where our cabin is) to deck 8 (where the family cabin is) my legs ached and I felt quite out of breath by the final flight of stairs. Now I find it easier. Richard, whose phone takes note of steps walked and flights of stairs, shows that on most days he's been going up about 35 flights in all.

After dinner it's back to the family cabin, with more stories for David while Becky puts Esther to bed. Then David is usually asleep by about 7.30. After that we've played a game a couple of times. One evening there was a gathering in the dining room for married couples where we played a different game. Becky had to bake cakes a couple of evenings, and last night Richard did a talk about his work and ministry, which was well received.

Today we should arrive near the entrance to the Panama Canal, and will remain there at anchor for about 24 hours. A pilot has to come on board and check the Logos Hope for safety, then - all being well - we travel through the canal on Monday afternoon/evening, and should arrive at the port of Balboa in the early hours of Tuesday.