Day 6, Friday April 28, Cartagena Day, Part III
Music Recommendation: “Horse With No Name” America
We woke from our afternoon siesta just before sail away. I'm glad we did because I always enjoy watching the ship pull in to and out of port. From our balcony, we could see a tug boat escorting us out of the harbor, and beyond the tugboat we could see the skyline created by the condos and office buildings of New Cartagena. DW took a picture of this amazing view. It's in the post above where I talk about the water slide. We didn't get to New Cartagena today; but that's not why people come to Cartagena. I'd like to visit New Cartagena's high rises some day and check out all that awesome looking shore line; but I suspect I'll spend the majority of any future trip to this amazing city traversing the narrow streets and exploring the nooks and crannies of Old Cartagena, just like we did today. Traveling here and not visiting the old city would be like traveling to Orlando and not visiting Disney World. It probably happens from time to time but only under duress.
After we were underway, I told DW that I was feeling a bit peckish. We hadn't had anything to eat since the awesome gelato, and it was still about 4 hours until the late dinner seating. DW volunteered that she could get by with a coffee float. Even after the gelato? Yup. Even after the gelato. But I needed something a little more substantial than that. I decided to forego my usual shawarma and indulge in some chicken strips and french fries; my first of the cruise.
Me and Chicken strips, together again in Colombia. I have a long, turbulent relationship with chicken strips in Colombia. About five years ago, I was on a business trip in Bogota, Colombia with my team. It was dinner time (9:00 pm in Colombia!) and we were walking around Parke 93, a very nice area of Bogota where there are lots of good restaurants. We finally settled on Buffalo Wild Wings. Yeah, I know. It wasn’t my first choice either, but I was trying to be a team player. I ordered the chicken strips. They were good, but nothing remarkable. When we returned to corporate headquarters, I dutifully completed my expense report, attached all my receipts and turned it in for reimbursement. A day later, one of my buddies, Ralph, from the Compliance Department came in to my office grinning like the Cheshire Cat. “What’s up?” I asked. Still smiling, he indicated that there was something on my expense report that he needed to discuss with me. My mind raced…, “I’m sure I attached receipts for everything” I pleaded. “Oh you did” he retorted, still sporting that ridiculous grin. He said, “I just have a question about the night you went to Buffalo Wild Wings.” Again my mind raced through the facts. There wasn’t any alcohol on my receipt. I don’t drink. I looked at him incredulously, not knowing what he could possibly have a problem with. After a long, uncomfortable silence, Ralph said, “Tell me about the strippers you paid for that night, and why you think the company should reimburse you.” Clueless as to what he was talking about, I just shook my head blankly. Ralph trotted out my expense report, and gleefully turned to the page where I had taped down my receipt from Buffalo Wild Wings. He was giddy like a school-girl as he pointed to the line item on the receipt. “Strippers………………18,900” (Colombian Pesos, about 8 US Dollars at the time). Ahhh. It all came together. Evidently, my chicken strips printed out as “Strippers” on the receipt. Ralph from Compliance no doubt knew the true nature of my purchase at Buffalo Wild Wings, but he was getting quite a thrill exploiting the quirky foreign wording at my expense. Not very amused, I responded, “Those are chicken strips, you knot-head!” He already knew that, but that hasn’t kept him from getting all the mileage he can out of this unfortunate wording. Five years later and whenever the topic of corporate expense reports comes up, Ralph still loves to tell this story. Move on man, move on!
I pushed back my plate of chicken strips only half eaten. Lost my appetite for them. Enter shawarma; you magnificent Mediterranean morsels of meaty goodness; how could I have forsaken you for something as tawdry as chicken strips? It definitely will NOT happen again.
We dressed for the evening and headed to the Walt Disney Theatre, where once again, the entertainment was top notch. Tonight's entertainment was courtesy of John Charles; but DW and I just refer to him as the Guitar Man. When the Cruise Director was making introductions, he announced that John Charles is the most requested guest performer on
Disney Cruise Lines. We had never seen him before and we were a little skeptical. How could one dude and his guitar be that entertaining? We were wrong; bad wrong. John Charles was GREAT! It's difficult to convey just how engaging and entertaining this guys is. It's not just his guitar playing - although that is superb. It's more his personality and funny lyrics, and the way he interacts with the audience. He randomly strikes up conversations with people in the audience, and hilarity seems to organically grow from these encounters. In addition to being an accomplished musician, this man is obviously a very smooth, very natural comedian. People get into it. Folks start calling out song titles and it was very impressive how he could play virtually anything that was requested. This section's music recommendation is in honor of Mr. Charles, who does a hilarious rendition of America's "Horse With No Name." I am confident that with just a little search engine work, you can probably find some video of him performing this, and many other songs from his deep catalog.
After the show, we went back to our room to get some pictures of the sunset from our balcony. Our stateroom host, Herold, was busy freshening up our room. I haven't given Herold a shout out yet, and that's a serious breach of etiquette on my part. Herold did a fantastic job with the room. Everything was always clean and tidy when it should be, and after the first day of the cruise, he always greeted us by our fist names. What I particularly liked about Herold was that several times throughout the cruise, when DW would drag me around deck 10 on her precious after dinner walks, we would see Herold shooting hoops at the basketball court; sometimes playing with little kids, sometimes just messing around by himself. He always greeted us and seemed genuinely happy to see us out and about the ship. I thought that was pretty cool.
Here are the pictures we took that night from our balcony:
And here was some of the stuff we ate that night at Animators Pallet:
We finished dinner in time to make it to the 9:45 juggling performance of Charles Peachock at Azure. He was also very good, and DW and I both thoroughly enjoyed it. His trademark is playing a keyboard with tennis balls that he is juggling. He did some other unique juggling tricks and was overall quite impressive, but Guitar Man John Charles was a tough act to follow. It was Guitar Man, and his crazy lyrics and stylized vocalizations, that DW and I were still talking about as we capped off the night by taking several laps on deck 4. Yes, that's right, tonight we walked around the perimeter of the ship on Deck 4 instead of Deck 10. I'm not sure, but I think it may have been a ruse by DW to make me walk further. I agreed to it before I realized that each lap around Deck 4 is about twice as long as a lap around deck 10. That woman. She's a sly one!
Even with the afternoon nap we had, the active port day was taking it's toll. That heat and humidity can really sap the strength right out of you. So we headed off to bed fully spent, but entirely content with another outstanding day on our Panama Canal Cruise. But let's face it. Tomorrow was the reason for this cruise. Tomorrow was the real deal, the brass ring, the apex, the pinnacle. All days before were pointing to tomorrow, and all days after will look back. I set my alarm for 6:25 am, completed the breakfast room service door hanger thingy, and attempted to go to sleep. Heh. Who am I kidding? As sun-sapped as I was, the promise of crossing a continent, ON WATER, had me so amped up that although my physical self was exhausted, my mental self was not even close to shutting down for the night. DW of course, had no such issues.
I wondered if we were getting up early enough. I've heard that some folks get up at 4:00 am, or earlier, just to secure a prime viewing spot forward on Deck 10. Nah, DW and I had discussed, and neither of us felt that was necessary. In fact, our plan involved moving around the ship a lot, and taking in the views from different vantage points. Deck 4, both port and starboard, has a ton of available rail space. We wanted to check out the scenery from there on Deck 4, from the lofty heights of Deck 10, and from the privacy of our verandah. Yeah, we wouldn't be happy for long in just one place. Our approach was going to be much more "commando".
And as physical exhaustion started to encroach on mental excitement, I thought about the girls, and how much I know they would have enjoyed seeing the Panama Canal with us. We took a lot of great trips, but never quite got this one in with them. At the time, having them miss two weeks of school just didn't seem like responsible parenting, but on this side of them growing-up, I'm not so sure anymore. I'd like to think that two weeks spent traveling with DW and me would have been more educational, more enriching, than two weeks of junior high. I dunno. That's probably just self-serving arrogance on my part. They were both valedictorians of their respective high school classes and I probably shouldn't second guess that outcome. But as this historic crossing of the Panama Canal approached, it was tough to shake the sensation of missed opportunity, and (LOL) missed family photo ops. Some of our best family photos have always been taken on cruises. Goodnight everybody.
