Sometimes things do happen on schedule!

Even in Panama!  Not often, but sometimes they do!

It’s raining in Boquete . . . all day . . .

But that’s pretty much according to schedule.  This is the rainy season, and October is usually the “worst” month.  Well, October and November, and sometimes December, but hey, the rain makes things green and makes the coffee grow.  And usually it doesn’t rain all the time . . . but sometimes . . . it’s been raining for two days.  But at least that’s on schedule . . .

And we’re picking coffee . . .

And that’s on schedule . . . well, maybe a little early . . . and we’ve been experimenting with removing the cherries ourselves, now that we have finally adjusted the machine that’s to help us.  I’ve found a motor, so that’s the next step.  Now, if we could only have some sun to get this stuff dry!   Fortunately I have good neighbors in Palmira who are willing to help out with this stuff.

The coffee cherries get dumped in the hopper and then pressed against the copper screen which pops out the coffee seeds or beans.  Then then need to be washed by hand to remove the sticky “honey” and then dried . . . hopefully in the sun.  In the commercial beneficios they are put in big revolving drums like a huge clothes dryer for about eight hours.  These are usually fired with dead wood or gas.

And I’m getting my lectures  . . . well, not “done”, but making progress . . .

I’ve been in India for a few days!  What a fascinating country!  I can’t wait to get there.  Not only do the cruises give me an excuse to travel, but they give me a reason to get caught up on all the stuff I missed learning about!  I consider myself an “educated man” [AB, MDiv, MBA, PhD] but there is so, so much I know nothing about.  Sometimes I think the older I get the less I know, and it’s not that I’m forgetting, it’s just that there’s so much to know.  When I was younger I used to think I knew all the answers, now I’m just struggling to figure out some of the questions!

With theology . . . I would have been a fantastic “boy preacher” with all the answers!  Now I struggle with the questions.  In life . . . I’m reminded of what a Facebook friend posted . . . “I like the characters in my life, I just wish I knew the plot.” 

I’ve given myself until November 10th to work on the world cruise on DAWN PRINCESS, then all that goes on hold, and I just focus on reviewing all the lectures I’ve already done that I’ll be using on the next series of voyages on the ROYAL PRINCESS, the Tri-Continent (Europe, Africa, South America) and the Amazon.  Then I start packing . . . you’ve worried about what to take on a two-week cruise, try four months!  Actually, you take a LOT less and just wear the same stuff over and over and over.  Formal wear is good . . . and easy . . . and doesn’t take any imagination, and nobody cares if it’s the same every night!  And with a couple of suits, where the slacks and jackets mix and match, and a bunch of different ties, and a few shirts . . . and free dry cleaning and laundry (that helps!) . . . you’ve got it made.

Also predictable . . . though not always on schedule . . .

A quake last night. We were sitting in front of the fire watching DVDs of “Gray’s Anatomy”, where doctors occassionally treat patients between episodes of sleeping with one another or sleeping with anyone who comes within 6″ of another, preferably breathing, human being. Anyhow, sitting there enjoying the wine and the fire, and the chair starts feeling like a massage chair, which it isn’t. 6.1 About 180 km South of David, where three tectonic plates come together. No big deal. The dogs stuck their heads up and looked around, the cactus plant waved around, but we didn’t want to miss a single moment of who-is-sleeping-with-whom, which is a little like having dinner in the crew staff “fishbowl” on the ZUIDERDAM.

This may not be a static image, but we will give it a try . . .

This one will give you an idea of the seismic activity off in the Pacific Ocean south of David . . .

Mastering The Pace

I am busy with a million things that have to be done before leaving for four months on the ROYAL PRINCESS in 34 days. I’ve finished all my lectures for ROYAL and am trying desperately to cover as much of the world as possible since, when I get back from ROYAL I have only a month before I do the world cruise on DAWN PRINCESS. So for the past few days I’ve been working on India, while trying to keep up with life on the farm in Palmira.

Just a year ago I was desperately trying to finish up construction of my house before leaving on the ZUIDERDAM. What’s wrong with me?? Here I am yet again having bit off more than I can possibly chew.

Anyway, while I’ve finished the lectures for ROYAL, I’m still doing some reading relevant to the cruise. This winter we I will be regularly visiting Devil’s Island, the site of the former French Penal Colony in Guiana, so I’ve been reading the books that have been written by former inmates of the French Penal Colony. There are three main books, each with a slightly different perspective depending on what things were like when that particular inmate was “in residence” and his personality.

The one I’m reading now is FLAG ON DEVIL’S ISLAND by Francis Lagrange. Lagrange is interesting because he was sentenced to the French Penal Colony for art forgery and counterfeiting. He was incredibly good at the art forgery business and one of his works eventually turned up in a respected museum and was eventually exposed as a forgery. He created the forgery so the original could be stolen from the museum and sold to a private collector in California and replaced on the museum wall with the forgery. The forged painting hung on the museum wall in Europe until the California collector’s original went up for auction and suddenly . . . viola, there were two! Lagrange is also interesting because he painted, with house paints and whatever materials he could lay his hands on, a crude artistic record of life in the penal colony. Eventually these paintings have made their way to the University of Missouri and are now available to be viewed online

When Lagrange first arrives in Guiana he is given some advice on how to adapt to life in the islands by an experienced con . . . “Adopt the colonial pace, my friend, and you’ll get along all right.”

When Lagrange asks, “The colonial pace?”, the man gives a description which describes not only the pace of life in Guiana, but the pace of life in most of Latin America.

“Never run if you can walk, never walk if you can stand, never stand if you can sit, never sit if you can lie down, and never do anything today you can put off until tomorrow.  That’s the colonial pace.  Master it and things won’t be so bad.”

Master it living in Panama and things won’t be so bad either.

Two Years!

OK, questions and comments . . .

Plan my cruise . . .

Hello sir, After reading your interesting blogs in cruise critics, I would like to ask you for some suggestions/tours to take. We are planning to take a Panama Canal Cruise on early Dec/January/Feb, we are on our early 40’s, in a tight budget but would like to have some unforgettable time on the following ports.
ARUBA
FUERTE AMADOR, PANAMA
PUERTO CALDERA, COSTA RICA
PUERTO QUETZAL, GUATEMALA
PUERTO CHIAPAS
HUATULCO
ACAPULCO
This will be our first Panama Canal Cruise. Thank you. Julius Cristobal

Hey Julius, like your last name, Cristobal . . . as in Christopher . . . as in Cristobal, the section of Colon where there is a pier that many of the Canal ships use. Check my page Panama Cruise for more . . . depending on how long you have in Fuerte Amador, which is really the Amador Peninsula area of Panama City, I have some suggestions for you on the Panama Cruise page. Aruba . . . go enjoy the beach! Take a $2.50 city bus from the station across from where the ships dock and have fun! Acapulco . . . the best view is from the ship IMHO. Cliff divers are highly overrated, again IMHO. Huatulco, not much to see where the ship docks. I usually just spend some time on the tiny beach. Puerto Caldera . . . beach in town, but other than that there’s nothing there unless you take a tour. Guatemala . . . definitely get up to Antiqua! If you don’t want a ship tour, get a few other couples together and rent a van. It’s worth the trip. Enjoy!

Get off the ship!

Hi…i really love your blog. Could you please tell me if you would recommend that I stay on the Mercury to cruise through the Panama canal…or should I take a shore excursion? any help would be great! thanks, Irene

Irene, I don’t know what itinerary every ship is doing . . . depends on MERCURY itinerary, and what your options and choices are. My Panama Cruise page gives a lot of information that will help. Generally I think you should be on for at least one lock experience, and then, when possible, take advantage of the opportunity to see some of Panama . . . you’ve come all this way! Suggestions for Panama tours depend on your areas of interest . . . again, that’s why I wrote the Panama Cruise page! You’ll love MERCURY!

Popular retirement destinations . . .

Didn’t know if you’ve seen this. Re: recent retirement rating destinations.
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/RetirementandWills/RetireInStyle/the-worlds-best-places-to-retire.aspx

Iaorana! Bob P.S. Can you tell we’re getting ready to go on a 33 day HAL Rotterdam/French Polynesia cruise in January?

You’ll love the ROTTERDAM Bob! Susan Wood, one of my favorite cruise directors, is often on the ROTTERDAM, although I heard she may have left Holland America, and I understand that Joseph Pokorski may be heading to ROTTERDAM. I’ve worked with Joseph as cruise director and also as one of the stars of the new entertainment approach Holland is rolling out on the smaller ships. Joseph is a fantastic tenor with experience in opera and Broadway. You may be in luck!

That’s an interesting article . . . and you note that Ecuador is just a few points higher than Panama on International Living’s rankings. I know several folks who’ve moved on from Boquete to Ecuador. One is back in the States . . . the other hasn’t been there that long. 8,000 feet elevation rules a lot of retired folks out . . . I understand the cost of living right now is cheaper. The fact that Panama uses the US dollar was an advantage . . . I thought. Time will tell. You gotta find a place where you feel comfortable.

Elizabeth Taylor (really!) asks . . .

Hi I am going on a cruise around the Caribbean to Aruba,Colombia, Cristobal pier, Costa Rica and Gran Cayman I am coming from England and leaving from Miami.Could you please tell me if I need any Visa please Elizabeth Taylor

Elizabeth, I’m not the person to ask about this . . . for US citizens I know that no visas are required. I would doubt that it’s any different for UK/EU folks, but to be sure you need to check with your travel agent and/or the cruise line. I know cruise lines are increasingly ducking these kind of questions, telling you to check. The fine print in most cruise contracts tells you that the cruise line isn’t responsible for anything, and I suppose their lawyers have told them to shift the burden back on the passenger. I’ve found some of the bigger visa service sites are a quick and easy way to find out and generally very accurate and up-to-the-minute. Enjoy your cruise!

Responding to my post about hospital costs in Panama, David says . . .

Do not forget about Jubilado Descounto. If you are over 55 for women or 60 for men you can ask for a discount at pharmacies, hospitals and hotels which can range from 10 to 50% off. David Maples

Technically, you are correct . . . BUT . . . in my opinion the “Jubilado Discount” . . . offered to Panamanians who are over a certain age and to expats who have been granted a “Pensionado” visa, is the most overhyped thing in Panama. Folks selling Panama love to opine about the “Pensionado” benefits . . . There are sometimes you would have to be totally insensitive to ask for the discount, other times . . . like with medical stuff . . . you have know way of knowing what the regular fee is. Maybe they’ve just inflated the regular fee since you are a gringo and “all gringos are fabulously wealthy” and they figure you’ll ask for the discount anyway, so you still end up paying more than a normal, working Panamanian who walks through the door. I know that’s not the law, but unless you’re ex-Canal, know these people, and speak Spanish fluently . . . how are you going to complain, much less discuss it. Most restaurants in Boquete automatically up the price to adjust for the discount, especially if they have a big “gringo “clientele. I look at the prices and can tell pretty quickly if they are “gringo” or “Panamanian” prices, and we have both . . . although not legally . . . on everything. Send your maid to the farmer’s market, and if they don’t know she’s working for a gringo, you’ll be stunned at the prices she’s paying for produce, compared to what you pay. Unfortunately there are some Panamanians who aren’t sure how long all this is going to last, so they want to get theirs while the getting is good. I have a neighbor who was going to lay cement blocks for me and agreed to work for $15 a day. A fair rate. The next day when he was supposed to start work he didn’t show. I’m sure he went home and his wife said, “For a gringo! They have all kinds of money! You should have asked for $30!” And I just might have paid it then . . . not now. I’m scouting around for shipping containers and the going rate is about $2500-3000. I was talking with the wife of a local guy who brings these up from Colon when he’s making a trucking run empty. She had quoted me $3000 for a 40-foot container, delivered to my farm. I went back to see her and a so-called “friend” of this family was there, and the wife wasn’t. And he, knowing I was there to see the wife said, “Oh, I can get you a container!” trying to beat out his friend for the business. I asked, “How much?” And I could see the wheels turning as he paused to consider just how much he could get from this stupid gringo while at the same time beating out his friend. “$10,000.” I could go on and on, but won’t.

2 years and 200,000 visitors!

Who knew? Certainly not me when I started this October 16, 2007, not sure anybody would read it! 200,000 visitors later, and folks from all over the world, all I can say is “Thank you!” It’s been fun, a lot of work, but still fun. And what I enjoy most is meeting folks on cruises and around Boquete who first met me online and when we talk about something, or I say, “Nice to meet you”, respond with something like, “Oh, I know all about you!” scary, huh? And I enjoy your comments and questions, so keep reading, and keep the comments coming!

Reluctantly I have concluded that at this point, and with my commitments to cruise lines, I just can’t post a new blog every day . . . so, starting today I will be blogging on even-numbered days only . . . whenever that is possible. There are times onboard ship when we’re not getting the satellite signal, or there is some interference, and the Internet is down, but as much as I possibly can, I’ll be here on even-numbered days.

I thought you might get a kick out of seeing how all this has played out!

Three Stooges Coffee

After yesterday, if we ever start producing our own brand of coffee, I think we should call it “Three Stooges Coffee.”

Alfonso, Sabino - my Gnobe Bugle Indian coworkers - and I were trying to process coffee cherries using our newly acquired, antique, hand operated depulping machine . . . in the pouring rain . . . what a mess.  Supposedly these machines when operated by hand should process 400 pounds of coffee cherries an hour.  What the machine does is tear off the husk of the coffee cherry leaving only the beans.  The beans then need to be washed to remove the sticky “honey” and dried, after which they rest for 6 to 9 months before having the parchment removed and then, at some point, being roasted. 

What should have taken us two hours has taken three days . . . of frustration.  But our goal was to experiment and to learn . . . and along with that came getting soaked, and smelling like rotting coffee husks.

Today is my day to start working on Darwin, Australia.  These 15 to 30 minute port talks take about two full work days to research and prepare . . . For the world cruise on DAWN PRINCESS I have 35 port talks to do, not counting 12 full-blown hour-long lectures which can take almost a week sometimes.  I leave for ROYAL PRINCESS in less than 40 days . . . then am home for a month . . . and then leave for the world cruise and need to have all this stuff done.  You’d think I’d have time on the ship to work on this stuff, but not so since it requires either a real library or fast Internet . . . neither of which is available at sea.

Times like these I wonder why I always bite off more than I can chew . . .

And it’s not just the cruise stuff . . . it’s also all the projects I’ve got going in Panama!  What ever happened to a nice, quiet, relaxing retirement laying in the hammock and reading?  But that’s me, and it always has been . . . so I guess I’m too old to change.  Maybe it’s inherited.  I remember going to visit my Dad in Altoona, Pennsylvania, shortly after he had retired and he was residing the house himself with aluminum siding.  I remember thinking that it was nuts for an “old man” to be taking on such a project.  “Like father, like son” I guess.

But the end result of all this is that while I don’t always get everything done . . . I do get a whole lot more accomplished than a lot of other folks.  But it is frustrating at times . . . and there are times, like now, when I wake up at 2 AM and lay in bed thinking of everything that “has” to be done . . . and finally say, “What the hell . . . ” and get up and start working on stuff.

Oh well, I guess there are worse illnesses!

Panama Dreamin’

I know that many of you who’ve stumbled on this blog over the past two years, and continue to read it regularly, so so with your own dreams of coming to Panama.   And in spite of my adventures . . . and misadventures . . . you’re still dreaming of retiring in paradise.  “Good on you mate!”  [I'm working on those Aussie expressions since most of the guests on the DAWN PRINCESS world cruise will be Aussies!]  The other night I had dinner with a couple who have just moved to Panama and told me that they had read my blog continually during their long struggle to sell their house and free up and move to Boquete.  So for all of you in that situation . . . I thought I’d share this picture with you . . . taken in our living room in Palmira.

  When I had finally sold enough real estate that they gave me a tiny little office, instead of just a desk out on “the floor”, and I was dreaming of Panama, I found this old cruise line poster of a toucan, with a ship in the Canal or on the Amazon . . . and the poster reflected everything I was dreaming about.  So I had it framed and put it on my office wall and dreamed about Panama while shuffling paperwork and working the phones. 

The dreamin’ works folks!  Here we are!

And with all the hassles, the biting off more than I can chew, and the challenges . . . AND FUN! . . . of producing “Three Stooges Coffee” . . . it IS paradise!

If you doubt it,  take a look at this picture of my driveway that I took yesterday morning . . .

 

Tomorrow, I promise . . . your emails and questions!

Tuscan Dinner, LA, Bali and Palmira

 

This has been a very hectic weekend, and I do apologize to all of you for missing a day of blogging!  Somehow I always manage to get too many projects going at once, even in retirement.  What ever happened to sitting around on the rocking chair doing nothing?  Well, I’d go nuts, so I suppose it is better to have too much going, than nothing.

I leave for the ROYAL PRINCESS for 4 months in 40 days.  All my presentations for that trip have been done for a while, but I need to get at least two thirds of my stuff done for the world cruise on DAWN PRINCESS.  I have only month’s vacation . . . translate: working time to prepare for the next cruise . . . when I get back from ROYAL, before I’m off on DAWN.  This weekend it was a port talk for Los Angeles . . . really a talk for Aussie’s about California, since there is absolutely nothing to do around Los Angeles Harbor.  You either take a shore excursion, or sit on deck and watch the seagulls poop!  Now I’m on to Bali!

Saturday night we attended Lauretta Bonfiglio’s Tuscan dinner at the Bistro, a little “gringo” restaurant in town. This is the second one of these we’ve attended. The first was great, so we anxiously awaited her Tuscan dinner and were not disappointed. 

I started off early chatting with friends and drinking three glasses of champagne.  I should have learned on cruise inaugurals . . . go easy on the pre-dinner champagne.

Since I’m deathly allergic to shrimp . . . not that I didn’t consume more of my fair share of the world’s shellfish before developing this allergy . . . I wrote off the appetizer, “Grilled Prawns with Tuscan White Beans” with a Placido Pino Pino Grigio 2008. I like Pino Grigio, so I drank my appetizer.  Nikki gave the prawns an unenthusiastic, “OK”, and she’s the shellfish fan.

The soup was fantastic!  “Summer Potato Soup with Tomatoes and Parsley Sauce” . . . chunky, hearty, and delicious.  The accompanying wine was “Banfi Fumaio”, probably my favorite wine of the night.  A fruity blending of Chardonnay and SauvignonBlanc. They kept pouring and I kept drinking.

Two of our table companions were a couple from San Diego whom I had met through this blog, but whom I had never met in person!  They were fun folks who had encountered great difficulty selling their California home, so in the struggle kept dreaming of Boquete and reading my blog!

Speaking of blogs, our friends Dave and Cora Kent were there, and Cora told me that she has started a blog . . . www.boquetegourmet.com . . . inspired by me!  “I figured if you can do it, anybody can do it!”  Hmmm . . . anyhow, it is a neat blog, so check it out.

The pasta as far as we were concerned was the hit of the evening . . . I think one of the best pastas I’ve ever tasted!  “Penne with Roasted Butternut Squash, Toasted Waltnuts, Brown Butter and Sage” . . . superb!  The wine Placido Montepulciano D’Abruzzo 2007. 

The main course was “Pesto Fillet Mignon with Sun Dried Tomato Demi Glaze and Grilled Polenta Cake” . . . excellent, except the fillet was way overdone.  I realize with a group there are different preferences, but I think it would be safest to do a medium on the rare side, than to overcook the fillet.  The demi glaze was excellent, adding to, but not overpowering the other flavors.    The salad was “Grilled Eggplant Salad with Pine Nuts and Capers” and this being Boquete, you always need a “Plan B.”  Pine nuts it turned out were not available right now, so Lauretta substituted peanuts, but it worked.  Wine: “Banfi Centine 2006″

By this time I was remembering cruise ship inaugurals where the wine and conversation is flowing so quickly that you forget just how much you are drinking.  The trouble is I liked the desert wine, Banfi Brachetto Brachetto D’Acqui 2008, a delightful rose wine “made from Brachetto.  This extremely aromatic, complex and historical grape variety grows only in the area of Acqui Terme, in southern Piedmont.  The cold maceration of the grapes, followed by a soft pressing, allows the extraction of the typical intense aromas from the skins and gives the wine its characteristic light ruby red color.  Very pleasant and extremely elegant . . . berry flavors and a touch of almond and nutmeg.”  Translation: excellent!  I liked it and could still taste. 

The desert was “Chocolate Cherry Cassata” which Nikki was too stuffed to eat, so brought it home.  And this morning, as I write this, I’m eating her desert.  Goes great for breakfast!

Cost $35 per person, up from $25, but this time included tip.

Today is a day of continuing to work on the despulpadora machine . . . figuring out how best to depulp, wash, and dry our spectacular coffee.  Eventually we will be picking too much to do it all ourselves, but this is an experiment and we will see how it goes and where it leads.

“If I can just get this damn thing working!”

The story of my life with machines . . . old machines, new machines, computers . . . whatever. So, we found a machine that will remove the hulls from the coffee cherries leaving us with coffee seeds, i.e. coffee beans. This is supposed to do 200 kg per hour by hand, 400 kg per hour hooked up to a motor. Right! At the rate we are going maybe 10 kg per day! So lots of taking apart, cleaning, re-assembling, adjusting . . . with more adjusting, mounting, yada yada necessary.

We’re not about to put Ruiz, Sitton or Duran out of business! Actually we’ll still be selling most of our beans to the big producers, but we want to learn the entire process and hold out more for our own use.

For the birds . . . and bird watchers . . .

We’ve got some Motmots that hang out around our place . . . and yesterday I was sitting in the spa, without my camera of course, and there was a beautiful male Rufus Motmot hanging out in the garden, then he flew over to pose on a fence post . . . by the time I waddled naked and dripping wet through the house for the camera . . . of course he was gone.  We also have the Blue-crowned Motmot.  They are interesting birds, brightly colored with ping pong paddle tail feathers.   We have squirrels in Panama, not a lot like in the US, but some.  We have some black squirrels living by our house and I once saw a black squirrel chasing a Motmot out of what the squirrel considered to be “his” tree.

I must take my binoculars when I get into the spa, since yesterday I also saw a beautiful Rosy Thrush-Tanager.  These are bigger than a lot of our birds, and the male has the most vibrant red/orange breast imaginable with jet black wings.  One of the trees on the fence line gets a little seed fruit at this time of year which draws lots of birds.

Today . . . “The Big Apple!”

Today I get to do my presentation on New York, fun, since most of the folks on the world cruise of DAWN PRINCESS will be Australians.  This early out there is no way of knowing if we will be docking in Manhattan or Brooklyn.  The view of the Manhattan skyline from the Brooklyn pier is fantastic, but . . . Brooklyn is Brooklyn, and actually docking on the West Side is SO much more convenient for guests. 

Time just flies by anymore!  What ever happened to my dreams of a retirement sitting on the porch reading?  I know it would drive me nuts . . . but fantasies are good . . . aren’t they?   In preparation for my stint on ROYAL PRINCESS in now 7 weeks (!!), I’m reading the trilogy of books written by men who escaped from the French Penal Colony in Guiana and lived to write about it.  Fascinating reading!  What amazes me is how much of our approach to prisons today is really the same . . . deprivation and incarceration with no attempt at rehabilitation. 

An excellent choice!

And, oh yes, I think Obama was an excellent choice for the Nobel Peace Prize!

Thank goodness it’s Thursday . . . NIGHT!

We always love Thursday night!

The maid is gone!

Thursday is the day the maid is here. Nothing against any of the gals who’ve worked for us, but . . . Both of us grew up without maids . . . unbelievable to most middle and upper class Panamanians who’ve had live-in help all their lives. We raised two kids, both worked full-time, and we never had any help of any kid. Pastor’s didn’t have maids! So now that we’re in Panama, and almost everyone has a maid at least sometime, and we’ve got a house that’s too big for us, and three dogs tracking in dirt and shedding all over . . . to say nothing of the fact that we can get a made for $15 (including cab fare) . . . we have a maid one day a week. On Thursday. We love the results, it’s just that neither of us can get comfortable with someone else in the house. It took Nikki a while to stop “entertaining” the made with coffee and snacks and lunch, and cleaning the house herself before the maid arrived. Me . . . I like to wander around in my underwear or jump in the spa buck naked . . . so it’s just intrusive having somebody around.

By Thursday night the maid is gone.

The house is clean!

Now we can start to mess it up. Let the dogs in!

The “staff” is gone!

For people who like to be alone . . . it seems like we’re running a cruise ship sometimes. Alfonso, our Indian farm worker, always has questions. His son, 18, likes to find excuses to come back and ask school questions, or want a copy of this or that, or to get some paper. Sabino, who is living on our finca, and is a great all-purpose worker, but always has a question or needs this or that tool, and now we have coffee pickers and their kids and dogs running around.

And I’m back from Newport, RI . . .

No, I haven’t actually left Panama, but I’m working on port lectures for my round the world cruise on DAWN PRINCESS ins 2010.  I don’t do these in the order in which they will be presented, but just pick one of the places that seems interesting to work on.  Last week it was Dubai and Boston.  This week it’s been Newport, and tomorrow on to the Big Apple.

Newport is interesting to me because one of the mansions there is “Rough Point” which one of the many homes of tobacco heiress Doris Duke.  Duke was a little like the Paris-Hilton-Madona-whomever of her day, with a little of Michael Jackson’s weirdness thrown in.  The press and paparazzi couldn’t get enough of Duke whom they dubbed the “million dollar baby.”  She was a shrewd businesswoman who turned a small fortune into a huge fortune, but whose main business was “being Doris Duke.”  

Once in order to close a business deal with a wealthy Arab, Duke agreed to adopt his two camels, which she subsequently brought to this spectacular “Rough Point” estate in Newport and allowed the camels the run of the property.  Once when a hurricane was beating down on Newport she brought the camels into her huge living salon to ride out the storm!

One of the family estates where she grew up was Duke Farms in Hillsborough, New Jersey. where I lived in high school.  While I was in high school Duke had the idea to restore the huge conservatory greenhouses which he father had used to grow oranges.  Her intent was to make these beautiful indoor show gardens that would showcase various gardens of the world, similar to what the DuPont’s had done at Longwood Gardens.  And during summers I got to work as a gardener for the “Duke Garden Foundation” helping to create and maintain these spectacular gardens.  

Wikipedia notes,

“At age 46, Duke started to create Duke Gardens, an exotic public-display garden, to honor her father James Buchanan Duke. She extended new greenhouses from the Horace Trumbauer conservatory at her home in Duke Farms, New Jersey. Each of the eleven interconnected gardens was a full-scale re-creation of a garden theme, country or period, inspired by DuPont’s Longwood Gardens. She designed the architectural, artistic and botanical elements of the displays based on observations from her extensive international travels.She also labored on their installation, sometimes working 16 hour days . . . Duke was a hands-on homeowner, climbing a ladder to a three-story scaffolding to clean tile murals in the courtyard of Shangri La[Her home in Honolulu] and working side by side with her gardeners at Duke Farms.”

As a teenager who loved gardening, I got to work under the supervision of a guy she brought in from Keukenhoff in Holland, and got to help creating the desert garden, French garden, and Oriental garden. Duke was a clothes horse who always dressed in the latest designer fashions and left behind closets full of designer dresses, some of which are on display at “Rough Point.” But when she came to work in the gardens she came to work, dressed in ratty old jeans like the rest of us. She had beautiful Rolls Royce with chauffeurs . . . and had affairs with some of them . . . but around the farm she drove an old Buick convertible, inevitably with her mutt dog in the front seat. The estate was guarded in part by beautiful, pure bred German Shepherds who were the best behaved dogs imaginable. Her mutt . . . was a pain in the butt! She’d arrive, we’d both be down on our knees digging in the dirt, planting . . . or replanting . . . and that mutt of a dog was always in my garden messing things up.  Every time  ”Miss Duke” wasn’t looking, I’d give the dog a swift kick.

Duke was a great philanthropist, like her father who endowed Duke University, and when she died her money went to her foundations, but she also left that damn mutt of a dog $100,000!!

So it’s been fun working on Newport and I can’t wait to take our guests there. Since DAWN PRINCESS is based primarily in Australia, many of the guests will be Australians, so Boston, Newport and New York will be new and different adventures.

And most importantly, we survived the day!

Getting through a day in Panama with no great crisis is good!

[Unfortunately the Foundation that was entrusted to maintain the gardens Doris Duke personally created at "Duke Farms" have decided to rip them all apart, sell off the valuable sculptures, garden art and plants, and turn the greenhouses into some kind of showcase for environmentalism.   Nothing wrong with saving the environment, but talk about going totally against the wishes of the Foundation's creator!  I'm surprised Duke hasn't come back from the dead to hant them all! Photo: some of the items that were auctioned off after ripping up the gardens.]

The world, coveniently at your gangway!

I went on my first cruise ship back when I was a student in seminary, hungry to get to Europe any way I could manage.  I worked as cruise staff on a ship leased by the Dutch student travel bureau [NBBS] to earn my passage over, then spent four months tooling around Europe on a Eurailpass [First Class in those days when travel in Europe was cheap!] managing it all for $4 a day.  Yes, I slept in private homes, missions, hostels, and sometimes on the train, but it was fantastic.  I worked my way back to the Statess that fall on the same ship.  I learned to drink at the Hoffbrau House in Munich.  Sailing back I woke up in my cabin one morning wearing the first officers coat and hat: I think we were drinking  Dutch genever gin the night before.  The ship was leased from Holland America [NASM] and that was the beginning  . . .

When I graduated from seminary my first church was in the Bronx, NY, and Holland America offices were then located at Pier 42 . . . and I started spending my vacations sailing as a Protestant Chaplain on Holland America, first on the old ROTTERDAM.  All this cruising eventually ended up in our owning some of the first cruise-only travel agencies for 15 years, during which we were a top producer for Carnival, Holland America, Princess and Sitmar.  When Sitmar and Princess merged, Princess accounted for 70% of our business.  After my stint in the dot com business with 24 Hour Fitness, I went back to sometimes going on Holland America as chaplain.  It was on one of those cruises that I attended a lecture by an expert on the Soviet Union.  The man had incredible credentials, but 5 minutes into his lecture you could hear the whole room snoring!  I said to myself, “I can do better than that!”, and started lecturing, first on Celebrity, then on Holland America, and now on Princess as well. 

It’s fun, interesting, and a whole lot of work.  On Holland America as Travel Guide I was part of the entertainment team so I had a lot of other responsibilities as well as lecturing.  Much of the work is before I ever walk up the gangway.  Researching lectures, port talks, and bridge commentary and putting together interesting Powerpoint presentations takes a lot of time . . . a lot of time!  For the Tri-Continent and Amazon series on ROYAL PRINCESS that I’m doing starting in November there are almost sixty pieces!

And now . . . the world!

I’ve always wanted to travel round the world . . . when I was in school we always dreamed of getting a round the world air ticket.  You could buy them in those days I think for about $2,000, and you could make as many stops en route as you liked, as long as you never back-tracked . . . you had to keep moving either in an eastern or western direction around the world.  We were so hooked on flying that some people just did it for the fun of flying.  Today most people would rather spend a few months as guests of the Devil himself (or like God, is that sexist and should it be herself?  himself?  whatever . . .) than fly . . . anywhere, let alone around the world.

If you are an avid cruiser a world cruise is something you dream about.

So, as I mentioned the other day in my Good News! blog . . .  next year I am doing the world cruise on the DAWN PRINCESS . . . 105 days round the world from Sydney!

Here are the ports . . .

• Sydney, Australia
• Darwin, Australia
• Bali, Indonesia
• Singapore
• Kuala Lupur, Malaysia
• Langkawi, Malaysia
• Cochin, India
• Mumbai, India
• Muscat, Oman
• Dubai, United Arab Emirates
• Luxor/Karnak, Egypt
• Suez Canal Transit
• Port Said (Cairo/Giza), Egypt
• Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey
• Istanbul, Turkey
• Santorini, Greece
• Athens (Piraeus), Greece
• Venice, Italy
• Dubrovnik, Croatia
• Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy
• Florence/Pisa (Livorno)
• Cannes, France
• Barcelona, Spain
• Gibraltar
• Paris/Normandy (Le Havre), France
• London (Southampton), England
• Dublin, Ireland
• Boston, Massachusetts
• Newport, Rhode Island
• New York, New York
• Antiqua
• Barbados
• Curacao
• Panama Canal Transit- I’ll wave!
• Acapulco, Mexico
• Manzanillo, Mexico
• Los Angeles, California
• Honolulu, Hawaii
• Papeete, Tahiti
• Moorea, Polynesia
• Pago Pago, American Samoa
• Auckland, New Zealand
• Sydney, Australia

Typically world cruises have a much older passenger mix because they usually take around 100 days and the minimum inside cabins start around $18,000 per person, double occupancy. The DAWN PRINCESS is marketed primarily in Australia, and Australians, those lucky blokes, get a whole lot more vacation time than folks in the US. So even younger folks have the time to take a 105-day cruise.

Dawn Princess . . . creates paradise on the high seas. Featuring a wrap-around Promenade Deck, this spectacular ship has more than 400 balcony staterooms to enjoy the ever-changing scenery. Hot spots include the giant Movies Under the Stars poolside screen, the adults-only oasis called The Sanctuary, two show lounges with nightly entertainment, and plenty of elegant and casual dining options from gourmet pizza to grilled steaks. Large ship with small-ship intimacy, allowing for great passenger freedom.

DAWN PRINCESS was built in 1997, is 77,000 tons and carries 1,950 guests, so is the same size as the ZUIDERDAM. The ship features Princess’ huge outdoor movie screen known as “Movies Under The Stars” . . . or “MUTS”. When I first started following the Princess board on Cruise Critic I saw all these people talking about “MUTS” on Princess and I couldn’t figure out the acronym . . . at first thinking maybe Princess was allowing pets on board and that I could bring along my dogs!

Good News!

Well, I’m starting off October just full of good news!  Lots to celebrate!

Good times!

When I was in the travel biz my oldest daughter, Noelle,  was at Thousand Oaks High School and taking French.  Since I was in the travel biz I managed to scoop up a really good air fare for both of us to go to Europe.  I figured she might as well learn French at the source.  So we took off and went to Paris, Holland to see the tulips at Keukenhof, and Belgium.  It was a wonderful father/daughter experience before she headed off to college.  Obviously she like France, ended up majoring in French at the University of Puget Sound and studying abroad at Dijon.

I always regretted that it never worked out for me to do the same thing with my younger daughter, Rebecca.  Well now I have the opportunity to travel with her . . . in style!  Rebecca will be accompanying me on the ROYAL PRINCESS from Europe, to Africa, up the Amazon, through the Caribbean, ending up in Fort Lauderdale!!

Whew!  Thank you Jesus!

When we lived in Ventura we befriended two brothers who had run away from home at the ages of 13 and 15.  They never went back.  We became great friends and in many ways helped each other.  There were times . . . you wouldn’t believe . . . when I was sure they’d never make it.  Now both are in their early 20s and have become very responsible with good jobs and families.  One is a father, and the youngest tells me he  is about to become a father . . . a son, who following in their family tradition will have an Italian first name.  Both guys have bought a rental property, and the youngest and his wife are buying their first home.  They are both doing great and I’m proud of them!  As they would say, “F***in’ A!” . . . and as I would say, “Thank you Jesus!”

We did it!

The casita on our farm which had been used for our farm workers, has been totally remodelled . . . in two months, thank you very much . . . and my brother will be moving in later this week.  I’ve had a great team to work with, and I thank them.  I’ll do a blog a little later about this.  There is a misconception that Boquete is now become so expensive . . . Wait ’til you see what you can do for under $30K.  Not everyone who wants to retire in Panama needs or wants a mansion!

Gourmet coffee!

Our coffee harvest is beginning and the crop looks wonderful.   It’s just starting, so our worker Alfonso is picking the early stuff, but we should be having our neighbors coming over in a few weeks to start harvesting in earnest.  It’s beautiful with the coffee cherries turning red and all the poinsettias along the drive way in full . . . well, not blossom . . . but whatever pointsettias do when their leaves turn red.

We just had our first batch of last year’s coffee which we held out for our own use roasted . . . green coffee beans need to rest a while . . . and it tastes really great!  How am I ever going to deal with “ship coffee”, especially on Princess where they use coffee syrup . . . not to worry, just like Chicken McNuggets, it’s all coffee . . . parts.

ROYAL PRINCESS in the can!

It’s a wrap!  I’ve finished all my lectures, port talks and bridge commentary for my 4 month sojourn on ROYAL PRINCESS!  It feels good, except for my butt from sitting on the chair at the computer . . . I’ve got to spring for a new chair, but everything I see is the “made in China” paper, cardboard and plastic crap.

So, ROYAL is done, but now the fun begins again . . .

All around the world!

This just in!  Something I’ve always wanted to do . . . a world cruise!  I’ll share the details with you later, but it is a fantastic itinerary, around the world, some ports I’ve been to, and some which are new to me.  I’ll be sailing on a really great ship, but it’s a tremendous challenge . . . preparing 60 individual pieces  including lectures, port talks, sailins and sailaways, so I’m going to keep busy!  What ever happened to retiring and sitting on the porch in my rocking chair?  That would drive me nuts!

And thanks to you . . .

This month we had just a hair under 19,000 visitors!  That’s about 600 per day, so thank you all very much!  I appreciate your online friendship and really love reading your comments and emails.

So life is good . . . better than I ever imagined.  Some of that is luck, and some of it is because I have always had the philosophy to “follow the string” and see where things lead, knowing that if I don’t like where it’s going I can always let go, but if I don’t check it out I never will know.  When the opportunity came along to commit to being 5 months – 5 months! – on the ZUIDERDAM, I really wasn’t sure . . . but I was reading a novel and came on these lines . . .

and so I jumped!

I have a lot to be happy about and much for which to be thankful!

Don’t Stop The Carnival

I’ve been working on my port lecture for Trinidad, where we will be visiting every other week while I’m on ROYAL PRINCESS this winter. When most folks think of Trinidad, officially Trinidad & Tobabo, they think of calypso, steel drums, limbo and Carnival, which is a good thing, because all of these traditions of Caribbean culture come from Trinidad. Trinidad, like many islands in the Caribbean, bounced around between countries. Poor little Tobago bounced around more the most, changing hands more than 22 times! . . . “It’s Thursday, dear, time to put up the flag, but which flag is it today?”

Folks who expect every island to be a moviesque tropical paradise are always surprised at Trinidad. Yes, there are spectacular places like Maracas Beach.  And, for those of you on a cruise . . . just 45 minutes, and a $90US cab ride from the ship!

But Port-of-Spain is a bustling, capital city, a regional financial and business center. Trinidad has one of fastest growing economies in Caribbean with one of the highest growth rates and per capita incomes in Latin America. And it’s reflected in all the new high rise buildings and some spectacular architecture.

 The new National Academy for The Performing Arts will compete with the Sydney Opera House for stunning design and will contain a main performing venue seating 1,500.

Trinidad has a wonderful mix of peoples and cultures. About 40% of the population are Afro-Trinidadians, descendants from slaves on the English sugar plantations. When slavery was abolished, Trinidad brought in indentured servants, sometimes called “the new slavery” from India, and another 40% of the population are descendants from those Indians who worked the sugar plantations. The remaining 20% is a mix of English and other Europeans. So you have this great mix, Eastern religious traditions and curry from India, Carnival and African-based music, and crisp accents, cricket and a tradition-laden parliament from England.

One of the interesting surprises of Trinidadian architecture are “The Magnificent Seven” . . . seven, stunning “castles” build in Trinidad in 1904 by locals anxious to demonstrate that they had “arrived” and wanted to flaunt their wealth and prestige. All seven of these remain today in various states of preservation all standing on the same road where they have competed for attention for over 100 years.

The Archbishop of Trinidad decided that he, too, needed a place to lay his head, a place that reflected his own perception of his importance and prestige, so he built himself a palace with church funds. A few years later the Anglicans of the island decided that if the Catholic Archbishop had a mansion, that the Anglican Bishop deserved one too. All of which, of course, was essential to the mission of the church to the poor and needy and to win the world for Christ.