The Filipina was preening herself in the gym this morning again,

primping her plumage,strutting her not inconsiderable weaponry.
But this time there were no admirers,who would encourage her in her endeavours.
The gym was full of tired old men who in the final effort are trying to halt the march of  ravages of age
and remedy a lifelong abuse of the body by cigarettes,drink and the sitting room sofa,some throwing in the towel after the first 10 steps on the treadmill, some soldiering on,living in hope,for "hope springs eternal in the human breast" [Alexander Pope]

Yes, I did cruise in Latin America and the Caribbean

in the autumn of 2017 for 45 days.
We did dock for one day in  Costa Rica, but I cannot for the life of me  remember  where and I did not  devote a separate entry to the experience in my blog.But sometimes it is like that when I am too busy doing a multitude of things.
It is  poor and dirty country like all  Latin American countries  I have been to.
But then dirt is not the Latin American privilege, the ship I had sailed on for 45 days, Columbus,owned by Cruise and Maritime,  was a disgustingly kept  vessel,too, and I would  never set a foot on it ever  again.
My day in Puntarenas  is not over yet. I want to be fair in my final entry on the port.

Many people are under the impression only no-hopers come to entertain on a cruise ship.

How wrong they are!
We have had  a comedian Goronwy Thom,who had performed in the Palladium in front of the British royalty,Prince Harry,I think,and his wife.A gem of a performer.
Roy Walker, a stalwart of the British comedy scene,up there with the best of them.
Divas3 with their powerhouse voices came fresh from Las Vegas and sang for us two evenings.
Some people did not give the ventriloquist Lynn Trefzger a chance and left when she pulled out her animal dummies.I am glad I did not, though  I was sorely tempted, as the best,utterly hilarious end to the show, was well worth the wait. Not for nothing is she an award winning performer.
And when Tian Jiang's name appeared on the Daily  Programme,I had to double take,and no,I am not   telling those who do not know who he is,    who he is.   Please google his name and be amazed.
He performed for us two nights ago and will do so this evening,too.

So last night at dinner I wore my light blue 3/4 M&S jeans.

No-one said a thing,but judging by the look of one or to women, they met their Waterloo.One said something to her partner,he looked me up and down. I have no doubt  Marks & Spencer  was again the talk of the ship !
I fail to understand why any-one should object to them,when I pair them with an   antique top,high heels and a matching bag.
There are women who do not carry a handbag  with an evening dress,many men haven't been to a barber for months,some men and women smell and we  still have quite a long sail ahead of us.This is incomprehensible to me as water is free and all the toiletries are provided,items can easily be washed in the sink with a shampoo or a shower gel,I do it every day and there is a launderette with washers and driers,a good iron and a clean ironing board.There is no excuse to smell.English smell, Germans smell, other nationalities smell.
And what is it about the socks and the most awful sandals men put on, and their partners often have identical.Identical! And if only those, the tops and  shorts,too. On every ship.And still they mind my M&S jeans!

Today,27 January 2019,we are transitting the Panama Canal.

France began work  on the canal in 1881,but there were engineering problems  and high mortality due to disease,so the work was not completed.This was done by the US,who re-started the work in 1904 and 10 years later the canal was officially opened.
The canal is 48 miles long  and connects the Atlantic ocean and the Pacific ocean via  the Caribbean sea,enabling the ships to avoid the tricky Cape Horn, thus shorten the route  by more than half.
The Panamian government has been managing and operating  the canal since 1999.
At 14.25 I am going to have my photo taken by a ship's photographer on my balcony.Being photographed is for me worse than  having a root canal,so this is another momentous occasion I experience today! I am of the firm opinion,that unless a photo makes you look 10 years younger and 10 kg lighter, it has no business to be hoisted upon the world.And that is no easy task.

The final word on Aruba.

18 miles north of  Venezuela,the island had hit the  jackpot in its position to the Venezuelan oilfields.Two oil refineries were built  in 1929,one of them,Lago Oil, was at the time the largest refinery in the world,employing 8000 islanders.This and the tourism had afforded them  one of the highest standards of living in the West Indies.
In 1985  the refinery, due to the fallen demand worldwide,had closed, but re-opened in 1991.
You do not see anywhere  people begging or lying on the ground drunk.
Aruba has a daily supply of fresh fruit and vegetables from Venezuela, a Caribbean island can  rarely grow own, due to the  soil being washed out of every goodness a vegetable or fruit need to flourish.
Only  20 inches of rain annually, the cacti grow and multiply happily,not much of anything else.
Divi Divi trees [or  Watapana ] are unique to Aruba.Their branches bent  at right angles to the trunk by the trade winds.
Aruba has glorious clear waters,sandy beaches.
But it is flat, it has only three smallish hills, the largest  about 600 feet high,it does not have any greenery to speak of. If it had at least a fraction of the forests Costa Rica has,I would retire there like a shot.But I love the woods, sitting in the shade  under a tree. The smell of burning leaves is intoxicating to me.

That I would miss terribly.
 

The final word on Bermuda.

Having had time to reflect,I've decided to give the island another chance.When and for how long that will be I do not know,but another chance to impress me it will get.
I think all of us deserve a second chance in life, whatever the circumstances may be.
I did give the second chance to  Queen Elizabeth and now I know,that it is unlikely I would ever again set a foot on the ship again.But that is the way the cookie crumbles.
Bermuda is a large island and I have seen just a small part of it.And I liked very much what I saw, the picture postcard unforgettable vistas,clearest of the clear water.
Bermuda has  more shipwrecks  per square mile  than anywhere else on Earth and I would like to see at least one of them.
I would like to ride  a horse  from beach to beach.
I would like to try a beef-burger  at the Pickled Onion, in Hamilton, the capital.
Yes, I would like to give Bermudians  another try. People, who bury their dead  in the prime spot like the cemetery  they have established  on the way between the cruise port and Hamilton, deserve it.