2012 Cruise

So I just got back from my "Western Caribbean" Cruise today.  The entire cruise was a record setting (for me) 11 days.  After getting back, I have come to a conclusion that a week would probably be best.

Here was my home for a week and a half.

Since the tradegy with the Costa Concordia (you know where that Italian captain bailed on the sinking ship), there have been substantial safety measures in place.  This was the emergency meeting spot that we had to report to.

Here is a shot of our stateroom.  I liked the plasma TV.  There were not a whole lot of channels.  They were mostly news.  Sometimes we got BBC, CNN, TNT, and a view of the front of the ship. 

Unfortunately we got an inside cabin.  It was a decent size though.  Approximately 350 SF. 

First stop was Belize and this is a picture of the bannana fields in Costa Rica.  Belize was super hot and humid, and dirty, and depressing, so I don't have any photos of that.  Back to Costa Rica, those blue bags protect the bannanas from bugs and bacteria etc.  You see a whole lot of fruits there including papayas, pineapples, mangos as well as coffee in the mountains.  Dole is big in Costa Rica.

One of the big things to do in Costa Rica is "Eco Tourism".  Basically you tour the ecology in Costa Rica which is a forest.  One of the newer things opened to tourists is this tramlike thing.  You are in this "basket" that can fit 6 people that was initially used for scientists observing nature.  I really like that the locals really take pride in taking care of their land.  Everywhere I went there was no or very little litter. 

Here is a view from the tram.  Lots of birds, bugs but we didn't see any animals. 

Afterwards we took a boat tour. 

There we saw all kinds of animals!

Here is a sloth. It just hangs out literally for most of its life.  Nice and easy life.  It likes to eat on the leaves at the top of the trees.

Here is a Spider Monkey.

Next stop is Panama!

This place really surprised me in many ways.  Their skyline alone was very impressive.  They make a killing of the canals and invest it locally. 

You can see with this pic that there are buildings all the way across the skyline.

We took a train across the country!  We went from the Atlantic side to the Pacific side.  It's an hour's ride and like 50 miles.  The train was fully refurbished inside and it felt like you were back in time.  They served drinks and snacks. 

So here is where the money is at. Supposedly the country charges 65k to cross the canal plus $100 per container. 

These are the machines that do all the work.

You can see the machine that pulls or pushes the boat through the locks.  They are called mules.  The requirement is that you have to let the county drivers take control of your boat and gets you across from 8-10 hours. 

This is their new bridge.  It's the Millenium Bridge.  Nice.

Here is a view up close.  Keep in mind that I am in a bus...

Here is looking up

Nice.

So next up is Cartagena Columbia. 
The weather was hot and humid.  I was sweating profusely and seeked a/c everywhere.

Here is a skyline pic I took from my Droid Razr.  Lots of high rises!

 On the way to "Old Town"

 Here is the entrance to "Old Town".

Nice Fountain!

So we checked out the Inquisition Museum.  This is where the Spaniards tortured people to see if they were true Catholics.  This is where religion, torture, and art come together.

This was a warning.  No TOUCHING!

This was a mean torture device. 

You are basically hung from your arms behind you and then they lift you up and down violently.  Nasty shit! 

The Rack!  And this shit has nothing to do with Nordstrom's!

This one looks pretty.

Here is another pic up close.  I took this with my phone.

Kind of reminds me of a dog collar.

Here is the gullotine.  Nice.

The gallows.

Up close and personal.

  

Heretic Forks

More mean ass shit from those crazy Spaniards.

The Chiquita Lady was around!  Bitch wanted $$ to take photos. 

More high rises!  These are mostly residential.

Grand Cayman was the last stop.

No high rises here!

Interesting ships

No, I didn't see Captain Jack Sparrow.  I did see lots of his statues though.

They drive on the wrong side of the road!

Speaking of roads, everywhere was CLEAN.  Reminded me of Hawaii... clean and expensive.

So you can rent the chairs.  I forgot how much that costed, but I do recall it was not cheap.

You can see the cruise line in the backround.

Back in the US of A.  Ft. Lauderdale airport has some lame-ass Police cars.

Wierd Shit @ Fry's Electronics

I love Fry's Electronics!  I especially like browsing (ONLY browsing!) at the "As Seen On TV" section where marketing people shovel stupid solutions to problems that we didn't know exsited.  One of the examples I saw was the "Eggies".  This was for stupid people incapable of boiling an egg.  I suppose if you were mentally retarded and lived alone, perhaps having a stove would be dangerous.  Now retards can enjoy hard boiled eggs because of Eggies! 

My latest funny thing I found was this singing Justin Beiber toothbrush! 

Only $10!

I don't know if it is an electric (as opposed to manual) toothbrush, but it does sing!



Aero Shot

Guess what I got in the mail?  I finally got it after ordering it 3 weeks ago.  I saw the product in the news and decided to check it out.  I hooked up my caffeine junky trainer and he felt nothing.  Later on that day I tried it myself and I definitely felt it.  There was this intense bitter lemon lime aftertaste and then the caffeine rush hit me.  It felt like I downed 2 cappuccinos. 

I personally like drinking coffee and I would say this is definitely not a substitute.  It is cheaper than my coffee habit and probably healthier than guzzling 2+ lattes a day, but I prefer the gradual caffeine dose from coffee rather than the immediate rush from the Aero shot. 

New Jordan 4s!

I can't remember the last time I worked this hard to get a pair of shoes.  This time was particularly aggravating because I tried 2 times and wasted probably 5 hours of my life, and after all that my buddy hooked me up with a pair for a paltray $240.  I probably redailed the phone number 300+times in 2 hour span plus 30 minutes on hold.  Then I stood in line in front of the Foot Locker for another 3 hours.  And then I came home empty handed.  I can't tell you the last time I was this agry and livid until my buddy called me and everything was allllllright! 


At the time of this posting there are quite a few of these shoes on Ebay north of the $300 barrier.  So here is an unboxing.

This is the box.  Rather different than the standard sliver box they always came in.  This one was made well.  I was actually impressed that they had a serial number on the box itself.

Jordan 4 "Concrete"

They call them concrete because it kind of looks like you stepped into concrete and have the residue behind.  I would say that this is one of the more unique colors.

It comes with a keychain!  No Nike logo though!

No Nike in the back either!

Nice!

Traffic on the 210 Freeway!

So I was on the way to work and it was raining and we had some major traffic.  I suspected that there was an accident and I saw this.

Check out the semi on the right.  Sorry for the windshield wiper.

Damn!

Freaky Electronic Fry's

I was shopping for hard drives at Fry's and I saw something that was absurd.  Actually it was the lack of something that blew my mind.

There were very few hard drives at Fry's!  This was due to the flooding in Thailand a couple of months ago.  From what I understand, we should have some hard drives back in a couple of months.  Trust me, the locals in Thailand had it waaay harder than us.

Prostitution in Pasadena?

I saw this sign in Pasadena.  What do you suppose they mean?