We stayed overnight in Los Angeles, but did not go do anything. Los Angeles is a great city there are lots to do, if you want to find it.

. Cabo San Lucas, Mexico was our first stop. It is very confusing when you get to the pier in Cabo. There are people yelling at you if you want a taxi or a tour. Out of all of the places we had shore excursions Cabo was the worse for people trying to out yell the others to get people on their taxis or tours. I hired a bicycle taxi for the day and had him take me on a tour of Cabo. We stopped at one of his favorite lunch places. It was a little seafood café. I had a seafood taco and local beer. It was really good. We toured around some more until I saw a little cantina I wanted to go into. There were some locals having a birthday party and they let me be a part of it. We had a great time! I had Beers and shots of tequila, then back to the ship.

This is one of the places I made private arraignments. I talked with some people on Cruise Critic and one of the ladies had reserved an 8 in 1 tour in Puntarenas. This was a wonderful tour. The tour bus picked us up on the pier and got us seated in their air conditioned bus. The tour company is called Gio Tours. We had a driver and a tour guide on the bus with us. Jesus was the tour guide. He was very friendly and really likeable. He was very knowledgeable about the area, plus the rest of Costa Rica. He was able to answer all of our questions. We first went to a privately owned house that has a troop of Capuchin monkeys living on their land. It was a blast. Everyone took off all jewelry, watches, phones etc then you stood by a tree and held you hand up with some fruit in your other and the monkeys would climb down the tree onto you and get the fruit. They were very cute. We then stopped at a fruit stand and tried different fruit from the area.

Next we went on a jungle cruise (not like Disney’s ). We went out on a boat that held 40 people on the Tarcoles River. We saw all sorts of birds and other wildlife. Then we came to where the crocodiles hung out. The crocodiles were from a few inches long to over 20 feet long, huge! Jimmy one of the guides got out of the boat and hit the water with raw chicken so the crocodiles would come closer then he would feed the crocodiles. He was getting way too close to those animals, but it was very interesting. After the jungle cruise we went to a local restaurant and had a typical Costa Rican lunch. It had a couple of salads, salsas, rice, beans and steak, chicken or fish. It was very delicious. We then went to a point that overlooked Puntarenas. There were lots of kinds of flowers and plants that our guide pointed out. On the way back to the ship the driver pulled over real fast. He had spotted Howler Monkeys. So we all got out on the side of the road and checked them out. It was pretty cool! We had a tour of Puntarenas then back to the ship. We had a great day.

. The drivers are crazy there! Oh my! The cruise ship docked in the commercial part of the pier. We were then buses into Lima and dropped off at a plaza with Christmas markets set up. On the first day I had nothing planned. When I got on the bus a couple of people I had met on Cruise Critic, Vanessa and Sam, were on their own so they asked me to join them. I am so glad I did. Sam spoke very good Spanish and was able to get a taxi driver take us around Lima for a very good price. We went to the main plaza where the cathedral and state buildings are. It was beautiful. The plaza was decorated for Christmas. The Cathedral was wonderful, we got to see Pizarro’s resting place, vestments that Popes have given to the Cathedral, nativity scenes, and more. One funny thing, in the main part of the Cathedral they had music playing and it was Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer and Santa Claus is Coming to Town. I just thought they would have a little bit more traditional church type music playing, but it was fun.

After walking around the plaza and seeing the President’s residence we went to the Gold Museum. The Gold Museum was good, not as much gold as I thought I would see, but ok. They had a huge weapons area that showed all different kinds of weapons and dress from Latin America, United States, Europe, and Asia. It was very interesting. We then went to Kennedy Park. This is a cat park. Cats hang out here and people go there to sit with the cats. They feed them there. There were hundreds, but in a good way. The last place we stopped was Parque de Amor. The mosaic work alone is a reason to go to this park. There is mosaic work on most of the benches and it is beautiful. They also have a big statue of a man and woman kissing. It is overlooking the Pacific and you can see paragliders there. I liked the park very much. We then went back to the ship.

The second day in Lima my mom and I had a private tour with Haku Tours. It was called the Lima Colors and Flavors Tour. A representative from Haku was waiting for us when we got off the bus. We were taken to a really nice large air conditioned van. We were taken to Chorrillos and stopped at the small marina where the fishermen bring their catch of the day in and sell to restaurants, hotels, and more. We got to see the different kinds of fish that are sold in the market and talk with the fishermen. The next stop was to the Chorrillos local market. We tried different fruits indigenous to Peru. I loved the dragon fruit. We then walked around and tried the local Cebiche with a salad and Peruvian corn nuts (yum!). We also tried Chifa, local fried rice, a dish that had chicken in the middle of fried plantain, and Inka fried plantain. It was all delicious. Next we went to Barranco area of Lima. This is a trendy, funky kind of area. There are lots of art galleries, cafes and parks. In this area we saw the Bridge of Sighs and listened to a local band. We had lots of fun.