I chose a good day for a lie-in. Only three things on today’s sea day itinerary that I wanted to do and two of those were talks about ports we’d be visiting.

In an interesting twist from the previous cruise we’re docking at a town in Costa Rica rather than the commercial port near it. Naturally this was announced as ‘Good news!’ although maybe less so for anybody that had arranged or booked anything at the original port. I’m still torn on what to do that day, getting into the rain forest greatly appeals but is also rather expensive.

That was one of the few useful things the 10am talk mentioned. The half hour on Nicaragua came across as a lecture on its economic history instead of useful information like “How much should I pay for a taxi”, “What can I visit on foot” and “Where can I find wifi”.

I got back to my room to find it pristine, Mutu and Alan working their magic while I was gone. It’s the first time they’ve been in since Friday, they actually listened to my suggestion to save themselves some effort.

A burger for lunch, sat in the Crow’s Nest bar. There was a quiz going on there, the other side of the room, but I’d gone mainly to esape the terrible noise by the burger bar, the Mexican cultural ambassadors doing folkloric dance with speakers loud enough to hear through two doors and a stairwell. It made me rethink my plan to go to their salsa class later.

I did skip it in the end. I couldn’t face the thought of that music. I’d noticed yesterday that Mexican cafes targeting tourists played shit Latin music and Mexican cafes for the locals played general pop and rock music, just with Latin influences; even the Mexicans realise it’s crap.

The ship was rocking, so gentle that I hadn’t noticed it until I saw a sail swaying with no breeze.

I wanted to go to the recap on tomorrow’s port so headed to the restaurant before it opened, planning to sit by the door and read my book for ten minutes, get in there first. The queue was already filling the lift lobby.

I went up a floor, found the Port Shopping Ambassador, asked her what she does. Apparently she does all of the research to find where you can buy things you want in each of the ports, although I think her focus is typically jewellery rather than toothpaste. I’m sure she’d be very gracious and assist on that too, she seemed a nice lady.

I’m not really planning on buying anything, still too far from the journey home, too little space in the suitcase. I left her, caught a lift down to collect my coffee cup so I could take coffee to the 7pm talk, turn up 90 minutes early with a book. As the lift passed the restaurant floor the door opened and the lobby was clear. I poked my head out, found no queue, so went for dinner.

It took them 25 minutes to take the order, another 25 minutes to bring the starters. I finished my main course of Jerk Chicken just 7 minutes before 7pm, the rest of the table still eating. I was polite, waited for them to finish, went to the talk. Tomorrow’s plans may involve walking 2km through a mountain but are otherwise basically eat, drink coffee, browse tourist tat and decide whether or not to stroll along the beach. We’re only officially there for 5 hours so no time really for anything more anyway.

Another quiet evening: port visits for four days in a row, will be busy.