Our arrival was not scheduled until 10am and it was nice to not have to rush into the day. I downloaded the aforementioned news before meeting up with G for breakfast in the Club Restaurant. Shortly after we finished, the Pacific Princess was close to docking in the freight port of Acajutla, and we went out on the Promenade Deck to view the large crowd that was here to greet the ship. This was the first time a Princess ship had ever stopped in Acajutla, and we were met with fire boats spraying large plumes of water and loud local music and TV cameras and reporters and several dignitaries bearing a plaque that was presented to Captain D, as is the usual practice on an initial ship visit. It took some time to get a gangway set up (though it shouldn't have been any different from the Azamara Quest, which has also stopped here, as they are essentially the same ship). We waved and smiled for the cameras from the Promenade Deck and watched as the reporters descended on a youngish man (perhaps from the tourism board?) who must have been answering questions about Princess stopping here for the first time.
It was all a little exciting. ;-)
We had received a notification in our cabins a few days ago that, unless we were booked on one of the few Princess tours (mainly involving the Flower Road through some small towns, or a visit to the volcanos or what was called 'the Pompeii of the West', archeological ruins that had been buried in ash), a free shuttle bus would take us from the ship to a nearby visitors center, handicraft area and beach club. That sounded nice so we opted to do that. Actually, we initially had wanted to hire a taxi to drive us the approximately 20 miles to the Guadalupean border, thus completing our Countries of Central America Collection, but that timely news article made us rethink our plans.
We discovered that this visitors center, handicraft area and beach club were actually a compound, surrounded by 12 foot high fencing topped with razor wire, that housed some of the port workers. It was simply a grassy area with some shade from palm trees and a small pool and steps down to a brown sand beach. The pool and the beach were watched by life guards, which was a good idea as the ocean was warm but very rough and not really safe for swimming. Bewides, it was squeezed in between the freight boat and a refinery billowing black smoke. The water was not very tempting at all.
There were a few tables selling local crafts (I bought some hand made soap) and some chairs and a few loungers had been set around the grass, but there was no food nor beverages, which I consider kind of unforgivable. It was a hot day, especially in the sun. We all just sat around using the free WiFi (honestly, this was the biggest draw), though a few lucky crew members had time off and enjoyed the pool too. We walked along the beach, reached by steps from the compound, but didn't linger there. If it hadn't been for the WiFi and the enjoyment of talking with fellow passengers, we would not have stayed as long as we did. We had been told that there might be a few taxis available at the compound, but we didn't see any when we arrived. There are very few taxis, so passengers really are limited to taking a ship's tour which all involve a long bus trip. And when we were interviewed about our impressions of the port, it was hard to find nice things to say.
But it's early days for them still. Nicaragua certainly has their act together regarding cruise ship tourism. Hopefully Acajutla will too, although I'm not certain there was anything to see within a short distance of the port. San Juan del Sur at least had that. Passengers returning from tours reported spending from 4 to 6 hours of the day sitting on a bus, not exactly our favorite thing to do.
It was open seating tonight in the Club Restaurant as the ship was not scheduled to sail until 7pm. We had decided early on to simply eat at the Panorama Buffet (thankfully it was not the Bistro Trattoria tonight). We cleaned up for dinner and sat on the dock side of the Promenade Deck to watch the sunset, a hazy bright red one that is typical of a polluted sky due to the nearby refinery. I will give the tourism board its due; they certainly tried hard to make the visit a success. All tour buses were accompanied by trucks carrying armed police (or military) to keep passengers safe, and the last buses to return were greeted by Day of the Dead mimes and live music. We pushed away from the pier escorted by the two fire boats and their arches of water. Yep, they tried hard.
We had a quick dinner sitting on the Panorama Terrace and then attended the 7:30pm performance by violinist Chris Watkins, a finalist in Princess' Entertainer of the Year contest a couple of years ago. He was superb and very entertaining.
And that was our day. We are surprisingly weary tonight despite (or maybe because of) a totally unproductive day. Next up are three sea days in a row. If this sunny and warm weather continues, and provided the wind behaves, they should be relaxing and enjoyable. A week from tonight we'll be sleeping in our own bed, and, despite the fact that this has been our shortest cruising season in six years, I'll admit I'm ready to be home, albeit for a short time. I was not ready to leave after the Christmas cruise but things change. We've already set our sights on moving on to something new for the rest of the winter.
After we sort through three months worth of mail, that is. And upload nearly 1000 photos to this blog. ;-)
