1) Wake up early -- the other poster complaining about the guys in the hot tubs the whole time? They probably were out late. We woke up at 7am and got just about everything to ourselves: Got to do the fancy water slides several times before a line started, got to swim, use the hot tubs, etc. No traffic at all until maybe 9-10am.
2) Get to know your porter -- the guy that fixes up your room all the time -- They have very interesting lives, not from the wild-and-crazy standpoint, but they are typically from a poorer country, sending money home to their families. Goes the same for your waiters, servers, or any other crew you can meet. The less "public" the staff person is, the more likely that person has a life very different from yours, and the more value you'll get from sharing in their lives.
3) Educate each other. -- I went on a cruise with a family of teachers, and I loved it. At each port, we split up into groups to do different excursions, and when we got back together for dinner, we got to tell each other all the cool stuff we learned about the places we visited. It was super interesting.
4) Room on the bottom floor, middle. This was already mentioned in the article, but if you can get a middle-of-the-boat room, you deal less with the rocking of the boat. Most people don't spend much time in their rooms anyway, so it's not a big deal if they are sparse.
5) If you're engineering-minded, check out the inside-the-boat tour. They take you down to the engine control room, inside the kitchen, behind the scenes, up where the pilots drive the boat. Fascinating stuff.
In Costa Rica, we have the fruit listed in the article as "Rambutan", but we call it Mamón Chino. I always describe it to visitors as a cross between an anemone and a grape. You use your fingernail to tear the durable, spiny outer covering, then gnaw or suck on the grape-like white object in the middle. The grape thing has a pit inside that is about 80% the size of the grape, so it's sort of like gnawing on a grape with a peach pit inside. But the flavor is pretty tasty.
We have chayote also, and I agree with the other poster that is doesn't have a lot of flavor on its own, but it is often prepared with other flavorful items, and it takes on their flavor. They taste delicious is meat-based soups. There's a dessert that some of our friends make using honey, chayote, and some sort of light cheese, and they fry the whole thing, and it tastes pretty amazing.
A couple other exotic fruits they have here are granadillas and guaba. Granadillas look about the size of a tangerine on the outside, but when you open them up, it is reminiscent of a bag of snot, full of slimy sunflower seeds. Maybe a tangerine full of fish eggs or something. Either way, I was unable to eat very much of it. The Guabas look like a giant pea pod. But when you split it open, instead of peas, there are little fruit-like seed things. I think you sort of suck on them, like the mamón chinos I mentioned earlier.
We've lived in Costa Rica for the last several months, and sometimes, you do what you gotta do with what you have, yaknow? If you've got a vocabulary of 3000 words (I have no idea what my actual Spanish vocabulary is), you can generally get your point across. You might get laughed at, but the communication happens. The best part, though, is once you hit that "able to talk around unknown vocab" point, your language learning becomes self-sustaining.
It's a starter guitar, for those without the coordination to play more than two strings at once, but with too fat of fingers to play with two strings next to each other.
It's a practice electric fence for would-be thieves. On the other end, there is a knob where you can change the voltage and amperage. Starting at a little shock, you can acclimate and then raise the power until you can climb electric fences with ease!
1) Wake up early -- the other poster complaining about the guys in the hot tubs the whole time? They probably were out late. We woke up at 7am and got just about everything to ourselves: Got to do the fancy water slides several times before a line started, got to swim, use the hot tubs, etc. No traffic at all until maybe 9-10am.
2) Get to know your porter -- the guy that fixes up your room all the time -- They have very interesting lives, not from the wild-and-crazy standpoint, but they are typically from a poorer country, sending money home to their families. Goes the same for your waiters, servers, or any other crew you can meet. The less "public" the staff person is, the more likely that person has a life very different from yours, and the more value you'll get from sharing in their lives.
3) Educate each other. -- I went on a cruise with a family of teachers, and I loved it. At each port, we split up into groups to do different excursions, and when we got back together for dinner, we got to tell each other all the cool stuff we learned about the places we visited. It was super interesting.
4) Room on the bottom floor, middle. This was already mentioned in the article, but if you can get a middle-of-the-boat room, you deal less with the rocking of the boat. Most people don't spend much time in their rooms anyway, so it's not a big deal if they are sparse.
5) If you're engineering-minded, check out the inside-the-boat tour. They take you down to the engine control room, inside the kitchen, behind the scenes, up where the pilots drive the boat. Fascinating stuff.
We have chayote also, and I agree with the other poster that is doesn't have a lot of flavor on its own, but it is often prepared with other flavorful items, and it takes on their flavor. They taste delicious is meat-based soups. There's a dessert that some of our friends make using honey, chayote, and some sort of light cheese, and they fry the whole thing, and it tastes pretty amazing.
A couple other exotic fruits they have here are granadillas and guaba. Granadillas look about the size of a tangerine on the outside, but when you open them up, it is reminiscent of a bag of snot, full of slimy sunflower seeds. Maybe a tangerine full of fish eggs or something. Either way, I was unable to eat very much of it. The Guabas look like a giant pea pod. But when you split it open, instead of peas, there are little fruit-like seed things. I think you sort of suck on them, like the mamón chinos I mentioned earlier.
Star T-Rex, XL, Black
Geek for Life, XL, Black
Geek for Life, XL, Black
Star T-Rex, XL, Black
Star T-Rex, XL, Black
Star T-Rex, XL, Black
Star T-Rex, XL, Black
Star T-Rex, XL, Black
Star T-Rex, XL, Black
Introvert Party, Medium
Introvert Party, Medium