Day 104 – “Last Day on Land”

Dec 9th

Last Stop
For our last day, Becca, Cassidy, Ryan and Torrie left early to go on a canopy tour. The rest of us hung around the house and made cereal, fried plantains and left over beer for breakfast. We spent the morning cleaning up the house, finishing the beers and lounging around the pool. While Jonah and Goldie played frisbee, we found an enormous iguana that lived in the next door lot. Britney spent most of the morning in the hammock, while Goldie and I played catch with a rubber ball in the pool. After saying good bye to Alfronzo, the family and Bronco, we headed back to central Puntarenas to enjoy a late lunch and get back on the ship. We wandered around and away from the generally pricy tourist area to find a quaint local eatery on the road side. We ordered chicken fajitas and garlic fish with fries and cokes on the side. It was a wonderful meal for $4. Afterward, Jonah, Britney and I headed to the internet café across the street where I unsuccessfully tried to log onto OASIS (Vandy’s online class registration) to sign up for classes I got bumped out of. Instead, I read all my birthday Facebook posts. Jonah, Britney and I then wandered about town toward the direction of the ship and check out a few shops to spend our last colones. When we finally made it to the pier, we trekked down the 300 yard pier back to the ship.

Ship Time
Unfortunately, not as many students were as drunk and entertaining as I had hoped they would be, but a lot of students failed a “random” drug test. I don’t know what will happen to them, but the prescribed punishment is withheld academic credit. Dinner back on deck six was ‘Around the World’ themed, so it included things like Costa Rican rice and beans and Indian curry chicken. Of course, they faithfully managed to stick iceberg lettuce in there anyway. Later Goldie, Sara, Britney and I watched a marathon of SATC, before Goldie left us to enjoy a champaign and cookie reception with her Sea. They had the highest percentage of student donations to the Alumni Fund, so they got to join faculty and staff in the Faculty Lounge for drinks and dessert. She and Becca V. managed to smuggle back some cookies for us anyway. While walking back to Britney and Becca’s room, we came across Jonah in the hallway. So, we ended up sitting around for hours blocking traffic and munching on cookies. Greg, the camera crew guy, found us and taped us “in our habitat.” We just kept breaking into laughter every time someone said “fuck” or “shit” and then realized Greg was still filming. I’m not sure how much of that tape he is going to use, unless he wants to show people what happens after too much time on a ship.

Highs and Lows
My “high” was reading Facebook birthday wishes (because they have shamelessly become one of my favorite things to do post-birthdays). My “low” was leaving our magical yellow-and-blue oasis of carefree fun.