Travel – Page 7 – Travel with Jane & Jeff

San Ramon and Magallenes

We did not get up with the sun…we are not on “tico time” yet where everyone gets up early. There are a couple of reasons people here do this: 1) the sun comes up around 6 a.m. and sets approximately 5:30 p.m. pretty much all year-round. Costa Rica doesn’t observe daylight savings time and life revolves around the natural order of things. But we are up now, 9-ish, and Jeff has made coffee. I step outside in my shorts and tee-shirt, coffee cup in hand (delicious Costa Rican coffee, by the way) and listen to the birds. It sounds like millions of birds. Oh, and look, there’s a hummingbird.

We have only one thing on our agenda today and that is to drive into San Ramon to the feria agricultura (farmer’s market.) Today, Friday, the market is open from noon-6 and tomorrow 8-noon. We definitely need to go today because we need food. When we travel, I always pack dehydrated peanut butter and this morning was delighted to discover I had grabbed my bag of chocolaty peanut butter – kind of a dehydrated nutella. For breakfast I had two pieces of peanut butter bread and Jeff had some of the cereal we bought at Walmart yesterday.

For lack of anything else to do we decide to take a walk and start up Calle Morales (our street) which is rough gravel and rock. As we walk by the Hacienda, owned by Nancy and Alex, who also own our casita, we stop to introduce ourselves to the couple who are renting another of the properties. We meet Harvey and Annette and continue on our way. The walk is steep and the steepest part is paved which is nice. I glance into the yard of a gringo house we pass and see the largest chicken I have ever seen in my life – I thought it was a dog! I’ll bet it lays eggs the size of dinosaur eggs.

When we reach the end of our street, we decide to walk further (up!) the Magallenes road toward the autopista (highway). As we pant our way up, an older couple is walking down. “Hola” we all exchange greetings. People here are very friendly and it is important to wave at passing cars or greet others as you pass them. The woman stops and asks “Do you speak English?”. Why yes, as a matter of fact we do. Turns out this couple, Emma and Francisco, are Nicaraguans who have lived in Toronto for the past 35 years and they are moving to Costa Rica. “We just bought a house,” she tells us, “would you like to see it?” Of course! Naturally, the house is back down the road but not too far. It is a teeny tiny Tico house – maybe two rooms.

The kitchen has a tiny electric 2-burner hot plate; the minuscule living room is outfitted with 2 lawn chairs. They are just moving in. Their pride in their house could not be more evident and we exclaim over the view from their property and we sit and visit for a few minutes. We’re happy to meet some non-gringos and now that we know where they live we’ll look for them whenever we go by.

We continue our walk, back up the hill, to the autopista (highway) about 2 kilometers from our casita. Then we turn around and walk back. Back down Calle Morales (our street) instead of turning left to our ‘driveway’ we walk past a partially closed gate that marks the beginning of new construction area. There is a set of houses – more like casitas- that are being built and they are weird. First of all, they are wooden, there are huge termites here, and second, they are on stilts, which you’d think with Costa Rica’s numerous earthquakes cannot be a good design. Jeff figures they are being built as rentals. We walk around on the “not quite” roads before heading home. We need to get to the farmer’s market.

I’m excited that we drove from Magallenes to the feria agricultura in San Ramon without getting lost! We’re trainable. I know I’ve described other farmer’s markets in past blogs so suffice it to say that we got a LOT of wonderful fresh fruits, vegetable and cut flowers for not a lot of money! The most expensive thing we bought was some red snapper. It was one of the few fish we could identify and bought one whole one and asked the kid behind the counter to filet another one. He was completely flummoxed but we made ourselves clear and he did it. (Thanks to Google translate!) Though we’ve eaten plenty of them we’ve never cooked a whole red snapper, so this will be an experience.

Dinner. Recipe compliments of the internet

We spend extra time at the feria – walking around, looking at everything. It is truly amazing. Jeff brings the car down from where we parked on the street so we can put our groceries in the car – I’m not carrying that watermelon and pineapple up the hill!

At home, we start putting stuff away. I chop up 3/4 of the watermelon and all of the pineapple to keep in a large bowl in the refrigerator. Then I take one of the two giant heads of lettuce, a tomato, cucumber, and carrot and create a large green salad to also have handy in the refrigerator. We have mushrooms that we’ll add at serviing time. I have 2 cucumbers, a head of lettuce, more carrots, broccoli and green beans left. Lots of everything.

While in the kitchen I decide to go ahead and cook a large pot of gallo pinto (beans and rice) and using my handy homemade spice box season them with cumin and cayenne. A quick meal with our corn tortillas. YUM!

This afternoon we’ve been invited to our landlord’s hacienda for a sunset and drinks gathering. Did I mention that it has been VERY windy here? This has a good side and a bad side. The wind keeps the air clear of fog so we can easily see the peninsula at Puntarenas 30 miles down (we can see the cruise ships go in and out) but the wind also makes it chilly up here. We didn’t know that enero (January) is this area’s windy month and we’re happy to have learned that. Luckily, I have the blue jeans, wool socks and fleece sweater I wore on the plane down to Costa Rica and put them on before we go to the party.

We walk up to the Hacienda and meet several other folks who have arrived. I really want to describe the Hacienda to you, but 1) I’m not sure I really can and 2) I don’t think you’d believe me if I did. When you first enter the house, you walk over this little tile bridge in the foray, under which is a small lap pool. The main area is the size and has the look of a huge hotel lobby – the bathroom even has a sign that says “toilet.” Apparently Nancy and Andy do a LOT of entertaining!! The kitchen is huge, as is the eating area; the table seats 10-12. The best part is the back deck. It is gigantic and gorgeous views! We meet all the other folks, some of whom we’ve met on previous trips, have drinks, ceviche, guacamole, homemade tortilla chips and a good time. The sunset, though, is a non-event as the wind has stopped and the fog has rolled in.

The Hacienda. Our casita is the smaller building to the left.

It is fun to hang out with everyone. Andy’s brother, Henry, is a sailor and sails his 42 foot catamaran back and forth from here to Canada; he and his little dog, Shiner, are visiting now. There is interesting conversation and too soon it is time to head home. Always thinking ahead, I have a flashlight in my pocket and we walk down the hill.

As we go to bed the wind is blowing hard again. So hard, in fact, that leaves and tree branches swing in front of the motion sensor security lights and the lights flash on at unpredictable times. In the night both Jeff and I get up because the wind is banging the shower door (remember, it has no roof) and we stuff a rug under it to keep it quiet.

This feels like it was a very lazy day, but turns out we did do more than I thought!

See you tomorrow!

Going to San Ramon

I am sound asleep when Jeff turns on the hotel room light. I look at the clock – 9:45 a.m., mumble something rude, pull the covers over my head and try to go back to sleep. I can hear him moving hurriedly around, he’s getting dressed. What the heck? “WHAT are you doing?” “The free breakfast is over at 10; I’m going down to get us some food.” How sweet, I can’t be annoyed by that plan! He goes dashing out of the room, and helpful mate that I am, I stumble to the shower. It is a very pretty morning.

“View” from our room. Notice the Denny’s

Just as I am finishing my shower I hear someone rattling at the door. Jeff can’t get the door open….so I step out onto the bathmat and shuffled my wet, naked body to the door to let him in.

He has eggs, sausage, yogurt, a banana and coffee for himself and for me, coffee, gallo pinto (beans and rice), some corn, a banana, and an English muffin with mango preserves. Nice way to begin the day. Oh, and the coffee was delicious.

After dressing and enjoying our breakfasts, I walk down to the reception desk to ask for a late checkout. We had planned to be at our casita, “Casita Vivace,” in Magallenes outside of San Ramon before noon. Not gonna happen, so Jeff texts the owners and tells them to expect us in the early afternoon instead. We decide it would be smarter to pick up our rental car and come back to the hotel for luggage than to drag our bags with us. Our plan worked really well; we took the hotel shuttle back to the airport, then took the Alamo shuttle to the rental cars and pretty soon were on our way back to the hotel. I had asked for a 1 p.m. checkout and because traffic is heavy we are cutting it close, but we arrive with 15 minutes to spare. Good timing…except our key has been deactivated. Luckily a housekeeper working nearby let us in and we were off.

First stop? Why, Walmart, of course. We want to pick up a few things that we probably won’t be able to get at the farmer’s market in San Ramon tomorrow: milk, whole wheat bread, juice, beer. Despite knowing exactly where Walmart is, we can’t find it. Hmmm. Thirty minutes of lost driving later, we decide to go back to the hotel and start over. On our way back, we drive right past Walmart! What the heck? But it is on the other side of this divided highway. We drive almost all the way back to the Holiday Inn before we can make a U-turn.

Luckily we have a grocery list because our brains are busy doing translations and currency conversions (560 colones=$1). Seems like we are in Walmart forever. I have a devil of a time finding small bags of rice and beans but eventually we get out of there and are ready to drive to Magallenes. It is roughly a 45 minute drive…unless you get lost…leaving the Walmart parking lot…

Okay, now we are on the right road, all is well with the world. As we drive we notice several areas where military looking guys and police are standing around. They seem to be randomly waving people off the road. Wonder what that’s about? About halfway to San Ramon we get to the 9th or 10th such group and WE get waved over. What in the world?? The cop is very nice. He asks for Jeff’s passport and license (he was driving); asks where we’re from, where we’re going, says “Pura Vida” (Good life or happy life) and sends us on our way. Well, we learned something very important that we knew but always ignored, that is: we need to carry our passports when driving.

We don’t arrive at the casita until almost 4 pm! So much for an early start. Andy and Nancy are the owners of Hacienda Vivace, also the casita we are renting, along with a couple of other properties. The casita is great! Very modern, sleeps 6, (but has only one bathroom). There are wonderful views out of every window and we can see the Pacific Ocean 30 miles away.

After Andy shows us around and leaves, we scout around more on our own. There is a HUGE shower. “Why,” I ask Jeff, “is the shower floor all wet?” “Look up.” Ohhhh, it’s an outdoor shower, and it has been raining! Cool!

Everything you see in this photo that isn’t glass block is open to the outside. Be aware that an outdoor shower may mean you have unexpected guests drop in on you – like this not-so-little guy.

We are pretty tired and luckily have planned ahead for dinner. I packed some “boil in the bag” brown rice and we have two vacuum sealed servings (like you’d get at a camping store) of salmon in Thai lemon-grass sauce. I boil dinner (!) – easy, quick and yummy!

About this time we realize there’s no TV!! We don’t watch TV very often but now the fact that we don’t have one is an issue. LOL. Happily the Internet connection is excellent so we fire up Jeff’s Ipad and watch yesterday’s Rachel Maddow show.

Now it’s late and time for bed… we hope you will come on the rest of our trip with us…

Denver to Oklahoma City to Houston to…

Sunset at 42,000 feet

Denver to Oklahoma City to Houston…are we there yet? Not yet…to San Jose, Costa Rica

A brand new year and what better way to celebrate than to travel? Jeff and I, and Pokey and Gumby, of course, are heading for our favorite vacation destination (or as Jeff calls it, “home.”) Yes, we are going back to Costa Rica.

Our day started bright and early with Tom, our personal chauffeur, arriving at 7:30 a.m. We load bags into the car and since we are flying Southwest Airlines and don’t have to pay for checked luggage we each have a suitcase. We could have packed, and I mean packed, everything into one carry-on sized bag, but we’ve packed like normal people; which means we’ve probably over packed. For example, we’re only going to be away for 10 days and I packed 2 pair of shorts.

As Tom zooms along down I-25, the three of us chat until I say, “Wasn’t that the exit to the airport??” Tom says, “Yes” and then “OH!” We take the next exit and zoom back the way we came. We’re off to a good start.

Tom drops us off and heads home while we go inside to get our boarding passes. Normally we would do this online ahead of time, but since this is an international flight we have to do it at the airport. Unfortunately the little self service kiosk hates Jeff’s passport. It’s a brand new passport so maybe that’s the issue? I try mine and, nope, it hates my passport, too. The airport is super busy with people everywhere. We make our way past about 100 or so people lined up to drop off their bags at the SW counter and go to the Help Desk. Unbelievably there are only 2 people in line here and wow! we get checked in right away, we’re TSA pre-approved, leave our bags with the counter person and walk toward security. Holy mackerel – the security lines are inundated so we walk to the A concourse security area. When we get there, they have only one line open, instead of three and tell us all to walk in single file. How strange. A TSA sniffer dog walks by. We get up to the security officer very quickly and learn that the dog is specially trained and everyone in line is automatically pre-approved. No one has to take off their shoes, remove their laptops from their bags or anything. I told Jeff, “Welcome back to the 1990’s!”

We aren’t quite sure how or why we booked this trip this way, but our first flight is from Denver to Oklahoma City. It is an hour and 30 minutes long. When we land in Oklahoma City, we don’t get off the plane. We and 40 other passengers are taking this same plane on to Houston. Once everyone else deplanes we move around the cabin and we all switch seats. Some people head immediately for the exit rows; Jeff and I just move up two rows. (I’ve read somewhere that you should always try to sit within 5 rows of an exit to give yourself a fighting chance of getting off safely if there is an emergency.)

We are so lucky. The flight from OK to Houston is not full and though it is just over an hour long (even shorter than our first flight) we are happy to have our own row. We have some of our healthy snacks – carrots, celery and apples. We land in Houston and walk to catch our third, and final, flight. This one, to San Jose, Costa Rica is about 3 and a half hours long. I’m happy that our last flight is the longest.

Again I’m doing my happy dance! The plane isn’t full and we have our own row. Yippee! I think everyone passed by our empty middle seat because Marco, the one-year old behind us, was pitching a hissy fit as people were boarding. I make a note to myself to borrow a screaming fussy child to sit in our row until the cabin doors are closed.

On all of our flights we give the flight crew a thank you note and a bag of fancy chocolates. These treats are “no strings attached” – just a simple thanks to people who work very hard in a flying tube. On the first flight they were very excited and one flight attendant came to tell us “No one ever gives us cards!” On the second flight, before everyone got off, they made a loudspeaker announcement that there were “two very special people on this flight who gave us candy and a nice card. Thank you so much, Marjorie and Jeff!!” And on this flight (Houston to Costa Rica) I order a beer for Jeff and a gin and tonic for myself and the steward won’t take my credit card. Very nice. I went up to the galley a few minutes ago to tell him the chocolates were no strings attached and thanked him again for the free drinks. He whispered to me that if I hadn’t tried to give him my credit card he would have charged me! Another note to self. LOL

We are getting our immigration paperwork filled out… Here we are. Getting through customs was a breeze. Because we had sat in the 5th row from the front of the plane we were among the first off and among the first in the customs line. Another plane landed when we did and there are 3-400 people in line behind us.

While I waited for our luggage, Jeff went to the liquor store. Costa Rica is the only country we know where you can buy duty free liquor and take it into the country from the airport. And the airport has the very best liquor prices! He came back to wait for our second bag and I went to the ATM. Success! I was super happy to get my 100,000 colones (about $200 USD) because the last time we were here my card kept getting rejected and it was days before I had any cash.

Suitcases, backpacks, 3 bottles of wine, a pocket full of colones (pronounced:ka-low-nays) and we head out. To exit the airport you have to load all of your luggage, except the wine, into an x-ray machine. All done. We cross the street across from all the taxi drivers offering us rides and see the Holiday Inn shuttle pull up. What great timing! In no time at all we are checked in – I had forgotten that our room is free because I used points to book it. Yeah!

Before we left Colorado I had arranged our packing so everything we need for tonight and tomorrow morning is in the top of one suitcase, no need to get into the big compartment or the other suitcase at all.

Time for bed…hope to see you tomorrow.

Return to the Home Page We return to San Ramon

Relaxing Sunday

Oh, so relaxing! We slept in today, had a simple breakfast of fruit and coffee while sitting on our balcony chatting. While I worked a little more on figuring out WordPress, Jeff fired up Duolingo on his IPad to practice his Spanish.

Today’s agenda is simple: we’re going to wander the Strip a little more. It is 1’o’clock before we gather our “expedition” stuff and leave the condo. Have you seen a cupcake ATM? We pass this one regularly…

I pick our sightseeing and I choose Ceasar’s Palace. We’ll walk over, see the decor, check out the classic ‘Atlantis’ fountain show and hang out a bit. If you’ve ever wondered what happened to the mysterious land of Atlantis the answer can be found at Ceasar’s Palace in Las Vegas! Though it isn’t a long walk (by Vegas standards) we are hot by the time we get there and the air conditioning feels great (and I HATE air conditioning)!

The public seating areas are fun. This is a photo of the back of a chair. The other side is the chair; you can really get into somebody’s head. LOL

There are so many designers, high priced shops not just in this “Forum Shops” area of Ceasar’s, but throughout Vegas, and we wonder how they all stay in business, how well they do and who the heck shops in them?! I guess for some people that shopping is the reason to visit Las Vegas. We walk past all the shops to the Atlantis fountain area. I had forgotten that there is an aquarium here – it is well done – a circular aquarium surrounded by a seating bench. Since we have about 20 minutes before the next show we watch the wide variety of sea life and snap some photos.

The Atlantis show begins and we, along with a large crowd, enjoy the animatronic king (whom I assume is Neptune) try to decide if his daughter or son should assume the throne. The daughter (water) and son (fire) get along like, well, fire and water. Rather than have them feuding, the king decides that Atlantis will be destroyed by fire and will sink into the ocean – which happens before our eyes.
So, now you know what happened to the Lost City of Atlantis!

We’ve spent a good two hours hanging out at Ceasar’s and decide to head by home. On our way back we notice a novelty shop, a political novelty shop and, of course, we have to check it out. The store is “balanced” with merchandise for/against Trump and Clinton, and there are some supportive Obama shirts. There were at least three t-shirts of varying degrees of inflammatory-ness that I wanted. I finally chose a “Make America Kind Again” shirt, figuring who can argue with that sentiment?

Back at the condo we walk over to the complex’s Activities Center. I had noticed several shelves of donated (or left behind) paperbacks and want to pick up some vacation reading. I got a couple of books and Jeff picked up a Phase 10 card game. Treasures in hand we go back to the condo where Jeff ops to take a nap while I change into my swimsuit, grab a towel, sunglasses, water, one of the books and go down to the pool. Aaahhh… Now the sun has set and I realize I’m starving. I pack up my pool stuff; we’ve not eaten since breakfast – time to remedy that.

We walk back to the Strip, walk down quite a ways to the Rainforest Cafe for dinner not because it is high on our list of ‘great’ restaurants but because in Vegas it has second floor outdoor balcony seating overlooking the Strip. Great view! After our late dinner, we stop and wait to see the Bellagio fountains. The fountains danced to Michael Jackson’s song “Billie Jean” and the show was GREAT. The fountains and the timing of the music were amazing; we’ve seen the fountains about a thousand times, but never a show this good. It was a wonderful way to end the day and after a long walk we’re ready for bed.

Hope to see you tomorrow (we’re going to do something special).

And we’re walkin’….

Today, Saturday, we are going to walk around the Strip. One of the places we are planning to visit is the Bellagio hotel which has a magnificent conservatory. Basically today we’re going to wander a bit, see what casinos have come and gone, check that our favorite noodles place is still here and maybe pick up a few more groceries. We really didn’t buy any lunch stuff so a couple of ready made salads are sounding good for later.

After a quick breakfast, courtesy of Jeff, of scrambled eggs, juice, toast and several cups of coffee we get ready to head out for our walk. Sunscreen, water bottles, money, sunglasses, hats – its as though we’re going on an expedition. Leaving our comfy, cool condo, the outside air hits us with full force; whew, it’s hot! It takes roughly 15 minutes to get to the Strip and once there we go to Walgreens to check prices. The bananas at Vons were completely green and we want to buy a couple of bananas, “to-go” salady things for later, stuff like that. We walk through Jeff’s favorite ‘craps’ casino to check the price at the tables. This little casino caters to young adults and the tables here are usually less expensive than other casinos. Jeff likes to play the $3 tables; in the nicer casinos, the tables start at $10 or $25 and there’s no way he’s doing that! Then we walk the opposite way down the Strip to a CVS to check prices there and then around the outside area of multiple shops checking that “Ramen-Ya” is still around. Yup!

By now we’re very hot and sweaty. See ‘walking’ on the Strip is a misnomer as really you basically shuffle along with the hordes. People stop right in front of you to take a photo, veer in and out of the crowd; it isn’t like walking down a normal sidewalk.

We pop into the Bellagio to see the conservatory. You’ve probably seen photos or videos of the dancing water fountains outside the Bellagio. Inside the lobby the ceiling is comprised of gigantic glass flowers by Dale Chihuly.

On we go into the conservatory. The displays in the conservatory are incredible and change at least seasonally.This display is dominated by a towering Kabuki.

This Kabuki is 28 feet tall.

Look at his collar, sash, the Y in his kimono and his cumber bun as these are all decorated with preserved flowers. To be specific, roses: 900 deep purple, 900 deep red, 1,100 red, 500 red/cream bi-color, 252 dark pink, 225 fresh green, 225 dark green, and hydrangeas: 2,000 white. This reminded us a lot of the Rose Parade floats, but, of course, all the flowers there are fresh.

Throughout the conservatory which, by the way, is enclosed with a glass ceiling allowing the natural sunlight in, are other iconic Japanese cultural examples.

A tea room, a Shinto shrine, a flower finch, flower turtle, a tea room…

We spent a good hour taking a relaxing stroll through the beautiful room.

Once we had our fill of jaw-dropping floral art, we went back into the hotel lobby and sat under the Chihuly ceiling and shared a bag of trail mix.

Fortified with raisins, chocolate chips and other trail mix yummies, we decide to walk back home, stopping along the way for our extra groceries, which turned out to include beer and frozen margaritas in bags. Now, who that of that great idea??

Back home we nap; somehow even though I didn’t wake up this morning until 11:10 a.m., I do need a nap.

For dinner Jeff grills salmon (did I mention that our complex includes several outdoor gas grills along with four swimming pools?!) – while I microwave a couple of potatoes and cook the frozen broccoli. An excellent dinner!

Afterwards, while Jeff watches the “The Road to Perdition” on HBO I struggle to figure out this blogging site. How am I doing so far?

That’s about it for today. I hope you enjoyed NOT walking through the crowds in the oppressive heat and still getting to enjoy this day in Las Vegas.

Until tomorrow…

Vegas, Baby! (Friday)

So, loyal readers, here is my first blogging attempt in a new format. I am still mourning the soon to be demised “Travelpod” site that I loved so much, but realize I’d better move on. Here we are on WordPress. Bear with me as I learn this new tool…things like “how do I upload a photo?” and “Seriously, you’re going to charge me for uploading a video?”

Anyway, Jeff and I have been to Las Vegas many times, and I thought you might enjoy some tales from us “high rollers” (NOT!). As our trips go, we really don’t consider Vegas a vacation because we’ve been here so often. This time, however, we are staying in a condo instead of a hotel room and our packing will be a little different. I’ve put coffee and coffee filters into the suitcase. Jeff has thrown in a bag of carrots…yes, weird, I know! Did you notice I said “suitcase?” Between the two of us we’re taking one suitcase for the week, and since you see that we’ve packed things like carrots, obviously we aren’t taking a lot in the way of clothes. After all, what do you really need beside a couple of pairs of shorts, shirts and swimsuits?

Our flight isn’t until 3:30, so I clean the house, do the laundry, stuff like that; it will be nice to come back to a tidy home. Tom is off the hook as our private chauffeur so we drive to DIA and eventually we board our flight for the 90 minute trip to the Land of Lost Wages.

After landing we hopped on an airport shuttle to our condo. Unfortunately, we landed at rush hour, on a Friday night, on a holiday weekend. It took us longer to get to our place than to fly to Las Vegas! We’re beat, but we do need to go to the grocery store. After we unpack, we grab the map we got at the registration desk, our empty backpacks and head for Von’s. It looks very walkable and close. Good thing because it’s getting dark.

Well, looks can be deceiving!!! It is a long, long walk and we are going through a sketchy neighborhood. I can’t even describe how sketchy it is! We stop at a 7-11 to ask the security guide outside (I told you it was sketchy.) how much further the store was – just two blocks. Well, we’ve come this far…I muttered threats to Jeff “If I get killed walking to the grocery store, I’m gonna kill you…” hahahaha. We agree that if we arrive at Von’s unscathed we’d call a taxi to take us back.

Shopping completed, an uneventful and welcome return trip via cab and we settled in on the couch for a dinner of microwave popcorn and beer.

Time for bed and tomorrow we’ll get down to doing whatever it is that people do here…

Our Final Sea Day

Our last day at sea, and while San Pedro, where we embarked seems so long ago, it feels like the cruise has just flown by. Jeff and I are determined not to waste a single minute of our day, and I get right up when the alarm goes off at 7 a.m. Jeff is not in bed but is standing out on our balcony in his Princess bathrobe watching the ocean. I join him in my robe. He woke up a little after 6 and has been standing here ever since. He watched the sun rise out of the sea.

We get dressed and go up to the Horizon Court for breakfast – there are a few other early risers there. We return to our cabin and while I write notes to our travelling companions detailing what we have planned for today, Jeff makes dinner reservations for six for our last cruise dinner. We want to share this last night with our friends. I go across the hall to drop my notes in their mailboxes and then Jeff and I head down to the Promenade Deck to walk.

For the whole cruise, part of the Promenade Deck has been blocked off (I think I mentioned this in an earlier post.) and we’ve been wondering two things: 1) When will it reopen so we can walk all the way around and 2) what are they doing that is taking so long?? This morning Jeff peers through a gap between the little barrier and the wall of the ship. “Those are cabins!” He says. Princess has reconfigured the ship by blocking off part of the Promenade Deck and putting in cabins! We so disappointed that they’ve chosen to do this, but whatever.

We walk for an hour and a half, looking for dolphins or any other interesting sea life, but don’t spot any. We get in our 5 or so miles and head back upstairs to our cabin to get cleaned up. It was a hot walk! Our cabin steward, Rodolfo, has just started cleaning our room. He apologizes profusely and offers to come back later, but we inist that we don’t need to be in there. We just grab a few things – my Ipad so I can write, Jeff’s phone so he can surf the web and we go down to sit in one of the nice public areas. All this before 10:30 in the morning! I’m gonna need a nap. haha

After a while Jeff figured our cabin steward was done and he started to go up to shower, but since we were at a cozy table for two by a window overlooking the ocean I stayed put and continued nattering in my blog. I asked him to bring me a couple of things (including our “fancy” coffee card from the cabin). A few minutes later he returned with the card, and a message from Leroy, whom he had bumped into, that Eve was looking for me. Well, I knew exactly where she would be and went up a deck to the jewelry store. Yup, she bought the beautiful diamond ring! AND, she said Leroy told her to buy the diamond and (some other stone I can’t remember) one as well! Trish and I took turns holding and admiring them – that diamond ring is my favorite…I had even thought about buying it, but I don’t wear jewelry, except sometimes my wedding and engagement rings. We had fun in the jewelry store. Trish and I walked out to wait for Eve – she had had a mimosa and was going to put the glass back, when Trish told me that SHE had bought three(!) oil paintings! She had photos of them on her phone and they were beautiful. They were kind of a set, all numbered, limited edition oils by an artist named Brodinsky. (Jeff and I are travelling with some high rollers!) Finally, I asked Trish, “Where the heck is Eve??” Well, we spotted her looking at earrings in the jewelry store. “We’ve gotta get her out of there!” So we went in and performed an intervention – each of us taking one of her arms and escorting her out! I’m going to tell Leroy that Trish and I saved him a lot of money. haha!

The three of us stood around chatting for a while and I learned that all of our traveling companions have put down “future cruise” deposits. Future cruise deposits are a wonderful idea if you think you will be doing another Princess cruise and they can only be done while on board the ship. Putting down a future cruise deposit works as a deposit (duh) and when you use it, you also get cabin credit…free money! If you don’t use the deposit within two years, Princess automatically refunds all of it to you. I was so excited to discover that they all enjoyed this cruise well enough that they want to do another one!

Eve, Trish and I review our afternoon schedules and agree to all meet at 1:30 to finish our Phase 10 game. Now we just need to catch up with our other three travelers.

While Eve, Trish and Leroy go to the British-style pub lunch, I go to meet Jeff at the Princess Theater for Dr. Sam’s final lecture. While we wait for him to begin, Mary shows up and we all sit together. Today’s lecture, “The Glow That Changed the World” was about radium – its discovery and some of the ways it was used (and abused). I say “abused” but for a long time after its discovery and use in xrays, etc, people didn’t know about its dangers. For example, stuff imbued with it glowed in the dark, so women would paint their nails and teeth with it to surprise their boyfriendsor husbands, drinking radium water was considered very healthy and many companies made products so you could make radium infused water right at home. Pillows, breathing apparatuses – all sorts of radioactive products were created and sold. The lecture was both fascinating and horrifying at the same time – knowing what we know now. You can learn something about this era by reading about the “Radium Girls.” A sad and true story…
These medical lectures have been great; Princess Cruises does a good job with their “Enrichment Series.”

Now we need to hurry to the library to play our game! As we walk along, I ask Mary how she liked the days at sea and she says “They’re exhausting!”

We pick up our Phase 10 game where we left off yesterday, but only play for about 90 minutes because, except for Jeff and I who haven’t purchased anything on the ship, everyone else needs to go to the big last day raffle. Eve and Leroy have a huge pile of at least 100 tickets!

Jeff and I head back to our cabin to begin the sad, sad task of packing. We turn on our bluetooth speaker, put on some Jimmy Buffet tunes and begin emptying drawers, the closet, the safe. I take a break from organizing my mess to go online and check us in for our flight tomorrow. That used a BUNCH of my internet minutes!

Then I walk across the hall to pick up a bag of clothes from Mary. She bought some wonderful things on this trip and has run out of suitcase room! It takes some doing, fitting stuff into stuff to save space, but we do manage to get everything into our suitcases. I just hope Mary has an iron at home. haha!

The problem with packing to leave a cruise ship is that you have to have any luggage you are not going to carry off yourself outside your door before you go to dinner. For us, that means we need to pack all three suitcases because we’ll only be carrying our backpacks. So, you need to think about and NOT pack stuff you’ll need this evening and tomorrow before you get off – like clothes, your toothbrush, shoes…

We’re close to done packing when we hurry to our last special elites cocktail party at 5pm. We’ve skipped several of these during the cruise so want to get to this one. Ahhh…we relax with shrimp cocktail, olives, vegies and cheeses. We sit with four people from Canada whom we have not met. They were very fun and we wish we had met them earlier in the cruise. The drink of the day is a Cosmopolitan, which I’ve never had before, and it is the same drink that Jeff pronounced as tasting like fruit punch at the Captain’s reception. We figure for $5 we’ll give the Cosmo a try. The drink is vodka, fresh lime juice, cranberry juice, and, I think something else but can’t remember what. Whoa! This definitely does NOT taste like fruit punch!

At 5:30, we say a hasty good-bye and safe travels to our new friends, take our Cosmos and go to the Wheelhouse Bar where the Romantica Strings Quartet is giving a special concert. The setting is a little weird, and once or twice the bar blender whirs in the background, but a lot of a people have come to hear them play. Their 45 minute concert is wonderful, and afterwards we tell them that they were the highlight of our cruise.

Back to the cabin to finish up packing and as we’re changing into the clothes we’ll wear tonight and on the way home tomorrow. There is a knock at the door. It is Mary – time for our now traditional early evening champagne. We go across the hall, and as he has done throughout the cruise, Jeff opens the bubbly – our final bottle. A last toast. We sit and chat – believe it or not, Eve and Leroy did not win the raffle!

Where is the time going?? It is 7:15 and our dinner reservation is for 7:30. Jeff takes our wine glasses back to our cabin and when he returns…OMG! He is wearing a gorgeous white cotton shirt that he surreptitiously bought in Aruba. It looks like a Cuban guayabera (not sure that is spelled right) but doesn’t have four pockets. He looks great!! Mary didn’t go to Cuba when Eve, Leroy Trish, Jeff and I went so she doesn’t know that Jeff meant to buy a guayabera there and missed his chance.

Off to dinner…we made our reservation for 6 people and are bummed out when we’re seated at an oblong table for eight, it is very hard to hear one another and we feel all spread out. There is an empty round table for six right next to us and we ask to be moved and are – great! Dinner is nice, and tonight there is a special Baked Alaska dessert. On the menu it says “Parade of Baked Alaskas” which really doesn’t make any sense until the lights in the dining room go out, music starts and there is a parade of all the kitchen staff and waiters, some of whom carry flaming baked alaskas. They parade all around the dining room and there is a lot of cheering and napkin waving. The head chef gets introduced, and then the groups of waiters, second waiters, etc., are acknowledged and applauded. Good timing on our part for the festivities. We’ve never seen this before and, while it was a little hokey, it was fun. It was nice to have the chance to applaud the behind the scenes people.

Though baked alaska is the special dessert of the meal, both Mary and I order deep dish apple pie a la mode. I love pie!!

After dinner Mary heads for bed, Jeff and Leroy go back to our cabin to hang out and finish a bottle of red wine, and Trish, Eve and I begin to wander down to the photo gallery. We get sidetracked by the casino…there is this weird quarter machine they have been playing off and on during the cruise. It is difficult to clearly explain how it works – there are two levels and each level has these kind of metal sweeper things. You put a quarter in one of three slots and it shoots in. The sweepers sweep the coins forward and sometimes the quarters at the front of the machine get swept off their level either onto the lower level or into a bin for your payoff. There is absolutely no skill involved but it is very mesmerizing to watch. $30 later, we walk away. BTW, Eve, you owe Tish $15!

Back to our cabins, we say goodnight and “see you at the airport.” Everyone else is going on an excursion from Princess and they will be taken directly to the airport afterwards. Eve has given Jeff and I two passes to United’s Club area for tomorrow. I’m so excited and really, really appreciate her generosity and thoughtfulness.

In our cabin, no surprise, Jeff is standing on the balcony – I go join him for our last night on the sea.

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Snorkeling – finally…

Aruba

Well, we survived the rocking and pitching of the ship last night. I love when the ocean is rough; I do enjoy experiencing the power of the water.

Today we are in Aruba, one of the places in the Caribbean that Jeff and I enjoy snorkelling. Finally we’ll get a chance to get our fins wet. We go up to breakfast, and I notice throw-up bags (empty ones) placed around the ship – I guess some people don’t enjoy the rough seas as much as I do.

We know exactly what we’re going to do today, though Jeff does express one concern. That concern is that when he went to Humberto’s talk about Aruba, the directions given for the bus station didn’t match where we’ve always gone. Well, we’ll play it by ear.

Slathered up with sunscreen, we take our snorkelling backpack, disembark and head for the bus. Yup, it is right where it has always been. Of course, we’ve just missed the number 10; the bus that will take us to Malmec Beach. We wait ten minutes, I notice that it is pretty windy which is not good because wind causes wave action, fifteen minutes, twenty minutes, a half hour. Busses come and go and finally ours arrives. Whew, we were getting a little concerned. It is already close to 2pm (The ship arrived around 1p.) Getting on the bus was a little bit of a hassle because we were told the fare was $2.50 each, but the driver charges us (and everyone else) $2.60. Naturally we have no change, but he gives us a coin in exchange for an extra dollar. We figure that’s our change for the ride back.

As the bus toodles along, I notice that it has been raining here. There are big puddles along the side of the road. I’m hoping that the snorkling conditions will be okay. We get off at Malmec and waves are CRASHING into the rocks! The entry we normally use, a little cove set between two rock walls is usually nice and calm, but today it looks like a blowhole! There is no way we are even going over there to look. This does not bode well.

Further down the way, I see a sandy beach and people in the water. We walk there lugging our stuff. There are very few people in the water and the waves are breaking close to the beach with the water running up high on the sand. We don’t see any snorkelers, and we stand staring at the water for a while. I told Jeff “I’ll get in and check it out” which I did. Crap! There is no way we’re going to be snorkeling today. First of all the wave action was bi-directional with the waves slamming into each other making them bigger and then they would slam into me. In addition to that there was a pretty strong undertow. Way less than ideal. I got out and told Jeff that I thought it was too dangerous. We were very disappointed, but certainly not willing to risk our lives. Then Jeff said, “Well, with the waves and rain, everything will be churned up anyway.” So true!! Even if we did snorkel, the likelihood of seeing anything other than swirling sand was unlikely.

We spend an hour or so laying in the sand, Jeff in the shade and me in the sun. We did see three snorkelers go in, and one of them had a very difficult time. I wasn’t sure he was going to make it out of the water without help, and he just barely did by kind of crawling.

Time to go back to the ship. We’re disappointed, but we do have a few things to do in town so we walk back to the bus stop. There is already a young local woman there, and since there is no posted schedule or anything I’m relieved to see someone else waiting. No bus, no bus, no bus…I think we stood there about 45 minutes when finally a little white minivan with “Bus” on the windshield stopped. There was already a couple aboard, our waiting companion got in and then we got in and Jeff tried to give the guy our money, but he wouldn’t take it. Huh? I say “crucero” (cruise ship), he nods and off we go. Except this isn’t like any other bus route we’ve been on. Our first stop was at an apartment complex and the original couple hands the driver money and they get out. Jeff whispers to me “I think this is a taxi.” I whisper back, “But it says ‘bus’ on the windshield.” Always an adventure. Now we are driving through a residential area, then a very industrial part of town. I can see our ship off to the right – at least, I reassure myself we aren’t too far astray.

Eventually the driver stops and asks, “Is this all right?” and we were at the port. Hooray! Jeff handed him our bus fare; we had no idea if that was the right amount for a taxi or not. He thanked us, we thanked him and went to our cabin, changed clothes, and got our wallets. Now we have plenty of time to walk around town, which we’ve never done before.

I buy a tee-shirt and we saunter along the outside vendor stalls. I strike up a rudimentary conversation in Spanish with an elderly vendor. I tell her I am learning to speak Spanish…SHE speaks four languages fluently! Talk about a melting pot.

Jeff decides to go back to the store where I bought my shirt to pick up a couple of little gifts. I stand outside people watching – Jeff takes forever in the store, but he finally reappears. There is a liquor store right across the street. We figure prices will be astronomical, but they aren’t at all. We’re very surprised and since we have only three nights left on the ship, we get just one bottle of wine.

No one blinks an eye at our wine bottle which we’ve made no attempt to hide. Guess the rules are pretty lax since this is our last port. (They would, however, confiscate anything other than wine or champagne and return it to you the last night of the cruise.)

We meet our friends, catch up on what everyone did today. They all spent the day wandering around town. Trish was excited that in downtown they had stumbled upon a shop making soap. She picked some up for gifts. Leroy grinned as he told us that after all the walking around, they sat down and had ice cream. I think that was the highlight of his afternoon!

Ahoy, Matey!

Today we got right up when the alarm went off – we have arrived in Cartagena, Colombia. Well, we’ve not yet arrived as last night’s strong headwinds and rough seas have put the Island Princess behind schedule, and several of our dresser and desk drawers have slid open from the ship’s rocking. Nevertheless, we get up, gather our necessary things for today’s excursion: hats, sunglasses, sunscreen, water, money and go to breakfast. I’m back to oatmeal and fruit, juice and coffee.

We’re to meet our excursion group in one of the ship’s restaurants at 8:30, so we eat quickly and head that way. When we enter the room we see Mary sitting at a table with others in her group. She points Eve and Leroy out to us, they are across the room and Eve is waving to us. We sit, relax and FINALLY the announcement is made that the ship has arrived and we have been cleared by the port authority to disembark. The staff in the dining room begin calling tour numbers. We are brown 11. Brown 1 and the Brown 2 are called; I decide to go to the ladies room – it will be a while before they get to us. As I exit the ladies, I see a mob of brown 11s coming at me! Oh, that figures! I meet Jeff, Eve and Leroy coming along carrying my stuff with them. There is a huge backup of people trying to exit and we see that the ship’s photographer is trying to take photos of everyone! Usually they do that once you are off the boat, and you can blow by them if you like, but here they are stopping everyone and there’s no way around. A ship’s senior staff member walks past us in the direction of the photographer. “He’s going to put a stop to that.” Jeff said and he was right. All of a sudden the line picked up speed.

Once off the ship, we find our group and begin to walk to our departure point. We chose today’s excursion – a harbor cruise around Cartagena on a Spanish galleon, because Eve and Leroy had booked it and we wanted to do at least one excursion with them!
The Spanish galleon was really cool looking…like what I would imagine the real thing would look like. Trish took a nice photo of the boat when it was out to sea. We are all hoping the excursion won’t be too hokey – and it isn’t at all.

Our guide, Alvaro, is very knowledgeable and he keeps up a running commentary – talking not only about the city sights, but also giving us information about Colombia’s educational system and health care.

For example, schooling up to, and including, university is free. Boys that graduate from high school are required to do one year of military service; those who do not finish high school serve for two years. Military service for women is not mandatory but is voluntary.
I think I understood him correctly when he said that after high school there is also a 6-month mandatory social service (volunteer work) requirement.
The emphasis and success of their educational ethic has helped greatly reduce the drug culture that was once so rampant in Columbia. The drug wars and other negative things that we’ve heard about in the past are really that – in the past. I remember reading in the New York Times before the cruise that Colombia is a great, safe vacation destination, so Alvarez wasn’t just saying that.

The other interesting thing I learned was that there has been healthcare reform in the country and the poorest people are eligible (they get a card) for free healthcare at any hospital whether that hospital is public or private.

The harbor tour was very interesting. The historic center of Cartgena is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was given that award for its “eminent example of the military architecture of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.” The city is surrounded by Las Murallas – considered to be the most impressive city walls in the world.

Old town Cartagena - notice the city wall — Old town Cartagena – notice the city wall

They were build by the Spaniards after an attack by Sir Francis Drake at the end of the 16th century. Apparently Cartegena was THE place to attack!

Also on board the galleon with us was a troupe of musicians and dancers. The first dance they did was Colombia’s national dance, the cumbia.

I learned about this dance in my Spanish class last semester and am thrilled to see it done live IN Colombia! The troupe did two more traditional dances and I really enjoyed them.

While everyone else is sitting in their little plastic chairs trying to stay in the shade, Jeff and I roam around. We are the only people in the front of the boat – very relaxing! It is time for our snack – Jeff and I each choose the local beer and a small bag of potato chips. Pokey and Gumby like the beer too – I’m starting to think they may have a drinking problem, I mean, it is only 11 a.m.

Unfortunately, at one point Alvaro choose me to dance with him. I’m a good sport so I do – I’ll never see these people again. Then I realize that Eve is videotaping our dance. Crap! I think some bribery may be in my future…

Our galleon returns to the harbor without firing a shot or attacking any other vessels.

We are now closer to the shopping area than to the boat, so Eve, Leroy and the two of us go to look at the souvenirs. And there is a little wildlife area there as well with flamencos, black swans, toucans and parrots. I spot a green iguana on one of the side sidewalks.

We spent a bit of time in the shop – it is air conditioned! Jeff gets his shot glass, I get my key chain and also some coffee. Jeff also picks up some small gifts for his staff. In case you are checking your mailbox every day looking for a postcard from us, you can stop! We have sent exactly 2 postcards on this trip (to our mothers). Now, in this store, they have postcards AND stamps AND a postal box along with a writing counter with pens! Of course all my address labels are back on the boat. So, I buy two postcards and send them to our mothers.

Packages in hand (Eve and Leroy didn’t buy anything) we stop to take photos of the birds and start the long, hot walk back to the Island Princess. When we get there, we see a HUGE line for boarding. Happily the crew are walking up and down the line handing out cups of ice water and wet face cloths. I pour my ice water on my cloth. Ahhh… Eve is wearing her wet cloth on her head – I should have taken a photo of that.

When we finally get to our cabin we find a note from Trish saying she is either playing “hoopla” (whatever that is) or napping.

Jeff and I go up to the buffet for lunch. I make myself a HUGE salad. We share a table with a couple, who I swear to you, did not say more than four words to us. I asked what they did today in port, “Walked around.” “Oh, how was that?” I asked them. “Hot.” And that was the end of that! When they were done eating, the man said “Have a good afternoon.” and they got up and walked away. The woman did not look at me once. Very weird and quite unusual.

After they left Jeff noticed a woman looking for a place to sit and offered one of our table spots. Thankfully she was very nice. Then we saw Mary sitting by herself about one table away and called to her to join us. She came over and said “Hello, Susan.” Turns out the woman Jeff intercepted is one of Mary’s “set dining” dinner companions! Also, turns out that Susan has a husband that arrived so we dragged another chair to our table. Then Eve and Leroy showed up and sat at a table across from us! There is REALLY good rice pudding on the buffet this afternoon. It takes a lot of willpower to limit myself to one dish.

Leroy and Trish both won a bottle of champagne at Hoopla so now we have four bottles of champagne. We all drank Jeff and mine yesterday –

Back in our cabin, Jeff is going to the Aruba destinaion talk, but I decide to skip it to work on my blog. When Jeff comes back he has a latte for me – what a sweetie! He lays down for a nap…between the heat and the early beer and lunch I’m tempted to join him, but instead I wash out some clothes in the sink and hang them up to dry.

After a bit, Trish calls to invite us across the hall for champagne – we aren’t going to turn that down! Jeff gets up, we don’t even bother to put on our shoes, but just pad across to their room.

We all toast one another – this is becoming a nice tradition. Then we learn what Hoopla is…it is a carnival game- the one where you get three rings and try to throw them over the tops of bottles. In this case the bottles were bottles of champaign and they were also the prizes. Trish said there were very few participants – she didn’t win, so the crew gave her another chance and just as one of her rings slid over a bottle top, Eve and Leroy came down the stairs. So, Trish called to them and they joined the game as well and…Leroy also won a bottle of champaign!! Now, our little group has four bottles of champaigne to drink in four days!

While we enjoy each other’ company we share our days adventures. Turns out that Mary’s tour, which was supposed to leave at 8, didn’t go until after 10! She went to an aviary and had a great time. Trish did a walking tour and she said it was very good as well.

Time for our friends to go to dinner, so Jeff and I change into jeans (the Atlantic side is cooler) and we went down to the atrium where we have been enjoying a sring quartet the, Romantica Strings, made up of four young women. They are very talented and we’ve spent a couple of early evenings listening to them. While I sat and wrote, Jeff checked out other cruises to book.

We decide to go to tonight’s show, it is a pianist named Tom Franek. Wow! He is very talented, quite impressive and did some fun stuff like stand on his head and play, and play while facing away from the piano. He, like the violinist, has an interesting back story. When he was in choir in high school, the choir had flown somewhere and on the way back he had an issue with his ears. His left eardrum burst (ouch!) and he has been deaf in that ear every since. He said that his deafness has been a big driver in his musical career – kind of proof the overcoming difficulties can inspire others. You can check him out at…

The boat, like last night is really rocking, with high waves and wind. Even rougher than last night. Jeff is out on the deck and when the moon starting rising it was so low on the horizon he thought it was a cruise ship – it was rising. He came in the cabin to get me. Oh! The moon was amazing. Through the cloud refection it looked elongated width-wise through the clouds. Incredible looking.

Now it is time for bed…

The Land Divided, A World United

Today’s the day! Today we go through the Panama Canal. I’m pretty excited and not at all surprise that when I wake up at 7 Jeff is already out on the balcony.

We know it is going to be at least an hour before the big event, but we want to find a good viewing spot. We head up to the Horizon Court Buffet to get some breakfast. The buffet is at the front of the ship so it is not surprising that the tables at the front windows are occupied. It looks like people have staked out their spots. We definitely don’t want to be here because all of the photos would be shot through the windows…dirty windows.
We grab a quick bite and head up and out to an upper deck in the front of the boat. Well, this isn’t going to work very well either. First of all, instead of standing, people are sitting in lounge chairs – taking up the space that 3 or 4 standing people could use; and if we could get closer, this area is also glassed in. We spot Leroy, he’s also looking for a spot.

We see people down below us, and there is no glass in front of them. Jeff and I immediately realize where they are and how they got there. There is a “Do Not Enter” door on that deck and yesterday it was taped off. Clearly today the tape has been removed! The three of us scurry down, ignoring the “Emergency Exit Only” signs, and find ourselves in the front of the ship, right against the rail with no glass in front of us. There aren’t a lot of people here and we are thrilled with our “front row” standing spots.

As we begin the approach, we hear Humberto’s commentary. Humberto, you may recall, is our “Destination Expert” and he will be doing a live commentary until 3:30pm or so, when we have completed our transit.

The title of today’s post “A Land Divided, A World United” signifies the importance of the Panama Canal to the world. The canal enables ships carrying cargo or people to save about 7,800 miles by cutting across Panama instead of having to sail around the Cape Horn, an extremely treachous route.
I won’t give you a lot of Panama Canal facts here as those are easily discoverable other places (and I’m not sure I have all of them correct), but I do think it was interesting that before the canal was completed, the world’s first transcontinental railroad traversed Panama.

The canal became operational in 1914 – think about that – 104 years ago and still in use! (Actually, it was roughly 400 years from conception to completion.) Thousands and thousands of people worked to make the canal a reality. At one point there were 6,000 men working to carve through a nearly 9 mile stretch of hard granite, the Culebra Cut, through a mountain range.

The Chagras River was dammed and the Gatun Dam became the largest earthen dam in the world (at that time) and the resulting Gatun Lake was the largest man-made lake in the world (at that time).
The impact and resulting near eradication of yellow fever and malaria, and the deadly impact of these diseases on the workforce is well known.

Anyway! There is now a new second set of locks in addition to the originals. The new locks are wider, built to accommodate larger freighters, container ships and, of course, mega cruise ships.

But even little boats go through the locks; they fit into the lock with other boats

We can see the new ones as we come up to the Panama Canal. The new locks became operational in June 2016. But, I’m excited that we are going to traverse via the old locks because of their historical significance. Our ship, the Island Princess, was designed for the canals, even so, there will be a mere 5 feet (!) of clearance on either side of our ship.

We are sailing from the Pacific Ocean, passing under the Bridge of the Americas.

From here it is about 8 miles to the first set of locks. The whole canal transit is 48 miles and takes 8-10 hours.

As we drawer closer to the Miraflores Locks, a woman sidles in beside me to take some quick photos; it is becoming a little more crowded on our deck as people have discovered the secret “Do Not Enter” passageway. Everyone is very nice and polite about letting others into the front for photos. It is a fun atmosphere. The woman says to me, “I need to get some pictures for my husband.” “Oh?” I asked, “Where is he?”, thinking he was in another area of the ship.
“He’s quarantined in our room – he has influenza.” WHAT???? I want to tell her to move the HELL away from me!! She continues, “I’m a nurse. I knew he was really sick, so I took him to the ship’s doctor.” Then she says, ” Don’t worry, I’m fine; I’m taking antibiotics too so I don’t get sick.”
You should be so proud of me… I did not say, “I don’t care! Get the HELL away from me!” hahaha

The deck below us is reserved for ship personnel and one of the dancers has come out to sunbathe. I guess she’s been through the locks many times before. She is wearing a thong swimsuit – Jeff and Leroy convince the woman that her husband would appreciate a photo of THAT rather than some stupid machinery. And she did take the photo. LOL

Here we are coming up to our first set of locks.
Before entering, Humberto points out a small building on our left that has a big arrow on top of it. Before radio communication, that arrow pointed boats into either the left or the right locks. It is pointing to the right and that’s where we go.

The Miraflores Locks are in two stages and are about a mile long. Our ship squeegees into the lock. Part of the squeegee process involves the mules; originally, these really were mules,

but today they are kind of beefy little engines (not quite tractors) on a single track. Their job is to keep ships centered…remember we only have 5 feet of clearance on either side of our ship. Going through these two locks takes over an hour.

Apparently we are an attraction as well as there is a three story building off to the side with large viewing areas on all the floors. A mass of people are watching our boat rise in the lock. Everyone is shouting and waving. What fun!

After exiting the two Miraflores locks our ship is 54 feet higher than the Pacific Ocean. We are in the Miraflores Lake which is only a mile long and we are heading for the Pedro Miguel lock.

The whole process is repeated in the Pedro Miguel Lock, but without the audience. This lock is a bit more than 1/2 mile and raises the ship another 31 feet.
Now we are 85 feet above the Pacific. We sail out of the lock into the Chagras River, into the famous Culebra Cut, which takes us under the Centennial Bridge, over the Continental Divide, heading for Gatun Lake. It is the Gatun Lake that actually takes us across the isthmus of Panama. We look for crocodiles and enjoy the scenery.

We sail the river for quite a long time and go inside for a break and to have lunch. Jeff’s head has gotten pretty sunburned.

Late in the afternoon, we reach the Gatun Locks. These locks are in three stages and it is very weird because our ship is so high we can’t really see when the lock doors open.

Notice that the bridge swings aside!

The Gatun Locks will lower our ship to the level of the Atlantic Ocean, so we are going to descend 87 feet within the mile long set of three locks. Jeff and I stand on our balcony for this part of the transit. The lock wall is right there! Someone a few doors down from us reaches out over his balcony railing and rubs the side of the lock. Down, down we go and too soon (though it did take a long time to traverse these locks!) we sail out of the Gatun Locks into a short, 2 mile channel that leads us into the Atlantic.
In all, the locks are flooded with 26 million gallons of water and that water drains out drains in 8 minutes! And I never did hear a sucking sound. haha

A full day – from the time we passed the Bridge of Americas until we entered the Atlantic was just over 11 hours. And what should one do after completing your first transit of the Panama Canal? Well, naturally you gather with your friends and drink a bottle of bubbly!