October 20th

Well, of course we're back home. Outside of a rock flying up and putting an eight inch crack in the windshield of our rental car and the fact that I had to wait 1 1/2 hours at Avis to get my car. You see, not knowing how long it was going to take to get off of the ship and over to Avis on their shuttle. I made my reservation for 12:00 noon. Arriving at Avis at little after 10 AM and was informed that my reservation was for noon and that is when I would get a car. Bah humbug!. I did get a car at 11:30 AM. The trip back home was uneventful.

Here are some pictures and videos of our cruise.

Barbara dancing on party bus. I think that you will have to tilt your head to see this video. Either that of the bus was going upward, I don't remember. After all that was five days ago. I think that the file may be too large to view. 

Hey, it's Juan's place.

Scrapes like this were on both sides of the ship after we went through the locks. The crew painted the white parts, The mules didn't do their job of keeping the boat centered going in the locks. After all, we had 18 inches to spare on each side.

 Dredging for the new canal.

Going through the locks. Gee! look at all the space.

October 15th
Cartagena, Columbia

I am actually writing this on Friday October 16th. Close enough! We had a great tour on the party bus yesterday. But, before I get to that, I have to tell you something that Barbara has been doing almost the whole trip. I think that she really wants to be a race car driver. Every time we get off an elevator, Barbara turns to her left. It doesn't make a difference where we are going (most times it's to the right) she goes to the left. Just like race car drivers turn left, turn left. In addition, the ship is very sanitary conscious,every time you go into the buffet there's someone there to spray alcohol on your hands singing washee, washee.The ship has alcohol dispensers every where including in the elevators. Also when you come back on board the ship you get washeed washeed  Any way,back to the party bus. We get on this olden bus with no sides on the right. We have to climb into the bus using a step ladder or the foot holes in the side of the bus. The first thing the tour guide does is pass out a bottle of rum, a bottle of coke and a bucket of ice for each row. Each row seats 4 people. Guess what's in the row behind us. You got it, a mariachi band. Of course if a bottle is empty all you have to do is pass it forward and another one comes your way. They also had beer and water if you wished to partake. We drove around the city, stopping at various forts. I think we were the eldest couple on board. We had a wild time. Of course there was time for shopping. I have more pictures and videos, but they will have to wait until I get home. The on board wifi system won't let me post them. Enjoy the pictures.

Barbara by our party bus.

Rum and coke, the first round. We are next to a lovely couple, Linda and Les Cass from Ocala, Fl.

Mariachi band behind us.

Barbara at one of the forts

Both of us at a fort overlooking the water.

Group dancing at fort.

Locals selling their wares, selling their wares and selling their wares. Yes, they're persistent.

McDonalds and Burger King across from one another. Who knew they were in Cartagena.

October 15th
Panama Canal Redo

Here goes. I will try to update from yesterday when we went through the Panama Canal.

Flags: red/ white on mast indicating pilot on board and on the right  Panamanian flag. The showing of the Panamanian flag is a custom that ships use to show respect.

Interesting picture of a docked boat with a helicopter on top of it.

Fire fighting tug boat. These tugs also have the capability of using foam to suppress a fire

More tugs 

Locks opening

We started in 68 feet of water and then went down to a little less than 42 feet of water. We then went on to the next part of the canal.

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This is a picture of both the existing canal and the one under construction on the left. It was supposed to be completed last year. The new completion date is April 2016. I would be surprised if it opens then. The locks doors will slide in and out perpendicular to the walls verses swinging out as they do now. The new canal will be able to handle the new mega ships.

More new canal under construction.

Ship getting ready to pass us going the opposite direction in the canal.

"Mule" used for keeping the ship in the center of the lock using thick cables. You can see the cables coming out of the side of the mule and going to our ship. There were three mules on each side of our ship. The only thing they do is keep the ship in the center. They do not pull the ship through the locks.

Container ship in lock next to us.

Panamanian fire dept company 49 (See the following pictures)

At the end of the first lock, the ship stopped. Rescue came on board then removed and transported three men and one woman. They were taken to local hospitals and their luggage went with them. I don't know what their problems were. 

Ambulances waiting to transport patients.

Barbara with Panamanian costumed woman.

October 14th
Panama Canal


Whew! what a long day. We spent all day transiting the Panama Canal. We were supposed to enter the first lock (Miraflores Lock) at 8:30 AM. That didn't happen. We finally entered around 10 AM. The last lock (Gatun Lock) we were supposed to go through at 2:40 PM and ending at 5:05 PM. We ended up getting out of the lock at 8 PM. There are three series of locks to traverse. There are so many ships waiting to go through the canal. I counted more than 65 just hanging around. Cruise ships have priority. My understanding is that is costs the cruise line around $230,000 to go through the Panama Canal. You pay for tug boats whether you use them or not. I have tons of pictures and videos of today's escapade. Including the construction of the new canal for the megaships. It also includes the transfer of four passengers to ambulances at the end of the first lock.

Ships waiting and rain

More ships waiting.

Unfortunately the blog/satellite system doesn't want to work tonight. I will try and include them in tomorrow's post. Tomorrow we will be in Cartagena where we will partake in another tour. This time it will be "Chiva Party Bus". Something about an open bar. I'm not sure if their talking about the bars on the doors. Sure they are. Until tomorrow.

Well, it looks as if I've been a little slack in adding to my blog. Shame on me. Anyway the last time I published, we were getting ready to have a day at sea. Just to give you a feeling as to our on board life. I've never been on a ship that has so many different passenger nationalities. American, Dutch, Chinese, Japanese and I'm sure a couple of other nationalities. One funny thing. We got on the elevator and a women was wear a tee shirt that in Chinese style writing " Ho Lee Chit". I bursed out laughing and asked her if she got many comments about her shirt. She said that it was the only clean one she had left. We have almost a week to go, good luck with that.

Raining at sea

I've also never been on a ship that has a many restaurants as this one. We have two types, complimentary and those that require an extra charge. The complimentary ones are the Garden Cafe (Buffet), O'Sheehan's Bar and Grill ( Yep, bar and grill food), Summer Palace (Normal food fare-must wear long pants after 5:00 PM), Topsider Grill (Buffet- Aft part of ship) Indigo (Normal food fare-no long pants required).

These are the one's that require extra payment: Cagney's (Steakhouse), La Cucina (Italian), Le Bistro (French), Moderno (Brizillian Steakhouse), Teppanyaki (Japanese), Sushi Bar and a Sakee Bar.

So far we've been to Garden Cafe, O'Sheehan's, Summer Palace. Indigo, Le Bistro, Topsider Grill, and Moderno. We have actually been cutting down on the amount we eat. (yea, right). We really have been cutting back. Just can't eat as much.

Yesterday, October 12th we arrived in Puntarenas, Costa Rica. We docked at 9 AM and had a scheduled tour at 12:30 PM.

Costa Rica mountains.

Arriving at Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Unusual bird on lamp post at the pier.

Longer photo of pier.

This is how passengers board the tour buses. Each bus has to back down the pier in order for us to board. Our tour had three buses.

 Ours was an interesting tour as we loaded on the buses, took a bus tour of the surrounding area, then went on a 50 year old Pacific train. We went back on the bus and proceeded to a river cruise. Then back on the bus and hauled butt back to the ship. You see the ship was scheduled to leave the dock and 6 PM. with all crew due back on board by 5 PM and passengers due back on board by 5:30 PM. However, we didn't make it back until 6 PM (Barbara was a nervous wreck. I told her not to worry that the ship wasn't going to leave us) As we arrived on the dock (thank goodness we didn't back down the pier) the hotel director (dressed in all white with his rank showing on his shoulders) was standing there with his hands on his hips, not looking too happy. Just another adventure. Here are some pictures of our tour.

School.
Today, Monday, October 12th was a holiday. Although not called Columbus Day. Some businesses and all schools were closed.

TRAIN TOUR:

A lovely couple on board the train.

Barbara next to train.

Baa

Macaws. The train actually back up so we could see them.

Old railroad tracks. They used to ship bananas using the train. The train was put in use because it took 15 days to get the bananas from the fields to the port using ox carts.

 Tour guide holding Chira. The beginning of a banana plant. If you look closely you can see bananas forming near the stem.

 RIVER CRUISE:

Similar boat

Banana tree

Balsam wood tree.

Blue Heron

Cows on ledge. One slip and it's crock time.

I tried to put in a video of the Crock. I'm not sure that it will work.

Egret

Flower on river bank

Great Egret with Black Necked Stilt.

Great Tailed Grackles

Green Heron (on the right side)

Turquoise Browed Motmot (no kidding)

Video of traveling on the river at water level.