The ocean was still rough in the morning, and I couldn’t bring myself to go to breakfast, but I got better when we arrived in Cartagena, Colombia at around noon.

We went on the tour of the “Old Town.”

We first climbed to the top of the Fort of San Felipe de Barajas.

Then a quick stop at Las Bovedas, a handicraft market. The stop was very short, and we had hardly any time to look around.

Next, we took a walking tour of the Old Town. The houses were beautiful with many flowers. According to the guide, these houses are owned by rich people, and most of them only come here on holidays.

The tour ended with a stop at the Church of San Pedro Claver.

The city was beautiful, but it was very HOT, and after we left Cartagena, the sea got rough and I was down again.

Today was the main event of this cruise. Panama Canal!

We woke up at 4, but had some trouble setting up my GoPro for time lapse photos, and by the time we got to the door to the bow, there was a long line of people, and we feared we’d see nothing but tall people’s backs, but I somehow found a space I could squeeze in for a great view.

After sailing under the Bridge of Americas, we got to the first set of locks, Miraflores Locks, and I snapped a few great pictures of the “mules” that guide the ship through the narrow lock.

During the second set of locks, Pedro Miguel Locks, I went down to the Promenade Deck for a different perspective.

Then I went up to the forward deck on Deck 7 as we sailed through Culebra Cut and into Gatun Lake.

Finally, we went through Gatun Locks to the Atlantic Ocean.

Unfortunately, Atlantic Ocean was rough. Combined with that and lack of sleep and lots of heat during the day, I got sick and missed the show I really wanted to see 😦

Today was an At Sea day.

After breakfast, I attended a presentation on history of Panama Canal. Then in the afternoon, I attended another classical performance at Lincoln Center Stage, then right afterwards, there was a “Meet the Artists of Lincoln Center Stage,” and I got to learn a few things about these performers, like where they are from, where they studied, etc. I found that they were from all over the world (two Americans, one Canadian, one Italian, and one Hungarian,) and they just got together a few months ago to perform on this cruise. They have contract with Holland America until May, and once their contracts are up, they’ll go on separate ways again.

After lunch, we went to a show called Billboard Onboard, where two guys play the pianos and sing. They were playing songs from the 70’s today.

After that, we went to see a ventriloquist. He was hilarious.

Tomorrow is the Panama Canal. We’ll be getting up early to get a spot on the bow of the ship, so gotta go to bed early.

 

 

Today, we were in Puntarenas, Costa Rica, along with Coral Princess.

We took a jungle river cruise on Tarcoles River. We saw many wildlife, including crocodiles, iguanas, parrots, many different kinds of birds, and an anteater.

In the evening, we had dinner at Sel de Mer, French seafood specialty restaurant. I ordered Dover Sole Meuniere, and the waiter removed the bones at table side. Fancy! It was very tasty too.

After dinner, when we walked by Lincoln Center Stage, the string quartet was playing Stairway to Heaven, so I stopped to listen to that and Bohemian Rhapsody. 🙂

Tomorrow is a sea day. After 4 port days in a row, it would be a nice break.

Today’s port was Corinto, Nicaragua. It’s an industrial port, and we moored between a container ship and US Coast Guard ship.

There was nothing to do in or near the port, so we took a tour bus to a city called Leon. In Leon, we went to the central square, and visited the La Asuncion Cathedral near the square. After looking through the inside of the cathedral, we climbed up to its roof for a interesting view of the city.

After the cathedral, we had some time to look through the small markets in the square, then back to the ship. It was a short trip, but it was very enjoyable.

Tonight was another gala night, so we dressed up and went to dinner. The Captain was making a round in the dining room tonight, stopping at every table and chatting with the passengers. We got to talk to him briefly too. (Told him how much we are enjoying our cruise.) I thought it was a very nice touch.

After dinner, we got our pictures taken. Tonight’s entertainment is a juggler. Didn’t sound all that interesting, so we went back to our room to relax. Tomorrow is another port day, and we have to get up early too.

 

Today’s port was Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala. The port had a nice market, but we had no time to browse, as we had to hurry to get to our tour bus.

We took the bus to a city called Antigua. It’s an UNESCO World Heritage Site and used to be the capital city of Guatemala until they moved it else where, when Antigua was destroyed by earthquakes. Many of the ruins still remain, and they were interesting to see.

It was a long drive to and back from Antigua, and we were late coming back. We were supposed to be on board by 5:30 pm, but we got to the port at about 5:40, so we probably didn’t get on board until about 5:50 pm. But that’s OK. We were on a ship-sponsored tour, so they would wait for us. And we weren’t the only ones returning late either. (There were more buses behind us.)

For dinner, we went to Canaletto, an Italian specialty restaurant. We had very good potato gnocchi and veal.

Tomorrow is another port day. We’ll be in Corinto, Nicaragua.

Huatulco, Mexico was our second port of call.

We were supposed to be taking a shore excursion called Huatulco Land and Sea, but they canceled it yesterday evening, due to high wind, so we had to quickly book a substitute, and it was basically the Huatulco Land and Sea without the sea part.

Huatulco is a resort town, and not much there besides hotels and marinas. We drove up the hills and stopped at several view points for nice view of our ship and the bays.

Then we went to a small town of La Crucesita. We didn’t stop there too long, and I ended up spending most of the time there waiting in line for the bathroom. LOL.

It was too hot to walk around anyway.

Before we departed Huatulco, there was an announcement from the captain. We’re expecting 40 mph wind today, and he told us to hold on to railing and not to go out on balcony tonight. Great… Hope I don’t get sea sick again…

After we left Huatulco, the ocean did get a bit rough, so we decided to stay in our room after the dinner. It’s 8 pm now, and it’s not as bad as the first night out of San Diego, but it’s rocking a little. I better finish writing this blog before it gets really bad.

It was another sea day, but after this, there will be four port days in a row, so it was the last chance to relax for a while 🙂

Not much went on in the morning. Husband attended a military meet up and I attended a presentation on available shore excursions for all the ports we’ll be visiting.

In the afternoon we watched a game show about wild animals in the main stage, followed by another presentation on upcoming ports.

After dinner, I listened to classical music performance in Lincoln Center Stage (best entertainment on this ship!), then lastly a musical in the main theater. (Not my cup of tea, but it was all right.)

It’s getting pretty hot and EXTREMELY humid. It’s not so pleasant to go out to the balcony anymore 😦

(But we can still go out to snap a nice picture like this and run back to the comfort of our air-conditioned room.)

After 2 full days at sea, we arrived in our first port of call, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

We didn’t book any shore excursions for this port, so we just took a taxi to town and walked along Malecon and Old Town area. It was a nice enough stroll, but they sure try to rip off tourists. We tried to use pesos for cab fares, but they would only accept US dollars…

We went back to the ship early and had great hamburgers and fries at the ship’s hamburger joint called Dive-In.

Today was our 30th wedding anniversary. Our Neptune Lounge concierges surprised us by decorating our door.

 

We also got some flowers, but those we purchased.

Then we had dinner at Pinnacle Grill, the specialty restaurant on the ship. We had great steak there.

After the dinner, we went to a show that featured a hilarious magician/comedian.

When we returned to our room, we found a pair of swans with rose petals. Another surprise from our Neptune Lounge concierges.

We kinda woke up grumpy this morning, but it ended great. We had a wonderful anniversary.

Tomorrow is another sea day.

Another mellow day.

We both woke up at around 5 am, but fell back to sleep and didn’t wake up again until about 8:30.

We went to Pinnacle Grill for breakfast again. I ordered Pan Asian Breakfast, just to see what it’s like. It’s called Pan Asian, but it’s really Japanese breakfast. It comes with miso soup, rice, tamagoyaki (the rectangular piece of egg that you find on sushi) and grilled salmon. The presentation was definitely not Japanese, but it was Japanese food alright. It was pretty good in any case.

After that, we browsed through the shops, saw the pictures we had taken yesterday (didn’t buy any) and just relaxed in our room.

Because we had a big breakfast late, we weren’t very hungry for lunch, so I skipped lunch, and my husband just had salad.

After that we just relaxed, taking a nap, sitting on the balcony and watching the ocean, then went to a presentation on the ports we’ll be visiting in a few days.

After the dinner in the main dining room (I had an Asian noodle dish that looked and tasted like soupless Top Ramen, which wasn’t as bad as it sounds,) we listened some classical music (strings and piano) in Lincoln Center Stage, then after that, we saw an impressionist/musician in the main stage, who was quite entertaining.

Tomorrow will be our first port of call, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.