Miami and home

Sunday morning found us tied up to the dock in Miami. After some delays at immigration, we went to the curb. After some confusion, our limo driver picked us up and took us to the Fort Lauderdale airport. We had a long wait at the airport, and surprisingly good middle eastern food for lunch. The airport was full of Christmas travelers.

Our flight home was uneventful, chasing the sunset. Dora and Bruce's daughter Sophia picked us up at the airport. Marianne was Sophia's 6th grade teacher! We stopped at their house for a few minutes, and watched Sophia's boy dance the Nutcracker. Bruce drove us home, where our new kittens did not seem too interested in us.

A good trip.

Cartegena de los Indios, Colombia

We took a taxi into the old town with Bruce and Dora for $20. The driver offered a tour, but we did not bite.

Our first stop within the walled city was the church and museum of Saint Peter Claver, the "slave of the slaves", who was a missionary to the slaves in Cartegena. His body is displayed under the altar. We felt like we were in a special place.

We visited a small emerald museum and shop. We visited a good gold and artifact museum at a bank, pretty amazing work for 500 AD.

We had beers at El Bistro, and then took a taxi to "Las Bovedas" for shopping. Las Bovedas was disappointing, mostly tourist junk. We walked up onto the wall around the city, and saw some of the fortifications.

We all liked Cartegena, clean, pretty, and interesting.

Friday was a sea day. We had breakfast with Bruce and Dora, and played bridge with Bob and Carol in the morning, very nice. This was also our last formal night.

Saturday was another sea day, watching western Cuba from the port side. Richard spoke to a man who was at Guantanamo during the Cuban Missle Crisis in 1962. We played bridge in the morning, Bruce won. We watched the excellent string quartet from Ukraine before dinner. We said goodbye to all at dinner.

Panama Canal

We got up at 7 AM for the entrance to the canal. We stayed on deck 4, lower down and not as crowded. Richard spoke to a Canadian canal pilot, he was the third pilot, watching the back of the ship, and commanding the rear "mules", locomotives, to keep the ship centered in the lock. There are only a couple of feet on each side of the ship!



After lunch, we waited one hour for our tour, a nature walk. The tour was down a trashy dirt road, we saw a two toed sloth, and a three toed sloth, but only a few birds, disappointing. We did see a "Common black hawk", a new bird for us. Our guide was Gustavo Schultz, OK, but handicapped by the location and the group. We saw some of the old Canal zone buildings, some abandoned, some in use. We ended up going through Colon city in rush hour, chaotic.

At the dock, there were many shops, and indians selling their wares. We saw some heavily tatooed indians, including bare-breasted women. We bought a small "Mola", a piece of fabric art, for $10, which was all Richard had in his wallet.

Wednesday was a sea day. Richard attended a lecture on Sir Francis Drake, who was variously a pirate and an English admiral, and was the first Englishman to sail around the world. Drake sacked the city of Cartegena, our next stop.

Puntarenas Costa Rica

Richard and Marianne got up a little earlier, and hired Freddy the taxi driver to take us to the Taracoles River, famous for crocodiles and birding. We took a boat tour, saw many new birds, and watched the boat captain feed the crocodiles. We had lunch at a local open air restaurant, where we ate "Casados", a local dish of rice and beans. Freddy talked us out of a visit to the Carara park, said that we would see no birds at noon.

We went back to town, had a beer, and then went to a nice 4 PM mass in town. The town of Puntarenas and the beach were pretty dirty, lots of trash, although the people that we met were nice. We strolled back to the ship, and bought a hat from a vendor. A long day.

Monday was a sea day. Richard went to talks on maps and the Panama Canal construction. R and M played scrabble, M won. We all played bridge in the afternoon.

Huatulco

After breakfast, we took a taxi to town. Huatulco is a new planned resort, about 25 years old, clean and tidy. Richard discovered that he had lost his ATM card, and that his camera memory card was inexplicably full, so he spent a lot of the time there taking care of these issues. We sat on the beach and drank expensive beers. Richard and Bruce swam out to the Mexican navy boat guarding the ship.

One of the amusing things was the lady from TV Azteca recording the acapella group singing. Richard went to the Helicopter pad, with the captain's club members, to watch the ship leave Huatulco.

Saturday was a sea day. Richard went to mass, which was a renewal of vows for a couple married for 50 years. We went to another map talk, Richard went to a Costa Rica history talk. Dinner was our second formal night.

Los Cabos and Acapulco

Tuesday found us in Los Cabos, taking a tender (smaller boat) into the marina. Dora and Richard got their internet fix, and we eventually walked all the way around the marina to the beach. We sat under an umbrella drinking beer and listening to a movie trivia contest. We eventually made the long walk back to the boat.

At dinner we met another of our tablemates, John, a retired Methodist minister from Dallas, with an eyepatch, who works with sex addicts.

Wednesday was another sea day, we played Bridge with Bruce and Dora. At dinner we met John's friend Jay, with all ten people around our table.

Thursday we had breakfast with Bruce and Dora, and walked to the San Diego fort in Acapulco. This was a very interesting museum, with bilingual signs, giving the history of the Spanish galleons to the Phillipines. We strolled to the central plaza, visited the church, and had a beer. The plaza was dirty and smelly, a disappointment. Bruce and Dora went back to the ship. Richard and Marianne went on a boat tour of the bay, including a smaller version of the Acapulco cliff divers. Lots of jokes in the narration, with a young captain and younger divers. Richard and Marianne walked back to the boat, and Richard went back out to get a haircut and a shave for $8, as well as take some photos and get some internet time.


As it was close to the feast day of our Lady of Guadalupe, we saw a small parade in her honor.

At dinner, Dora told us Greek and Turkish history, from the perspective of her family, who were expelled by the Turks.

Panama Canal Cruise - Boulder to the Ship

We started our trip with our friend Mike B. giving us a ride to the airport bus. We met our friends Bruce and Dora at the Denver airport, where we took a Southwest flight to San Diego.

In San Diego, we waited a long time for a shuttle to the airport, only to find it packed. We squeezed on, with Dora in Bruce's lap! The Hampton Inn Airport/Sea World is OK, but in an industrial neighborhood.

Sunday morning, we all walked to Old Town San Diego to go to church. The Old Town is an historic park, a tourist attraction, which also contains the historic Immaculate Conception church. It was a nice mass, with a warm atmosphere, and the priest told jokes. On the walk back, Richard received a shocking phone call; he was told that his friend Mike G. had died suddenly.

We called a limo/taxi to take us to the ship, where we found long lines, but ultimately got on. We discovered that we were assigned to a different dinner table than Bruce and Dora, so we requested a change. Dinner was disorganized, with long lines. There was no room at the table that we were assigned to, so we finally sat by ourselves at a table for two.

We had a beautiful view of the San Diego harbor with Christmas lights.

Monday was a sea day. We went to the brunch, and played Bridge afterwards. We met our new tablemates, Bob, Carol, Ken, and Sally, another two couples who had gone on a cruise together. This was formal night, it was fun to see everyone dressed up.