Cruisin'

Our cruise was amazing, I'm still missing it every day. We had a very relaxing vacation, the ship was fabulous, and the ports were beautiful. We stayed in a balcony cabin for the first time and I loved it even more than I thought I would. The food was great (and plentiful!), entertainment was fun, and as always, I can't wait to plan my next cruise.

on our balcony before the second formal night

Our first stop was Labadee, Haiti. This is Royal Caribbean's private 'island.' We made a lazy day of it and lounged on the beach. We hiked around a bit in the afternoon, and enjoyed the scenery.

life is good

Our next port was Montego Bay, Jamaica. We had planned to go to the beach here as well. However, we didn't use enough sunscreen in Haiti so our backs got a little fried, and we wanted to stay out of the sun today (Sorry, Mom. I reapplied, honest!). It was still a fun day- with most of the ship's 2400 passengers ashore, we had the place to ourselves. Literally, we were the only people in the gym that afternoon!

Next stop- Cartagena, Colombia. We took a city tour at this port. We visited the old walled city, a church, naval museum, and a fort. It was amazing- the architecture and colors were beautiful. The people were very friendly. It was very moving to be in the country where our child will be from, I cannot even express it.

historic house in the walled city

the church of San Pedro Claver, human rights pioneer

street in the walled city

another colorful street scene

Portal de los Dulces (food market for sweets)

yummy fruit cart

The Clock Tower, the main gate to enter the walled city

The Dungeons (Las Bóvedas) were originally military barracks but now house souvenir shops

Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas- the largest Spanish fort in the New World

The next event was the partial transit through the Panama Canal. I'm sure Pete could describe it with more enthusiasm than I can- engineering marvel, yadda yadda yadda. But here goes, with a little help from http://www.pancanal.com/:


The Panama Canal is approximately 50 miles long between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. This waterway was cut through one of narrowest saddles of the isthmus that joins North and South America. The Canal uses a system of locks -compartments with entrance and exit gates. The locks function as water lifts: they raise ships from sea level (the Pacific or the Atlantic) to the level of Gatun Lake (85 feet above sea level); ships then sail the channel through the Continental Divide.

Each set of locks bears the name of the town where it was built: Gatun (on the Atlantic side), and Pedro Miguel and Miraflores (on the Pacific side). The lock chambers are 110 feet wide by 1000 feet long, and you'd better believe the Jewel of the Seas took up most of that space.


The water used to raise and lower vessels in each set of locks comes from Gatun Lake by gravity; it comes into the locks through a system of main culverts that extend under the lock chambers from the sidewalls and the center wall.

Ships from all parts of the world transit daily through the Panama Canal. Some 14,000 vessels use the Canal every year.

After we went through the Gatun Locks, we "anchored" at Gatun Lake. I used quotes because we learned at a Captain's talk that they did not actually drop anchor, they use GPS to control the azipods and thrusters to keep the ship in one spot. Technology is crazy. Anyway, we took a tender boat ashore and went on a loooooong bus ride to an indigenous Embera Indian village. It was fun, but had I known it would take us two hours each way I might have chosen another activity!

making our entrance to the canal locks

the gates have opened to move into the next chamber

water level differences from one chamber to the next

our canoe ride to the indian village

Our final port was Puerto Limon, Costa Rica. I would love to visit again someday. The tour guide told us the entire country is the size of WV (Mountaineers represent!). It is very diverse in it's plant and animal species, and they obviously treasure this biodiversity. We took a boat ride through the Tortuguero canals in the Tortuguero National Park to view wildlife. Unfortunately, it was the middle of the day and the animals were smart enough to hide in the shade somewhere. We did get to see some monkeys, sloths, birds, and lizards, so I'm not complaining.

sloth

howler monkey

What about the sea days in between, you ask? Well, we had a pretty nice routine going. Wake up. Eat. Lay by the pool. Eat. Move to the indoor adult pool for some quiet reading time and cocktail. Eat snack. Go to gym. Hang out on balcony for sunset. Shower. Eat. Watch show or hang out in lounge. Sleep and repeat!