Panama Canal Cruise 2017

Well our little honeymoon is ending soon 😭 we should recap what the honeymooners do on those sea days.  My love usually get up early because his java withdrawal is too difficult to ignore.  Amy his very own coffee barista already know his order and calls him Mr. Gary.  (She doesn’t know how to pronounce his last name) He position himself on a comfy easy boy and coffee meditates for an hour with ms I-pad. I get up when convenient and on good days, I walk a mile on Deck 3. Okay I admit, I don’t have a lot of those days. Then my hero jogs by the “no jogging when deck is wet”sign to pick me up. We have a hardy breakie together.  My fav is either congee or a waffle. Yes, just one with lots of fresh fruits. His is blood sausage, beans and eggs. Plenty of activities are scheduled on Sea days so there’s no time to be bored.  Today happens to be a floral arrangement presentation.  All around the ship, there are fresh flower displays by the floral team. Mid day come...

Ahhh back to civilization.  We’ve been on the boat for so many weeks and I’ve almost forgotten where we are heading.  Cartagena built an old walled city in the 15th century to keep pirates out and from England try to take over.  Nowadays, Cartegena is modern city that has the biggest supply of emeralds to satisfy the millions of cruisers and their appetite for this stone. The visitors centre is walking distance to the ship and housed in an organized building and grounds.  All the souvenirs are in one place and outside are beer gardens for the gentleman to wait until the ladies shop.  Flamingos, peacocks, parrots, monkeys and other exotic birds roam freely for photo ops with visitors. Our taxi dropped us off just inside the old walled city.   Beautifully preserved colonial architecture is on display on every block.  The buildings are colourfully painted and are often covered with bougainvilleas.  Gary loves fountains. I of course look for shopping...

The Captain advised over the loud speakers the Panamanian Authorities have given us our time slot to enter the canal.   The toll must be prepaid ahead then you wait at Panama Bay until you are signal to move forward. The total distance is 80KM and takes approx 10 hrs depending on traffic.  Gary got up before dawn to secure a spot for his camera at the bow.  I laid in bed until I saw the bridge of the Americas was in site.   No need to rush, I’m used to waiting in line. At the top right side of the picture, Panama City is now within view.  We are leaving The Pacific to  crossing over to the Caribbean Sea..  It’s around 6:30 and I see the Bridge of the Americas, I’m up now. Without getting in to too much technical details, newly constructed locks at Miraflores (beside the 1914 locks) is wider, uses less water and new rolling gate mechanism is easier to maintain.   The older locks can transport 5000 containers and the new locks can hold up to 15...

After yesterday’s exhilarating day, I’m so glad we have a relaxing sea day today.  We slept in late so that we can stay up a little later for tonight’s festivities.  There’s no need to tell how yours truly spends her day so I’ll just skip right to evening. My prince is so handsome in his tuxedo 😍 he got this for the wedding and now he has to make the cost per wear worthy.  We started the evening with my fav prime rib.  What more could a gal ask for that is more scary on Halloween ?  Gary requests extra thick cuts for us.  Haaaa what a life? Most of the kitchen staff on HAL are from The Philippines.  They are very friendly, courageous, and creative.  Here is their version of pumpkin carvings. Gary and I walked around the ship and gave out candy to the staff in our masquerade costumes as this was all we could manage in our suit cases.  He had a flickering white LED  ghost necklace and I had the orange flickering pumpkins.  Later ther...

There are two things similar between Vancouver and Costa Rica.  Costa Rica has 2 seasons, dry and rainy.  Vancouver also has a rain season  and then the rainier rainy season.  We arrived at the port town of Puntarenas around noon on a hot and humid, partly overcast day.  The county of Costa Rica stretches between the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea with three distinct micro climates that produces a variety of vegetation, precipitation and length of seasons.   I’ve been waiting for today’s excursion with excitement as Costa Rica is well known for its diverse collection of  tropical plant species.  The humid air, plentiful warm rain and rich volcanic soil makes perfect conditions for sub-tropical beauties.   Our guide today is Fabian, who is a devoted “plantsman” himself takes us up 1000 metres through steep, winding and nail biting dirt road to the Pura Vida Gardens.  We didn’t learn much history about this garden on the ride up but m...