December 17th
Our flight was
delayed getting into San Diego but we caught the shuttle from the airport to the
Wyndom Bayside hotel which was very close by, not only to the airport but the
cruise ship dock. We then walked up to a an area in San Diego call Little Italy
but even though the area had been updated and modernized, we found a mom and pop
restaurant that had been in the same location since 1950. It was an interesting
place because you had to walk through the small grocery store before getting to
the restaurant part but it was a place that had smoked meat and aged cheese. We
had a meatball sandwich that was 12 inches long and the sauce which I think was
marinara sauce was very good. And it was a place that we would go to again if we
ever came back to the area.
We continue to look around the Port of San Diego and saw this statue that was made popular post World War II and was printed on the front of Life Magazine.
We also saw a statue of Bob Hope speaking to troops that was made very popular and sitting right there in the bay was the aircraft carrier, USS Midway.
There was another interesting statue that became popular
Here is a view of the San Diego harbor at sunset
Our ship awaits
December 18th
This morning before
boarding our cruise, we walked along the bay as the weather was quite pleasant.
Then we went back to the hotel, checked out, and walked across the street to
check in for our cruise. After checking in, we located our stateroom, dropped
off a few items, and indulged in a huge variety of lunch offerings. We left
port at 5pm.
December
19th
This was a day at sea and uneventful, a good thing.
Throughout the day, we enjoyed a variety of
entertainment, food, and other
activities on the ship.
December 20th
Our first port of
call was Cabo San Lucas. A very modern and up to date area that is a very
popular tourist destination. With the popularity comes a plethora of locals
trying to get your attention to sell ANYTHING you can imagine, and maybe things
you can't. The weather was perfect but a lot of it was difficult to enjoy
because if you dared to look around, one of the locals was right there trying
to sell you something. There was never a feeling of being unsafe, just a
feeling of a lot of people.
One of the popular destinations
the locals were selling was the "Hole in the Rock" formation.
However, I took this picture from the ship on the way into the port.
The scenery was beautiful and the weather was great.
December 21st
The port of La Paz was less than beautiful in that it was a commercial port for shipping and fishing.
However, the port was about a 15-20 minute shuttle bus ride to the city of La Paz, so we thought to be fair in our evaluation of La Paz, we should at least take the shuttle to see what it was like. WOW, what a pleasant surprise! We could not get over how clean the city of La Paz was! We did not see any litter, any trash, not even any cigarette butts on the ground. The malecon, the approximately 15-20 foot wide walkway along the bay, was constructed of dyed concrete, ground to perfectly flat smoothness, then sealed with a gloss coating. Even on a Saturday, there were people cleaning the malecon and the gutters of the streets. The two guys cleaning the gutters did so with brooms and dust pans, and the woman cleaning the malecon used a four foot wide dust mop. Store owners were mopping the sidewalks in front of their stores with soap and water. Unlike Cabo San Lucas, the locals did not badger us to try to sell us something. Every once in a while one would ask us if we wanted a tour or taxi or fishing trip and when we replied “no thank you”, they didn't keep asking. This is a place to which we would definitely return. The La Paz sign below is sitting on the malecon.
The church was open with a tourist invitation to come on in. When we got there we noticed a wedding taking place, but having tourists attend your wedding was fine with them.
There were several sculptures on the malecon. One was of the
whale shark. The whale shark (Rhinodon typus) earns the name “whale” solely
because of its size. Just as the blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is the
largest living mammal, the whale shark is the largest species of any fish,
known to reach more than 40 feet in length. There were excursions whereby one
could swim with the whale shark. No thank you, but here is a picture of
the whale shark sculpture.
Another interesting sculpture was the one of the pearl, signifying La Paz is the pearl of the Sea of Cortez.
This was a sculpture of a conch shell that was worn by the abrasion of the sand.
BTW, La Paz in Spanish means "Peace". It was a very nice place!
December 22nd
A day at sea, so
throughout the day, we enjoyed a variety of entertainment, food, and other
activities on the ship.
December23rd
We arrived in
Manzanillo (pronounced "man-za-NEE-o) at 8:00 and the port was right there at the city so access to the
city was quite easy. We got off the ship and walked around. It was a decent
place but not as clean as La Paz. There were lots of street vendors with tents
set up to sell a variety of goods, and they too were a lot more laid back than
the ones at Cabo. The entertainment on the ship tonight was Roy Tan, a pianist
that accompanies Rosemary as she plays the violin to the song Hallelujah. I've
seen “Roy&Rosemary- Hallelujah “ several times on YouTube
We learned some things about Roy. He was told at a young age that his hearing is "perfect pitch" and can detect if any note played on the piano is out of pitch. He was interesting to talk with regarding how he got started, etc. Here we are with him.
Manzanillo is the sailfishing capitol of the world, at least according to them. So the statue in the park should be no surprise.
December 24th
This day at sea was really nice with warmer weather. There is an outside walking deck that gives people like us the opportunity to walk fast where 3.5 laps equals one mile. There was an extra special dinner in the dining room, then a Christmas eve musical presented by some of the different nationalities of the ships workers. Indonesians and Filipinos represent the majority. In different areas of the ship they had midnight mass, Hanukkah candle lighting, and an interdenominational service.
December 25th
Merry Christmas! We started the day with a Christmas carol sing along, followed by a visit from Santa, who, I might add, only brought gifts for kids 12 and under. What a disappointment that was for me! We arrived in Huatulco (pronounced "wah-TOOL-co), MX by 10am and the dock looked like we were actually going to dock on the beach. We enjoyed walking around the town and admired the beautiful coves along the coastline.
They had some interesting birds with a couple of feathers on their head and long tails
It was interesting to see an open air church. Notice there are no side walls.
December 26th
Our next port of call was Puerto Chiapas (pronounced "chee-OP-us), MX at 11am. We quickly learned there was not much to do here. The port was quite lovely, but there just was not much to do starting at the port. There were several street vendors, a few places to get food and drinks, but that was it. We could have taken a taxi into town about 30 minutes away, but we weren't feeling it. We departed at 8pm.
December 27th
Our next port of call was Puerto Quetzal (pronounced "ket-ZALL), Guatemala. We arrived at 8am and took a bus about and hour and a half in to the city of Antigua, passing by sugar cane fields and coffee plantations. Once in Antigua, we walked all around to get a feel of the "local color". It is a pretty dirty place with regards to dust and litter. Everywhere we went, the streets were cobblestone and very rough. The locals were very friendly and we were told the lowest paid workers made the equivalent of US$5.00/Day. On June 4, 2017, the nearby Fuego volcano erupted and destroyed two villages, but Antigua was saved. The Santa Domingo hotel in Antigua is an incredibly beautiful exclusive hotel that is privately owned. In order for the hotel to be built at its location, which was on the grounds of ruins of a church and convent, they had to sign a contract whereby they would preserve the ruins and incorporate them into the property. The ruins were due to an earthquake in 1773.
Some of the ruins incorporated into the hotel property. It is hard to distinguish.
The cobblestone street that ran alongside the park was the smoothest of all of them.
The arch of the city with the Fuego volcano in the background
The church in the city of Antigua
Notice the lady just ahead of me balancing an ice chest on her head
Yes, Domino's delivers even in Guatemala
The Fuego volcano venting
December 28th
We continued on to Corinto, Nicaragua arriving at 8am. We then took a bus into Leon about an hour and a half away. When getting off the ship, we were greeted by school age children giving us a bag from the Nicaraguan department of tourism. Really cute kids with black hair and beautiful smiles.
The Nicaraguan government publishes unemployment at 4-7%, but if you dig deep enough, you come to realize the unemployment rate is about 35%. Nicaragua appeared to be poorer than Guatemala. It had an impressive church on the square.
These next pictures were taken from the roof of the cathedral.
Here is another venting volcano and if you are wondering if we didn't learn anything from the one in New Zealand where the volcano hikers perished, I can tell you we did. Hence the reason we did not hike any of the volcano mountains.
December 29th
Arriving in Puntarenus, Costa Rica at 8am, we had already eaten breakfast so we left the ship as a soon as we could to walk around on our own. At the end of the gangway we were greeted by locals in custom festive attire playing typical festive music.
The colorful sign identifying the town was artfully made with different colored tiles.
When we got to the end of the pier, a man volunteering with the department of tourism asked us if we would like a city walking map. He then pointed out some of the highlights, told us how to get free WiFi, then asked where we were from. After a brief discussion, we found he and his wife were from Virginia but sold everything and retired in Costa Rica.
As we walked around, we saw native iguanas
The walking map also took us past the main cathedral in the town
It was quite hot in the town so we got an ice cold coconut that the vendor hacks a hole in it for a straw. It was quite refreshing.
This place in Costa Rica was very dirty with litter and trash strewn all over the place. We've been to Costa Rica before and know not all of it is like this.
December 30th
We left Costa Rica last evening at 8pm and are at sea all day today.
December 31st
Today we enter the Panama Canal that is approximately 50 miles long. Here you can see where we start to enter it on the southern most end. This was about 6am.
There are three main bridges over the Panama Canal, the Bridge of the Americas seems to be their pride and is the southern most bridge
The middle bridge is the Centennial Bridge
and the northern most bridge is the Atlantic Bridge and where one exits the canal
The locks were an interesting engineering design. The mule train connected to the ship via cables on both sides to keep the ships from rubbing the sides of the locks.
There were all sorts of ships in the canal and it operates 24/7. We were told the cost for our ship to go through the canal was US$250,000. It was an all day affair and quite a treat to witness.
January 1, 2020
We stopped in Cartagena, Columbia this morning. I was expecting to see an old run down city that was too poor to maintain itself. Imagine my surprise when we saw it coming into port.
We got a taxi and went into the old part of town that also quite nice. We were told that the city has an ordinance requiring all new building to be painted white. We walked to the fortress that guarded the old city.
From the fortress, we had a great view over the city.
In the old city, the buildings were colorful and we happened upon a bronze figure that was made famous by a Columbian artist. (not my thing)
When we got back to the port, we went into the natural wildlife exhibit that displayed several native wildlife species, including a baby sloth.
January 2nd and 3rd
At sea
January 4th
Arrived in Fort Lauderdale, FL. We had a lot of time to kill so we decided to take a tour of the city. Our expectations were low but we were very pleasantly surprised to learn about some of the history of the city.
