Antigua, Guatemala

Thursday, May 4

We docked in Puerto Quetzal in Guatemala, but we didn't spend any time in this port town as we had booked an excursion to Antigua, about 90 minutes drive away. It was overcast as we left at 8:30am, but as we started to climb into the hills it became greyer and rain began to fall. We hadn't planned on this, and as we climbed higher it got even more misty so that the peaks of the volcanic mountain ranges were obscured.

When we arrived in Antigua it looked cold, but as soon as we stepped out of the bus we knew we would be ok in what we had on. In fact there was very little humidity here, which made a nice change from our recent stops. We had to transfer from a big coach to smaller buses, as Antigua is a UNESCO World Heritage site with lots of small cobble stoned streets, so the big coaches aren't allowed in the old town.

As we set off on our own for over 3 hours to explore this town, we were amazed at the friendliness of the locals, as well as the lovely old colonial buildings. The place has so much character, as it was founded in 1502 and served as the seat of government for over 200 years. However it was destroyed by a series of earthquakes in 1773, and left a lot of the old churches in ruins which are still visible today.

As we walked along the streets we were again harassed by vendors wanting to sell us their locally made goods, but they were nice and accepted a firm "no thank you". We visited a Jade museum and factory (one of many in town), but spent longer at the very interesting and tasty chocolate museum! From there we visited the San Pedro church before moving onto the San Jose Cathedral. This Cathedral looked over the Central Park, which was abuzz with people and colourful street vendors all going about their business under some beautiful big old shade trees. The Park was surrounded by colonnaded buildings and the whole setting was magical under the now sunny skies.

After making some purchases we set off to see the Santa Catalina Arch, which lead us to the Santa Catalina church. This was one of the nicest looking churches we've seen, with amazing columns, statues, mouldings and relief decorations in white contrasting against the butter yellow render of the building. 

We were running out of time, so we stopped for a local beer while we caught up on wifi. It was then a quick walk back to the meeting point where we were transferred to the bigger coach for the journey back to the ship. It was one of the best tours we've had, and there is plenty more to see and do in Antigua when we return some time in the future.

Leon, Nicaragua

Wednesday, May 3

We arrived at the port of Corinto in Nicaragua about 9am, so it wasn't too early a start for us today. We wanted to visit Leon, one of the previous capitals of this country, which is known for its colonial buildings and Cathedral.

Our tour left at 10am, driving through the town of Corinto on our way to our first stop. We passed mainly fields of sugar cane and corn, with processing plants for the sugar cane dotted along the road. In the distance we could see some of the volcanoes that Nicaragua is famous for, as it has 27 within its borders!

Before reaching Leon we stopped at the San Jacinto Bubbling Mud Pots, where our guide Eddy led us on a walk around this geothermal area of bubbling mud pots and hot springs. We were besieged by children ranging in age from about 4 to 14, either begging or wanting to sell us some pottery or mud from the area. We had been told not to encourage them by giving them money, as schooling is free in Nicaragua and that's where they should have been.

We finally reached Leon, and were impressed with this university town as we made our way to the Park of Heroes and Martyrs. The park was filled with school children, as it was after 12pm and school operates in 2 shifts - 7am to 12pm, and 1pm to 5pm, so it was "changeover" time. We made our way to the Cathedral at the end of the park, and Eddy took us inside to show us its treasures. This is the largest Cathedral in Central America, and it was very nice inside, painted in cream and white, and with reliefs set in grey with charcoal borders. The effect was cooling and visually different to other Cathedrals we have visited.

While some in our group chose to climb to the roof of the Cathedral we set off to find a cold drink and some wifi, and found a local cafe that had a lot of atmosphere and the local beer we tried went down very well. We checked out the market stalls before returning to the coach for the return trip to the ship. 

We arrived about 3pm, and agreed that from what we saw we would be happy to return to Nicaragua to discover more of this country and its friendly people.

Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Tuesday, May 2

During the night as we sailed from the Panama Canal to Costa Rica we were awoken by a massive thunderstorm with amazing lightning, loud thunder and pouring rain. We were glad we were tucked up in bed!

On arrival in Puntarenas it was very overcast, still warm but without the humidity. We walked from the ship along the shoreline past lots of market stalls that had been set up. The sand was black as Costa Rica is a volcanic area, with 3 volcanoes in this Central American country, but it was too misty to see them today.

We did some shopping, then stopped at a cafe for a beer while we caught up on wifi, as we've been away for a week without access to it! On our return to the ship for lunch we passed the old cathedral which was built in 1902.

After lunch we walked in the opposite direction and strolled along the tourist walk beside the beach, passing the park and aquarium on our way.

Day at Sea

Monday, May 1

Another lazy, enjoyable day at sea where we got to sleep in, walk around the deck, read a book, attend a presentation by the Captain, and take in a show by a group called Island Magic, who were the best steel band we've seen. We also got to see 2 pods of dolphins jumping out of the water and surfing the ships waves, with the second lot right beside the ship and we were directly above them. There was also the need to eat some lovely food and just enjoy ourselves, which is why we love cruising so much!

The Panama Canal

Sunday, April 30

At 6am this morning the pilot came aboard to guide our ship through the Panama Canal. A narrator also boarded and his commentary began at 6:40, which woke us up! It was very interesting so we got dressed and went out on deck to see this engineering marvel first hand. The ship had opened the doors to the bow so we were able to get to the very front of the ship to observe proceedings. The crew were set up there with juice, coffee and Panama rolls for breakfast, which was very nice.

The first set of locks we arrived at were the Gatun Locks, which took nearly 2 hours to get through. Clearing these locks put us in the Gatun Lake, which is huge and took us nearly 5 hours before we reached the Pedro Miguel Locks. These locks took less than an hour to get through, then it was about 45 minutes before we reached the Miraflores Locks, which took about an hour to get through. At each set of locks it was the same procedure - line the ship up straight, connect to the mules (mini trains that keep the ship in line), enter the lock, be raised or lowered to the height of the next level, and then the reverse before exiting the lock! 

This way the ships can travel from the Caribbean/Atlantic Ocean side over the 85 feet (26 metres) above sea level of the continental divide before being "lowered" to sea level again on the Pacific Ocean side near Panama City (or the reverse direction). The Canal is 80 kilometres long and we didn't exit it until about 5pm, so it was nearly 11 hours to transit through this amazing piece of engineering. Newer, bigger locks were started in 2007 and completed in 2016, so the really big ships use these locks - we could see why when you saw about a foot or two clearance on either side of our ship! Nearly 30,000 people died constructing the original Canal, and when you see the amount of earth and rock moved to build it, and the set up of the locks, it really was an amazing feat but came at a huge human cost.

We had an early dinner and we're amazed at the skyline of Panama City as we passed it - it looked like Hong Kong's skyline! There is obviously a lot of wealth in Panama City as a result of the Canal and the number of ships that go through it each day. We loved transiting the Canal and it was a highlight of the trip.

Cartagena, Colombia

Saturday, April 29

The ship was only spending 6 hours in Cartagena, so we had to be up early to get off the ship and start exploring this fascinating city. It's history goes back to the 16th Century when the Spanish were in charge, and to keep the British and other countries at bay they built some great forts here. The wealth generated by the gold, emeralds and coffee found in Colombia were shipped through this port, so its always been a key port with lots of lovely buildings established here.

Today we were travelling with Harry and Martha Jane, a Canadian couple we've met on this cruise. We negotiated a tour and rounded up 6 other people to keep the cost down! Our first stop was the fort of San Sebastián where we had great views towards Bocagrande, or the new town. Next was the fort of San Felipe, which is one of the most impressive forts we have seen. It even resisted a huge siege by the British in 1741 despite the British having a massive number of men and ships try to take it.

Then it was into the old town, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site, surrounded by massive stone walls, but filled with beautiful old buildings, cathedrals, squares and shops. We wandered around this area with our guide Carmen for nearly an hour, which in the heat and humidity was a good effort! There were lots of hawkers and colourful buskers trying to relieve us of some US dollars, but we didn't need what they were offering. In part of the old wall where they used to store provisions called the dungeons, these have now been converted to tasteful artisan shops with lots of souvenirs on offer.

At the cruise ship terminal there was a free zoo to walk through, with all sorts of very colourful birds including macaws and flamingoes, as well as some little monkeys! We thought this was the best cruise terminal we had been too! We were happy to get back on board and cool down with a shower, and then it was a quiet afternoon before the night's activities begin.

Embarkation and 2 Days at Sea

Wednesday - Friday, April 26-28

Embarkation went smoothly, although we were a bit early and we didn't start boarding until 12pm. This gave us time to drop our carry on bags in the cabin and then enjoy a light lunch in the dining room. We returned to our cabin but found both key cards wouldn't work - as we waited in line at the front desk we found it was a common problem with a lot of people due to a computer glitch! As we've been on a number of cruises on this class of ship we didn't have any problems finding our way around and it felt like being at home! Dinner was followed by a short preview show of the entertainment on board, then we had an early night.

We love our days at sea, especially when they are at the start of a cruise, and we have 2 days to take it easy before our first port of call. We slept late, had a small brunch and then attended a talk on our first 2 parts of call. We chatted with some people we met yesterday before going to the afternoon tea. Today was the King of Holland's birthday so it was themed in orange, even the cakes had orange icing! The ship was decorated with tulips (paper ones) which looked really good on mass. We met some fellow Aussies at our table who were really nice, and organised to have dinner with them to continue our conversation!

After tonight's Dutch themed dinner we went to the show, which again was very good and the theatre on the Amsterdam is the lovely old style and very cosy, which we really like. As we change time zones overnight we get to wind our watches back an hour - a bonus for us!

Today we attended some talks on some future ports of call and learned more about the Central American countries we'll be visiting. There was also time for a walk around the deck as well as some reading time by the pool. Tonight was a Gala night so we got to dress up in our better clothes and enjoyed a lovely meal - again! The show featured the singers and dancers, who were very good and it was a great way to finish the day.