Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Friday 11 Jan 2019 - A day at sea


A Quiet day 
went early to the Hot tub which was lovely. It fills up pretty fast so we wanted to get there before the crowd. had a bit of a read and discovered that our pedicures where very christmasy. mine was Christmas all over and Margies blended in with the deck. too funny.

 a nice relaxing breakfast after the hot tub and then just relaxing on our balcony enjoying the view out to sea as we were on that side of the ship.







We Called our sister Jo and chatted with her for a while. Herself and David were doing well and she really wished that she could be there with us.






I sorted photos from canal and uploaded them to face book which took some time. 
We had been saving all of our towel animals each day and we were getting quite a collection. I wondered if the ships store of towels was effected by our collection.




lunch veggie burger and I do not recall what Margie had.

Called the O'Hanlon office and left a voicemail. found out later there had been a fire in the building next door and so the whole complex was emptied out less than 30 minutes before my call. just a timing thing. Called Shirley chatted, she told me all about it.



We decided to name our towel animals.
Freddy the Frog and Dino the dinosaur




Eddie the Eskimo, and Ralph the rabbit





 Kenny the Koala and Douggy the Dog, 








Benny the Bighorn and Eggburt the Elephant.
It is amazing what some people will do to entertain themselves when bored.






went to the lecture at the spinnaker on the Maya, kind of boring, 5pm when Margie and I saw 3 jumping DOLPHINS!!! in  the water beside the ship. We were so excited! we spent even more time out on our balcony after that looking, scanning, searching for dolphin or whale sign.


Went to the casino and got Trinidad and Tobago's signatures to finalize the scavenger hunt and took it to the services deck where they told us to be at the main foyer at 10 am on the second to last day for the grand prize draw.
went for supper to the grand pacific. sometimes we sat with other folks and sometimes we just sat together and chatted about that days events or the next days adventures coming up. today was just us.
Late to the Show "Cowboy songs which was pretty good.
Margie called Nicolle

todays towel animal - Penny the penguin was added to the couch.

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Thursday 10 jan 2019 The Panama Canal

I woke up at 130 am and did not get back to sleep until 4am so by the time I woke up at 8 Margie was already up and dressed and thinking that I slept in.  I was a beautiful morning and we were looking forward to seeing the canal today.

We were getting to the canal at 9 am so we hurried upstairs by way of the elevator and had a quick breakfast and came back to our room to see the canal from our balcony.
The tv told us it was going to be a very hot day so we were glad that we had air conditioning so close at hand. To be able to just jump in and out was so nice. 

The Jungle is  green, green, green and very captivating. There are pole markers set up  in cleared sections of the jungle for the pilots and captains to line the ships course up with to keep in the deepest part of the channel.

The pilot for the first lock arrived just before we arrived at the first lock,  right on time for our turn to go through.  How very exciting!


It was very interesting, watching all the activity of the crews hooking up lines to little trains on both sides of the ship and the ship going through at a steady speed just inches away from the sides of the canal.  

The giant tires they have inserted along the way helps to keep the ship just inches away from the sides. I wonder how often they need to change those tires. probably more often than my car tires at home

I took photos of how snug we were in the lock both directions and was amazed, I admit, to how snug we were in the lock. I had heard from friends who had been through the canal how interesting it was and they were right.

We watched the little trains letting go of the lines right when they got to the end of the lock and coming back to get ready to repeat the exercise again for the next ship.







We went upstairs to the lecture on the history of the canal. 

There are 3 sets of locks one going up and two going down.
 It took years to build and there was a lot of political maneuvering and power struggles to control the locks over the years.


There are two big Lakes and lots of little islands in those lakes.  the first lock takes you up 80 feet and deposits you into the larger lake. This lake had most of the little islands and lots of big ships waiting their turn to go back the other way. Lots of the islands have the white pole markers for the pilots to line up with at each turn to make sure that they clear the channels as they go.


There are two locks at each set of locks, each with their own names and they are building more locks, larger than the ones that are currently there to take care of the much larger ships that are now being constructed. 




There was lots of maintenance activity going on  all along both sides of the canals which surprised me, although I don't why it would. 

Of course they would have to do maintenance which would require road access hence the small roads along lamost all  canal.  There was  building activity at the lock areas to accomplish the new locks as well.  



 The course that the pilot of the ship has to follow is quite difficult with turns and changes in speed all worked out by years of experience of the many pilots. Each section has its own pilots who know their  own section. 



It seemed there was always little boats coming up and dropping men off to start their section of the canal and a different boat picking pilots up to take them back to her starting point.


In the narrower part of the canal I saw lots of moving trees and thought maybe that there were monkeys. Filmed the moving trees hoping to get a picture of the monkeys but all I got was moving trees. Pretty but not what I was hoping for. 

 we saw lots of different birds too.  kestrels, buzzards, Grackles. birds I have never seen before. I heard lots of other birds but did not see them. the jungle is very thick and not easy to see through. sometimes I thought I saw something only to realize later that it was just another tree in a different shade of green or brown.




Lots of big boats going past us in the opposite direction. there is only room for two ships in the canal one going each way and in some places of the canal only room for one ship of our size.

Hot, Humid, Heat is what the main theme of the day was weather wise. 

Lunch was outside at the pool side BBQ buffet. It was pleasant and fast as the indoor restaurants were packed. When we got back to our lovely air conditioned room we found a towel dinosaur. 

As a change of scenery we passed old works that had been replaced by newer more efficient equipment.


They had a sale on the sun deck of Panama Canal souvenirs so went to that ... it was very hot and at one point the skies clouded over rather quickly and opened up with a downpour of warm topical rain. 

It worked out well for me as I had been at the end of the line to buy things when the rain started and lots of people ran for cover, I did not and moved up to almost the the front of the line. What a great way to cool off an get  out of the heat faster.

At one point the captain said that this was as close as this boat would get to the equator. 560 miles north of the equator. It was probably as close as we were ever going to get to the equator so it was a special moment and I took a photo of the jungle at that point to commemorate it. 
We spent a lot of time going between our room to our balcony and back again, to look at the canal works, or the jungle or the boats passing. Amazingly the air conditioning felt very good every time we came back into the room as it was, did I mention this,  a very hot day.

 We approached and passed under the very large and very long Bridge of the Americas which is the only connecting bridge between the North and South American continents. 

I have to admit that by this time the allure of the jungle was wearing a little thin. what initially started out as captivating alluring and mysterious now seemed green and hot and humid. Still I loved it just not with the same enthusiasm.

We discovered almost too late that the ship bow camera was on and the we could have been laying in bed all day watching us go through the canal on TV in our room. 


As it was we only did that for the last lock. it did not have the same impact but it was interesting in that you could see the lock filling up with water which was kind of cool.

At one point just before the last lock there is a building that was full of people watching us go past. We watched them and waved and they waved back. Whole families came out so it must have been a thing to do there on a Thursday afternoon. It was  a moment of fun waving at total strangers waving at us. fro the in-between of two continents. I found out after that some of the people who were working on board would have their families come their to wave to them as they went past as sometimes they would not see them for months at a time.

We had a  pre booked specialty dinner at  La Cucina, the Italian restaurant on board. A delicious meal with a delightful view of the end of the canal going out into the Panama bay which is huge.

We passed a small bay with lots of sail boats waiting their turn to go through the canal. we wondered how many of the little boats could fit into the lock at one time. 



There was also a very interesting and colourful  building on q long spit of land that ran out into the bay. Maybe it was an art gallery or something.

Panama City was huge and sparkling white in the distance. We did not stop there but stayed in the bay for quite a while waiting for a refill of some kind of oil that we had to drain on the other side of the canal. No ships are allowed to travel the canal with this oil in their tanks I guess, but it was a calm warm night and we were now in the pacific so waiting around a big bay seemed fine with us.. 

Half our trip was done already.  It seemed to be going too fast. We had seen so much and still had so much to see.

When we got back to our room we found another towel animal - Eggbert the elephant who was very cute. We were very spoiled, two animals in one day. 


We decided to stay in and just watch a movie, the new  Mama Mia which was pretty good. who doesn't love a musical. the next day the Pacific part of the tour .

Monday, November 25, 2019

Wednesday- 9th January 2019 - Cartegena, Columbia


At 6 O’clock  I was having tea at O’Sheehan’s to get Kogilamani (Joanne) Balakrishnan from Malaysia’s signature  on the crew scavenger hunt list and had a lovely conversation with her about her time working on board. This is her last sailing and then her 8 month contract is up so at LA she gets off the ship and goes home to Malaysia for a well deserved rest. 
Went back to the room at around 730  to drop off the computer and Margie was up and dressed.  We watched the dancers forming up outside the ship to greet the tourists. 
We had planned to go for breakfast at the grand but they were closed.  We ended up going upstairs to O’Sheehan’s for breakfast again, which is not a bad thing.  Oatmeal with raisins, cinnamon and brown sugar for me and Margie had the corned beef hash with 2 over easy eggs. Toast and Coffee and tea to finish it off for both of us and we were ready to go back to the room. 

Our checklist of things to make sure we had everything done. pills - check, passports- check, money - Check, cabin card- check, sunscreen - check Hats - check. We were ready to go. 
Our tour bus was number 12 . Emily was our tour guide and Jason was our driver. She first brought us to the fortress Sant Felipe. It was very interesting,  at first Margie and I looked at each other with dismay when we saw the walk up the hill. It looked rather long and difficult and it was already very hot out, above 80 F. and we had not brought water with us. 
Every tour was different, some gave you water and some did not. This one did not, so, as there were people there selling bottled water, I asked one of them how much. it was, 200 pesos. Do you have change? I asked as I did not have any smaller bills. No he said but you can pay me when you come down after getting change at the top. Juan Carlos is his name. Well thank you Juan Carlos. 
We stayed the course and with only a few stops for “photos”  and sips of our lucky water, made it up with the rest of the group. We were with the old group I think. 


We gathered about halfway up for a bit of a history lesson about the fortress and the city. On the next level there was a gentleman playing the horn, taking requests, I said I was from Canada and he played our anthem or something akin to it.  
We continued up to the top through a series of long tunnels with small alcoves off of them, alternating with tunnels off of the main tunnel which led to a small square and another tunnel up to the top, very defensible which is why the fortress never fell. 
The reward at the top of the fortress is the washroom. There is one for everyone. And the three stairs to it are like 8 stairs anywhere else. There was a great view of the city and a gift shop where Margie bought a t-shirt and I bought some magnets.  I need ed some change from my 50,000 peso notes to pay for the water that I had picked up from Juan Carlos at the bottom of the hill. we wandered around enjoying the vies from the top of the citadel.

 Emily gathered us all together and we headed down to the bus. I located and paid Juan Carlos for the water that he gave me at the bottom of the hill on our way in, trusting that I would pay him on the way out, an honest man with a trusting soul. Back onto the bus and we headed for the walled old city. 
We entered through a side entrance and were instructed to meet there by 1230 so that we only had 2 hours to explore. Cartagena is a maze of streets that one could get lost in very easily. We stayed close to Emily and wondered how we would fare on our own. As long as we did not leave the walls of the city we had been told that we would be fine. why what happens outside the walls? 
Emily brought us down a few streets, through a few squares to a chocolate shop for a free sample which was very good. We wanted to find our way back to this shop so that we could get chocolate later on as we wanted to buy our jewelry first.
Emily asked us if we wanted to go and see Romancing the stone and we thought she meant the location where they filmed the movie seen in the fort with the crocodile. But she brought us to a jewelry store called Romance in the Stone. Some of us were not impressed so much, some thought it funny but no one bought anything in that shop. We did look at what they had in our price range, 20 to 40 $ but we did not like what they had. Margie and I just wandered off enjoying the city. 
It is wonderful with lots of old architecture, bright colours and friendly people. We passed several jewelry stores but went into a small one and did each purchase emeralds. I got a silver cross with an emerald in the middle and Margie got a silver star with the emerald in the middle and a silver chain.
After that we started off to try and find our free things. We did find a few of them. At one we got another free emerald each. It was of poor quality but it was an emerald. The next free thing was at the 'Coffee and ...'  coffee shop where we got a free coffee, which Margie said was very good, and so bought some  coffee and some postcards. While there we ran into some folks from the ship who were from Calgary of all places. They told us about their trip so far and about the cathedral that they had just seen which was very nice and very close. Sounded good to us so we said our good byes and good lucks and see you  later on board maybe.
 We walked off , not too quickly as it was getting hotter outside, with good directions from the young girl serving the coffee from the  'Coffee and…' shop. We turned right as we left the mall and left at the corner and proceeded up about two blocks past the park like square with the trees and the statue of some guy on a horse.  there was the cathedral! Success.
The cathedral was lovely with a beautiful altar of wood. There were some lovely statues and  I put some money into a candle box for two candles and was saying some prayers when the young couple from Calgary came up to us , saying that they had run to catch us as one of us had left our jewelry purchase at the coffee shop and that the coffee shop would hold onto it for us there. 
Oh My God. It was my jewelry, my Cross that I had just purchased with my columbian money. Back out the into the street, past the park , down 2 blocks turn right and then left into the little mall to the coffee shop to get back my jewelry purchase that I had left there.  the owner of the shop was there and we told him what a great employee he had and that she deserved a raise.

After saying thank you a lot for saving my purchases for me, we thought we should start trying to find our way out to the bus area so, again, the young girl gave us great directions again and we came out in plenty of time. Time enough to continue shopping in the tent shops set up all outside the wall. Margie found a mumuu dress that was very pretty. We got onto our bus a little bit early which was fine as the bus was air conditioned and it was hot out there. 
Everyone got back to the bus before time so we headed back to the ship, everyone happy and hot. It was an interesting enough drive although circuitous as it took us past the big hotels and the small beaches that were full of people where we did not stop anywhere, it was just to see that more exclusive part of town.
Our greeting at the dock was again lovely with cool wash clothes and cold juices. We headed back to our room and dropped our things off. we were hungry so headed off for a late lunch at the garden cafe upstairs  but it was totally full so we went to the grand pacific downstairs which filled up pretty quickly after we got there. It was very nice to be in the air-conditioning and we drank great amounts of water. We left port early, around 2. 
Back to our room to download pictures to our computers, pick out which ones we were going to upload and went online to upload them. We also checked to see if the  funds transfer I did to Margie’s credit card went through yet and it had not. How long does it take? We did check our ship account and were curious about some entries.  I signed up for the next cruise deal which gives me a discount on my next cruise and a 250 dollar onboard credit for this cruise. Which I believe I will use up in internet minutes putting pictures on face book. 
I called Chris in Comox and he told me it was snowing there , lots. The kids were having a great time making the biggest snow man they had ever made or maybe they would turn it into a slide. We were melting and they were playing in the snow. 

 I tried to organize photos into folders, one folder for each day. But my computer was being weird or the memory stick or something. it took a long time to finish.
 We went to dinner at the garden cafe for Russian night and it was good. the sunset was spectacular again.  What a lovely although exhausting day.


Towel animal -bighorn sheep