Preparing for the trip of a lifetime!

Well we are now close to going to Italy. What a trip this will be. We have been planning this trip for almost a year. We have our new suitcases, grey and red. We also have customized luggage straps curtesy of Gigi. I have been chatting with my good friend Stefano about incidentals, food, getting around, tipping, etc. 

Now I am restarting the blog that I had done for our Panama Canal trip so we can keep friends and family in the loop as we take this three week journey. I have the mobile blogging app from google so we shall see how much easier that makes it. The iPad 4 will certainly be easier than dragging a laptop along. 

Not sure if I need to re-invite all those who want to follow our travels but will check it out.

We are both so excited!

The new Captain of the MS Westerdam!

I had a great backstage tour of the ship climaxed by a tour of the bridge and a chance to meet and talk with the captain. What a great experience and lots of pictures, but my internet time is now all used up so it will have to wait until I get back to Phoenix.

Thanks for reading and allowing me to share our trip with you. 

Cartagena

Cartagena

The land of Joan Wilder. Cartagena is a beautiful port. It has modern buildings dotting the surrounding land sprinkled amongst old ruins and lush rainforest. There are beautiful expensive yachts and massive container ships. We have a leisurely morning as we don't dock until 10 am and have no planned excursions. We decide to go ashore at 11:30 and if nothing more than to say we were in Cartagena. None of us has high expectations after the stories we have heard about the drug cartel and the movies that have been set here. Byron decided to stay on board and be pampered with a 2 hour massage and body therapy. We first went through the official duty free stores that seem to be at every port. These were particularly nice. We we got outside to the street, the onslaught of taxi vendors was almost alarming. Negotiation is the name of the game here. Joe started negotiating with this old one eyed man who wanted $40 per person for a 4 hour tour. Joan went and found this girl who was hawking 4 hour in a cab for $20 per person. Joe went to the taxi stand and they would also do $20 per person but with 6 people we would need two cabs. I turned around and almost literaly ran into Elmo who had a van and agreed to do a 2 hour tour to the old town for $12 a person and we don't pay till we get back to the ship. I immediately accepted and we all gathered while Elmo was getting the van. Well…… Elmo first rounded up 4 other people to also pay $12 each and then he went ot get the van. The van was very nice and air conditioned. Hot Humid Rainforest is the way to describe the weather/temperature in Cartagena.

This weekend, Cartagena is celebrating it's 200th year of independence which was granted 11/11/1811. So today the old town is being blocked off to eliminate traffic as the old city becomes a huge street carnival. Elmo (who can forget a large middle aged man with a name like Elmo) was an excellent tour guide. He had the van drop us off by the outskirts of the walled city and took us for a very delightful walking tour of the old city. The old city reminds me of the French Quarter of New Orleans. It is both a historic area but an active city where people from all walks of life live. There are stores, restaurants, churches, apartments, lofts, mansions, and poor. To add to the natural vibrancy, the people were dressed and partying for carnival. There was music everywhere, people in costumes, and kids have a delight silly string and soap foam as they passed others . Several us, and especially Jan got spayed. Joe and I both talked about how this was a city worth visiting again. We were all accosted by the street vendors hawking their tshirts and knock off wares. They were persistent and particularly followed joe for the longest distances before they finally gave up. We made our way back outside and had to wait quite a spell before the van reappeared. Then all of us Hot Sweaty Stinking tourists piled into the heaven of air conditioned comfort and headed back to the ship. A brief stop in the shops and we we back on board. 

The Panama Canal

    

The Panama Canal

The Panama Canal is like going to the Grand Canyon, no pictures or words can substitute for the grandeur before your eyes and ears. We started our journey at 4:30 am when the ship lifted anchor and set a course towards the entrance. We passed all the ships waiting in the night for their turn to go through and were met by several tugs just past the Bridge of the Americas. By 6:00 we were approaching the first of the Mira Loma locks that we had visited yesterday. We watched as they connected us to 8 of the mule engines to guide our ship through the locks. The Mule train does not pull the ships through the locks, they use their own props for that. The purpose of the Mule is to keep the ship centered as it passes through and is raised by each of the locks. There is generally 2 off the bow and 1 at the stern. In as much as we are such a large ship, we had 2 in the front and  2 in the back on both sides. There is only about 2 feet of clearance on both sides of the ship and the lock. Once we are centered in the lock, they open up and release the water from the lock ahead of us until the water between the two locks levels. This first lock raised the ship 28 feet. We proceeded into the second lock and were raised an additional 28 feet. It is difficult to describe the sensation as you sit on this massive craft, and what seems to effortless, are raised up essentially 3 stories.   

We travelled a short distance to Pedro Miguel lock. again we are met by the tugs who help align us to the lock and are connected to Mule trains to move us safely through the lock. This lock will raise us an additional 29 feet and we will now be at 85 feet above sea level. During the process of lifting the ship, the canal will have used 26 million gallons of water. it will use the same amount for the decent on the Carribean side. We will now cruise through the Gaillard Cut. This was the most impressive part of actually constructing the canal. The Gaillard cut is a slice through the end of the begining of the Rocky Mountains. This is where the continental divide begins. They dug a trench to form a channal for the ships to go around the hills but it all had to be exactly 85 feet above sea level when flooded. They did this at the turn of century. The French tried it, and failed. The Americans under Teddy Roosevelt succeded. At the conclusion, it took almost $750,000,000 to build the canal, most of it went to cutting the Gaillard Cut. Many men lost their lives building the canal due to malaria, disease, and the heat. It cost 500 lives per mile.

The distance from the San Pedro lock and the Gatun lake is the Gaillard cut and is only wide enough for 1 ship to travel through so it is set for all Northbound traffic in the morning and Southbound traffic in the afternoon. This made our journey even more exciting to experience as there were always several ships in the locks at the same time traveling in the same direction. It is a money maker as they charge by the passenger or by the gross weight. for our ship it was approx $350,000. It took several hours to cross Gatun lake which like Lake Mead, is created by damning a river. As we move northward, the lake becomes very expansive with lots of little islands that were at one time hilltops.

The Gatun locks lower the ships to meet the Carribean sea. They are a set of 3 locks were the icing on the cake of this experience. Lifting the ship to 85 feet was impressive, but lowering it down 85 feet in the space of 300 yards was spectacular. We all ventured to many locations around the ship as we went from lock to lock. But for the final lock we all met in our stateroom in the aft and sat on the veranda having a drink while experiencing the last 30 foot drop. To experience up close the size of the gate that was holding back all those millions of gallons just 3 feet in front of us was like being first hand in the King Kong movie where they have those giant gates that keep kong out. They are massive rivited metal that looked like the metal on the Nautilus from 20,000 leagues.  As we left we could see three different ships in the locks all at different stages of lowering. Pictures were plentiful and I am sure we have enough for a DVD which I have been assigned to produce for Christmas.

Panama City

 Panama City

We got into port about 9am and like arriving at Catalina and trying to get a mooring in Avalon, we had to await for a pilot to join the ship and guide us to a position to set Anchor overnight to await our time slot for passage through the Canal tomorrow. The bay is full of ships. Not tiny ships but great big tanker and container ships. A beautiful modern city rises along  the shoreline with majestic high rises Condos glimmering in the sun. Yes it is sunny and hot and humid. Seems these three words are tied together. Because we are anchored out by the Yacht club, we will need to tender in for our shore excursion. Today we are all doing the Panama RailRoad along the Canal to the Atlantic side (which to to the North West) and returning by bus with a stop at the Mira Loma Locks.

Once ashore we quickly got on our bus like a heard of desert Tortise (sp?). I am not claiming to be young, but in this crowd, Deb, Joe, Joan, and I are like teenagers. At one point in the tour when they said we will only have 45 minutes at the stop before we had to get back on the bus, Joe remarked, "Hell, it will take at least that long for these people just to get off the Damn Bus!". Train ride was nice and we saw lots of water, jungle, vultures, a few butterflies, but very little of the canal. We finally arrived in Colon which is the second largest Duty Free zones in the world. Probably great for shopping but with the crowd we immediately went from train to bus. Besides, it was pouring rain who wants to get wet in a bus where the average age was 81. So the bus ride back took us along the wet mountain roads way inland from the canal. Eventually we turned off toward the Mira Flores locks. As we approached the locks, a ship was in transit. We rushed off (well….mentally we rushed off) and up the steps of the visitors center in time to see two ships actually pass through the locks. This redeemed the trip. The locks were amazing. To see that container ship go through and get lowered 58 feet was incredible. Made us get really excited about our own Journey through the canal tomorrow.

We finally got back to town about 5:00 and Joan,Byron, Jan, and I all had an additional nighttime tour of old panama city set at 6:30. So we stayed right there at a local restaurant with outside tables and had a drink and some calamari. it was sprinkling off and on, so Gigi and Deblet , and Joe took all our stuff back to the ship for us while we caught our tour. Only 15 of us on this tour provided by a transplanted Brit named Julian. He was a great guide with a great dry sense of British humor, and strong knowledge of Panama, and an ability to breath life into a city. We arrived at our first destination of an old church built in the 1400's with a mahogany and gold leaf alter that was at least 3 stories tall. To protect it from the pirate Cap't Morgan, the spanish had it dismantled and buried for later assembly. Good idea as Cap't Morgan burned and destroyed most of Panama City. No drinking responsibly on that trip. It was beginning to rain so we got a little wet on our way back to the bus. We next went to a monument to founders of the old city. It was definitely raining now and Julian gave us a choice to continue. All but 4 of us elected to get off the bus. Joan had a couple of cheap ponchos she had bought for us on our trip to Tikal which we didn't end up using. She gave those to Byron and Jan and we all exited the bus. No sooner had we got out of the comfort of the bus, than the skies opened up. Within 15 feet it was as if I had jumped fully clothed into the pool. As we crossed the plaza, the rain puddled into pools that were 4 - 6 inches deep. We took refuge under a roof with the local bum while Julian pointed out the history of the area we saw. 

We gave up on walking in old town as the rain was too intense and he took us all down to the new high rise section of the city. It is quite the metropolis and has many attractions of a modern city. It would also have been a facinating walk, but with the rain and the wind, only a few of us (me) got out to see the highlights. I figured I couldn't get any wetter than I already was but I would never be back to downtown Panama. A quick drive back to the harbor and we were quickly aboard the tender and headed back to our ship. Too late for dinner we ordered room service and got our of our wet clothes. The French Onion Soup was just the thing to improve our spirit and get us ready to join Gigi, Deb, and Joe for the Indonisian Talent show at 11:00. These are the least professional shows but I think the most enjoyable of all of them. Our dinner steward was part of the performance and we made she he heard our support. Back to bed as we need to get up 5 am for our early start on the Panama transit.

Panama

I love that song! Van Halen. Had it on my iPOD today as we went to see.... Panama The City!

Guatemala

Guatemala Puerto Quetzal

This update will come in 3 parts as the group split and had different adventures. Joan and I went on an all day trip to the pre Mayan ruins at Tikal, Byron and Jan met with her cousin who has a banana farm here, and Deb, Joe, and Gigi went to see the city of Antigua.

Tikal

We arrived at Puerto Quezal at 6:00am and were on the bus to catch our flight at 6:30 am. We made our way south of the port when we see this itty bitty air strip to the left with a bunch of Army Guards with Sub Machine Guns . Our bus slows down and takes a let onto a small muddy road which leads us to this air strip. After stopping to talk to the guards, our bus travels through and unto the airport where our plane was waiting. It was a twin engine 19 passenger prop with 2 seats on the right and 1 on the left and head room for a maximum height of about 5'6". As we know anywhere South of the border, rule #1 is safety first, so as soon as the last person boarded and they were closing the door, the pilot started the engines.  a quick left and right and we are hurtling 100 mph down the runway. Joan asked if we should put on the seat belts and I said, it's Guatemala so they are optional. However there was a bottle of water for each of us on board. It was a cloudy day and we were soon sailing high above them with a vey comfortable trip, other than the fact that my knees wouldn't fit in our row, so I sat half off the seat with my legs down the aisle. After about an hour, we nosed dived through the clouds, and looking through the cockpit (no door per local weight control) the International Airport was directly in front of us. 

We boarded our bus  which was air conditioned for the 45 minute drive to Tikal. Our guide supplied by Blue Planet Tours was Marcus Anthony. He was outstanding. Informative, informed, knowledgable about the entire history of the Mayans and all the era's of the Central American Indians. One of the interesting factoids he shared was the answer to the question, "What happened to the Mayan people?". In fact they are still here. 60% of the population of Guatemala is Mayan. When they left Tikal, the rulers went and founded Chitzen Itza where they stayed until the Spanish invaded at which point the came back to the lake just outside of Tikal and settled.

Tikal is in the middle of the jungle as was the way most of Guatemala was covered. Tikal is a national park and cover 280 square miles. it has over 3,000 buildings from the original city but on 20% have been uncovered or partially uncovered as archeological sites. It had an existence of almost 1,500 years starting about 500 BC. It was a massive city with infrastructure that rivals the Roman empire. The first ruin we visited was Temple IV with is the tallest of the structures. They have provided wooden stairs, but I think most of us would have preferred an elevator based on all the heavy breathing and sweating and speed of the climb. The stairs were just to prevent people from climbing the original structure adding wear and tare but followed the same ridiculously steep incline as the original stone stairs. When we did make it to the top (about 60 meters) the view was incredible. As you peer across the thick rainforest, the view is for miles and is only interrupted by occasional other Mayan Temples that were all part of the Tikal city. Hawks soar above the trees looking for prey and the roar of the Howling Monkeys is a constant with the occasional bark of a Tuccan.

This is worse than it looks. StairMaster set to "Mean"

The trip down the stairs was as frightening as the climb up had been strenuous.  But all made it and we began our walk through the rainforest to the next temple and then on to the square. Interesting factoid, the Tikal is just one minute off the same latitude as the the Egyptian pyramids, which makes them about a 2 hour difference. So astrological observations would be nearly identical. Also the Mayans did not use their structures as the burial tombs as the Egyptians did. Their structures are solid throughout, no magical tombs or protected chambers of Indiana Jones fame. The actual square is far more dramatic than the pictures. The craftmanship is incredible. The original city was 8 square miles and the last structure to be built was Temple #1 which is the most famous structure of Tikal. In the center of the base of Temple 1 they found a detailed miniature model version of the entire city which further demonstrates the intellectual power to have built this city 500 years BC with a plan of how it would look after those who designed it had already died. 

When we were done climbing and exploring this small part of Tikal we were escorted to a shade area where we had fresh handmade tortillas and grilled chicken. While we were expiring Tikal, the sun came out and it was a beautiful day with a pure blue sky spotted with brilliantly white clouds. All of which made the heat and humidity exceed those I have ever experienced in Florida. I must have sweat out 2 gallons of sweat and my clothes with the "natural wicking" were working overtime and looked like I had been rained upon. The air conditioned bus ride back to the airport was a welcome relief.  We had to go through immigration and security at the airport which consisted of a double check to be sure we had paid the $3 per person tax. Back to the planes, close the door, sit down and off we were into the skies on our way back to the ship.

We had been the first off the ship in the morning and were the last ones back from the days activities. As we got into our room, we had previously arrange with all to have drinks as we left the port on our verandah, which served several purposes. First, we now knew that all had returned from their various activities, secondly provide all a much needed pain reliever, and lastly gave us a chance to toast to this lovely, hot, wonderful country. 

First of the Day!   

Antigua - (Deblet update)

Bus Ride to Antigua

Deb, Joe, and Gigi took the 90 minute bus ride to Antigua passing thru many coffee farms. One of the Volcanos is still active and we could see smoke puffing from the top. We drove thru the very old part of the city that had been flooded which caused them to build a new city on the top of the hill. But only the rich could afford to buy homes up above the flood plain, so the poor occupied the old city at the base of the hill. That is why there are 2 cities. When we got to the town, it was beautiful with cobblestone streets that have tall side walls. As soon as we got off the bus, Joe was surrounded by girls trying to sell a variety of stuff; blankets, jewelry, flutes. Joe is like a magnet to these girls and they don't want to take no for an answer. Gigi is a trouper with all the uneven surfaces. On the way back to the bus, al the girls see Joe coming and say; "Hi Joe, Remember Me?"…. He relents and buys a necklace, tapestry, and a flute.

Banana Farm - (Waiting Jan Update)

Corrinto Nicaragua

Deb, Joe, and Gigi went ashore to explore and reported back that it was not worth the walk through the containers on the dock and through the little security shack to explore the streets. Definitely a poor people in a poor town. Joe said he would rather jump in the L.A. river than go in the water at the beach. Deb said if you weren't sick before, you would be by the time you got out of the water. The town was unremarkable and little in the way of local crafts. Deb got a wood cup that says Nicaragua (at least thats what we all think it says). Joan, Jan, Byron, and myself all spent the day hanging out by the pool (a perfect 81 degrees and clean). We got some sun, had some food, had some drinks, listened to music or a book and read. Tonight we are all eating in the Pinnacle Grill which is a specialty restaurant onboard with steaks as their main course. I already have the wine picked out, so we shall behaving no pain as head towards spending a full day at sea tomorrow.