PANAMA CANAL

When we woke early the morning of our Panama Canal crossing, we thought we were looking at the lights of a very large town, but as it became lighter, we realised there were many, many ships waiting for their turn to pass through the canal.

The city of Panama was enormous & looked as if it is very modern. 

We passed under the Bridge of the Americas (a little Harbour Bridge - memories of home)

The Captain informed us the charge for our ship to pass through the canal was 250,000 pounds!! 

At moment only ships carrying a maximum of 5,000 containers can pass through the canal.

We saw the construction of a new lock system which, once completed next year will be able to handle the panamax size ships which carry up to 12,000 containers

We were guided into position by tug boats

SOME BRIEF HISTORY - The canal was started in 1881 by the French who had to give up in 1889 due to the terrible conditions, they lost 22,000 men, mainly from malaria & yellow fever. 

In 1904 the Americans took over & only lost approx 5,000 workers - the reason for this were improved living conditions for the workers & also almost eradicating the mosquitos.They completed the Canal in August 1914. 

once in the lock, mechanical mules guide the ship through to the next section & there is very little room for error.

The locks act like a water staircase which raise or lower the ships depending on the way they are coming through the canal. Each lock measures 305 mtrs long & 33.5 mtrs wide & can contain up to 55 million litres of water.

after the locks, we passed under the Centennial bridge & then into Gatun Lake to make our way to the final locks which take you to the Caribbean Sea & then the Atlantic Ocean.

Some of the passing traffic being helped along by a tug.

A toast to our Panama crossing

Day at sea tomorrow - then off to Curacao (pronounced cure-a-sao)

PUNTARENAS - COSTA RICA

We awoke to a Costa Rican morning & were very excited at the thought of walking through a rainforest

We left at 7:15am for our forest skywalk & Pura Vida garden tour with Ricardo our tour guide & Miguel, our erratic bus driver - we were driven through the outskirts of the town - homes that looked as if they should have been condemned, homes with bars across the front, garbage in the streets, not a very pretty sight :-(

We thought, being a tourist destination the town would be quite pretty, but that was not the case. 

The further we travelled the worse it got & once out of the residential area the roadside was littered with rubbish & the land was extremely dry & dusty. Ricardo explained it was the end of the dry season & the wet season would start in about 2 weeks, he also said most of the rivers are polluted, but were full of crocodiles -  so don't swimming

After travelling along an extremely dusty (slightly scary) dirt road we were dropped off to begin our skywalk - you can see from the below picture of Cliff just how dry the forest was. Maybe we had seen too many David Attenborough documentaries on the Costa Rican rainforests, so disappointment was an understatement. 

It did become greener the further we walked -  but still very dry.

We then went to privately owned botanical gardens. An American couple had bought the property 15 years ago & created these beautiful gardens which had great views of the coast.

We saw beautiful hummingbirds & colourful butterflies, but the highlight was seeing wild macaws, which was incredible - they were as noisy & crazy as the white cockatoos in Oz

After a nice lunch it was back on the bus for another stop. The river was quite pretty & we saw lots of iguanas

Back in town we wandered for a little while through markets then back on the ship to wash away the dust.

     

What can we say - Farewell Puntarenas,looking forward to a rest day at sea tomorrow - then it will be the Panama Canal.

Take care xxx

CABO SAN LUCAS - MEXICO

We disembarked the Aurora and as we started to walk along the pier we were swamped by locals trying to sell tours, cuban cigars, jewellery and toys. Restaurant staff urging us to come in to eat and drink.

 All we wanted to do was wander along the marina, enjoy the sights and check out the shops

Now this is an interesting mode of transport for the local Police 

check out the helicopter on this boat

mmmmmmm Corona 

 

Some interesting advertising billboards for over the counter medications from local pharmacies 

and the pharmacies are also the local bottle shops!!

Enough time was spent wandering around, so we entered a little restaurant  "Alexander's" where the staff were extremely friendly and genuinely helpful with all of our silly questions. Our afternoon was spent eating spicy Mexican food, a bucket of coronas for Cliff and Margaritas for myself as we watched the passing crowds

Cliff with 2 of our waiters - Karim and Armardo

we were serenaded with a Santana song

As we sailed away to our next port of call - we sat on our balcony admiring the rocky landscape 

called "Lands End" - Santana playing on our iPod and thought to ourselves - What a great day we've had.

SAN FRANCISCO

What a first day we had, docked at 6am, left the ship at 7:30am (30th March - sunny day but a very cool breeze) We walked around the streets of San Francisco for 6 hours -  up hill (Lombard St aka the crooked street) & down hill, from one end of San Francisco to the other. Caught a cable car, checked out the shopping district & walked up to Coit Tower.

View from Coit Tower - the best views in San Fran - our ship at the pier

We made a quick stop back at the ship to change into comfy shoes, then made our way to Pier 39, found a great little italian restaurant - Swiss Louies. Cliff ordered the famous clam chowder in a sough dough bread roll, carafe of wine, views of Alcatraz, watched the seals sunning themselves on pontoons.

Caught the evening ferry for our Alcatraz tour.

 Dinner at Nicks italian seafood restaurant at the famous Fishermans Wharf.

Back to our cabin by 11pm

Our excursion today was Muir Woods - beautiful big Coastal Redwoods - tallest trees we have ever seen.

Currently sitting at a cafe in Union Square opposite Macys - retail therapy after lunch.

Good Bye San Francisco - We'll be back.

BIG ISLAND - HILO

   As we neared our destination of Hilo we were greeted with a sunrise that look like a volcano 

                                     a beautiful view of a snow capped peak

AND then we witnessed an incredible display by humpback whales. We decided our day would be best spent relaxing & wandering around Hilo. As we disembarked the ship there was a guy calling out to passengers to join his bus tour, change of plan, so off we went. There were 24 of us on the bus with the driver (and what a character he was). Malaki helped make our memory of Hilo all the more enjoyable. He took us to the markets where we bought lots of yummy tropical fruit

                                                 then off to Rainbow Falls

        Before we left for our next destination Malaki sang us a song (he had a great voice)

We drove to the Hawaiian Volcanoes National Park to see the volatile Kilauea - this volcano has been erupting continuously for the last 20 years. The weather changed quite fast, it was much cooler at the volcano.

                     The crater was an incredible sight -  the air was hazy with sulphur

                                       We stopped at natural steam vents

             walked through a lava tube

                                               Our final stop was an orchid farm

We had a great day and as we said goodbye to Hilo, a mother whale & calf were only 30 metres from our side of the ship - what can I say :-)