January 30
We got up
before 6 a.m. to watch the ship's entry and transit through the Panama Canal. We
climbed the 123 stairs to the open deck 12. We transited the Panama Canal from
the Pacific Ocean to Caribbean Sea portion of the Atlantic Ocean. The predawn sky
was cloudy and there was a haze along the shore, making Panama City’s skyline
blurry in the dawn. The sun rose around 6:30 a.m. The temperature was cool,
about 22 on the open decks of the ship and windy, about 15 km per hour. No need
for a sweater. We grabbed some coffee and each found a place to take pictures at
the front, on opposite sides of the ship. As the sun rose, there were over 30
different vessels waiting for their turn to enter the Panama Canal. Most ships
know their entry time about 24 hours in advance. There is a toll. The toll for our under 2,000 passenger ship
was over US $279,000. Claire was on the starboard side for snapping photos of
the sun rise over the Pacific near Panama City. We could see the construction
of the new third set of locks on the port side of the ship. We passed under the Bridge of the Americas by
Panama City. It was just after 7, and the morning rush of traffic could be seen
on the bridge. There was a light blue Maerk ship in a dock yard before the
Miraflores Locks. Usually you see the
Maerk container at the port, but this is first time that we have seen one of
their ships. After entering the approach to the canal, the
first set of locks was the Miraflores Locks which we entered around 7:30 a.m.
and took about 85 minutes to pass through, raising the ship 54 feet above sea
level. There was an Evergreen container freighter a lock chamber ahead of us in
the north side locks for the whole transit. The container freighter, Zin Haifa,
was a little behind us and used the locks on the north side of us. We took
pictures of it as it was guided by mechanical “mules” as it squeezed into each
lock, like our ship using its own power of about three km an hour. We could watch the locks flood and the Zin
Haifa rise. With a break, until we entered the Pedro Miguel Locks, we went for
breakfast in the dining room and finished in time to get pictures of entering
the locks. It took about 45 minutes and raised the ship the remaining 31 feet above
sea level to be level with Gutan Lake. We passed under the Centennial Bridge,
which is a beautiful cable bridge which had greater clearance for ships than
the Bridge of the Americas. Next was the
Culebra Cut, a 12.7 km stretch that had to be blasted through the Continental
Divide, and even now, has an occasional landslide. We saw two different kinds
of dredging ships as we navigated the Culebra Cut. By
noon, we had a few brief rain showers during the morning only lasting three or
four minutes and the temperature had risen to 28. A lot of lives, over 20,000, were lost from
disease and accidents during the ten year construction by the Americans and the
previous attempt by the French. We browsed through the poolside Panama Canal
souvenirs and each bought a T-shirt. As we cruised Gutan Lake, we went for
lunch in the dining room and finished in time for the approach to the Gutan
Locks. The Gutan Locks were a series of three locks to return the ship back to
sea level at the Caribbean Sea. We took over 135 photos each. Claire’s battery
died just as we were entering the Gutan Locks.
It will be charged in time for tomorrow’s excursion. When we were in the
upper chamber of the Gutan Locks, Larry got our hats and we found seats on the
starboard side of the ship, in preparation for the exit from the lower chamber.
We wanted good seats to see the first four gates of the new set of locks that
were waiting to be installed. We entered
the Caribbean Sea and the final exit passage after 4 and decided to have
showers before dinner. We had been out
on the decks for ten hours except for visits to the dining room to eat. Before
dinner, we danced 20 minutes in Rendez-vous Square to the Celebration band. For dinner at 6, we had whole wheat pasta
with vegetables or lobster bisque as appetizers, followed by Greek Salad and
either southern herbed chicken with mashed potatoes or Moroccan spiced lamb for
entrées; for dessert, either crépe suzette or Chocolate fondant . After dinner, we returned to the stateroom to
update the blog, since the Celebration band was not starting their set until 8
in Rendez-vous Square and the Headlines party band was not starting their set
until 8:15 in the Crystal Room. The entertainer at the Celebrity Theatre
tonight was singer violinist/fiddler, Seonid Aitken. The sea was rough when the
show was over. People could not walk straight and used the hand rails as they
exited the theatre and waited for the elevators. The staterooms on the upper
levels mostly have balconies and would still give passengers the rolling
feeling from the rough seas. We are
quite glad that we have a lower inside and close to the center of the ship
stateroom to reduce the sway of the ship.
We got ready for bed and lights were out about 11 p.m.
January 29
Got up about 9,
which was in yesterday’s Central Standard Time zone 8 a.m., then quickly got
dressed to get to the dining room for breakfast before it closed at 9:30. We sat with Leigh and Noel from Minnesota, and
they told how much they enjoy watching us dance. Then we went to the Celebrity Theatre for the
10 a.m. final lecture about the Panama Canal and its future. The third set of locks is expected to open in
August 2014 and last fall the project was 62% complete. Tomorrow we will be
able to see the Pacific side expansion, but it looks like the Atlantic’s new
locks are further away from the current locks. At 11, we went a presentation of
Celebrity’s European cruises getting a bit more information on Norwegian,
Mediterranean and Black Sea cruises.
Then we had coffee at the Cova Café before going five flights of stairs
up to Deck 12 & 14 for a 11/2
km walk and some Tai Chi practice. The sky was clear and sunny with the
temperature about 28 and a light breeze.
We saw container freighters going in both directions. We noticed a line of small white caps on the
calm ocean and realized it was either dolphins or whales surfacing, but they
were too far away to tell. We stopped to
talk to several members of our group as we walked. We went down to deck 6 for lunch in the upper
dining room and sat with a couple from Connecticut who have been married 63 years
and travelled to every continent and over 80 countries. Larry went to watch the
ballroom dance lesson at 2:30 which was waltz and partnered a lady from
Edmonton and while the blog was updated.
Then we went for ice cream, and visited with fellow group members before
finding lounge chairs in the shade on deck 14 and reading for a couple of
hours. Then we got ready for
dinner. There were at times six couples
crowded on the Rendez-vous Square tiny dance floor dancing to Headlines party
band. We danced for about 20 minutes before dinner. All 10 of us were at our table for dinner
tonight and Claire took photos of our group. We had cured Atlantic salmon or
lobster ravioli as appetizers, followed by Panzanella Salad or a cold soup –
creamy parsnip and either Almond crusted Hake (fish) or vegetable wellington
for entrées. For dessert, we enjoyed Frasier sweet strawberry cake. We danced for 30 minutes after dinner at Rendez-vous
Square while Marilyn, Anita, Bertha, and Joan also listened to the Headlines
party band before going to the Celebrity Theatre at 9 to watch the comedy show
with a little magic featuring Chipper Lowell.
Then went down the two flights of stairs to the stateroom to get the hot
chocolate packets so we didn’t have to look for them in the Island Café coffee station.
We climbed the six flights of stairs to the Islands Café for hot chocolate and
some pieces of two-bite desserts, then joined Don and Carol. Then we returned
to the stateroom to update the blog. By 11:15, we were in bed having set the
alarm to get up by 6 for the Panama Canal journey.
January 28
Got up around
6:25 and the ship was already docked at Puntarenas, Costa Rica. Our excursion
today is into the rainforest. The sky was clear, sunny and no wind. The
temperature was about 23. We went up to Deck 11 for the breakfast buffet, then
returned to the stateroom to apply sunscreen and go to the Celebrity Theatre to
get our excursion sticker and wait for our tour number to be called. We are exiting from deck five since the tide
is low today. There were two buses for our excursion. A large 50 passenger bus
and a smaller 22 passenger bus, which we used. One of the production cast
dancers, Felicia, was on our bus. Our guide was Francesco, who told us their
seven provinces in Costa Rica and it is 63% mountains. $1 U.S. = 500 Costa Rica
colones. The highway had a 4 meter wide walking & cycling path along the
first 15 km., before we switched to a narrower highway. We headed north then
east then south over 65 minutes to get to the first part and stopped at the
roadside to get out for photos of white faced monkeys, in the trees at the edge
of the road. We learned that as the land moved to create Central America, the
Costa Rica region was the last part that was joined by volcano eruptions to
join North and South America. The area is home to scarlet Macaws, but we did
not see any, even when we later drove to Tarcoles to an area near the beach in
an almond tree where they are known to nest. The last ten minutes, we turned,
about 20 km from Jaco, on to a winding dirt road with steep intervals and we
reached the 900 meter summit. We stopped for a washroom break before going to the
Villa Lapas Skyway rain forest walk which was almost two hours long, along
paths, steep at times and three suspension bridges. We saw butterflies and birds including a
glimpse of a Tucan with a yellow beak, but it was hidden high in the
canopy. We did have an opportunity to
photograph parrots at the lunch stop. During the walk, we saw trees that were
several centuries old and trees and bushes that 45 years ago had been pasture
land and had 20 meter trees now. The rain forest was humid and the temperature
was about 31 and no breeze. First stop was to show us a wild cashew tree. This was a dry rain forest so there no
mosquitoes, but several times we did see hundreds of leaf ants, in a trail of seven
or eight meters, carrying tiny pieces of leaves and returning the same way to
get another piece to carry. Francesco explained the different vegetation and
pointed out areas where there were hanging vines and hanging roots from plants
that were growing on trees and got there water from the air, like orchids. We
saw different orchid plant sizes, but none that were in bloom and termite
colonies on the sides of trees. After
the walk, we returned to the air conditioned bus and went back to the Villa
Lapas for a 30 minute snack of local pineapple, watermelon and papaya. In the
garden area were colourful flowers and plants and an avocado tree, a chestnut
tree, a coconut palm, a cacoa tree and a tree with round gourds. The next place
was Pura Vida Gardens, where for 40 minutes, we strolled through the manicured
gardens of local trees, flowers and bushes downhill to a view of a narrow
cascading waterfall, which although 500 meters away we could hear. The view was
lovely and when we looked the other way, we had a view of the ocean and 40 km
away in the harbour our tiny ship. Near the start there was a large fan shaped
palm like tree that is related to the bird of paradise plant. There was a
cactus like plant with leaves that was a relative to the poinsettia plant. Lunch was a delicious buffet of tilapia fish,
chicken, pasta salad, buns, steamed broccoli, cauliflower and carrots, fried
plantain slices, rice and black beans with mango or blackberry juice to
drink. Beer and wine were also
available. There was also a small gift shop to browse after lunch. We were at
Pura Vida Gardens a total of an hour and 45 minutes before we boarded the bus
and in the town of Tarcoles while looking for the scarlet macaw, we saw a
fisherman mending his nets. Then we continued back and had a 20 minute stop at
a gift shop which offered a taste of Costa Rican coffee. We bought some
souvenir shot glasses. All day we had been watching fluffy white clouds become
more numerous. By 4, when we returned to the ship the clouds had blocked the
sun in the west. We did not get rain. It was great to get back to the stateroom
to shower and get ready for dinner. We danced 15 minutes before dinner. Pat & Pat did not come to diner and
Brendene & Brian sat at another table. Our table again does not have a battery flamed
candle like the surrounding tables. We
had either Seafood Salad or Goat cheese cannellini as appetizers, followed by Cobb
salads with lemon dressing and either Beef Prime Rib or Veal Medallions for
entrées; for dessert, either Blackberry-Anise Nugget or chocolate mousse. While
Larry checked my camera to see if had charged, I went to the deck 7 Atrium to
look at the costume jewelry sale with bertha and Marilyn, where Larry joined
us. We said good-bye and went to the Crystal Room where the Celebrity orchestra
was playing and danced for 15 minutes before going to the Celebrity Theatre at
9 to watch comedian Steve Caouette’s improve comedy. At the end of the show
John, the cruise director, reminded everyone that watches should be moved
forward to Eastern Standard Time (EST) overnight. Then climbed the five flights of stairs to the
Islands Café for hot chocolate and again searched for it at all four coffee
stations to find just one packet in total.
We settled on one coffee and one tea and had a piece of two-bite
cheesecake and couple of other a pieces
of two-bite desserts and were joined by Don and Carol and heard about their
visit to a coffee plantation and co-op coffee roaster. By 11 (or midnight EST) we were calling an
end to the day.
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