Category: Panama Canal

Our all too short day in Aruba began when I opened the curtains at 6 AM to find us gliding along the coast of Aruba. I woke Hubby and we stood on our balcony for a bit watching the island slip by us. Such a pretty sight to watch, as the sun rose over the island.

Aruba is a very beautiful. There is great care given to most all of the homes. I think the Aruban’s have a lot of pride in their home and their country. They are also extremely kind people.

After a nice breakfast on-board the ship, we headed down to the dock area to get our tour. Campbell was our driver and tour guide and he was in charge of showing us “The Best Of Aruba”. What I learned was, the island has great variety, sand beaches and rocky beaches, high hotels and low hotels, tourist shops and shops for the residents, and the only thing that stays the same here is the weather (4 inches of rain per year). There is so much to see that one cannot do it in a few hours.

First we drove through Oranjestad, and went off to the Casibari rock formations. The views were beautiful from the top of these rocks, but I do admit I was a little nervous at those heights.

After climbing slowly back down these rocks we got back in the bus and drove to the north coast of Aruba to see the collapsed Natural Bridge, and the Baby Natural Bridge. The Natural Bride remains are still there, but sadly this natural rock formation fell apart in 2005.

Our driver, Campbell was always trying to get us on-board the bus so we could get to see as much as possible in the limited time we had, so he made a rule up, the last one on-board had to sing to the others! Here is the Australian woman who took too long at the Natural Bridge and was the first victim singing, Walzing Matilda!

We went to see the Aruba Aloe Factory and it was quite a sight to see the large Aloe plants and then take the tour.

While we waited for our bus to leave I made a quick call home to say good-bye to Dori, as we will now be out of cell phone coverage until we reach Guatemala.

We decided not to go to the beach to swim, and so our bus driver dropped us down town to do some shopping. Not that I wanted to buy anything too expensive, but I wanted two small table clothes for our family room. We walked around until we finally located the shop and there they were, two beautiful table clothes for our home!

We looked at our watches and realized we had better get back to the ship, as it was leaving at 12:30 PM! We needn’t have worried.

We got back in plenty of time, took some pictures and with time to spare, went up to get a Mexican lunch! As we were eating, the ship slowly departed Aruba. I do wish we had had a little more time to visit and explore the island, it is such a pretty place.

Now we are heading toward Columbia, where I will spend my 49th birthday.

Hello from Curacao!

Our day began early when our cell phone rang and the local cell phone company welcomed us to Curacao, and then advised us how to call back to the states on our cell phone! I thought to myself, what a great marketing ploy! As it turned out I needed to call back to New Hampshire, as some business needed settling.

Meanwhile, since we were up, we got dressed and ready for breakfast. In Curacao we had two tours that we were making and so we needed to be prepared for both.

The first was a scenic drive across the island. We heard old tales of the island and saw how the vegetation changed from one side of this 36 mile long island to the other. We drove to the west end of the island and visited two very beautiful, yet very different beaches.

Our guide was a nice Dutch woman who spoke English quite well, and even though she had only been working as a tour guide for three months, she was doing an excellent job. She took us to one beach that was almost totally coral formations and we walked to the viewing areas and back. That’s when I saw this handsome creature begging for a kiss!

Curacao is a very different island from those I have been to before in the Caribbean. The vegetation is thick and there isn’t much top soil, so things don’t grow here very well. But life goes on, and the Curacaoan’s make it all work.

We got back to the ship just after noon and literally raced up to the buffet and had lunch. Then we got back down to the docks to get our second tour. This one was the Hato Caves and the best of Curacao. Our guide was a local woman named Mayae. She gave us such a great tour, taking us up for a good view of the ship,

and then off to the Curacao Distillery to try their liquor. We all tasted it, even me who put it to my lips and tasted. Quite interesting. Although one man excalined, “Oh this tasted just like cough syrup!”. Perhaps this is true! LOL

Then we were off to the Hato Caves. A natural cave area with wonderful stalagmites and stalactites and even a chamber for the care and nurturing of bats! (Janet I know you will love that!) We even saw an Iguana, and I captured this picture.

We drove back into town and went to the museum of Curacao and our tour guide demonstrated to us how to play the carillon, which is part of the museum. What a treat that was.

We needed a few supplies and we mentioned that to our driver and to Mayea. They knew we needed to make our stop short, so that we wouldn’t miss our ship out, so Mayea offered to drive us to the shop and back.

All in all, I found Curacao a truly interesting place to visit. We are now underway to Aruba!

November 14, 2007

Our first day at sea saw me getting up much earlier than I had planned. When I awoke I felt the light pitch of the sea, and despite using the patches, I felt just a tad dizzy. So I threw on my clothes and went for a walk around the ship. I call this, “getting my sea legs”! So far, it has worked well.

All of Tuesday was spent at sea. All I can say is that I still turn the wrong way when I get off the elevator when coming back to our stateroom! But then, my sense of direction has never been too good anyway.

Hubby and George played some ping pong, and explored the upper decks and found this.

We went swimming at the pool and I swam close to a couple and we started talking. I asked where they were from and they were from New Hampshire too! In fact they live in southern New Hampshire where Fritz’s eye doctor is. Naturally we talked about the Red Sox and the Celtics and the Patriot’s football team! Right now God is smiling on New England fans and our teams have made us pretty happy!

It was our first formal night so we got all dressed up and went to dinner. The food was wonderful, and our table mates were quite nice. Most of us had the Tornedos of Beef and then it was, time for dessert. I kept mine simple, and just had peppermint ice cream, but Hubby had a wonderful banana cream dessert that was sugar free.

Then we were off to the Captains cocktail party. I thought it would be a nice quiet affair, but the place was packed and sort of crazy, but in a fun sort of way. Hubby had some sort of Caribbean Cocktail before we left to go to a live musical show.

This was really fabulous! They had two women and two men who sang beautifully.They were backed up by the Island Princess dancers, who have more energy than a Jack Russell terrier! They sang the songs of Billy Joel, Neal Sedaka, Elton John, Barry Manilow and yes they even did a few dance numbers to music once played by Liberace. I was able to get this one picture of them, all the others were blurred. I think that was from low light and fast moving dancers!

Now we are sitting back getting ready for our first shore day in Curacao.

Our flight down to San Juan went well, once we got past Security. Hubby was frisked in the most aggressive way by a big Agent named Bubba, all due to his artificial knees. I mean, he patted down areas on Hubby that even I haven’t touched! And at one point I thought, perhaps he might make Hubby drop his drawers! Fortunately everyone was spared that sight! LOL We left a cold and rainy Boston and landed in bright, sunny and warm San Juan.

I do have to make several notes about the flight down. First of all, ladies, be careful how much perfume you wear in an enclosed space. There was a woman near me who bathed in her cologne and it brought tears to my eyes. I kept the air blowing in my face the entire 3 1/2 hour trip!

Men, you don’t get off either. One guy had so much gold around his neck I feared he might fall over from the weight. This tiny man also consumed the most alcohol on the flight. 6:30 AM and he is downing his first beer. Okay, maybe beer is food, but…

Now back to the travel log.

We gathered our bags and took the Princess Bus to the cruise ship. We checked in, Hubby and Carole checked out the Duty Free and then we went to our room. All I can say is WOW!

After we settled in a bit

Our room.

and had lunch on the Lido Deck, off Hubby and I went to Old San Juan and Fort San Filipe De Morro.

It has breath taking views of the Island. We walked all through the old fort and took many pictures.

Then we walked around Old San Juan. It was beautiful,

the people were so nice and I enjoyed walking around, but then…my feet gave out and we saw a taxi and waved him down and he drove us first to a small super market and then back to the ship.

We met up with George and Carole again and went to dinner. All I can say is sweet heavenly father, the food was good!!! We had Lobster and Seafood turnovers, with salads and a Lobster pate. For dessert Hubby had a sugar free chocolate Mousse and I had the Princess Chocolate mousse. It was all heavenly and we felt very spoiled.

Our departure out of San Juan was so interesting. We had a Pilot form San Juan steering the ship out of the harbor. Hubby and I stood and sat on our balcony watching the seaport slowly fade away. Then we noticed a small vessel up ahead. This little vessel stayed right beside us for quite a while, in the darkness. Then as we reached the mouth of the harbor the small vessel came right up to our side of the ship and a moment or so later the Pilot jumped on board. Everyone on our side of the ship cheered!!!! Then Hubby and I turned from our balcony, came in and went to bed. Now we’re off and headed to Curacoa!

This is where we are going! Follow along and see what we do for fun!

We arrived down in Boston about 3:30 and settled in our motel room. After getting acquainted with our room, and getting our things organized for tomorrow, we sat down, made a couple of drinks (a cocktail for Hubby and a cup of tea for me) and waited for George and Carole.

I needed to get some of that fake milk stuff for my tea, so I headed to the front desk where I found George and Carole checking in. They got settled into their room, and then we headed into Boston to the world famous Durgin Park.

Carole and Hubby had Prime Rib,

George ordered pot roast and I got the Ipswich Fried Clams!

The meal was everything we thought it would be and more! Especially my clams. I kept saying that I had the best meal, but Hubby and Carole disagreed! They really loved the Prime Rib! And George wasn’t disappointed with his Yankee Pot Roast either.

Then we ordered dessert. The sweet, rich, warm, Indian Pudding with a scoop of vanilla ice cream! Hubby and I shared this and I have to say, WOW was it good!!!

Now we are back at the motel and will catch an early night’s sleep. After all, we have to get up at 4 AM to make it to the plane on time!