The Dackel Princess

I wanted to finish telling you about Costa Rica. It’s been many years since Hubby and I were there, and we saw so many improvements in the countryside. We were lucky to have a Naturalist Guide for our day long trip. He was able to guide us through the Rain Forest

as we rode in our aerial tram, pointing out many interesting, birds, trees and yes, even snakes (they were in a cage, thank goodness)!

Then we stopped to have a traditional Costa Rican lunch consisting of rice and black beans and chicken and salad. Oh yes, and they served two drinks, mango juice and delicious Costa Rican coffee!

Then we were off for a ride on the river where we saw so many of the local tropical birds and, of course, the crocodiles. It was fascinating, and we got so many pictures. What a fun time. I must note here that the entire excursion lasted 8 1/2 hours.
Cows grazing near the crocodile!

Cows grazing near the crocodile!

A blue billed bird

A crock on the go!

Needless to say, I slept well last night!

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Wednesday we arrived in the harbor at San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, at 6:00 in the morning. We met in the ship’s theater at 6:45, so we could get into our groups and then ride ashore on the ships lifeboats.

The lifeboats preparing for their passengers

Our first stop was in the Masaya Market. We were able to go around looking at the different handicrafts made by the local people, and do a little shopping as well.

The school children entertaining the tourists.

From there we went to the Masaya Volcano where we were able to view two dormant volcanoes and one active one. There was a high point above the volcano which took 184 steps to reach! I was definitely winded and as I stood half way up, Hubby asked me to come back down a few steps for a picture. Although I thought he was crazy for asking I did as he asked and actually I like the picture.

From there we drove back to Masaya and had a nice Nicaraguan lunch made up of…surprise, rice and beans, chicken, beef and fish, with wonderful Papaya for dessert.

After lunch we went to the old city of Granada, which is the oldest European settled city in Central America (1524). We toured the market area and then went into an old Convent, which is now a local museum.

When we looked at Nicaragua from the top of the volcano, it was beautiful and lush. However, as we drove through the countryside we saw such terrible poverty. My heart ached for these people, who live in tiny cement block houses, with no windows or doors, and dirt floors and corrugated metal rooves.

I must also mention one very beautiful thing though. Almost every house there had a dog, sitting with it’s owner, or the child of the house, or just sitting at the end of a drive waiting for its master to return. I asked about this and was told that yes, the Nicaraguans love their dogs.

We returned, on the Pan American Highway which was a good road, but then to get back to the area where the ship was anchored we had to ride 10 miles over some of the worst roads we’ve ever been on, to San Juan Del Sur, where we boarded the life boats for our trip back to the ship.

What an education.

I will keep this entry a little short today. It was a long day (a nine hour side trip), that saw us going into the Costa Rican Rain Forest and after a wonderful lunch going into the canals on a tour boat to see the Crocodiles, macaws, Egrets and just about every sort of tropical bird you can imagine. It was awesome and incredible and I promise to post pictures later of this day, but tonight I need to get to bed early because we have to be up and ready for our next shore trip by 5:30 AM!

Here are a few pictures to tide you over.

The Rain Forest.

A crocodile in the canal.

The macaws.

On Sunday, the 18th of November we were awakened by the sound of thunder at 5:20 in the morning. Pulling back the curtains of our stateroom we were able to see the coast of Panama, and ahead on the port side of the ship, the lights of the harbor at Colon.

We dressed in our bathing suits, as the temperature and humidity both were very high. Out of the darkness, as the sun rose, we could see many ships waiting for their turn to go through the Canal. It was quite an awesome sight.

Soon there was a knock on our door and breakfast was served to us, a split of Moet & Chandon champagne, hot coffee, fresh fruit and rolls and a crab quiche with Alaska King Crab legs draped over the top. As our friend Benn says, it only costs a little more to go first class.

Finally it was time to enter the Gatun Locks. A small rowboat came out with two men, one to row and one to carry the lines to be used by the small locomotives that help maneuver the large ships through the canal.

Our Captain

Our ship, which was steadied by the locomotives, moved slowly into place in the very tight slot in the canal. I kept looking at that narrow passageway, and I couldn’t help but think that we were not going to make it. However, we did, with just enough room to spare on each side. The ship went in, stopped and the lock doors swung shut behind us. Slowly water was drained from the lock above us into our lock to raise us up. The three locks raised us 85 feet by the same process to the level of Gatun Lake.

The locks closing.

Leaving the third lock, we passed the Gatun dam and spillway. Then we had to wait an hour during a rain shower to be sequenced into the lake shipping traffic. A large Chinese freighter passed us going in the opposite direction and I was a little nervous that we wouldn’t both be able to pass by without running aground but there was plenty of room in the lake channel.

We reached the town of Gamboa, also known as Dredge Central, shortly after we left Gatun Lake. We could see the dredge work being done there and we also saw the two large cranes which are used to remove the lock gates (65 tons each) for maintenance. Also in Gamboa we saw the railroad bridge over the Chagres River. A fast paced train was just going by us and Hubby caught a picture of it.

Then we entered the Culebra Cut, a 9 mile section of the canal that has had a number of landslides, including one which closed the canal for 7 months shortly after it first opened. Along the Culebra cut is the high point at the continental divide. It used to be 600 feet high, but 200 feet have recently been removed to help prevent landslides in the future.

A beautiful single support cable bridge, called Memorial Bridge, crosses the canal just beyond the continental divide. It was quite a sight.

Next we lined up for entrance into the Pedro Miguel Lock, which lowers you 27 feet to the level of Miraflores Lake. As we stood on deck watching this process, we were being observed from behind a chain link secutity fence by Panamanians who waved and greeted us!

We quickly crossed Miraflores Lake and lined up for the last time. The Miraflores Locks bring you down to Pacific Sea level. The lowest lock is the deepest lock, because it must compensate for the 21 foot tide on this end of the canal, so the lock doors are 85 feet high. Here there was a three story building with seats and tables where crowds gathered to watch the ships go by. There was even an announcer who told the Panamanians about the ships and canal in both Spanish and English.

As the ship passed them by, they cheered and waved and the children jumped up and down. Those of us on the ship also waved and cheered.

We saw a Panama Railroad train one more time just before we reached the International Bridge, a bridge which resembles the bridges over the Cape Cod Canal, where I grew up. In the distance you could see the Panama City skyline, quite beautiful, as the sun was setting.

Monday we have been at sea all day. We have seen gulls and dolphins and at breakfast I was surprised to see a whale! I have been a terrible slacker today, but when I finally sat down to write this out, suddenly my computer froze up and after nearly a half an hour of terror (all our pictures were on it and not backed up yet) I was finally able to get it going and immediately downloaded our pictures onto disks!

Tomorrow we will be in Costa Rica! We have a full day planned, including a visit to the rain forest there.

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!