January 16 and 17

Gotta LOVE sea days. There was a time change so we started the Thursday an hour late and it was just a slow day. Casual breakfast. A lecture on Ecuador. My knitting group. A little exercise on deck and a lot of quiet reading/downtime. The food has been excellent on board this Princess Cruise. We are eating on anytime dining but have arranged for the same table with the same waiters every night. We are back in the room this evening watching the “Love Boat “ reruns. A specialty of Princess. And Friday January 17, another day traveling the Pacific. We will be crossing the equator this evening and entering the Southern Hemisphere. Sailors who have never crossed the equator are traditionally called pollywogs and upon their first crossing the imaginary line become shellbacks or a son or daughter of Neptune. The ship ceremony was held on deck today even though our actual crossing will be sometime around 10:30 pm. We continue to enjoy our relaxing time together onboard and the warm temperatures especially as we see the local Perrysburg temperatures turning more typical of January. Tomorrow we dock in Manta Ecuador and will be getting off the ship to do a little local exploring.

Missed a day

A quick catch up. Tuesday was a sea day traveling from the Panama Canal to our next port Puntarenas Costa Rica. Sea days are very relaxing. We walked the deck,  we read, there may have been a nap along the way. The Pacific Ocean was a great surprise at the calmness after our rough sea days in the Caribbean. Our selfie of the day shows how calm the sea was. We were traveling at the same speed as previous days.

Also there was a beautiful sunset pictured from our balcony before we left for dinner.

On to Wednesday January 15

Puntarenas, Costa Rica

To day we were off the ship early for our river rafting excursion. We were somewhat surprised by the number of people, that were on this excursion based on the fact that it was an active must be in good health excursion. We headed out on the excursion bus with around 45 people and had a ride to the river of about an hour and a half. The bus guide gave us a history of Costa Rica and told us about current day life here. As we drove through the area it is apparent that the economy here is struggling. The rafting company was great and the guides made it especially fun. We saw howling monkeys in the trees, many iguana, and crocodiles. Since it was near the end of the dry season the rapids were pretty mild. A good thing for some of the participants. We are back on the ship now enjoying a cocktail on the balcony with sail away scheduled for 6:30. 

Steve gearing up. Life vest helmet and paddle.

Getting ready to get in the raft

Traveling down the river. Beautiful scenery.

The blogger

Port side paddler

More scenic views

Selfie on the bus after a great day.

The Panama Canal Jan. 13

Today started early as we had been informed that we would start the transition through the canal at 6:30 am when the pilot boat would meet us. I was curious to see the entire process so this is sunrise at the mouth of the canal. It isn’t real visible from the photo but there were about 20 large freighter in this harbor area.

 Steve joined me for coffee on the balcony during our early progress.

The Atlantic Bridge is in the background with Steve and then my picturesque photo with the rising sun behind the pillars

Our pilot tug to the first set of locks

One of the $2 million “mules” that assisted us through the locks.u

The process of moving into the locks was fascinating.

As we moved along the waterway through the canal we passed many other ships and freighter going the other way. 

Selfie of the day shows us in the next to the last lock with the gates in the background.

As I write this we are looking out at Panama City. A beautiful new looking city of skyscrapers. And then the dock area. Certainly big business.

The Bridge of the Americas is the final point in our journey south through the Panama Canal.

A great experience, an engineering marvel and a bucket list check off. 

Cartagena Columbia January 12

We arrived in port early this morning to a beautiful brilliant blue sky and warm temperatures.  We got off the ship and took the Hop on Hop off bus to Old Town and did a walking tour. There were lots of vendors that were a bit pushy but no pick pockets as we had been warned. Most all of the people were happy and polite. The architecture is beautiful and the old town is very colorful.  We are back on ship now cruising down to the Panama Canal for transit tomorrow morning. It is hard to believe it is January here.

Our Ship as we walked to cruise terminal.

The clock tower entrance to old town

Gorgeous old town houses

Street view of old town cathedral

Today’s selfie

January 11

Cruising along on Friday afternoon and evening. We did attend the lecture on Rome although it was rather slow and the guest lecturer, an older gentlemanly professor from UCLA, had a sleep inducing monotone voice. The cruise critic meet and mingle was next and very well attended. For those that don’t know cruising this is an internet group that has an active roll call for different ships and cruises. It is all about sharing ideas and putting together tours or activities on the ship. On past cruises I have been active and there may be 30-50 participants. This particular roll call had over 200 and I think nearly that many attended yesterday. We have a winery tour planned in Santiago and were able to meet our companions for that excursion. The ship captain and several officers made an appearance as well as the cruise director which does not often happen at these meet and mingle events. I think perhaps the fact that 10% of the ship guests are active on this internet site may have influenced this. Formal night activities included a champagne fountain with a free glass of champagne, a lovely dinner and the “Do you Wanna Dance” show in the theater. It is amazing the talent that these cruise ship crews have.
The seas continue to be rough with very high winds today which closes down the swimming pools and makes it very hard to walk the decks. Steve and I went our separate ways this morning. He to a port lecture on the Panama Canal and I to the knitters group. I enjoy hearing the stories from ladies and sharing project notes. We have a very interesting gal from Darwin, Australia and we are learning first hand about the devastation the fires are causing. We met up for line dancing again but dancing on a rocking and rolling ship has its challenges too. So this afternoon we have been quietly reading and taking advantage of how well the ship movement promotes sleep.
The internet and streaming has been great. The ship is currently showing the football playoff games.  Some pictures from the past couple of days.

 We made it on the sail away tape the ship produced. I snapped a picture of it as it was shown in our room.

The outdoor pool this afternoon with the netting over it. Warm enough to be out but so windy.

                               The indoor pool. Also closed today because of the high seas.

The center piazza on the ship. Pretty standard for a cruise ship.

Tomorrow we are in port in Cartengena, Columbia. We are planning a visit to the walled old city and there should be some colorful pictures for tomorrow’s post.  

Friday January 10

This is our first selfie of the vacation taken from our balcony while the Island Princess was still in port at Fort Lauderdale. We had a great evening meal sitting at a table next to a couple from Montreal who were speaking a mixture of French and English. Huette was the woman’s name and we talked about the cycle of naming children. She said Huette was once a popular French name for girls but now like Linda there are no little Huette’s. Her husband was Louie and he was very knowledgable in wines so he and Steve got on well.

The evening show at the theater was Steve Morris a guitar comedian who was an opening act for The Beach Boys for over 20 years. His comedy routine was hilarious but then he sang his favorite Beach Boy tune and he really had a great singing voice. He will be doing another show later in the cruise which we will make a point to attend.

Today since breakfast we have been busy. First a lecture about the history of Cartagena our first port. Then I went to the Knitters gathering and reconvened with Steve at 11 for line dancing.  We are now taking a room break watching the rather rough seas. The temperature is 81 but the wind is gusting at 51 knots.  We have sailed 365 nautical miles and we are north of Cuba now.

This afternoon we are going to a Discovery at Sea lecture titled Rome’s Eternal History. We thought this might be interesting since we are planning a visit to Rome in October. Then we will be attending the cruise critic meet and mingle followed by trivia. Dinner is the first formal night followed by the cast show titled “Do you Wanna Dance”. 

Hopefully our non-lunchtime downtime will be my blog time so more pictures from today will be posted tomorrow.