Week 4

After we passed through the Panama Canal, we anchored off Panama City for an overnight and following day visit. That evening I went ashore with crew friends for a nice dinner. We had the name of a recommended restaurant in the French Quarter but found it closed as it was a Sunday evening. So we let our taxi driver takes us to somewhere he thought we would like which ended up being a fantastic place, not too expensive and great local food.


The following day I escorted a ship’s tour to Monkey Island where of course, we saw lots of monkeys. We rode a small boat around the Panama Canal waters and learned of the upcoming expansion (a mere $5.2 billion project). We saw many monkeys, a couple of crodociles, sloths, turtles and a manatee.

Tuesday night we will be crossing the equator around midnight. Most times there is a special ceremony – King Neptune – but they have chosen to do the ceremony later on in the cruise as we will be crossing again.


Our next stop was Manta Ecuador. We are now in the southern hemisphere and the sinks drain goes the other direction! I went on a tour where we stopped at a home where they made Panama Hats which actually are from Ecuador. They are very durable – you can roll them up and they still spring back to shape. They are called Panama Hats because they were sent to Panama during the building of the Canal.


Kapak trees are a tree that when they shed their leaves, the trunks turn green.



Along the way we saw some “Blue Footed Boobies” which I thought could only be seen in the Galapagos Islands. They are web-footed birds. There are some other pictures here of some of the sites seen in Ecuador. A friend who went to the Galapogas and took photos of blue-footed boobies said if I showed him my boobies, he’d show me his. Is anyone listening???? Comment if you are!


This weekend we were in Lima, Peru. I escorted a tour around the area which took us through a quaint artist district then to a personal home which was a museum of many church artifacts he has collected over the years. After being awed by his treasures of silver, paintings all artistically displayed throughout his home, we continued on to Miraflores (in Spanish it means look at the flowers) and it was truly a beautiful arboretic area (is that a word?).



We stopped at a restaurant/bar for a demonstration on the making of Peru’s traditional drink – Pisco Sours. They are very common hear and taste sort of like a margarita/daiquiri cross. Very tasty! Then on for a typical Peruvian meal at a house of Royalty near the Presidential Palace with more Pisco Sours! Lima was a lot cleaner and safer than I remember in the past. They have a new president who has done a lot to improve their country. One interesting note – every citizen is REQUIRED to vote. If they do not, they are fined heavily. If people in our country all excercised that privilege, they would have the right to criticize.

And as I'm tediously uploading all these images, I'm in my cabin watching the Golden Globes. I also was able to watch the Vikings victory today against Dallas. That's all for this week. Tune in next week!

Week 3

We had two days at sea after leaving Cartagena as we headed to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. It was quite surprising when we got there as the temperature was only 40 degrees. About 1100 people were just on board for the holiday portion of the cruise so they disembarked and 1000 new people came onboard. At 4:30 there was a Reunion Party poolside where everyone gathered and met up with friends they had met on other cruises and many met new friends. This was so fun for me as over my 4 ½ years with the company I have made many friends with both passengers and crew members. And there were people you forgot you had met before until you saw them again.





On such a long voyage there are lots of extra supplies to be taken on and people bring much more luggage than they normally do as they are onboard for such a long time so the loading of things was not complete for our scheduled sailaway time of 5pm. We ended up sailing at 8pm that evening.



We headed southwest for two more days at sea before visiting Puerto Limon, Costa Rica. This country has a beautiful rainforest and offers excellent kayaking and whitewater rafting opportunities.

We were alongside in Puerto Limon with another one of Holland America Line ships, the Zuiderdam which is sailing on 10-day cruises from Ft. Lauderdale roundtrip.

Friday night was our first formal night where the Captain holds a cocktail party/toast and introduces the senior officers onboard. In the photo – I’m the one in the purple. I’m one of the few officers not required to wear a uniform.


After the introductions, we all host dinner tables in the main dining room. I was with a table with 8 Americans and Canadians, three of whom I already knew so it was an enjoyable evening. After dinner was the evening’s entertainment. Many of you may remember Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show – the band leader, Doc Sevirinson along with the band El Ritmo de la vida performed one of the best shows I have ever seen. Very talented musicians! And Doc continued in his true fashion of being a flashy dresser, wearing a hot pink suit. After the show we went to one of our lounges, the Crow’s Nest, where Doc & his band came to relax and socialize. He now is living in Mexico.

Sunday was out transit from east to west through the Panama. There was a nice breeze so not as hot as it could have been. They are expanding the canal so it can handle more traffic and larger ships. Completion of the new sections is scheduled for 2014.

We have had our 3 stops in Mexico, Puerto Vallarta, Puerto Chiapas, and Huatulco. The weather has been quite warm and I’ve managed to get a really good sun tan as the sun is hot here – and you know how easily I tan. This area is very lush with beautiful beaches and mountains with rainforests. Centuries ago there were numerous advanced Indian civilizations, the greatest of these being the Mayans and the Aztecs. Today there are many fishing villages along the sea.

While we were in Puerto Chiapas, a “sister” ship of ours, the Rotterdam, was docked with us. A sister ship means the two ships are built from the same deck plans. There was a nice restaurant on the pier where we had a chance to see crew friends and passenger friends from the other ship. It was a fun day for all.

Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala

Guatemala is considered by many to be one of the world’s most beautiful countries. Volcanoes, mountain lakes, and jungles, combined with a population that is mostly of Indian descent, make this a unique land. Geographically, Guatemala is the northernmost country in Central America. Guatemala’s people are descendents of the ancient Mayan civilization. While Europe was still mired in the Dark Ages, the Mayan civilization was at its peak. The Mayans are people of great intellectual strength and vivid creativity. They developed great public architecture, were by far the first to develop an accurate calendar and displayed an explosion of energy in the arts, commerce, mathematics, astronomy, and the development of the written language.

New Year’s Eve was a fun evening onboard. It was a formal night so everyone was out in their finery. I host dinner tables on formal nights and had very enjoyable company for the evening with all my tablemates being from the US which is quite unusual. I made it into the new year, finally heading for my cabin around 1:30pm. The people in the photo with me are Jeff, a passenger that I sailed with last summer on a different cruise, and Diane & Bud. Bud is our Lead Medical Officer onboard and his wife, Diane, sails with him. I have sailed with them in the past and was happy to have them onboard with me.



New Year’s day was a typical work day for me. I gave a presentation to passengers about what the grand voyages such as the upcoming one are like and what makes them different from a “normal” cruise. In the evening we arrived at Fuerte Amadore (Panama City) for an overnight stay. Since it was a holiday most places are closed but we will return here in about 10 days so will have an opportunity to see it then.


Transiting the Panama Canal is always fascinating to me. The canal has three sets of locks which operate as water lifts to elevate ships 75 feet above sea level, then lowers them back to sea level to transit from the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean.


Our last port call on this 14-day segment from Los Angeles to Ft. Lauderdale was Cartegena, Columbia. I have been here several times and always enjoy it. My favorite all-time movie is Romancing the Stone and much of it was filmed here. It’s very historical here with many forts protecting entrance to the city.


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