Panama Canal Cruise: April 21 - May 10

This is the Island Princess, our home for this cruise. We were in the bottom row of balconies, last stateroom in the rear on the right. It was a great place to view everything to the side and the rear. Disadvantage is that it is a bit rougher and we had the engine noise - not enough to bother us with sleeping. However, we did wake up when they reversed the engines to slow down and pick up a pilot. Needless to say we were always up to watch going into all ports. This cruise was round trip Los Angeles and we left on a beautiful, sunny afternoon.



Our first port of call was Cabo San Lucas. Since we have been here before, we decided to stay on the ship and enjoy the view. Cabo is known for these rocks and arch known as Lands End - the place where the Pacific meets the Sea of Cortez. It was a beautiful sunny warm day.








Next stop was Acapulco. Because we had heard so much about Acapulco, we were excited to visit here. It was very, very hot and humid, so we were the first off the ship as we had decided to explore on our own. Boy, were we disappointed. It was very dirty - garbage everywhere- and a very obnoxious odor. We walked to the main square and found this very unusual cathedral in this picture. We returned to the ship and enjoyed the views of the bay without the garbage and smells.





Huatulco was a refreshing change for Mexico. It is a planned resort that has 7 bays. We took a catamaran boat tour and visited 5 of the bays - all very beautiful and many undeveloped. The picture is one of the bays with a very fancy hotel. Then we went by bus and visited the resort hotel area. It is all very clean with beautiful beaches and landscaping. It is hard to believe you are in Mexico here!




Costa Rica is beautiful and lush. We did a bus (15 passenger to navigate the roads) tour through 4 eco-systems before arriving at our destination in the tropical rain forest on the Caribbean side of the country. This place was a paradise with flowers blooming everywhere and the Toro Amarillo waterfall in the picture surrounded by mountains and volcanoes. We enjoyed a Costa Rican lunch on an open veranda while watching the hundreds of hummingbirds up close and listening to the howler monkeys. On our way back to the ship, we stopped in Sarchi where they started painting their ox carts a century ago and of course it has made them famous for tourists. We finally saw howler monkeys just before arriving at our ship.


This was the big day - our transit of the canal. We were up at 4:15am local time and we had dinner at 8:00pm after we had reached our anchorage for the night. As the sun rose we sailed under the Bridge of the Americas and in full light we approached Miraflores Locks in the left picture. It takes much longer than one thinks to lock through. This is two locks up and you change mules (right picture) between the locks. The cruise ships have two mules in the rear and one mule in the front. We always had two tugs escorting us into the locks and two new tugs to escort us out of the locks. Only once did one of them actually have to push us. After Miraflores is Pedro Miguel which is one lock up to Gatun Lake level. We then cruised through Galliard Cut and into Gatun Lake. We turned around at the Gatun Lake anchorage (where the freighters anchor to wait for passage to the Caribbean) and cruised back to the locks on the Pacific side. Same process again, Pedro Miguel lock and then Miraflores Locks, but this time at night. The shoreline and all of the locks are lit at night and it is beautiful. As we locked down in Miraflores, we were able to touch the canal wall. There is very little clearance on either side of the ship. The cables hit the side of the ship removing paint and the ship scraped the sides of the canal a few times. After this transit and the tire marks from the dock in Costa Rica, they were busy repainting the sides of the ship. This day was long but awesome! But, we were anchored so no engine noise this night and it was much to quiet!


Panama City is a city of contrasts. We did a bus tour and drove to the original site from 1513 that is stone ruins. They are trying to restore this area which is very large. You can see the new skyline behind the ruins. Then we went to the area where the city was moved in the 1700's called the Viejo. They are restoring this area slowly and what is done is beautiful. The buildings and narrow streets (right picture) would remind one of the French Quarter of New Orleans or a bit like Charleston. Again the new city is visible in the distance. The new skyline (left picture) is huge and the highrises are mostly condos with commercial in the ground floors. Next to this are some of the worst high rise tenements we have ever seen. We drove through Balboa which used to be the American area when we ran the canal. It is still very nice.

We docked at the commercial dock in Puerto Corinto, Nicaragua. This is a fairly new port and we shared the dock with freighters unloading. We walked into town and visited the flea market which is mostly for the cruise ship, but also locals shop here. It is set up on the streets and has lots of vendors and inexpensive prices. They would barter, but it took a good amount of time to find things in the piles in each tent. It was very hot and humid and again very dirty with a terrible odor. We did find a few things, but gave up as we were overheated.

Our favorite place was Antigua, Guatamala. It was very clean with restored buildings and cobblestone streets. Of course there were many shops displaying their beautiful woven fabrics(right picture). Many of the buildings are gorgeous hotels and we found one of them for lunch on an open veranda surrounded by gardens, fountains and enjoying the music of a marimba band. Santa Domingo is a restored convent that has been turned into a hotel and restaurant. The gardens and walkways are beautiful and extensive. Macaws live throughout the gardens. The restoration is continuing on the church and altar. We spent an hour exploring the grounds and just sitting and enjoying the surroundings. The focal point everywhere in this town is the volcano, but it remained in the clouds for our visit. Antigua is 1 1/2 hours by bus from the commercial dock where they put the cruise ships.

Zihuatanejo was a typical Mexican town catering to cruise ships. Prices were high and they refuse to barter. It used to be a sleepy fishing village. They still fish and have a market selling their catch.

Last port was Puerto Vallarta. This was the only port we found another cruise ship - a Carnival ship had arrived ahead of us. It was a tight port with the other ship there - we entered and then turned and went to the dock. That was fun to watch! Across the street from the dock was a Wal Mart and Sams Club - the ship staff were all off to shop. We did a horseback ride here, so did not get to see any of this town except at the dock. The horseback ride was at a Hacienda outside of town and was a lot of fun. Yes, Ralph got on and rode a horse!

This was a trip of a lifetime. We saw so many unique sights and have now visited all the Central American countries except El Salvador (don't want to go there).If you have ever wanted to transit the canal, do it! One downside is the weather - it is very hot and usually very humid. This causes the air to be very hazy so pictures are difficult. The other downside of this trip is the constant time changes - it seems like we were either moving ahead or back an hour every day (we lost track of how many times), but it was so worth it. There was a nice mix of sea days and port days so you did not get to tired and had time to relax and yes, do your own laundry after finding out what the ship charges. We will leave you with a beautiful sunset over Costa Rica.