Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Our next stop after the Panama Canal transit was Puntarenas, Costa, Rica.

Again, we were unable to take any excursions because none of the tour operators had a bus capable of taking a wheelchair. So, we walked into town on a pier that never seemed to stop. It wasn’t as long as Progresso, but it sure did seem like it. I took this shot from the ship. It was a little hazy.

The first thing we noticed once we got to land was the beach. It was big, beautiful… Stop cross beautiful out as it was full of litter. One couple told us they went to the beach and could not find any spot to put their towels that did not have litter on it.

This port gets 4-5 ships a month. You would think they would clean it up a little for the tourists. But what do I know.

As we wander along the shore, there are numerous booths set up to sell us things. The majority of the items were locally made clothes and wood items. We found one vendor who made these wood items himself by hand. They were beautiful and we bought a couple of items. Otherwise, the products were what you could find in any other port.

We went as far as we could and fund ourselves out on a street. This picture doesn’t really show it, but the streets were as dirty as the beaches.

One of the interesting things we found on the street was this pizza Hut operating out of a semi-trailer. The outside café with the plastic chairs fit right in.

We have traveled far enough and as we head back we find this police bus. We speculated why they needed a bus at the beach, but could not come up with a perfect answer. Compared to everything else, this was the newest item we had seen.

I took this picture on the beach. While I didn’t intend it to come out lie this, but it appears the cannon is lined up on the Carnival Miracle and ready to fire.

At the base of the pier, we saw this guy making sand figures. He had a sign saying that this was his "job, please tip."

 On that note, we headed back to the ship. It was a long walk on the pier and the heat had to be near 100 degrees. I think we all got a little sunburned from our excursion.

I must be off!

Panama Canal Transit

Finally we are ready to go through the Panama Canal. This was the main reason we took this cruise. We had previously been on an excursion boat that went through two of the locks, but that was a nightmare. (another story) I was really looking forward to going all the way through the canal.

Our transit began early and I set the alarm clock for 5:30am. Here is daybreak over Colon, Panama, the Atlantic gateway to the Panama Canal.

As we come to the first lock, Gatun Lock, we get our first look at the actual locks. Most ships take anywhere from 8 to 12 hours to transit the canal.

Additionally, we find the electric engines, or mules, that help the ship through the locks. This is the third version of the mule since the locks were originally built. The ships use their own power to go through the locks while the mules help keep the ship from hitting the sides of the lock. By the look of the sides of our ship, they could have worked better. Our ship is pretty scraped up. We only had about 2 feet on each side of the ship in the lock.

As we continue out of Gatun Lake and into the Culebra Cut, we pass under the Centennial Bridge.

This area is the site of the two largest land slides in canal history. Notice how Gold Hill has had metal rods and plates to keep the hill from falling into the canal. This is only one picture, but the entire hill had these rods and plates.

As we are passing under the bridge, one of the tugboats began reversing alongside of us. He did this for about two miles. I guess he was bored.

These tugboats escorted us throughout the canal area. As we entered a lock, our escorts would turn around and head for another boat. As we came out of the lock, there were more tugboats waiting to escort us to the next place.

On one of our turns, I took this shot of the ship that followed us all the way from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Because of landslides, they are continually working on the sides of the canal. While they are building larger locks, we were unable to actually see them since they are not right next door to the old locks.

We come to the last lock, Miraflores Locks, we see the mules waiting for us again.

 The canal has their own fire department and almost all of the equipment is yellow. What was amazing, is that almost all of the work trucks, fire trucks, etc. were new. I saw no old equipment anywhere. I guess that us what Chinese money does for you. Currently, the Chinese have replaced the USA as management of the Panama Canal.

 Here are workers getting ready to grab the rope from the ship and attach it to the mule.

 The mules are especially designed to go up the 45 degree inclines at the actual locks. They can pull 70,000 pounds if necessary. We usually had four mules attached to us through each lock.

Here is an old swing bridge that closes to allow traffic to go across the locks. I am not sure this is in use today because no vehicles were parked on the roadway waiting to cross this bridge after we completed the transit.

 

As we exit the last lock, you can see two of the mules have released their ropes and are waiting for the last two to finish before waiting on the next ship.

The city of the pacific side of the canal is Panama City. Like most ports, containers seem to rule the ports.

Even workers on the docks watched as we finished our transit of the Panama Canal.

As we near the Pacific Ocean, we cross under the Bridge of the Americas.

Panama City is in the background and is a very modern looking city.

I have no idea what this structure is, but everyone on board was taking its picture. You could see it for miles.

The last piece of land signals our entry in the Pacific Ocean. We now begin heading towards Puntarenas, Costa Rica.

I must be off!

Finnally Out to Sea

Well, the first few days of the cruise had some interesting consequences.

We have never, ever left a port in a snow storm, but it was snowing as we waited to leave New York City. Take a look at the snow from our balcony.

Then we had major internet issues. First, there were router issues that would not allow anyone to connect to a secure website. Unfortunately, that included our personal email and the university’s Blackboard site.

After they got the routing issues solved, we then had connection issues back to the states. What a mess.

About this time, we had our first port of Cartagena, Columbia. We had received a letter from the Captain indicating that there would be extra security not only on the ship and the pier, but that Cartagena officials were beefing up security to protect us “tourists” while we were in port. Since there were no excursion buses capable of loading Rexie’s wheel chair, we did not plan on going on an excursion. Instead, we were going to go into town and walk around. Well, we were until the Captain’s letter.

So, we just walked around the port.  Here is a shot of the pier as we walked. Rather, Rexie road in her wheelchair and took pictures while I pushed.

We were amazed that it was like a beautiful park/jungle with boardwalks through it.

The floral was gorgeous.

We also found a number of different birds, some caged and others just roaming around. These are NOT plastic flamingos, but the real thing.

These parrots were actually using their beak and claws to slide down the poles. It was pretty ingenious how they did it.

As we make our way back to the Carnival Miracle, we saw this old ship heading into port.

The heat is up there and we look forward to getting back to our ship.

We say goodbye to Cartagena, Columbia and head towards the Panama Canal.

I must be off!

We finally made it on the ship…

Because of the rumor of about 75 passengers being sick with the Nora virus on the previous cruise, Carnival did a sterilization cleaning on the entire ship before we were allowed to embark. We actually got onboard a little after 1:30pm.

After getting something to eat, we went to our room. We could not get Rexie in the room with her wheelchair. Talk about a rude awakening.

We asked guest services for assistance and found that all the rooms had the same size door except the handicap rooms and they were all taken. We have never had a problem on other ships, and never even thought of this issue.

So, we finally figured out a way to transfer her through the door onto a bench and then pulled her into the room and got her to the couch or bed. I will be glad when she can put some weight on leg. Oh well, at least another 4 weeks.

I am writing this while she is still sleeping. I didn’t get up until 9:30 and had almost 12 hours of sleep. Better than the average of 5 hours I have been getting.

I must be off, as Rexie is now awake.

###############

Day 2

I got distracted after Rexie got up and did not get the post above actually posted. What happened is that I had an issue getting onto Blackboard, which is the program I use to teach. This semester I have 260 students and the only way I can keep cruising is to keep teaching.

So…. As I talked with the Internet Manager, I found that we have a routing issue aboard the ship. Many websites cannot be reached such as Facebook, Yahoo, Gmail, etc. Unfortunately, nether can secure websites (https:). They had hoped to have it fixed by last night, but the Internet Manager said hopefully it can be taken care of today, Monday.

I have several items to grade and a few items that I need to make sure are available for the students use. At least my university email is working, even though my personal email is not.

On to a different topic. It seems that the cruise industry has identified Grand Turk as the culprit of the Noro Virus. We hear that the entire island has been quarantined and no cruise ships are visiting until the virus dies out. That was to be our first stop, but now we have an extra day before we get to Cartagena, Columbia.

On another note, with some work we have developed a system to get Rexie in and out of the room and the restroom. Not easy, but doable. Otherwise, she would stay in bed all day. :-) 

Oh well, things to do and places to go, so I must be off!

We are off again!

We are now in New York City, waiting to go to the ship Carnival Miracle. For the next 16 days, we will be heading to Los Angeles (actually Long Beach). We will be going through the Panama Canal. we will also be visiting Grand Turk; Cartegena, Columbia; Puntarenas, Costa Rica; PuertoQuestzal, Guatemala; and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

Our only problem is that Rexie had partial knee replacement (right knee) on December 28. Everything was going fine with her recovery until February 4 when she fell and broke her LEFT ankle in two places. Before surgery, the Doctor said, "technically speaking, her ankle is a mess." So surgery, 2 long screws on one side and a plate and 6 screws on the other she is in a wheel chair until At least April 7. No weight can be put on it at all.

By the way, we had our Grandson bring over his metal detector to verify she does have metal in her knee and ankle. It beeped like crazy. Thanks, Ian.

Last night, we met up with our friend from Texas, Susan, and her sister, Brenda. Susan will be going on the cruise with us, so we intend to have a great time even though Rexie is in her wheelchair  (make that a very good time) Hey, at least I get to push her around!!!!!

I need to (don't really need to, but want to) mention that Ted Koppel sat right behind us from Washington DC to New York. Rexie (talking to me) made several comments about how good Carnival was taking care of the passengers after the incidents of the past week or so. It won't change his mind, because he probably already considers us a Carnival Groupie. I refer Carnial Lackey, it has a little more class to it. :-)

More later. We must be off!