2022 – February -PANAMA CANAL TRANSIT

We have talked about doing a cruise through the Panama Canal for quite a while. We had it scheduled for last year but it was cancelled by the Cruise line due to COVID restrictions. We booked this one in hopes we would be able to go by now, and we were. So, off we went. The cruise was from Ft Lauderdale, through the Panama Canal to Los Angeles. Here is a map of the cruise and stops.

A week or so before we left we were notified that the stop in Nicaragua was cancelled due to COVID restrictions. Oh well. The day before we left home, we took COVID tests via the internet, passed, and packed. The next day we rented a car and drove to Ft Lauderdale and turned in the car at the airport and spent the night near the port. The port, airport, and hotels are all fairly close together. We walked to a pleasant dinner that evening near the hotel, spent a quiet evening, had a nice breakfast the next morning, then caught a shuttle to the port. The first thing they did at the port was to take our luggage, confirm our tickets, and give us another COVID test. Once we passed that we were processed onto the ship. Not sure what they would have done if we had failed the test to get our luggage back but that didn’t become an issue. Anyhow, we got on board the ship around one O’clock, and started our vacation. The boat was supposed to leave around four but was delayed, for some reason, until after six. No worries though. Nancy and I explored, tasted, tested, rested, relaxed, and snooped until we got the lay of the boat.

We finally got under way. We were informed that our stop in Columbia had been cancelled due to new COVID rules the country had come out with. (We were disappointed with this news because Nicaragua and Columbia were the two countries on the cruise where we had not been yet. We were looking forward to seeing them. Not much we could do about it now and we were still going to do the Panama Canal, the primary reason for the cruise.) Because we were not going to Columbia we would be at sea for four days before we got to the Panama Canal. So, for four days we cruised doing ship board activities. There were plenty and we had good weather and a nice time. Got some sun, met some people, you know, old people cruise stuff!

After the sea days we got to Cartagena, Columbia. I know, I told you it was cancelled, but for some complex reason the ship had to stop there for a day to qualify for a certain kind of voyage. That’s what the captain said anyhow. So we pulled in, never docked, several little boats went back and forth, then we sailed in a circle for a while and finally we left.

We left Columbia and headed towards the Panama Canal. I’ll show you some of the inside of our ship while we are underway.

We were going to go through the new locks because the cruise ship was too large for the old ones. Both still operate. The Panama Canal is actually two set of locks. One set on the East side of Panama from the Atlantic, and one set on the west side from the Pacific. The area in between these two sets of locks is now a huge, man made, lake that allows the ships to travel across Panama. The two sets of locks, one east and one west (Actually, the canal runs northwest to southeast because of the curl of Central America. I will call everything east to west just to keep our directions straight.) are like big dams that hold the lake there. The boats go through the locks to get to the gate, then across Panama on the lake, and out the locks on the other side. This takes a fair amount of time so some shipping companies unload on one side and truck their cargo to a ship on the other side. At each end there are many, many boats waiting to go through. The canal operates from east to west in the morning and west to east in the afternoon to avoid collisions on the lake. The lake, being man made on a mountain valley has many islands that were once ridges. Three towns were covered by the lake. The lake is about 80 feet above the two oceans it connects.

The locks raise the ships about 80 feet from sea level to the lake. Instead of having one large chamber, they use three so three ships can be raised at one time, each about 25 -30 feet per chamber. That allows the locks to use water from one chamber to pow er the next.

Congratulations! You have just passed out of the Atlantic Ocean into Lake Gatun. We will spend most of the day meandering through the lake to get to the Pacific Locks.

We are now anchored at Panama City. We have a day ashore here. We booked a tour that takes us to the old locks and the downtown area. The tour included about 40 people so it was kinda unorganized. We did get to see the old locks and down town though so here they are.

So that was Panama City and the canal. In case you were wondering they have different price scemes for a ship going through the canal. Cruise boats are charged by the rooms they have. It cost our ship just a little over $500,000.00 to go through!

The tour was too big for the one guide we had. He spent more time trying to keep track of everyone than guiding and seemed overwhelmed most of the time. Traffic and lost people used up more of our time on the ground than seeing interesting things. It was interesting, just frustrating … and HOT!

So we went back out to sea and motored up to Costa Rica. The ship offered a number of cruises there but Nancy and I were in Costa Rica just last year and had nothing we wanted to redo. We just walked off the boat and into the “Trade” area in the harbor. Checked out a bunch of souvenirs, listened to a band, had a couple beers, and went back to the ship. Quite relaxing.

Off we go again. Another day or two at sea. Then ashore at Hautulco, Mexico. This little fishing village is a hidden jewel. Far enough from California that all the pretty people haven’t been there yet. They have devoted a lot of time and effort to making the place pleasant and it has a lot to offer. We had booked a full day tour. The harbor and ocean then a tour of the old city. The tour of the harbor and sea was first.;

I think, if I ever wanted to drop out of society, I would go to Huatulco, buy a small home on a hill, a small motor bike, and a medium sized (30 – 45Ft) sailboat, and a small dingy type motorboat and live there. The people are friendly and welcome people that want see or live in their city. It is only eight hours or so from a bigger city, and it has an airport so you can really get to anywhere n the world you would want to go to. The weather is mostly pleasant with low humidity and moderate temperatures and the ocean is very pleasant there.

Enough dreaming. So we set sail again and our next stop is Porto Vallarta, Mexico. This place WAS found by the pretty people of California and is over ran by tourists, both transit and time sharing types. It even has a Walmart and a Sam’s! All the major fast food outlets and many of the chain stores we have right here in the US.

Nancy and I had booked a tour here but after our experiences in the last two tours we had we cancelled it and decided to just take a cab to what was called the Malecon (Seaside Promenade) and walk around and see what there was to see. So that’s what we did. Had a great time. Here’s some pics:

We took a taxi back to the ship and called it a day. Our next stop was our last stop at Los Angeles. Busy place but the boat people made it work well. It was the Saturday before the Superbowl in LA so everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, was busy. We did get out, were delayed and nearly missed our connection in Atlanta … we made it but our luggage didn’t (it was delivered to our house the next day). A couple pictures from the port in LA. (They are blue because the pictures were taken through a window on the ship.

That was our Panama Canal Cruise. Like I mentioned in some of my blather about us in the intro to this website, we don’t like big tours, crowds, or lots of people. The cruise had them all but we did have a good time, met some wonderful people, and got to see the Panama canal.