Our Panama Canal Cruise

 For me, the whole reason for this trip was to check off my bucket list, travelling through the Panama Canal. For Sheryl, it was being there to support me in this dream. Today's voyage through the canal took 7 1/2 hours, going up 85 feet on the Caribbean side, cruising 51 miles and then lowering ourselves back down to sea level again in the Pacific. There are 3 locks on each side of the canal. For the first 3 locks, I was at the ship's bow, video recording and taking pictures. It took 2 hours, so I got a lot of pics and one heck of a sunburn.  Entering our first lock The gates that hold the water in (or out) are so well balanced that they open and close using a 25-horse motor. These little engines (they call them mules) keep our ship dead centre in the lock) And there is only a little room for error. All are monitored by a few people in this control room. The first of six locks on my bucket list. Locks two and three ahead of us. Two ships passing in the... daylight. Pardon me,...

 Colon is located on the eastern side of side of the Panama Canale (or is it? Colon is actually west of Panama City but is on the Atlantic Ocean/Caribbean Sea). The Panama Canal is more of a north/south route than east/west. Confused enough?  Colon is a port, and there is not much to do, so back to the bus in another effort to find a Toucan. Today's tours had us drive by what I thought was an abandoned old warehouse with barbed wire all around it. Turns out this is a working prison; this building should be enough incentive to stay on the right side of the law. A half-hour later, we arrived at Gatun Lake, where we boarded a boat and set sail in search of wildlife.  Once again, the Toucan eluded us, but we did find a sloth on the move. They are very slow, which makes the next video very long, so maybe grab a coffee before watching it. The sloth turned out to be the highlight of the day and with that done, back to the ship. Tomorrow we sail through the Panama Canal.

 So I found out the hard way that in Costa Rica a lemon is called a Limon, and a lime is called a Limon. Important to know when you're ordering a gin and tonic (make sure you ask for a green Limon). Today's journey was a search for a toucan, so jump on a boat we did to cruise the canals around Limon. We saw lots of birds but no toucan. We did see a sloth but too far away and hidden in the tree for a photo. We also saw a caiman (sort of like a small alligator) but the water was a bit too murky for a real good photo Sorry, best I could do At the end of the day we decided to go on a tour of the town, but to be honest, it was a bit of a disappointment. We did stop at a restaurant for a beer and found this. Closest we came to a toucan Anyway, back on the ship to drown my sorrows with a great meal, too much wine and an evening of dancing (sorry no pictures). 

Very calm waters today, I got to relax some and catch up on some... WORK! Okay, nothing to see here, let's move on to tomorrow.

 Today's tour has us jumping on another bus and heading to Gumbalimba Park in Roatan, Honduras. Apparently, The forest park is full of insects (hmm...) and wildlife (unlike what you find in the bars at Fort Lauderdale). Our guide says we won't be disappointed. To start, we were led into a room where we were told there were 10,000 insects. Fortunately, upon entering the room, we saw they were all dead and properly mounted and framed. We were also pleased to find that a good portion of them were butterflies (there were others, but Sheryl won't let me post those). Here is a brief summary. I think you get the picture (lol) From there, we crossed what I would say was a poorly maintained swing bridge (there were actually a couple planks missing) and then on to meet our "wildlife".  Our first specimens were iguanas, lots and lots of iguanas. There were black ones, green ones, brown ones and orange ones, but hey, when you've seen one iguana, you've seen them all. ...

And look what we woke up to (it actually happened at 11:31AM) A full solar eclipse (they call it the ring of fire) right over where we were docked. It's the first one I've been lucky enough to see. Our cruise ship handed out those special glasses you need, and Sheryl and I just stood there for maybe 10 minutes watching the moon crescent over the sun, totally block the sun and then move on. If our day ended here, we would be totally happy. But wait, there is more. Heading to shore, we are. Even our little ship is too big to dock in Belize, so tender we did. Today's excursion was a drive through old Belize and a tour of the site Altun Ha. Now, we've toured a couple sites in Talum, we did one in Cozumel, but this blew the others away. I've only added a few photos, but suffice it to say that we are surrounded by pyramids, buildings, and stairs. Boy, do the Mayans love building stairs. In the centre is a playing field where the game of choice was Pitz. The game was simil...

 Our first port of call was Cozumel, Mexico, and our first excursion was a trip to the ruins of San Gervasio. By the way, I forgot to mention in yesterday's post that Viking includes one excursion at every port at no additional cost (there are other excursions at an additional cost, so there is always a selection). This site has a long history, starting around 100 BC and continuing until the Spaniards arrived in the 16th century. The place was dedicated to the Mayan goddess Ixchel (She of the rainbows). Many couples came here to have their wedding, as it was a good omen for a healthy marriage. Renewing our vows was an excellent place for a honeymoon its time, but not so much anymore. A wedding would only be a wedding with a wedding crasher. A short tour today (2 1/2 hours). In hindsight, we should have done a second one, but it was hot, and there were cool drinks back on board. So back we went. A quick shower, a cool drink and we're ready to .... relax.

 This is our Ship Well, a model of it. Eventually, we will get a better view of the ship's exterior when in our first port. Sheryl booked us on the Viking Mars, the newest of their ships launched in 2022. The ship only holds 930 guests and 465 crew. It is considered a small ship at 745 feet in length and a beam of 94 feet, but we still managed to get lost several times over these two days at sea. One of the many "WOWs" was the ship SPA. With Vikings Norwegian roots, you have to expect the best in cold, hot and relaxation, and we found it on deck 1. The ice bucket challenge is still doing well on the Viking Mars. But it gets even colder in the ice room, which has actual snow in it (it was too dark inside to get a picture but believe me, there is snow). To top it off, there is a steam room and shower with more nozzles than you can count, even if you use both hands. After you put your body through all this, there is a relaxing pool and jacuzzi. All this and more are included...

 We landed late last night in Fort Lauderdale, so we just went to our room and hit the sack. We woke up to realize the great view we had from our room overlooking one of the several canals surrounding our hotel. From our hotel to our ship, where we were whisked through security, registration and customs. And treated with the traditional glass of champagne (I got to drink both glasses). The rest of the day was spent settling into our suite and doing a quick tour of the ship. The next two days will be at sea and we will definitely be exploring the ship in more detail.

Thanks to COVID-19, it's been a while since our last cruise, but today is the day we start on our trip and knock off another bucket list adventure. Over the past few months, Sheryl has been working diligently on finding the perfect cruise that would have us visiting places we have yet to see and get us through the Panama Canal. My contribution was using all the points I've built up on credit cards over the past several years to allow us to travel in style (and for free). They say red sky in the morning, sailors take warning. Lucky for us, we were flying, so we just sat back and enjoyed the morning sky.