Oldies On Tour

Nicaragua

Posted on 13/12/2015 by Christine

Today we are having to be transported by the tenders into the port, as we are anchored off. When we arrived our bus was waiting, and took us immediately to Masaya, the country looks very poor again, mainly agricultural and tourism.
First stop was a market, dating back to the 1800’s, we were not impressed, although we did get a magnet. We walked around quickly, then went to the local square and got a coffee.
We passed several volcanoes, with several active, but they don’t seem to be bothered about them.

We visited one, where we could see the middle still smouldering

We then travelled to Granada, the heat is very intense, so hot, we escaped and went for a cup of coffee and tea, wow.

We walked around this monastery, then came to a square, very pretty. Granada is located amidst the astonishing landscape of volcanoes and lakes, this historic city founded in 1524 features ornate Spanish churches, colourful colonial houses and a vibrant market.

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Costa Rica

Posted on 12/12/2015 by Christine

Early breakfast as off on a trip today, rafting down the river!

We had an hours coach trip, where most of the land is growing pineapples, bananas or coffee beans, that and tourism is how they make their money. Discovered by Columbus in 1502 and named “Rich Coast” on his fourth and final voyage to the New world, Costa Rica never lived up to the promise of gold or other riches like its neighbouring Spanish colonies. Puntarenas remained a sleepy village until coffee production in the late 18th century transformed the Costa Rican economy. By the 1850’s coffee had surpassed cacao, tobacco and sugar as the country’s number one export and Puntarenas’ port became a thriving business.
When we arrived we were warned we might get wet, and that cameras may get wet, and guess what mine did. There were eight boats with six people in, and we were the first to set off, straight over the first rocks, the river was running quite fast, so a lot of fun.

We saw monkeys, kingfishers, iguanas, but no caymans which is just as well.

If my camera dries out we might have more photos.
We meandered for about an hour then came to an opening, where a free for all started, everyone splashing everyone, because we were in the front we got soaked to the skin, it was so funny, Geoff was giving as good as he got, but I couldn’t seem to hit back, we had a great time.
We arrived at the point of the river where we suddenly stopped, and our fun was over, we walked to the restaurant, and had a lunch of local food, fish, beans, rice, plantain, followed by ice cream, simple but nice.
Having changed we got back in bus, and arrived back at the ship at 4.30pm, we decided to go for a stroll into town, to get a fridge magnet, getting quite a collection now! They had lots of little stalls, selling their local wares, we found one and purchased it, we then stopped for coffee and tea $3 not bad. Think it’s quite a poor place.
We slowly made our way back to the boat, had a swim, and soaked our weary bones in the jacuzzi, with a couple of cocktails, it’s dark now, but lovely to sit on top deck under the stars! Later there were calls for a missing passenger, the ship was ready to go but missing one lady, we believe she did turn up, but who really knows, the ship left a bit later anyway.
After our lovely swim, we changed had dinner and went to the show.

Posted in Costa Rica Punterarenas | Leave a comment

Panama Canal

Posted on 10/12/2015 by Christine

Up early yet again, 6.30pm, we were hoping to get a good seat at the bows for the trip through the canal, well that was a joke, all seats had been taken up, mainly by the Chinese, but not a problem, as we found chairs on the side, next to a lovely lady who was a BA air hostess and her husband was the chief security officer on the boat, so she was there for the ride, good for her.
The Panama Canal is the result of a saga of human ingenuity and courage that goes back to the early XV1 Century when the Spaniards arrived on the Isthmus. Since then, the idea of building a route that would join the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans was conceived.
The first firm effort to build an all-water route through Panama began with the French in 1880, but financial troubles and diseases made the initiative fail. After its independence in 1903, Panama negotiates an agreement with the United States for the construction of the Canal which the U.S. Would finish on August 15, 1914 and then managed the waterway until 1999.
At noon on December 31st 1999, Panama took over full operation, administration and maintenance of the Canal, in compliance with the Torrijos-Carter Treaties negotiated with the U.S. Tied States in 1977.
The Panama Canal serves as a maritime shortcut that saves time and costs in transporting all kinds of goods. Since its opening in 1914, more than one million ships from all over the world have transited the Canal. The historic millionth mark was reached on September 4, 2010 with the transit of the bulk carrier Fortune Plum.
The inter- oceanic waterway uses a system with two lanes that operates as water lift and raises the ships from sea level to the level of Gatun Lake. 26 meters above sea level, to allow the crossing through so the Continental Divide, and then lowers the ships to sea level on the other side of the Isthmus.
The water used to raise and lower the vessels in each set of locks is obtained from Gatun Lake by gravity and poured into the locks through a main culvert system that extends under the locks chambers from the sidewalks and the centre wall.
However it works, it was fascinating going through, we watched the first three locks, then we came to Gatun Lake, which took us about three hours to go across. Gatun lake was formed by damming several valleys to form the lake, it was very pretty, we went into the dinning room whilst we were doing this, and had a lovely lunch, by the time we had finished it was time to watch the last three locks, as we were going through Celebrity Infinity was also going through, so that was ironic, as we had spent our last cruise on her.
We spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool, watching the big screen, as it was showing us going through, what a lovely day. Last but not least we came to Bridge of Americas, it joins the north and South America, it looked as though we were going to touch the top, but there was a small clearance.
The evening was spent at the show, and we then had an early night, as we were both stiff, I think it is the result of going. on the 4 wheel drive, never mind it was fun.
This cruise is certainly better than the last, everything is that much better!

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Cartagena

Posted on 09/12/2015 by Christine

Another busy day, we arrived at Cartagena Colombo, about 9am and we went ashore for a 9.30am trip on the old favourite, the red bus company, but it was an organised trip, as it included a 90 minute walking tour!

We set off, and the traffic was chaotic, maybe it is everyone going to work, but the traffic was like a bad day on the M25, with the roads only having one or sometimes two lanes. Cartagena is a walled city, first thing we saw was Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas, which is the fort of San Felipe, the most important work of Spanish military engineering in South America. We went from old to the modern part of the city, we saw the lovely beaches, and the hotel resorts. Having done the complete tour, we then got of at the “Old City” with narrow streets and Spanish Colonial buildings, first stop was the Hard Rock Cafe, where we were given drinks, and we were able to do some emails, but only for five minutes, we walked all around the city, and then went into an emerald museum where they showed us how they were mined and also tried to sell some. Geoff wanted me to have a pair of emerald ear rings, but I wouldn’t let him buy them, they were lovely, but I couldn’t justify him spending that money!
The old city was lovely, although we were hassled to buy things from street sellers, they had Panama hats, fans, necklaces, and loads of other things, we both said we would have liked to spend more time there, but we had to be back in the ship by 2pm. One day maybe we might return.

Back on board we had a quick swim, to cool down, it was very hot in Cartagena, then went for afternoon tea, in one of the lovely restaurants, the only trouble all the sandwiches had mayonnaise in, and guess what I don’t like that, so they went and made me some smoked salmon with cream cheese sandwiches, we had scones, jam and cream, plus cakes, but have to say it was not as good as our local one sells in Lo Pagan, the cream was not the same, but we did enjoy it.

Today’s show was a tribute to Whitney Houston, I enjoyed her, but Geoff was not very impressed, but she sang a lot of my favourite songs, we then watched “Inside Out” (Disney) on the big screen under the stars, by the pool, it was not cold at all, went to bed at 11.30pm very tired.

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Aruba

Posted on 08/12/2015 by Christine

Up early and breakfast at 6.45am, the breakfast room was full, everyone wanting to get ashore. We docked at 6.30am and by 7,00am we were ashore. We are going on a 4wd excursion today, we met our guide,and left on a coach, we then had to sign a disclaimer, before we were assigned to a land rover defender, with seats at the back.
There were six vehicles, and they all had their pecking order, we started off fourth, although we did go up to second later. We headed north, and onto the coastal road, which was no more than a rough track, we came to Casibari, these dramatic formations are shaped by boulders, some the size of small houses and weighing several tons. Arawak Indians would visit in order to bear incoming thunderstorms and draw on the rocks. We walked up to the top, where there was a stunning view, we could even see the cruise ship in the distance.
Back into the jeep, we continued on the coastal road, the Atlantic was very rough, and crashing onto the rocks, it was fantastic, we stopped many times, to look at the sea crashing onto the rocks, then onto the site of the original natural bridge, which fell into the sea in 2005, but the smaller bridge remains still, which we travelled on to see.
We did a lot of off roading, and were taken to the gold mine, no longer working, as too expensive, also on the beach years ago the fishermen used to place 7 stones on top of one another if they had found a good fishing spot, these days many people do it, apparently it is for good luck, the beach was full of them, the fisherman would certainly not know which was a good spot now.
Back in the jeep, more off roading, and in the middle of nowhere we came across a church, which ahead been built many years ago, and restored by a teacher in the 60’s.
Next step was the California Lighthouse, perched on a high elevation and named after the steamship California, which sunk off the coast of Aruba, this lighthouse was built in 1910, and offers stunning views of the island and coastline. At present it is being renovated, and it is hoped that it will be finished by next year. Close to the lighthouse, is a fabulous Italian Restaurant, where you can watch the sunset, sadly we didn’t have time to eat there, although we caught up on our emails.
Aruba is famous for gorgeous, palm tree lined white sandy beaches which are home to calm clear waters, making them perfect locations for swimming, snorkelling and sunbathing which we did. The Caribbean waters were lovely, we thoroughly enjoyed our swim.
We headed back to the ship, in time for lunch which we took in the Provence Restaurant, it was very good.
The rest of the day we spent down by the pool, watching Skyfall, they have an outside screen on deck, which is very large, we had mojitos and Piña colada, took a swim, and a jacuzzi, very decadent.
Later we went to the show to watch the ventriloquist, he was very good, he could throw his voice, he was very funny, better than we thought.
After the show we played dominoes, and managed to beat the boys again.
Back on deck, they had “party night” dancing under the stars, good fun, although you can tell we are getting old, as I wanted to go to bed at 11pm, which we did, still we were up at 6am!

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At sea

Posted on 07/12/2015 by Christine

We have two whole days at sea, so today we decided to finish un-packing, or at least tidy up, we went for a swim before breakfast, then changed, and had a late breakfast, followed by coffee, which Geoff had to try out his booze package card, for brandies, yes it works!
We booked our trips for Aruba, then did some more exploring, this is a lovely ship, plenty of seating areas, we had no problem finding a seat by the pool, in fact Geoff had a couple of cocktails, whilst I enjoyed an ice cream. I need to do some ironing, so the next trip was to find the launderette, yes we can do our washing on board, very civilised, I had to hand wash on the Norwegian. All jobs complete, we went to the quiz, we met a couple of Americans, who said we could share their seats, this was trivial quiz, and guess what we won, so the Alcoholics still have it! We won a plastic water container each, didn’t we do well. It was good news having the Americans, cos we had a mixture of questions, and the questions on America they answered.
We left there, changed for dinner, had a drink beforehand, went to the show, which was excellent again, had dinner, went to another quiz, this one was on sixty Mystics, we didn’t win, but think we came third, so not too bad, we named all the tunes, but missed out on the artists. We listened to the Rock and roll, but Jan and I are feeling queasy, we think it’s motion sickness, cos a bit rough, so an early night was had by all.

Day 2 at sea

We had to put the clocks on another hour last night, so we are now 6 hours behind UK, so instead of 7.30am swim we went at 8.30am. It was really fun in the pool as the seas are rough, so we have our own wave machine, it was hard swimming, against the waves, but a lot of fun, we had a jacuzzi, then upstairs change for breakfast.
They had a film on the History of the Panama Canal, it was very interesting, we then had coffee and Geoff had his brandies. Today they have a themed UK pub lunch, which we made the mistake of going too, Geoff and I had a ploughman’s the trouble is we have an early dinner tonight, oh well, never mind.
Tonight is formal night, so out came the dresses, and guess what, one the zip has got jammed so couldn’t wear that, the other I was all lumps and bumps, and the skirt was too tight, so really fed up, fortunately I had my new dress and jackets so I wore that, shame cos I was looking forward to wearing long. Anyway I felt ok in what I had on.
We had an early dinner, which was a special menu, as they were celebrating 50 years of Princess cruises, so instead of the normal three courses they wanted to give us five courses, I missed one of the starters off, but Geoff managed his, fortunately we had fish so not too heavy, we could have had steak! Anyway we have decided it’s time to cut back a bit.
After dinner the Captain introduced himself, and his top men, and very friendly they all seemed. They had a champagne fountain, which we couldn’t get near, but they were very concerned with it, because it was so rough, anyway it worked, and it was very effective.
Next was the show, which was brilliant, they had a comedian who could certainly play the piano, he could play, sing, and tell very funny stories, another good night.
We decided to have an early night as tomorrow we have a very early start, as we are going to Aruba.

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