On November 17, 2014, we left Miami on our second cruise
in November. This time it is from Miami to Los Angeles, via the Panama Canal, aboard
Norwegian Cruise Line’s Star of the Sea. This ship is about 50% larger than our
last ship, Royal Caribbean’s Legend of the Seas, and has about 50% more people.
This ship is also more confusing than our last ship. Here are elevators that
don’t go to all floor and hallways that dead end. The last ship had the traffic
flow going through the middle of the ship, while this one has the traffic flow
along the side of the ship. The good thing is that our cabin is nicer. The last
ship had a shower curtain that Jim thought was trying to eat him alive as it
wrapped around him when he showed. This shower has sliding doors that stay put.
And, this ship also has a much better sink for washing clothes. This ship seems
crowded and because of that it is not going to be one of our favorite ships. This ship has much
better singing and dancers for their productions shows, and generally overall
better entertainment. So, there are pluses and minuses for both cruises.
The second night of the cruise we watched the sun set over
Cuba from the top of the ship. We had hoped for a green flash from the setting sun,
but the clouds and the island got in the way. We looked for the green flash of
the setting sun every night and finally saw it along the coast of Baja. The sea
was very calm during this cruise.
At one of the shows, the performer gave a bottle of
champagne to the newlywed couple that had been married the least number of
days. The winning couple was an interracial pair of gay men who had recently
married, but who had been together for 44 years. The performer announced that
this was a first for him as the audience gave a standing ovation for the couple
as they danced on stage.
1ST PORT: CARTAGENA, COLUMBIA
After two days full days of cruising we arrived in
Cartagena, Columbia. We have been here once before on a South Caribbean cruise
aboard the Norwegian Cruise Line’s Sun. This is a pleasant old, walled city. To get here we took an
overpriced taxi ride, walked around, bought souvenirs, and finally
took another overpriced taxi ride back to the ship. Here is the main entrance to the old city.
Here is a view of the top of the old walls with Columbian flags flying.
The first time, a few years
ago, when we walked the old city, there were family homes and local shops, and a
newish Hard Rock Café. This time the old city was getting a face lift and there
was construction everywhere. The homes had been sold to art shops selling
overpriced art, restaurants, coffee shops, and new hotels. The
Churches were being restored from all the way their foundations to their beautiful
massive alter pieces, and the light posts were being painted.
The nice thing about the port is the small aviary near the
port.
Most of the fellow passengers go to the old city, but we tend to walk outside the old
city, where we are not hassled by people wanting to sell us overpriced crap,
which we buy. There is also a very nice new city, with high rises and high end
shops, which we have never been to. Here, Jim even broke down and bought a
Columbia football (soccer) jersey, which he could have paid $3 for in
Thailand, had he ever found it. He liked it because the player’s name on the
back was “JAMES”.
Outside the old city we were walking in the local area and went
into a grocery store to check out the local food and products. Inside the grocery Laura
spotted stuffed brown and white soft zebra donkey Christmas animals which were
hanging from the ceiling on two ropes.
Each zebra donkey was about the size of
a twenty inch stuffed Teddy Bear.
Laura had to have a photograph of the zebra
donkeys since they reminded her of the first time she went to Tijuana with Jim.
At that time the Mexican street photographers had antique cameras, and had painted
white stripes on their donkeys to look like zebras, in order to photograph with the
tourists. After the photographer took the photo, an assistant would take the
negative to be developed on some back street and then return to present you
with the small photo of you sitting on the cart, holding the reins of the zebra
donkey pulling the cart. The photo always included you wearing a big velvet or
straw Mexican sombrero. Jim’s parents and grandparents had their photo taken
with the zebra donkeys in the 1950’s. Now, here in the grocery store were the
striped brown and white painted stuffed small zebra donkeys to cuddle on
Christmas day.
Laura wonders what Cartagena will look like in the future.
There seems to be a positive attitude among the people. In a shopping center
all decorated for Christmas an older man said, “This is a small shopping
center, but isn’t it beautiful?” To which she replied, “Yes.”
PANAMA CANAL
The Panama Canal was our main destination for the cruise.
This was something that Laura had always wanted to see. And, it was impressive.
We were up before 6am to see our ship entering the canal
and it wasn’t until
about 3pm, that our ship exited the canal. We went through six locks, entering
on the Atlantic Ocean side and exiting into the Pacific Ocean.
The canal is one
way at a time, and there are two sets of locks, three on each end. Here is one lock filling with water.
The ships are pulled through the Panama by little cog wheeled engines called mules.
Going
through the center of the Panama Canal you travel through Lake Gatun
which is a man made lake which forms a large part of the canal. Here,
our ship had a helper tug.
One unannounced highlight was going past the prison where Manuel Noreiga, the former military dictator of Panama is being held.
On the Atlantic side the three locks are together,
while on the Pacific side you go through one lock then after a mile you go
through the other locks.
There are two locks side by side allowing two ships to
go through at a time. We went through the Atlantic locks with a tanker in the
neighboring lock, the m/v Christina Kirk. Laura studied the Panama Canal in
both American and Art History. We have crossed the Suez Canal in Egypt, gone
through the Yangtze River locks, the Black Sea locks, and the lock on Loch Ness
in Scotland.
Laura spent all day walking from the
front of the ship and side to side to photograph and enjoy the moment. Laura’s
mother had studied the Panama Canal at school in Strawn, Kansas and was
fascinated by the history, and had passed her interest about the canal on to Laura.
Soon there will be a new, improved version of the Panama Canal. Work
is being done on it twenty-four hours a day. The current canal is too small for
the new, very large cruise and containers ships. The Panama Canal was on Laura’s
bucket list.
The sight of a large cruise ship going through the Panama Canal
was quite a spectacle. We saw sailors from adjoin ships photographing our ship,
as well as people parked on the shore with their cameras.
The balcony of the Panama Canal visitor center was
packed with people watching our ship pass through.
The
skyline of Panama City is beautiful. Laura would like to
see more of Panama City in the future. From the ship the city looked
modern, with
white high-rise buildings against a blue sky with puffy white clouds and
white
sandy beaches. The Panama City Art Museum was designed by Frank Gehry
using large panels of very bright colors. The bright panels are placed
at all angles to form the building's walls and roof lines. The museum
then is a mass
of color against the blue and white sky line, which makes it one of the
most
beautiful in the world.
We
were also told that Gary is married to a
Panamanian and has a home here. What a beautiful place. We missed seeing
the
island that John Wayne and his Panamanian wife had owned, which is now
occupied
by a very exclusive resort. But, there is a Kansas City connection to
the canal in that the Panama Canal railroad is operated by the Kansas
City Southern Line out of Kansas City, MO.
2ND PORT: PUNTARENAS, COSTA RICA
Puntarenas, Costa Rica, was our first stop on the Pacific
side of Central America. We walked around the town which is on a peninsular
jutting out from the mainland. There was one long pier designed for cruise
ships,
and lots of beaches, which were mostly storm washed due to the recent hurricanes.
We walked to the cathedral, which was built in 1850,
and which was a charming place, apparently designed for sailors and fishermen, with
a statue of the Virgin Mary holding both a baby Jesus and a fishing boat.
It
was Sunday when we arrived so the church was ready for mass.
Being Sunday, the
town was a little sleepy. Although, we did find a number of bakeries open
early, Including a Jewish bakery.
We also found the local supermarket,
where
much of the local coffee had 10% sugar added and packaged, but not grown in
Costa Rica.
At the time we left the ship a market was setting up near
the pier and along the beach. Upon returning to the ship, we found the market in
full swing. The market was better than most near cruise ships. The people were
not frantic to sell you something. It was more like a weekend market at home.
The sellers were willing to talk and explain things, and if the sellers didn’t
speak English, other passengers would interpret. There were even American
sellers in the market, who apparently settled in Costa Rica, and also
backpackers wandering through the market. And, finally, there were two young
backpackers playing what looked like the long aboriginal horns from the outback
of Australia, and asking for donations.
3rd Port: HUATALCO, OXACA, MEXICO
By this time Jim has broken both his glasses and the flip
flops he bought on the Royal Caribbean ship when he hurt his foot. He’s now
wearing glasses he bought two prescription changes ago, and is claiming the
world looks better since he can’t see it as well.
Upon pulling into the port, our first sight was of long
unfinished condo projects on the hillsides. But, upon closer inspection there
are some ongoing condo projects, and lots of hotels. This appears to be a
destination for Canadians, as a lot of souvenirs have Canadian hockey and
football team logos.
When we first got off the ship Jim noticed a bar/restaurant
that had a sign offering “Beer 2 x $3”, or 2 for $3.00. When we returned, Jim
noticed that a different sign that now read “Beer 2 x $4”. They must have rapid
inflation in Mexico.
Right near the port was this interesting open air church.
We walked into the adjoining town, which was about a mile
away. It was a regular Mexican town, with a beautiful cathedral and lots of
shops. This was a shop selling high end traditional regional dresses.
On the way we passed where they have started making a walkway from the
cruise port to the small town, in order to cut the distance to town in half. In
the town Jim broke down and bought food. He saw a taco stand where they sold
beef and cactus tacos and really wanted one. We each ended up having three
different types of tacos, washed down with Coke Light. This was one of the best
meals we have had on this cruise.
Why don’t they have Habanero sauce on cruise
ships?
The local firefighters posed for us.
We also found a big supermarket and had a great time, first wandering
its aisles, and then finally making our purchase. Jim now has new flip flops.
This was a town where we could happily stay longer. Especially when we saw that you could buy your local team serapes here.
4TH PORT: ACAPULCO, GUERRERO, MEXICO
We are only the second cruise ship to dock in Acapulco this
year. The first was a Princess ship about a month ago. The violence in Mexico
has really scared off the cruise lines. One of the stories is that a passenger
had been killed here and after that the cruise lines pulled out. Another is that it was
the violence throughout Mexico, including Acapulco that scared the cruise lines off. We noticed a huge Federal
Police presence around the ship and in town. The police had trucks with machine
guns mounted on them, manned by black suited, helmeted Federal Police, as well as
in vehicles and on motorcycles. We also noticed helmeted female Federal Police.
When we arrived we were greeted by a real brass band. It was
quite a sight.
From the terminal where the band was playing, it was a very easy
walk into both the old and new towns of Acapulco. Before we were allowed to
leave the port, all bags carried off had to be inspected. After the inspection,
we first went to the new town because from the port, Jim sighted a Commercial
Mexicana supermarket sign and he was off to the market. From there we wondered
around the old town, even discovering a few bars with scantily clad female
customers waiting for male customers, which was probably an area where we shouldn't have been.
Near
the old town there was man protesting the death of his daughter, who
was one of the school children that were abducted near Acalpulco and
killed by the drug lords with the help of the local mayor.
After new town we came back to the ship and then set off for
the Fort of San Diego, which was across the street from where the cruise ship
docked.
After exploring the fort, which has a wonderful museum in both Spanish
and English, we walked down to the new town. On the way we went past an art school where they were teaching silk screening.
In
the new town we found Sanborn’s,
Woolworth’s, and all the other shops typically found in Mexican cities.
We saw buses with “Wal*Mart” as their destination, but did not find the
Wal*Mart in
town.
From the new town we walked back to the ship. When we returned to
the port, there was an ambulance picking up a passenger from our cruise ship.
The passenger's luggage was being inspected by the Federal Police before it was loaded
into the ambulance along with them.
Acapulco is a very pretty city with the city being built on
hillsides leading down to a large natural harbor. The mountain ranges behind
the city were visible from the ship. Again we saw dead condo projects on the
hillsides. As we left the port, a school of dolphins decided to go along with
the ship, which treated us to a display of flying dolphins.
At dinner, we sat with a couple from Independence, Missouri.
Earlier Laura had met someone from Topeka, Indiana. So, it was old home day.
5TH PORT, CABO SAN LUCAS, BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
This is the only port where we have tendered rather than
docked. Tendering is, basically, taking the lifeboats from the ship to the
shore.
When we arrived in port, there was our former ship, The Legend of the
Seas. Both ships were in Cabo the same day. The Legend was heading to San Diego
and we were going to Los Angeles.
This time when we got off the ship we had a destination. We
were going to Wal*Mart. Right after we tendered ashore we saw the map for how
to get to Wal*Mart, so we set off. On the way we met a couple from Brazil who
were on the Legend of the Seas so we walked with them. It was a huge Wal*Mart, selling wine
and Liquor. It was much nicer than our local Topeka stores.
After
the walk back,
we stopped in a bar along the marina and had chips and margaritas. We
stopped because the bar offered San Diego Charger fans a discount during
Charger football games. What a wonderful
way to end the cruise.
Cabo reminded us of a cross between San Diego and a desert
town.
It is very dry town on the ocean. The soil looks like it receives even
less rain than San Diego. In the town they were repairing hurricane damage from
the recent storm. We walked past a McDonald’s that looked like it received a
direct hit from the storm.
But, Burger King was still open. There was also a
lot of damage to the marina with a number of the piers at odd angles.
While Laura photographs bicycles, Jim loves to photograph pelicans.
Finally,
we pulled into the Port of Los Angeles. We came into port right behind
the Crown Princess cruise ship and then docked next to them and the
decommissioned U.S.S. Iowa. The interesting thing about the port was
that it was so large. Here is a photo of the Crown Princess.
We
left the ship and were met by Jim's daughter and her friend, Lisa, who
had driven from San Diego to pick us up, which we really appreciated.
So, for the next month we will be staying with them.
On our last day here we decided to go back to the Klang Department Store for our second foot massage. This time, after the massage, we had the masseuses pose for us. 
