Our 2022 Panama Cruise

2022 started with a Panama cruise that we started planning before the pandemic.  Sharon, Jonathan, and Emily came on the trip as well, as did nine other friends.  The trip left from Fort Lauderdale, went through the Panama Canal, and ended in the Port of Los Angeles.  We flew into Fort Lauderdale a day early so that we could see Uncle Walter, cousins Eric and Lloyd, and Emily’s grandparents.  Emily’s grandparents live in Pennsylvania and Fort Meyers and they came to Fort Lauderdale to spend time with us.  Sharon visited with a friend who doesn’t live in Florida, but was also there to go on a different cruise. 

We arrived Wednesday and checked into our hotel.  We took our covid tests and breathed a sigh of relief when they were all negative. On Thursday, Emily’s grandparents picked us up and we went to a nearby wildlife sanctuary.  We looked around the visitor’s center and walked along the boardwalk.  We had an excellent dinner with Uncle Walter, Eric, and Lloyd.    The next day, we went to the docks - more covid tests, and they were negative too.  Not knowing for sure that we would be able to go on the trip until we were at the docks ready to board really stressed Jackie out!  But not only did we all get on, but no one caught covid on the trip or came down  with it afterwards. Judging from other trips involving big groups we’ve heard about, that is pretty unusual.

The first stop was Columbia, but all the excursions were cancelled, because Columbia was requiring a negative PCR test within 24 hours of disembarkation, which the cruse was not equipped to provide. So we schmoozed with our friends, and played board games with Jonathan and Emily and attended the various ship board entertainment.  On to Panama!  The Panama Canal lived up to our expectations.  We went through the new locks, and greatly enjoyed watching each lock fill with water and raise the ship up to the next level.  Then hours of sailing on Gatun lake, which was beautiful, and through the canal on the other end.  It was impressive to look at the high sides of the canal and think about how much dirt had to be moved to create it.  We arrived at the locks on the Pacific side and watched the reverse process, as each lock emptied and lowered the ship.  It was a glorious day and we spent most of the day on the deck watching locks and scenery, looking at all the other ships, cruise and cargo, and marveling over the feat of engineering that the locks represent.  It was hard to imagine, on this bright and sunny day, what building the Panama Canal must have been like, since Panama has far more rainy days than sunny ones.  We anchored off of Panama City, and in the morning we took an excursion to the Miraflora locks (the old locks).  As amazing as the new locks are, the old locks are even more impressive, because they were built 100 years before the new ones, when the technology was not nearly as good as it is now. The old locks have been working flawlessly since they were built and are still In use today.  The new locks were only built to be able to accommodate larger ships.  We were fortunate, because there were ships in the locks while we were in the observation tower. 

If you are not an Engineer, the locks are fun and impressive.  If you are an Engineer, they are AMAZING!  We both read John McCullogh’s “The Path Between the Seas” and so had a good understanding of what it took to build the Canal in terms of engineering, politics, money, and lives.

After seeing the Miraflora locks we went to Panama City and walked around.  Panama City was nice.  We shopped a little, but didn’t buy anything.

After Panama, the next stop was supposed to be Nicaragua, but those excursions were cancelled too.  They had been cancelled even before we got on the ship, because the State Department said, “We advise you not to go to Columbia, Panama, or Costa Rica, and you really, really, really, shouldn’t go to Nicaragua.” (OK, I’m paraphrasing, that wasn’t actually a quote.)  So, the cruise ship cancelled the Nicaragua excursions.  So more schmoozing and games.

Next stop – Costa Rica.  At Costa Rica, Marc and Sharon went to some gardens, and Jonathan, Emily and I went on an arial tram, to a butterfly sanctuary and to a sloth sanctuary.  The gardens were pretty, but more strenuous than Sharon had expected.  But she was a trooper, and survived without incident.  The arial tram was a disappointment – no wildlife.  The butterfly sanctuary was nice but small.  At the sloth sanctuary, we liked how the sloths were not in cages – they just had trees with low walls around them and the sloths were in the trees.  There were lots of other animals there as well.  The gave us <something yummy – I forget what> at the base.  The walls were decorated with sayings that had been painted

The next day we arrived at Hualtaco, Mexico, a little tourist trap of a town.  Here our excursion was a river boat trip and alligator farm.  It didn’t live up to the river boat trip we had taken in Costa Rica, but we knew that it wouldn’t.  They had deer as well as the alligators, which we could have fed if we wanted too.  We tried coconut milk straight from the coconut – not too bad.   

The best excursion was the last one.  Got up at 6am and went for my morning run.  Marc had warned me that he wasn’t going to walk, so I did an extra long one.  The instructions said, “bring change of clothes, wear swimsuit/sturdy shoes.  It was on the colder side, so I decided to wear long pants over my swimsuit.  I brought a change of socks, underwear and bra.  Marc wore his swimsuit and swimshirt, and brought shorts, a shirt, underwear, socks and sandals. We were supposed to meet ashore at 9:15am, and got there a few minutes late.  The other two couples on the trip were already there and were relieved to see the four of us.

We walked to a nearby zodiac-type boat and set off.  We traveled at a pretty good clip, about 30-35 knots for about 20 minutes.  At one point, I saw a huge splash, and after staring at that spot for quite a while was rewarded by seeing a whale breach.  We were told that it was a humpback. 

We arrived saw a very large iguana in a tree.  We climbed into a 4-wheel drive vehicle.  The first part of the journey was paved, but then we branched off onto an unpaved, mostly single lane road.  It was often pretty bumpy.  They guide referred to it as a “Mexican Massage” – or maybe that was the boat ride, which was also pretty bumpy.  Another 20 minutes, and we arrived at the base

We removed the clothes we did not want to get wet and they gave us swimshirts to wear, which Marc and Jonathan didn’t need, because they were wearing their own.  I had a dilemma, because I had not brought a change of shoes, not realizing that we would not be able to do this barefoot.  They offered to sell me water shoes, but they didn’t have anything remotely in my size, so I just took off my socks and wore my tennis shoes.  They suited us up in harnesses and led us to the mules that were going to take us to the top.  We had to cross a pontoon bridge to get to the mules.   

At first they assigned me a mule with had stirrups of very different lengths.  I was not willing to put up with that, so they changed me to a different mule.  So I was last in line, which was helpful, because Jonathan’s mule was barn-sour and tried several times to turn around and head back.   I helped the guide block his mule and get him turned in the proper direction.  After a 20 minutes ride we arrived and got off the mules, but then still needed to hike up to the first zipline. 

We put on the gloves they had given us, (which were soaking wet – should have given us a clue as to what was to come).  They hooked us up to the zipline, and told us to put one hand on the zipline, but just to keep us from spinning, not to grip too tight because if we were going too slow, we wouldn’t make it to the platform.  That point was driven home when the first woman stopped short of the platform and had to pull herself along the last few feet.  So we didn’t hold tight, and came flying in to the platform – but no problem, the mechanism they have to stop us worked like a charm.

The second zipline was the longest zipline, and was basically a repeat of the first, only longer.  The view was gorgeous!  We then rappelled down the side of a waterfall into a pool of water – maybe knee deep.  Next was a short zipline into another pool (about waist deep), which, although short, was probably the most dangerous, because there was a rock along along the way that you would hit with your tush, so the guides were jerking the line to the side just as people got to the rock so they would swing around it.  We climbed up a rope mesh ladder to get to the next platform.  We then did a water slide tandem.  That was the *first* place we got water up our noses.  Next there was a bridge we called the “V” bridge, because it was two ropes wide with rope hand rails, and more ropes going from the ropes you walk on to the rope hand rails, so it looked like a “V”.  There was another zipline after the bridge that was set up so you took it backwards.  They were telling people that they were to do it backwards.  Emily thought they were talking about the V bridge, so she did the V bridge backwards.  When they put us the backwards zipline they told us to smile and look to the left.  That was for the photographer that was there. After that we walked out to a hanging platform and rappelled down, no wall, just straight down.   

Next was something they called “the roller coaster”.  On this one, we were suspended from a metal track, rather than a rope, and because it was a metal track, it went up and down and turned corners, like a roller coaster.  As each person came to the end, the guide waiting for us yelled. “Close your mouth! Grab your glasses!”  And before you had time to do anything but close your mouth, it dropped you into a pool of water.  The path then crossed the river, but it was only ankle deep.  We then crossed a bridge that was only two ropes – one for your feet and one for your hands.  I slipped off of that one, but was able to get back up and finish.  Next was another zipline.  They hooked us up, and had us sit into the harness.  They told us to hook our feet around the rope above us, and let go of our hands, so we were totally upside down.  We did that zipline upside down. 

Next zipline had what looked like a boogie board suspended from the zipline.  We stepped onto the boogie board in pairs, and zipped down standing up on the boogie board.  They then gave us a sign that said “We made it!” and took our picture.  But we were not done yet.  They took off all our other harnesses, gave us elbow pads and a hockey helmet (it had with a full face mask), and sent us down a waterslide.  I made the mistake of not keeping my feet up and the friction stopped me in the tube.  I had to scritch forward to a place where it dropped down again.  When we arrived, they provided us with towels and hibiscus water. 

It was a short walk back to the base and our clothes.  At the base, we looked at the pictures they had taken and bought them all on a memory stick.  They gave us chips and salsa and Emily bought a quesadilla.  There were some interesting items to amuse us – swings, a very large teeter-totter, a home-made foosball, a mechanical bull (which was broken), and, best of all, goats.

After all was said and done, we thought the excursions were not as good as our other trips, but we went for the Canal, and that did live up to expectations.  Going with friends and family was a blast, although next time I might go with just friends or just family – I often wanted to be in two places at once!