Hello to all,
Today's posting comes to you direct from the center of the Panama Canal. We'll talk about the canal after we exit it.
The beautiful Colombian city of Cartagena was our port yesterday. After the exciting passage through a fleet of fishermen in canoes at Boca Chica, we were greeted by a vision of the world class skyscrapers of Cartagena. Once, when I was a child, we had visitors from Colombia. As they exited the ship in New York City, they looked at the tall buildings, and said "Madre mia - These people live in Harmonicas!". Now the Colombians have Harmonicas of their own, with at least 12 more under construction.
After docking, we took a bus to past the Fortaleza to the beautiful 16th and 17th century old town to do a walking tour. We stopped as we passed through the 12 mile city wall to shop for trinkets in an old powder magazine. Handicrafts and trinkets were of excellent quality, while the beer's strongest quality was it's coolness. Colombia's aggressive street vendors have been controlled by licensing, and 18 year old ROTC-type Tourist Police with batons. Three "No's" did the job with almost all of them.
As a sidelight, these walls repelled a young cousin of George Washington when he attacked under the leadership of Vernon. Vernon's name was eventually used for GW's residence Mount Vernon.
Our walking tour covered the wonderful homes of the city, where we could get glimpses of the gorgeous courtyard gardens. The homes featured glassless barred windows, and balconies overflowing with Bouganvilla's of all colors.
We visited churches, Museums, and shopped for Emeralds.
The ship's troupe of performers had a new show for us at 10:15PM, but after all of our walking and warmth, we retired instead to insure being up for the Canal entrance at 6:45 AM today. This ship like Holland Americas new ships puts 2000 people in the space others use for 2600 passengers. It's a great feeling - As if the ship were for some reason not full. Kudos to both HAL and Princess. Our Balcony Suite just behind the bridge adds to make this a luxury experience.
This computer won't let me access my camera card, so you'll have to see the pictures of our adventure when we return. Now I know why we should have brought our laptop. Got to run now; we're passing through the Culebra cut, which is the Continental Divide.
Today's posting comes to you direct from the center of the Panama Canal. We'll talk about the canal after we exit it.
The beautiful Colombian city of Cartagena was our port yesterday. After the exciting passage through a fleet of fishermen in canoes at Boca Chica, we were greeted by a vision of the world class skyscrapers of Cartagena. Once, when I was a child, we had visitors from Colombia. As they exited the ship in New York City, they looked at the tall buildings, and said "Madre mia - These people live in Harmonicas!". Now the Colombians have Harmonicas of their own, with at least 12 more under construction.
After docking, we took a bus to past the Fortaleza to the beautiful 16th and 17th century old town to do a walking tour. We stopped as we passed through the 12 mile city wall to shop for trinkets in an old powder magazine. Handicrafts and trinkets were of excellent quality, while the beer's strongest quality was it's coolness. Colombia's aggressive street vendors have been controlled by licensing, and 18 year old ROTC-type Tourist Police with batons. Three "No's" did the job with almost all of them.
As a sidelight, these walls repelled a young cousin of George Washington when he attacked under the leadership of Vernon. Vernon's name was eventually used for GW's residence Mount Vernon.
Our walking tour covered the wonderful homes of the city, where we could get glimpses of the gorgeous courtyard gardens. The homes featured glassless barred windows, and balconies overflowing with Bouganvilla's of all colors.
We visited churches, Museums, and shopped for Emeralds.
The ship's troupe of performers had a new show for us at 10:15PM, but after all of our walking and warmth, we retired instead to insure being up for the Canal entrance at 6:45 AM today. This ship like Holland Americas new ships puts 2000 people in the space others use for 2600 passengers. It's a great feeling - As if the ship were for some reason not full. Kudos to both HAL and Princess. Our Balcony Suite just behind the bridge adds to make this a luxury experience.
This computer won't let me access my camera card, so you'll have to see the pictures of our adventure when we return. Now I know why we should have brought our laptop. Got to run now; we're passing through the Culebra cut, which is the Continental Divide.
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