A trip to Panama

 

Christmas was coming soon, then New Years. The cruise was booked for Jan 6^th.

It suddenly became the week before we were due to leave. In the meantime we had discussed making changes at No 2 such as adding an “Arizona room”, walk in shower and new furniture.

We walked most mornings to help control my vertigo and one morning we passed a house that some friends had owned and saw it was for sale. It had everything we were talking of adding and it occurred to us that it might be cheaper to buy a place with all the changes made than to do them ourselves. At the same time we wouldn’t have to live with all the chaos during the construction.

We went by the park sales office and noted that there were several places that met our requirements. We made an appointment to see them.

Our next door neighbors mentioned that they had sold their place and we mentioned we were looking. They said the people buying their place were selling their existing place and that they had the key.

We went around and it was beautiful. Spacious, excellent furniture, step in shower and newly repainted.

We looked at several more places but none of them came close. We bought a new place! But we don’t close until March.

All very exciting but we also needed to get packing for the cruise so a great deal of sorting clothes, pre packing and laundry was combined with borrowing suit cases, returning those cases after we discovered that our existing suitcase was big enough, cancelling newspapers, sorting out spending money, tickets, airfares etc etc.

Then bang! We were on the flight to LA. We spent a night in a hotel not far from the cruise terminal and were rewarded for me being a member of the Holiday Day Inn club by being upgraded to a very nice suite!

Suite at the hotel.

While walking around the block we conveniently found a brew pub and while sampling their products met 2 Canadian couples who were on the same cruise as us!

Dark beer OOOHHH!

Next morning a short Uber ride took us to the pier in San Pedro where the Norwegian Joy was waiting for us.

Norwegian Joy

A huge ship with around 4000 passengers, it took some time to load everyone onboard and get the luggage delivered to the stateroom. The stateroom was a balcony one and quite nice. While we waited for the bags to get delivered we explored the many bars and restaurants on board.

We pre-purchased the beverage, premium dining and gratuities packages as I don’t like getting to the last day of the cruise and having to sort out all the extras on the bill. We booked a few shore excursions too but not too many as we prefer to go our own way when we get places.

We left San Pedro with a couple of days at sea before our first stop in Cabo San Lucas Mexico.

Leaving San Pedro

I was a little concerned about how my normal seasickness would affect my vertigo but a calm sea didn’t trouble me at all. In fact I didn’t feel queezy the whole trip!

We have been to Cabo before and weren’t impressed, so we stayed on board and enjoyed a quite day wandering around the ship. By this time we had experienced a few of the restaurants and although most were fairly good we learned not to get scrambled eggs as they were made with powdered eggs, and to stay away from the “American Diner” which was cold and draughty and the food not very good.

Next day we were in Mazatlan where we took an Uber along the seafront road (Promenade in UK) but even after nearly 20 miles we didn’t see much worth stopping for. We got another Uber to the Central Cathedral before going back to the ship.

Nothing special in Mazatlan

A quaint Cathedral

Puerto Vallerta was far better and we enjoyed lunch on the beach followed by a walk along the Malecon where troupes of acrobats were performing around a huge pole that must have been 75’ high. Barb’s knee had started to hurt and she limped along with an elastic bandage wrapped around it.

Lunch with the pelicans in Puerta Vallarta

Amazing acrobats

Having paid in advance for our booze we decided we had to drink a minimum of 4 drinks to draw even. We were well in pocket and sampled lots of cocktails, had Mimosas with breakfast, tried all the single malt scotches and took a few cans of beer back to the cabin each night too!

Day 6 was another at sea day and we had reservations for the Tepenyaki restaurant which was like a Beni Hanna chinese “Show” restaurant. Our UK readers might not know what that is but usually they involve some funny chefs cooking the meal at a big grill while juggling eggs and knives, throwing shrimp for people to catch in their mouths and producing sheets of flame from volcanoes made from sliced onions! You have to experience it for yourself, but its very entertaining, although because of shipboard fire regulations they couldn’t do the flaming volcano!

We went from there to a feature of this ship that reminded us of our Liverpool area roots, “The Cavern” which is a small bar dressed to very loosely resemble the real Cavern. There was a Beatles tribute band who played there a couple of times during the cruise and who played in the large theater several times too. They were very good and it was standing room only whenever they were performing.

The shipboard "Cavern Club"

Another day at sea then we landed in Antigua. Not the one in the Caribbean as we were still on the Pacific side. This one was in Guatemala and we took a bus trip to the “Jade Factory” to learn all about Guatemalan Jade from a lady who turned out to be from Yorkshire England where Barbara has many relatives!

The Jade Museum (and sale room)

Another day at sea and we discovered the “Brewhouse” bar where they had 50 draft beers but no dark beers except canned Guinness or Shiner Bock from Texas. I walked out of a weird magic/dancing show in the theater later that evening as it was poorly presented and quite boring.

Puerto Caldera in Costa Rica was OK with a trip to a small town with little kids dancing and a nice church.

Cute local kids dancing

Another day at sea and I was getting bored. A talk about the history of the Panama Canal in the evening helped take up some time. Unfortunately we went to another premium restaurant that evening. It was called the Q Smokehouse and the barbequed ribs were awful. There was no manager around and the waiter offered us another meal but we didn’t want another bad experience. We complained bitterly over the next 3 days but got nowhere with customer service and despite promises that the manager would contact us he never did.

Barbara resting up her knee

Next morning and we were at the entrance to the Panama Canal. Unfortunately Barbara’s knee was so bad that she could barely walk and I brought her breakfast to the cabin for several days. Fortunately we had the balcony and could sit out and watch the scenery drift by!

Pacific side of the Panama Canal

Thru the locks

These basins hold water for the locks to conserve the fresh water.

I have designed ships that had to meet the special Panama Rules. I was looking forward to the transit. I had the original canal in mind when I booked the trip but the Joy was so big she went thru the new canal. There isn’t much difference really just the three locks at each end, the rest is still the original route. It was a little disappointing but it was a great experience.

Beautiful statuary in the cathedral

Colon on the Atlantic side of the canal then Cartagena were not very interesting in our opinion and an 8 hour bus trip to take a 45 minute walk around the old city of Panama didn’t help. Barbara stayed on the bus because her knee hurt so badly. She was alternating cold and hot packs on it to try to ease the pain.

The only thing to watch in Cartegena

                                                                       was the pelicans

During the final 2 days at sea we hooked up with our Canadian friends from LA, ate at a couple more premium restaurants before arriving in Miami on day 17.

Norwegian's dock in Miami

Barbara and I decided to ask for a wheelchair to get her off the ship and we were whisked to the front of the disembarkation line, then to the front of the customs and immigration line and were in an Uber headed for the hotel we had reserved before we could blink!

After getting the same preferential treatment at the Miami and Phoenix airports we were on our way back to Casa Grande courtesy of our friend Ed who both dropped us at the airport on the way out and picked us up on the way back. Thanks Ed!

A mountain of laundry, doctors for Barbara, inches of dust around the house from a sand storm when we were away and restocking the empty fridge took up the rest of the week.