Sunrise today…. Very pretty… Notice the black fume on the right side? That’s our ship emitting Sulphur oxide and nitrogen oxide…. We always tried to brush it aside and ignore it…and we are happy to hear that Princess is adding newer ships that burns LNG (liquefy natural gas) instead and largely reduced green house emissions
Below is our wall where we stick magnets, P’s art work and pictures token with friends and crews onboard and…. After 103 days it’s getting quite busy..
Such a rich culture, and a strong passion for life and their trades… Kusadasi, Turkiye
Did not expect the water to be so beautiful here. Wow…
So the French and the English both attempted to build the canal but failed… The US successfully built it (costs US 375 million) and in the process also helped Paname became independent from Colombia…… Total of around 27000 people sacrificed in building this canal… What a history
Pic above From Wiki as well as: “The American Society of Civil Engineers has ranked the Panama Canal one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.”….. We were very excited to cross it today
The whole crossing took about 9 hours, we were going through the old locks that opened since 1914 (an expanded canal opened in 2016 that can fit bigger ship) old locks can only fit ships up to 1000 feet long, our island princess is 964 feet, one of two older smaller ships of Princess fleet that can fit into the old locks of Panama canal
The first lock we crossed is the Gatun Locke which had three chambers that raise us a total of 85 feet to a man made lake : Gatun lake
After exiting the first lock, we were at Gatun lake which was surrounded by dense forests with wildlife activities… It was sunny at first, but then it starts pouring rain….beautiful rain or shine..
Took about 3 hours to arrive at the second lock Pedro Miguel lock to begin our descend into Pacific ocean
3rd lock is called Miraflores locks
After we exited the locks and level up with Pacific ocean, breathtaking view of Panama city and Frank Gehry’s museum was in sight
We were so happy to be able to cross the Panama canal since we were diverted and couldn’t cross the Suez canal (Suez canal is a sea level canal that does not require locks and chambers to transit) … Panama canal is truly a man made wonder and we are grateful for the opportunity to cross it…. If it was not build, all ships needs to go all the way down to Cape Horn, risk the treacherous sea near Drake passage that surround Antarctica and loop back… And that’s a much scarrier and longer voyage….
We did not expect too much from this port stop but turns out it has strong characteristics and idiosyncracies…. The fun starts at the cruise port and they said it’s one of the most beautiful cruise port in the world… Packed with parrots, peacocks, other birds, fishes, monkies (we did not see monkies but others did) .. .. Like a tropical paradise
We tried to get an Uber to go to the old city and our driver turns an Uber ride into a private tour with great value… Thanks Pedro!!
The historic old city of Cartagena and the Castle San Felipe de Barajas were both listed on the Unesco as world heritage site and that’s where we were going…
Castle San Felipe de Barajas was uniquely shaped and grande with many tunnels… We don’t know why Pedro took us to a shoe sculpture and insist it’s a hot spot for photos but we humor him… We really enjoyed the castle, spent almost an hour there climbing up and down through tunnels and stairs
And then he took us to a chocolate and coffee shop…. Both important Colombian delicacies
Next Pedro drove us to historic city center and went on walking tour… First stop is Las Bovedas, a formal prison dungeon turned big market place
We love the way women here dress..
Pedro lead us through streets, some touristy, some quiet… All so very beautiful
We were overwhelmed by all the beauties and colors of the old city of Cartagena…. Another city we definitely wants to come back again
100 days on the island princess today!! The end is near…. This calls for a celebration!!… there’s a wine tasting today that’s free for elite members and $20 / per person for non elite
Tasted a total of 5 wines : one prosecco, one chardonnay, one pinot noir, one merlot and one sweet souvigon blanc. Surprisingly the Merlot tasted the best and I don’t really like Merlot
Sounds familiar? On day 68, we were at Cartagena Spain. Two different countries with the same port city name… We are looking forward to visiting a new country: Colombia!!
As we sailed close to the Caribbean Sea, the weather is finally pleasant enough for us to do zumba on the open deck……. Hard to imagine just couple of days ago while we were on the Atlantic, it was windy and chilly
We turned princess elite status from Florida onwards and now we can enjoy free laundry, one time mini bar set up and one time wine tasting… The most exciting part is free laundry…. Yay!!!
