Last Update: 02-SEP-2018
We picked the Celebrity Horizon because it was a smaller ship, 1300 passenger, and this cruise had under 1000. We like the older, smaller ships because they attract older people and we have the ship to ourselves in the evenings to stargaze...
Mary saying goodbye
Tampa on a beautiful day
Exploring the ship
First sunset over the Tampa Bay
Sunshine Skyway Cable-stayed bridge
The west coast of Cuba appx. 11 miles away
Sunset day two. No green flash
Looks like me made the right choice !! Its 7PM and all the old people are eating or in bed. This is going to be a good cruise !!
It was very rough and windy today but Mary wanted to try snorkeling so we looked for a sheltered spot. We walked along the waterfront and had no luck finding a beach with good snorkeling.
Good to see that the Poison Tree (Barringtonia Asiatica) from Thailand / Southeast Asia made it through the hurricanes. We check on the tree each time we come here
Hurricane Ivan damage was quite noticable.
Million dollar location for a Burger King and a cemetary!
We ended up at a beach bar not far from the tender area. The fish were colorful and water clarity was pretty good, but no coral. There is a small wreck.
Back to the peir area downtown
Back on the ship. Another great day
Fighting the crowds to watch the sunset !!
Crowded jacuzzi and pool!
Another great sunset but no green flash !
SEP-2018 - This was our first trip to Costa Rica and our perspective has changed a great deal fromthis first trip in 2005
Puerto Limon on the Caribbean side, not a nice city...But Costa Rica means "Coast of Riches." Costa Rica lies between two oceans, and its land lies at elevations from zero to over 10,000 feet above sea level! The result of this is that Costa Rica has been left with one of the most diverse collections of plant life anywhere on the planet! We took a Costa Rica Off-road adventure shore excursion, which was good, but should have been all-day. We wanted to see a volcano, but you have to start from the Pacific side to do that. Costa Rica is definitely worth another trip to see the entire country, particularly the volcanoes.
A large tree adorned with the hanging nests of Montezuma Oropendulas, in the Oriole family.
male and female spider
Heliconia
New 4X4 vehicle--very nice but we wished we had been able to do some off-road. This trip was too tame--just 1 river crossing!
Chevy astrovan for sale $500,000!
Snack of local fruits and drink. Guides are in khaki, and were quite good.
Ken spotted the Jesus Christ lizard! The Green Basilisk Lizard, nicknamed Jesus Christ lizard because they can literally run across water when disturbed.
Grade school with friendly children. High literacy rate--96% or higher.
Bananas with condoms for protection
Back to Puerto Limon. We walked around the town and bought some beer. Were asked if we wanted to buy some crack. Local markets were fun but we wouldn't buy any food--perhaps spices.
Sunset time. Again, all alone on the ship
We took the monkey watch shore excursion. This was a ship organized trip that cost $85 per person. A bus took us to Gamboa Resort, which was wonderful and worth staying at for some rainforest exploration. You board thease small boats and they take you to Lake Gatun, in the Panama canal. The large ships travel through the same lake. Panama has done a good job with rainforest conservation, since the canal needs water to survive. As a land bridge between North and South America, Panama nurtures plant and animal life from both continents. Its jungles house more species of birds than all of North America and Europe, along with jaguars and howler, spider, white-face and night monkeys. Hundreds of miles of undeveloped coastline are lined with unexplored coral reefs.
Howler monkeys
Sloth in center of photos at trunk.
White-faced Capuchin Monkeys came down to get apples and fruit loops. Then they only wanted the fruit loops and got violent when we tried to give them apples.
Finally took my apple
Note the the look of horror on the guide!
Gamboa Resort
Pelican
We decided to hire a taxi to take us to the canal, which was very worthwhile, safe and inexpensive. Important to get an engish-speaking driver. Colon didn't impress us at all, except Ken bought a Panama license plate for 5$ US!
Our ship at Colon
A quick run up to the canal to see Gatun Locks
Amazing how big these ships are, and the largest in the world are too wide to go through the canal.
New mule
Old mule used to pull ships through the canal
Frigate bird
Extremely busy port of Colon
Pilot boat leaves us.
Pillow pole pool party. This was the most people that we saw at one time during the cruise
Pillow pole pool party