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I think our ship simply idled off shore last night as the distance from Bonaire to Curaçao is only 72 km! But when we awoke we were docked in the capital city of Curaçao, Willemstad, population 163,951. Population of the whole island is 192,645.  Curaçao is quite a bit different than Bonaire! It is the largest of the ABC islands, with 121 square miles of land. It is noted for its colorful buildings and beaches. Curaçao is autonomous but part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, as are the other two ABC islands.

I again relied on Viator and booked a two hour morning walking tour of Willemstad that turned out to be delightful. There were only 4 of us on the tour, including two ladies from Amsterdam, one of whom had a grandfather who had lived in Willemstad. Fun fact:  I have always been confused whether the proper name for their country was Holland or is it The Netherlands. The ladies from Holland said both were correct and the terms are used interchangeably. So now you also know.

The area near the waterfront is simply lovely! Our tour guide lady was delightful . She led us through the local streets where we saw the many murals painted on the walls of buildings and homes. They proudly encourage it. We saw homes that have been restored to their former beauty and learned a bit about their history and life style. It was a marvelous tour.

Yvonne returned to the ship after the tour and I wandered over the Queen Emma bridge that spans the St. Anna Bay to take pictures of the buildings on that side and looked for mementoes to bring home.

Bottom line: I really like Curaçao and wish we had more time to explore the city and its surroundings.

The afternoon was spent in the usual manner: late light lunch, a shower, more book reading, perhaps a short nap, pre-dinner music and drink (still free!), and more card playing. Tough life but someone has to do it!

Tonight’s entertainment was two fold. The show in the theater featured a US singer (Amy Jo Slater) whose show was entitled “A Night with Adele”, which was spectacular because if you closed your eyes you would swear you were listening to Adele herself!  The second surprise of the evening was we wandered over to the atrium after the show to see if the scheduled dance contest was worth watching. It definitely was! Most couples were from the Spanish speaking countries but there was one young couple from California who put on quite a show and made the finals. Another couple who made the finals had only met right before the competition. It was a fun filled event. BYW, the California couple was voted #2 but we thought they were the best of the lot!

Today’s activity announcement also said there would be a “White attire dance party” on the pool deck after the dance competition. We had not known about it before arriving on the cruise so we had little/no white clothing in our suitcase.  We were very surprised how many of the other passengers came dressed all in white for the evening! They obviously knew about it ahead of time. Needless to say, we did not go to the dance party!

Tomorrow we will be in Aruba.

 

 

 

History lesson for the day:  Bonaire is an island as part of the Leeward Antilles, along with its sister islands – Curaçao and the more well known, Aruba. The three islands are commonly known as the “ABC islands” and are controlled by the Netherlands. The islands are 80 km off the coast of Venezuela. Bonaire is probably the least known island and is noted for its snorkeling and scuba diving. There are only 24,090 inhabitants living on the island. It is small- 24 miles long and 3-5 miles wide.

The Spanish, led by Alonso de Ojeda and the more well known Amerigo Vespucci, arrived in 1499. They decided the islands were useless because they found no metal deposits, but they did maintain control because of its salt deposits.  The Dutch ventured into the area because  they needed a source of salt for their herring industry. They took over by 1636 and the islands remain in their control to this day. End of lesson.

I again booked a Viator tour that would show us the highlights of the island, which we soon learned were not much! There were only 8 of us on the tour which made it for easy traveling. Our 20 passenger van unfortunately has in the need of repair of its air conditioning but with open windows and a nice ocean breeze the trip worked out just fine.

The main industry on the island is the production of salt, gleaned from the sea. The salt is mined from ponds which are first flooded with sea water, dammed up and allowed to evaporate to dryness. It is then collected and shipped to theUS where it is used for commercial purposes, like salting roads. It is not the salt we use for cooking. Centuries ago it was back-breaking manual work for the slaves who mined it; thankfully today it is highly mechanized. We drove to the mining area and viewed the small “slave huts” that slaves occupied while mining the salt.

From there we drove to the south part of the island to see the few other tourist attractions the island offers- the 1000 steps, a large inland salt lake and the local distillery where we got to sample some of the local liquor. Oh, we did get to see some of the wild donkeys that still inhabit the island! Returning to the ship there is a small shopping area near the cruise port but nothing unique caught my attention or dollars.

When we visited this area in 1992 we visited 2 of the 3 islands in the group and I could not remember which one we did not visit. I know now. It was obviously Bonaire, as there was no real reason to do so unless you are an avid snorkeler or scuba diver.

Another relaxing afternoon on the ship followed by pre-dinner music, drink ( still free!) and card playing ( Yvonne winning most of the rummy game, but I prevailed when playing kings on the corner) followed by dinner in the main dining room.

Tonight’s  main theater entertainment was by the ship’s production staff and called “Piano Man” which featured much of the music of Billy Joel. It was entertaining!

Tomorrow we visit the nearby island of Curaçao.

A day to sleep in as we will be at sea all day long.The ship was abuzz with various activities to keep the passengers busy and happy. Looking at the pictures I took this day there was not much activity on our part.  Needless to say the pool area was pretty loaded with sun bathers. We lounged around. In the afternoon I sat in the chaise lounge chair on our deck and read my book ….until I fell asleep!

We altered having breakfast in the main dining room (sit down and order off the menu) and  the buffet line. Lunch was usually at the buffet where a large salad bar proved attractive, although I did have a hot dog with fries today! There was a soft serve ice cream machine that called out to us most every day after lunch; the cones were quite small so we did not feel guilty.

Before dinner we all gathered in the atrium where the captain welcomed us and introduced his main staff members.

Dinner was back in the main dining room which was pretty good today, as evidenced by the number of pictures I took of the food we ate!

The evening show featured a group of singers and dancers from Argentina who put on a very good show, highlighting their music and dancing skills.

Tomorrow we will be at one of the “ABC” countries- Bonaire.

 

We were last in Cartagena in 1992 on a cruise with our two sons. I imagined it would be changed a bit since then! One of the major changes is that Columbia has  become a popular tourist destination. The presence of the drug cartels have diminished significantly and it is safe once again to travel the country. AMA Waterways has even started a river boat tour of the country.

Rather than booking a land tour with RCCL (as their brochure warned that since most passengers were Spanish speaking it might be difficult getting an English speaking tour guide on their tours),  I went to an old standby, Viator, where I found a private 4 hour tour that would cover the major highlights of the city.

First a bit of history: Cartagena is a major seaport on the northern coast of the Caribbean and served as a vital link in the route to the West Indies. It was founded in 1533 by the Spanish, who used it to ship gold back to Spain and slaves to this region of the world. It remained under Spanish rule for 275 years.  The present  day population of Cartagena is 915,000 and but that makes it only the 5th largest city in Columbia.

We were scheduled to meet our guide at 10 AM at the cruise port which happened to be very nice. To exit it you pass through a series of gardens and aviaries that housed various species of birds. We saw dozens of noisy parrots, some peacocks and even a monkey as we walked to the exit area. It was a bit confusing and I finally resorted to calling the number given to us (thank goodness we had T Mobile service) to talk to our guide and ultimately find our way to him. It was just the two of us, Luis, our guide, and a driver. It was nice not being in a large group. We spent the next 3 plus hours visiting the major highlights in the city.

Our first stop was at the Convento La Popa, located on the tallest hill in the city. Although it is called a convent it was really a monastery, founded by the Augustine Fathers in 1607. People still walk up the steep street to attend mass in the church. Needless to say there are marvelous views of the city from this church.

From there we traveled to the largest fortress ever built by the Spaniards in their colonies, Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas. It is immense! Construction started in 1536 and expanded from 1639 and 1667. African slaves built it under the supervision of the Spaniards. It was further enlarged in 1762. It has a complex series of narrow tunnels that severely hindered any invaders because of their construction. It had become quite warm by this time and Yvonne chose to keep the driver company in the air conditioned vehicle while Luis and I trudged our way to the top. Yvonne said she would look at my pictures! It is an amazing structure and reminded me a bit of the fort in San Juan, Puerto Rico, but this one is much, much bigger.

We next drove into the old town section of Cartagena where we stopped at the Las Bovedas, a series of craft shops where I managed to find a trip memento (or two) before we continued on with a driving tour in the streets of Old Cartagena. This area would definitely be one to explore in a more leisurely manner if we ever returned. We were offered a walking tour of the area but because of the heat & humidity we chose to simply enjoy the views as we drove through the area, stopping occasionally for me to grab a picture or two. By this time it was almost 1:30 and we chose to return to the ship. The tour of the city was very nice. There is a lot of history here and they have done well preserving its cultural heritage.

By this time it was near 2 PM and we were ready to get back to the ship for a late lunch, a shower and brief nap before going to the atrium for some pre-dinner music, a drink and some card playing before going to dinner..

I had made 6:30 reservations at one of the ship’s specialty restaurants, Chops Grill, their steak house. You had to pay a $50/pp price but usually it is worth it as the quality of the food and selection is better, as is the service. Normally it is hard to get early reservations at these specialty restaurants so I had made the reservations before we boarded. When we arrived for our dinner, we found a place empty, which totally surprised me. The staff told me the Spanish prefer to eat very late.  The meal was adequate but not worth the $50 price tag.

Tonight was the first night for a show in the main theater, that will feature ten talented dancers and three singers that make up the ship’s production staff. The theme of the performance was dance in different forms. Needless to say they were good!

Tomorrow we will have a day at sea.

 

 

 

 

 

Colon, the departure port for our ship, is on the Atlantic side of Panama, a distance of about 70km, which takes about 1 hour by car. Cruise people normally stay in Panama City as that is where the major airport is located and Colon is an industrial city with not much to offer. A $60 cab ride delivered us to the cruise port in Colon, where “chaos” seemed to prevail. Even though we had a scheduled boarding window of 12:30-1:00PM there was a long line of people dragging their luggage through the port area. Luckily I had grabbed a porter to take our luggage from the cab and lead us to where we had to go.  We bypassed that long line and were quickly deposited near the check-in table. It was the best $10 I spent that day! It was hot and humid in the port area (with no AC) and we were relieved to finally be able to board the ship fairly quickly.

An aside:  After booking and paying for the cruise we later learned that it catered to the Spanish speaking clientele who lived in this area. In fact, it would be likely that over 90% of the passengers on this cruise would be Spanish speaking. It should be an interesting adventure for us, gringos, who can only order margaritas in Spanish!

The ship was one of the older RCCL ships; it was built in 1997, but refurbished in 2022. It turned out it was in very good shape. After dropping off our hand luggage in our room we had a quick lunch and proceeded to do our usual tour of the ship to get a feel of its layout.  I had chosen an aft facing balcony room to experience what it was like. The advantage of these rooms is you get an enormous outdoor balcony compared to normal balcony rooms. It was so big it had two chaise lounges, two chairs and a table. The possible negatives are it is a long way to anywhere else on the ship (the positive is you get more steps); there is the possibility of more engine noise and it might be more bouncy in rough seas. As it turned out only the first negative came into play; we walked a lot the week we were on board!

Dinner was in the main dining room. We were slated for the 6:30 seating which was fine with us as the 2nd seating was not until 8:45PM, way too late for us.  As it turned out the Spanish people do like to eat late! Probably because the ship knew we were English speaking they did not attempt to put us at a larger table; we had a nice table for two. The staff mostly spoke English but I did notice there were many staff members who were obviously bi-lingual. Because this particulr cruise runs at least 6 months my guess is RCCL specifically hired bilingual speakers to be part of the staff for this series of cruises. Menus were in both languages as was major signage. Food was OK, but RCCL has obviously downgraded the quality and selection since we last traveled with them in 2004. Yvonne did remind me we have become spoiled by our trips on Regent 7 Seas ships.

End of day 1: Walked 6718 steps today, not bad for having done nothing!

The Republic of Panama links Central America with South America. We all know it because of the Panama Canal, that marvelous feat of engineering completed in the early 20th century by the Americans after the French failed in their attempt to connect the Atlantic to the Pacific. Panama has a population of 4 million with about half living in Panama City. The Spanish arrived in the 16th century. In 1821 it broke away from Spain and joined the Republic of Gran Columbia (as it was called then) which also consisted of Neuva Granada, Venezuela and Ecuador. In 1831 Gran Columbia dissolved and Neuva Granada and Panama became part of the Republic of Columbia. In 1903 with the help of the US, Panama gained its independence from Columbia.

We arranged for a city tour with a local tour company that included a visit to the visitors center at the Panama Canal. We had traversed the canal on a cruise ship in 2010 but never had visited the visitor center that offers a highly rated imax movie about the history of the canal which I wanted to see. It turns out the Panama Canal is only about a 15 minute drive from Panama City itself and it is a major tourist attraction for visitors to the area. The rest of the 4 hour tour included a drive to various parts of the city, including their old town which I had planned to visit after our cruise.

The temperature rose to 91 degrees with some humidity by the time we returned to the hotel in mid afternoon. We retreated to the air conditioned mall to seek a snack and check it out as it is claimed to be the 2nd largest mall in this part of the world, with over 700 stores (The mall of america has 520 stores but has more square feet of space). It was sad to see that there were many shuttered shops, obvious victims of the pandemic.

We asked the hotel for a suggestion of  a nice seafood restaurant to have dinner and they suggested Bucanero’s, which I later learned was not all that close to the hotel. Worse yet, when we left the hotel  it was still the evening rush hour and Panama suffers from the same problem we have during rush hour-horrendous traffic backups! The normal 20 minute drive took almost an hour. The good news is that Uber is in Panama and their rates are darn cheap, much cheaper than here in Seattle! Anyway, it was a pleasant dinner in a pleasant locale with live music!

Tomorrow we travel to Colon and board our ship.

 

 

My brother, Gerry, wanted to visit this part of the world and since we had not been there in over 30 years we agreed to go along on the RCCL (Royal Caribbean) cruise leaving from Colon, Panama. Unfortunately, he got ill right before the trip and had to cancel. We chose to go anyway, as an excuse to get away from the winter rains of Seattle.

The one week cruise was to leave (and return to) from Colon on January 27, 2024. It was on the 2,416  passenger ship, Rhapsody of the Seas. Its  port of calls  included Cartagena, Columbia, the three ABC islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao and two days at sea. Interestingly our first cruise ever (1990) was on an RCCL ship, the Song of America.

It is not easy to get to Panama from Seattle unless you want to deal with red eye flights, which at our age are a “no”. So our original plan was to fly to Miami, spend the night and fly directly to Panama City the next morning. We also planned to go in a day early to explore Panama City as we had never been there. Well, plans can sometimes go awry and this one did. Luckily I had checked our air reservations a few days before leaving and discovered that the Copa Airlines flight from Miami had been canceled and no one had alerted us! I called United Airlines who had made the reservations and spent 1 1/2 hours talking to an agent who helped reroute us through Houston rather than Miami. Since I had booked the Seattle to Miami flight on airline miles I was able to cancel it without any penalty and re-book a flight to Houston where we spent the night before flying to Panama City the next morning.

Panama City blew me away! If I did not know where I was I would have guessed I was in Miami Beach-dozens of modern high rise hotels, businesses and condos dot the landscape. Excellent multi lane roadways connect the city. Panama City has the reputation of being the financial center for the Caribbean and it shows.