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.