PANAMA CANAL CRUISE (Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Aruba, Jamaica)
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March 2005
Los Angeles to Fort Lauderdale
Princess Cruises Regal
CLICK PHOTOS TO ENLARGE AND SEE CAPTION
This was not our first cruise – which was devoted to Alaska, as most first-time cruisers are known to do – but it was next on my bucket list. Leaving from Florida, we chose the full-transit west-east itinerary through the Panama Canal to get the cross-country flight out of the way before rather than after the cruise.
Trivia: While going with the flow of just-landed passengers, all flipping their cell phones into action, my husband gave a stellar performance of one of their nonsensical monologues, mumbling while holding an empty hand to his ear: “Hi, it’s me…, just landed…, walking through the terminal…, passing Starbucks…, in front of McD…, restrooms ahead…, gotta pee…, call you back when I am done…”
(This map shows slightly different ports-of-call than we actually did in 2005, because cruise lines at the time altered their routings due to strained relations with Colombia. Instead of stopping in Cartagena, Columbia, we made an unscheduled top at Montego Bay, in the Bahamas – which doesn’t appear on this map. We also skipped Nicaragua but stopped in Acapulco and Huatulco in Mexico.)
The cruise's itinerary was perfect to make this long cruise comfortable and enjoyable, with a day at sea every other day between ports-of-call, to rest, read and recoup.
Cabo San Lucas
We had been to Cabo San Lucas before, so we just walked around the lovely port, basking in the sunshine and snapping pictures while enjoying the picturesque marina where we found two boats with the unlikely ports of origin of Fargo, ND, and Park City, UT. Quite a ride to the Caribbean sea for them both, I would think.
However, we were struck, for the second time in Mexico, by the almost shocking difference between the tourist areas, close to the water, and intended for tourists – circumscribed by U.S.-style resorts and glorious beaches --, and the real Mexican towns, exuding poverty and spelling out “third-world country.” And the latter to be found within only 50 feet from the limits of the tourist compounds.
Acapulco, also on my bucket list, was another reason we took this particular cruise, since not all cruise ships stop there on their way to or from the Canal. The same was true of Aruba, where I had never been either. A favorite of U.S. expats, Acapulco really surprised us. Possibly because we had a wonderful local tour guide, educated, knowledgeable and quite funny, our perception of that once-famous city was very favorable, and it's one place where I wouldn't mind returning to explore further. It seemed very different to us than the other Mexican cities we'd seen, with a balanced mixture of affluent and non-affluent, expats and locals, scattered throughout the various neighborhoods. This eliminated the ghetto v. affluent feel of the other cities.
There can be found the very first Hilton Hotel, now called Las Brisas, a complex of 50’s-style pink bungalows, each with their individual swimming pool, scattered on the hillside overlooking the famous Acapulco Bay. This area is also where Howard Hughes spent the last two months of his life, in the Aztec temple-shaped hotel called the Acapulco Princess. There also are the summer, or second (or third?) homes of famous people such as Sylvester Stallone, Julio Iglesias, Robert Redford, and Frank Sinatra. From the hill where those homes now sit, marvelous photographs can be taken of the stunning bay below.
Acapulco Bay
Acapulco never lost its attraction for the residents of Mexico City who, only four hours away by car, didn't stop treating it like their week-end escape or retreat. So Acapulco was always doing well at the local level, before and after the tourists. Many movies were filmed in Acapulco, including Tarzan and the Ape. It totals a population of two million, including the suburbs which lay beyond the mountains surrounding the famous ¾-moon-shaped curved bay, with seven separate smaller bays carved along its inside edges.
Outside of its magnificent bay, Acapulco's best-known attraction worldwide, and main claim to fame is its famous cliff divers. They hurl themselves down a rocky cliff slanted out and downward, from a peak which must be at least 100 feet up, before splashing into the churning waters of a gorge-shaped inlet. The timing of their dive is crucial since the waves surge threateningly in and out with the tide and the currents. The tension in the crowd watching from a cafe built on the side of another rocky hill facing their jumping point, is palpable as the divers count the seconds between waves and notice the in and out patterns they have to work with to avoid being crushed to a pulp and never to be seen again. At the time, the oldest diver was 36, the youngest 14.
Huatulco Bay and Beach
The unexpected jewel of the cruise was Huatulco, a very small town, which we could all see would soon turn into another Acapulco since it offers the same natural features, but on a smaller scale. We docked right at the town pier, so no tender was needed. This offered us the uncanny experience of literally walking off the ship onto the pier, and onto a gorgeous sand beach, 100 yards after stepping off the gangway. We grabbed our towels and camera and ran to the beach, to spend on it most of the time we had available. The mammoth shape of the ship made an unusual background to the photos we took there.
Trivia: Changing time zones seven times over 5,000 zigzagging nautical miles (or 5,600 land miles), we were grateful for the daily reminders of where on earth we were, which we found on our pillows almost every night for the two weeks of our cruise. Next to which were lovely little pieces of chocolate every night. We figured it that, for 1,500 passengers on board for 15 nights, it adds up to a total of 22,500 such pieces to load on board prior to departure!
Our next stop was Puntarenas, Costa Rica, where we learned that tourism is Costa Rica's #1 industry, with the export of computers in second place, ahead of the expected coffee, bananas, pineapple and flowers crops. South of Nicaragua and Honduras, and north of Panama, Costa Rica's seven provinces make up the narrowest of the seven Central American countries. It is bisected by a vertical chain of mountains which is the continuation of the Rockies (further turning into the Andes), and boasts of 112 volcanoes, seven of which are active.
A very socially progressive country, with 97% literacy rate among its five million people, Costa Rica is also the only neutral Latin American country, with no army and mandatory, free public education. The size of Kentucky, Costa Rica could be contained within Lake Michigan. Only 1% of its population is indigenous, the rest being of either English, French, African or Spanish origin. Costa Rica's revolution against Spain was helped by France, whose culture and influence is still felt to this day.
Jungle aerial Hike in Puntarenas, Costa Rica
Being right smack in the middle of the continent earned Costa Rica the nickname of "America's belly button." Its highest peak is 12,000 ft, and, like Panama, it's bordered by the Atlantic to the east, and the Pacific to the west. The latter fact caused it to become a "dry canal" for transport of goods which need to go from one coast to the other without having to wait in line before entering, and paying for transit, through the Panama Canal.
Trivia: It cost Princess Cruises $226,580 in toll to transit the Regal through the 52 miles Panama Canal. Vessels 100' long paid $1,500 per crossing; 80 to 100', $1,000; 50 to 80', $750, and $500 for vessels under 50 feet.
Next came an adventure I will never forget. A hike had been planned through a jungle forest covering a mountain, with the trail becoming aerial when it crossed suspended bridges running across treetops towering over valleys below. While reading the tour description earlier on, I had only briefly wondered whether tiptoeing through the treetops on some precarious and rudimentary aerial bridge might present a teeny-weenie bit of a problem.
Well..., when I saw what a very, very long way down it was, plus the material used for the said bridges, and how it was put together (there had to be some metal in there, somewhere, right?), my acrophobia got the best of me. I felt neither safe nor secure, when, with each step taken by the huge man walking ahead of me, that side of the bridge leaned down dangerously. Because the coach was waiting for us at the other end of the hike, I had to labor on, looking at the sky, counting upward from 0 to 100 and back down, nearly hyperventilating from so many deep breaths, and earnestly ignoring the cries of delighted wonder from my fellow trekkers: "Oh, look at this parrot!", " Would you believe the size of this iguana, on the tree, there, down below!" (down below, I thought, you must be o-u-t-o-f-y-o-u-r-m-i-n-d!!!!!), "No wonder they shot Tarzan movies in this type of environment!", etc. etc. etc... In the meantime, I was desperately trying to focus on the solid ground just up ahead... Meanwhile, my husband, walking right behind me, was kindly trying to calm my near- terror state with soothing touches on my shoulders and back, which were ungratefully greeted with panicky injunctions of "Leave me alone!" and "Don't touch me!"
Indigenous Craft Village Near Puntarenas, Costa Rica
I got to recover later with a visit to lovely tropical gardens and a local-food lunch in a property owned, developed and managed by an American expat couple, who told us they don't need window screens, because there are no mosquitoes in the jungle, only on the beaches near the ocean. That’s a country for me, since, around the world, I appear on the list of mosquitoes’ favorite foodstuffs.
After exploring a restored indigenous village, with glorious handcrafted items, we witnessed, on our way back to the ship, a frightful display of crocodile macho, consisting of a fight over food by several of these monsters in a river along the road. By the same token, we learned that (unlike their North American cousin, the alligator), crocodiles -- who can stay under water up to two hours -- are fresh water, fish-eating creatures, who only go into the salted oceans to move from river to river.
On Day 8 of the cruise, we finally went through "it," the Panama Canal. The feeling of awe which left us speechless and kept our mouths open, reminded us of our reaction when seeing Mt. Rushmore for the first time.. The sheer scale of it was mind-boggling in either instance.
In addition to the commentaries provided from the ship’s bridge throughout the day by a guide who stayed on board while traversing the Canal, the data and history of this remarkable accomplishment I share with you here also came from a book published in 1918, which I’d happened to buy in an old/used books store where I was browsing in our home town just before we left.
Panama Canal - Passing Through the Locks West of Gatun Lake
The construction of the Panama Canal was first attempted in 1881 by the French, under the direction of Ferdinand de Lesseps (of Suez Canal fame), to create a route for commercial purposes between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, saving thousands of miles to ships from all over the world. They kept at it unsuccessfully until 1898, until it finally failed due to corruption and graft, and the egregious presence of tropical diseases/fevers which decimated the workforce. The Americans took over in 1904 -- after the discovery that mosquitoes caused the fevers -- and the canal was completed, and inaugurated, in 1914. It remained under U.S. control until December 31, 1999, when it was turned over to Panama, pursuant to a 1978 agreement.
Instead of using salt water for its operation, the Canal uses fresh water from the local Chagres river. Not only would using salt water cost an exorbitant amount, but it would corrode lock mechanisms and destroy vegetation. 52 million gallons of water are lost by the Canal for each ship going through it: 26 for each set of locks.
One of the first controversies -- outside of the U.S.-backed political conflict with Columbia before Panama split from it in 1903 -- concerned whether to have this canal at sea level, or with sets of locks. The latter won out, and the Canal was built with two sets of locks with three chambers each, at each end, with the huge man-made Gatùn (sounds like "cocoon") Lake (created by the gigantic Gatùn dam) in the middle. But since Panama is an isthmus running east/west, which is traversed vertically by the Continental Divide (at its very lowest point throughout the continent, called the Culebra mountain), the "ditch" for the canal had to be built and dug through and across that divide. The digging through what is called the Culebra Cut took ten years, started but never finished by the French.
Exiting the Panama Canal and entering the Atlantic Ocean
Since Gatùn Lake is 85' higher than either ocean, the locks have to raise all the ships that height at one end, and then lower them the same distance at the other end. The locks are 106' wide, therefore no ship can go through the Canal which is wider than that. None of the very large, newer mammoth ships can do so. There were just a few inches of space between the sides of the Regal and the sides of the channels. When small ships, yachts or even larger boats, have to use the Canal, they wait on the side until several others of similar size need to do so, and they are all placed in the first lock at the same time, going through the whole process together, one lock at a time.
After having been nudged into position by one of the Canal's 24 tug boats, and having entered the first lock, a ship is tethered to lines brought to it by rowboats. These lines bring the cables which will be attached to the ship, and pulled by six locomotives (with two cables each) on tracks running parallel to the channel of the various locks. These locomotives are not intended to tow the ships, but used for centering and braking, and sometimes, on busy days, to expedite the traffic flow. The ships move of their own steam through the Canal.
Trivia: The Gatùn dam is a 1½ mile long, ½ mile thick at the base, 300' thick at the water line, and 100 feet thick at the crest.
- At its peak performance month of March 1999, the project excavated 4,000,000 cubic yards of material in one month.
- It took 20 years to build the Suez Canal, through a dry and sandy region, whereas the Panama Canal was built in 10, dealing with rainy seasons and subsequent landslides, and mosquito-induced diseases.
- If all the material excavated were placed in one solid shaft with a base as large as the average city block, it would tower nearly 100,000' in the air.
- From first to last of the whole project, Americans removed enough material to build 60-odd pyramids such as Cheops.
Aruba
Aruba was our first port-of-call after leaving the Canal, and turned out to be as pretty as I had thought. This mostly volcanic island is the best known of what is called the Dutch ABC, sharing the title with Curaçao -- the biggest -- and Bonaire, off the northern coast of Venezuela. Discovered in 1499 by the Spanish, it was left alone until the first settlers arrived in 1754, and mostly until the beginning of the 19th century when gold was discovered. Aruba gained its autonomy from the Dutch in 1986, though not its independence, and the Dutch flag flies right next to their own. We docked at its capital of Oranjestad.
We caught a shuttle/tender to reach the glass-bottom boat headed for coral reefs and, mostly, for the wreck of a German warship called Antilla, which was sunk by the Dutch during WWII, the day after it was known that Germany had invaded Holland. That was quite a sight, and since the water wasn't very deep at that point, we were able to get close.
Aruba is one of the most modern Caribbean islands. It has its own de-salination plant for household use, and its own oil refinery -- though it does have to import the crude oil. Its population of 103,000 is 80% catholic, and tourism is its primary industry. The locals all speak Dutch, Spanish and English, in addition to the local patois called papiamento, a mixture of African, Dutch, English, Portuguese and various Spanish and Indian idioms. I would call it their own brand of créole.
In the afternoon, we hopped on a local bus from the ship terminal, and stopped on a beach recommended to us by one of the local tourism reps. After an ideal workout in the green, transparent water I had so looked forward to, we had a nice chat with a charming, retired couple, originally from Norway and now living in Massachusetts, who winter in Aruba. They were kind enough to drop us off at the ship terminal on their way home.
Montego Bay beach
Working our way through the Caribbean sea, back north to the east coast of Florida, our next and last stop was at Montego Bay, on the northwestern coast of Jamaica. This island, discovered by Columbus in 1494, was under Spanish rule until 1670, when the British took over. Jamaica finally gained its independence in 1967. Our sailing schedule didn't allow us much time there, but we took a van-taxi with the government-approved red license plate (the others rip you off), which took us through the town as far as another recommended beach. There I was again, swimming to my heart’s content in warm and clear waters.
Another day at sea, and we docked at Fort Lauderdale last, torn between the joy to get home, and the sadness to see the end of this adventure.
And so it was that we can now boast of having gone from the Pacific to the Atlantic with only a 50-mile ride. Poor Christopher Columbus, wouldn't he wish he had figured it out himself. Actually, he had tried very hard to. He just needed the French (all right, all right, and the Americans, too) to bring his idea to fruition and make it happen.
We'd been told that the Panama Canal is the greatest engineering accomplishment ever in the world. We now believe it.
