Sick and tired of being sick and tired

I was so happy to get through the first 10-12 days with no hint of sickness. Then I sensed a sore throat. I immediately took some emergenC and some zicam . It seemed to go away. So far so good. This was during 4 days at sea. Our stop at Cabo San Lucas was cancelled, so another day at sea and then I felt feverish, I sounded sick, I was wheezing. I decided to go to the medical center, they were closed. I went there when they opened on Friday morning. Very efficient. I don't have covid, I don't have pneumonia, I do have bronchitis. R doctor gave me a series of antibiotics, some cough syrup, expectorant and pain pills?

Going thru the Panama Canal

 The Viking Neptune is still a big ship to me! But, at 930 passenger capacity, it's nothing like the 3-5,000 passenger cruise ships that are popular these days. And, because of the hurricane issues, they only had 786 on board. Nothing was crowded! Service was johnny-on-the-spot. We wanted to be front and center on the observation deck for the passage thru the first set of locks, so we wandered up there about 7:30am and got the best spot in the house! So that's where we stayed for the passage thru the locks on the Atlantic side - the Gatun Locks. 

Understand, there are 3 sets of locks: 1-Gatun Locks w/3 chambers at roughly 30 feet each  2-Pedro Miguel Lock w/1 chamber about 30 feet and 3- Miraflores locks w 2 chambers right before the Pacific

We had a good view of the Gatun Locks from our tour the day before

This is how it looked when we got closer. These are the Gatun Locks taking ships up about 90 feet from the level of the Atlantic/Caribbean Sea to the level of Gatun Lake. It takes 3 'chambers' to do it. The ship goes in to the first chamber and the gates close behind it. Then the water gushes in from below to even the water levels with the second chamber. The gates open to allow the ship to move forward and the the gates close behind. The process is repeated until the ship is at the level of Gatun Lake. and moves forward across the lake.

It was the peak event of the cruise and celebratory champagne was handed out when we were in the middle of the locks.

Here is a video where I combined some timelapse video with a few stills to show the whole passage.

But we're not done yet. That is just the first set of locks. Now the ship sails across Gatun Lake, down the Culebra Cut, and the Pedro Miguel locks (just 1 chamber going down) and the final locks - the Miraflores locks to the Pacific.

For the final locks and the passage to the Pacific, we joined our friends Alvin and Lisa in their special suite at the front of the ship. 

Panama City

What an experience. And we had chamber of commerce perfect weather for the whole day. We also had a lecturer offering commentary thru much of the day. We were so glad that we read the book "Path Between the Seas" before taking this trip. What a story! The french first started the process of a canal thru Panama in 1870. They went thru many trials and tribulations, not the least of which was hundreds of deaths by Malaria and Yellow Fever. The US took over in 1904 and completed the canal in 1914. 

Panama

 There was one day stop and tour on the east side of Panama before going thru the canal. We signed up for a tour that showed us the 'New' locks and then took us to where we kayaked in Gatun Lake.

A comfortable bus took us to the Agua Clara locks. This is part of the Panama Canal expansion that was completed in 2016. It's one more set of locks big enough to accomodate the mega-ships of today. Where the original locks are 110 feet wide, the new locks are 180. The old locks have 2 lanes so ships can pass going in different directions. The new locks are just one lane so, only one ship at a time can go thru. Scheduling of ships going thru the canals is quite a job! 

New Locks at Aqua Clara - one lane. This is looking toward the Atlantic.

We were there to see a mega ship going thru - The Mount Everest

Then, we got back in the bus and headed to Jungle Lake Lodge where we would kayak on Gatun Lake. But, the lodge itself was fascinating. Accomodations were made from shipping containers. Makes sense to me. Easily available. Add furniture and plumbing and you have a tiny house. Solar panels on the roof provide electricity for the Air Conditioning. 

I enjoyed speaking with Alwin, who owns the Jungle Lake Lodge. He is a Canadian and said it's very easy to own property in Panama. Panama is like a territory of the US in that they have an agreement that Panama will have no military because US promises to protect it. Anyway, Alwin is intent on saving the jungle by buying chunks of it and protecting it - eco tourism. Next he has his eyes on a piece of property in the Amazon. 

It was a little walk thru the jungle to get to the lakeshore and the kayaks. So fun. It felt great to get out on the water and get a little exercise. It sprinkled a bit, but not a soaking rain. 

We felt right at home on this kayak!

The jungle is so beautiful

We paddled for a couple hours, sometimes in the middle of the lake, sometimes at the edge. Hoping to see some of the wildlife in the jungle. There are monkeys, there are also Sloths - I really wanted to see a Sloth!! 

Someone said they saw a Sloth in one of these trees. Yeah, right!

At least the monkeys jump once in a while and you can then spot them because you see the movement. Sloths are too slow to spot.

This kayak trip actually qualifies as kayaking on the Panama Canal because Gatun Lake is part of the canal system. Of course, we were paddling in an area that the big ships don't go, but still ...

Then it was back in the bus, back to the ship and we were scheduled to cross thru the canal to the Pacific the following day.

Cartagena

 It has such a romantic ring to it, doesn't it? 

Cartagena

I need to watch "Romancing the Stone" again with Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas. I think it gave me my romantic notion of Cartagena, Colombia.

Pulling into the port at night, it looked like jewels.

We had signed up for the included tour here. A bus ride with commentary around the old part of town with one stop for shopping. I found a T-shirt I really liked and we got our obligatory souvenir magnet.

The main tourist attraction is the fort

The narrow streets of the old town were quite picturesque. And, here a local stops Jim to compliment his mustache - (it happens all the time!! 🥸

Interesting to see how the old town is completely walled-in. Then there's the modern Cartagena in the background.

It was a nice, easy tour. Then there was this park right at the port - so you could wander around and see the peacocks, parrots, coatis and more. And, I always love these photo op signs.

All aboard a Viking Ocean Cruise

 The hurricane didn't bother Fort Lauderdale. In fact, this is where a lot of people from elsewhere in the state came to evacuate. However the Coast Guard did close all the ports in Florida on Oct 10, so this delayed our departure by one day. It also meant we would not be stopping at Cozumel. This is not a huge loss to use because we've been do Cozumel many times, but always as scuba divers, so we really haven't see the tourist view. Oh Well.

So, it would be 3 full days at sea before our first port. People who cruise a lot tell me they really like the days at sea, so I set out to see what they meant. It is very relaxing, and the ship is just gorgeous. I had already made 2 appointments in the spa - one facial and one hair treatment. Ahhhh. Have you ever had a view of the ocean going by as you had a spa treatment? It was nice!

Time that you explore the ship it time well spent for the rest of the cruise. Jim and I took the tour given by the Travel Manager, Hamed. He was so good. He has a model of the ship right outside his office, and Jim is pointing our our room.

We were on the 3d deck, right in the middle of the ship. It was a great location - #3056. This is a huge ship but still less than one third the size of the giant cruise ships these days. It holds a total of 930 passengers, and we had 768 on board. The giant ones hold 3,000 to 5,600. Yikes.

I have been in rooms both with and without balconies and I've told Jim don't ever expect me to go cruising unless I have a balcony! Every stateroom on the Viking Ocean Cruise Ships have a balcony!

We even found the pool on deck 7 called the infinity pool. So pleasant! And, we had great weather.

Richard Lovelock was the naturalist and wildlife photographer on board and he was on the observation deck (explorer's lounge) every morning spotting sea life for all to see. Lots of birds, some dolphin and a few whales. He also gave fantastic talks in the Star Theatre. If you missed one, no worries, they were all recorded and could be watched in the TV in your room. He spoke of animal adaptations, migrations, all about whales, and more. He even gave one talk about "Secrets of Good Smartphone Photography" 😮 I'm happy to say that I was familiar with everything he covered, but I was interested to see how he put it all together and what features he highlighted. He was very good, and very entertaining. You can check him out at RichardLovelock.com His fiancee, Laura, also gave some great talks on geology and world travel. Then there was Corey Sandler gave many talks on topics both general and obscure about the Panama Canal and beyond. And another speaker was all about spies! 

Every cruise line has a drink package that you can buy so it is all you can drink, all the time. We did not get that on this cruise because part of the standard fare includes unlimited beer and wine at lunch and dinner. If we wanted some in between, we were free to bring our own wine on board - we brought a couple of boxes. The cost of this cruise was roughly $7,000 each for the 17 days.

Tracking Hurricanes and Cruise Ships

Note: This post was made in our business website first, but I figure it belongs here too. 

Both our cruise ship and Hurricane Milton were scheduled to arrive at the same time. Not good. Jim became obsessed with tracking them both.

Tracking the Hurricane

He tracked the hurricane with a website called Windy.com. This is the map from the morning of Oct 10. The same day we were scheduled to board the Cruise Ship. It actually missed us in Fort Lauderdale, but you couldn’t know that for sure as of the day before. Port Everglades closed down on Oct 9 and our Cruise Ship informed us they would be delayed at least one day.

The special feature of Windy.com is that you can actually see the way the wind is blowing.

Tracking the Cruise Ship

The Viking Neptune cruise ship was on another journey up in NE US waters. Jim could see it when it was in Maine. Then it stopped in New York City. He could watch it leave port in NYC on a web cam. It was headed to Fort Lauderdale to pick us up for our Panama Canal cruise. It was still in New York City as late as Oct 8 and we were supposed to board on the 10th. This boat is fast. Jim watched its progress using CruiseMapper.com It only took it 2 days to get here, but then the port was closed due to the hurricane. 😒

Tracking Geeks

We received official notice that the port has reopened and our cruise ship will be docked and ready for us to board tomorrow Oct 11. We will be on board for nearly 3 weeks. We cruise thru the Panama Canal and up the west coast to Los Angeles. Then we fly home. You can track us on the CruiseMapper.com website by looking up the Viking Neptune cruise ship. You can also follow us by watching our photo album.

In preparation for the cruise, we’ve been reading the book The Path Between the Seas. It’s the story of the building of the Panama Canal. An Epic story!

We expect to have good Internet connectivity on the ship, so stay tuned. You’ll be hearing from us.