This port stop was originally scheduled to be Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, but the US State Department issued a warning about crimes against tourists in Cabo. That was ten months ago or so. So Viking heeded the warning and substituted Acajutla. I noticed that Cabo is back on the schedule for next year’s itineraries. Been to Mexico but never to El Salvador, so I was glad of the change.

Thanks to everyone who has been reading and commenting. We read every comment and appreciate them all. The blog will continue for five more days on this trip, but it will be fairly boring as all five remaining days are at sea on the way to disembarkation in Los Angeles. But back to today.

Acajutla is El Salvador’s main port city. Population right around 30,000. We actually spent no time at all in Acajutla except when passing through on the bus. The bus looked great.

It wasn’t! The seats were built for people 5’8″ tall or less. I couldn’t even put my legs in front of me in my seat. And we were on the bus for four hours. Not pleasant. Worse bus seats ever! But I persevered. Our tour was to two of the five mountain towns of El Salvador on the Ruta de las Flores.

First stop was in Juayúa. It’s a bustling little town that was celebrating with a Christmas market selling just about everything but especially locally made candies. Our bus seemed to bring the only tourists to the town today. Interestingly, we had a police presence at all times. (Five years ago El Salvador was the murder capital of the Americas. Now the new president has put the gangs in jail and it’s one of the safest countries in Central and South America.) Juayúa is one of three cities in the world (another is in Guatemala) that celebrates a black Christ as you’ll see in pictures from inside the impressive Santa Lucia Church. Here’s a picture fiesta (with Elaine hiding in one):

Click on the galleries below to bring up scrollable windows with full size pictures – the gallery previews may show just thumbnails of the pictures. By the way, the pictures look much better on a tablet or a computer than they do on your phone. Just saying.

On the way to our next stop in Concepción de Ataco, we stopped at an overlook to take pictures of some of El Salvador’s volcanos. There are more than 150. Many are dormant; some are active but not at the moment. In the valleys below coffee beans are growing.

Then it was on to Concepción de Ataco. Slightly more modern. Still bustling with locals. Still a police presence. You’ll see our guide (in blue shirt) in one picture.

These towns are of Mayan heritage and Mayan ruins have been found. These stone are all jaguar stones.

Finally we stopped at a very upscale restaurant, Casa 1800, for a taste of El Salvadorian coffee and a piece of cake. Like Colombia, Panama, and Costa Rica, El Salvador is noted for its coffee. I have never drunk a cup of coffee in my life. But I finished a cup here. I don’t think I’ll become a coffee devotee, but it wasn’t half bad. Elaine said it was the smoothest and best ever! The last two pictures are views from the restaurant down into the town. Police still with us.

Then it was a long ride back to the ship in our prison bus. We sailed at 6:00 PM. Next stop, five days from now, in Los Angeles where we disembark. I’ll keep blogging but it will be boring. Well, for you it will, but we love sea days!

We had a band at the port to send us off:

Short post today. We were at sea en route to El Salvador. Weather remains perfect. Seas calm. We saw pods of jumping porpoises off our balcony.

Today’s sitting area:

A few shots from around the ship. First the Torshavn Bar, a late night venue that doesn’t open until 9 PM. That’s usually past our bedtime. I took this picture in the morning.

Here’s an old friend you’ve seen on previous cruises:

Viking ships all have a Viking Heritage Center:

The featured cocktail at the Living Room Bar tonight:

As I write and publish this post, we are arriving in El Salvador at 6 AM. Red in the morning, sailor take warning? More tomorrow.

Weather continues to be exceptional as you’ll see in the pictures. After our first times ever in Colombia and Panama, we are now in our first visit to Costa Rica.

The locals at Puntarenas greeted us with lots of friendliness.

Our excursion today is a bus ride to the Tarcoles River for a river boat tour in the Costa Rican rain forest. Here’s a few pictures taken from the bus as we headed out.

After an hour or so we arrived at the river dock and set out on our adventure.

So what did we see? Well. herons, hawks, fly catchers, cormorants, iguanas, lizards, and most especially crocodiles. Costa Rica has LOTS of crocodiles. No alligators. What’s the difference? See here. We were worried that we hadn’t brought any insect repellent, but thankfully there were no bugs. These pictures are roughly in the order I took them from the boat.

Click on the galleries below to bring up scrollable windows with full size pictures – the gallery previews may show just thumbnails of the pictures. By the way, the pictures look much better on a tablet or a computer than they do on your phone. Just saying.

Some general scenic views along the way. What do they fish for in the Tarcoles? Tilapia, mullet, tarpon, and snook.

More cool birds:

And finally a stop at what I’ll call Crocodile Beach.

After the boat trip there was a stop at a very nice place with a huge gift shop / snack bar / restaurant / rest rooms. And then back to the ship for a 5:00 PM departure for El Salvador. Tomorrow is a sea day. Dinner was in the World Cafe. Cocktails pre-dinner in the Living Room and post-dinner in the Explorer Bar.

See you on the morrow.

Quick and easy post today. We are at sea enroute from exiting the Panama Canal and on the way to Puntarenas, Costa Rica. Another beautiful sunny day and significantly cooler and less humid. Perfect for sitting on the balcony and reading or just watching the ocean. We saw other ships – big container ships and LNG gas ships. We have only seen one other cruise ship since we got past Cozumel (where we saw the Disney Magic). Here’s picture I took of it on Gatun Lake:

Google image search identified the ship for me. It’s the Celebrity Cruise Lines Beyond. 3,900 passengers. It looks like it might topple over. It’s big, but not big like the new behemoth that holds 7,600 passengers (Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas). We prefer Viking’s small ships.

Today’s sitting area:

Very quiet day. Reading. Napping, Eating. Dinner was at the Chef’s Table restaurant. Set menu with a theme; the theme varies every three days. Today it was California cuisine. This is the actual menu we had. Since we have the beverage package, we get the premium wine selections.

Here are pictures of the courses (minus the Moscow Mule granita). The crab cake was fabulous. Everything was good.

The Explorer Lounge Bar after dinner was quiet except for the bar itself. We had one drink and headed to bed.

It’s Boxing Day in the UK. It’s St. Stephen’s Day in many countries. It’s Wren’s Day in Dingle. For us it’s Panama Canal Day. We’ve done canals before. Just last year we were on the Viking Jupiter going through the Welland Canal which connects the St. Lawrence Seaway, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario. And years ago just the two of us piloted a 60-foot narrowboat on the canals of Wales and the UK. I was at the stern steering with a tiller. Elaine had to jump off at every lock to manually operate the locks and then jump back on after I passed the boat through. And there were plenty of locks. But the Panama Canal is the grandaddy of lock canals, so this was a grand experience. The weather, by the way, continues to be sunny, hot and humid.

Brief history – Ferdinand de Lesseps and the French started the Panama Canal project way back in 1880 after very successfully completing the world’s other best known canal – the Suez Canal. But Suez was way different. No locks for one thing. The French plan for Panama was for a sea level canal (a la Suez) with no locks. Well, they tried hard and failed miserably by 1903 with over 6,000 dead in the process. The United States wanted a canal too, but the original plan was to build it through Nicaragua. Eventually however in 1904, they bought out the bankrupt French project and took on the Panama Canal. They firsts managed a huge effort to defeat the mosquito so that malaria and yellow fever were not the issue it was for the French. And they promoted and succeeded in Panama gaining its independence from Columbia. Most importantly the US created a Panama Canal Zone that split the country and was to be totally governed by the US. The sea level canal idea was replaced by a lock system, and after lots of issues the Panama Canal opened in 1914. In 1977 we negotiated a twenty-year transfer process of the Canal Zone back to Panama and it was completed in 1997. In the 2000’s Panama created a second canal channel that could handle the ever larger ocean vessels that were becoming more common. It opened in 2014. Enough history. If you want the whole story read about the Panama Canal on Wikipedia or buy David McCullough’s book The Path Between the Seas.

We entered at the Gatun locks after going under the Atlantic Bridge. The Gatun locks are a series of three locks. Then we crossed Lake Gatun, entered the Gaillard cut, passed through three more locks at Pedro Miguel (1) and Miraflores (2). Then we sailed by Panama City into the Pacific Ocean under the Bridge of the Americas. It all took about eight hours. The three locks at each end take you first up 85 feet above sea level and then down 85 feet back to sea level.

Here’s a picture story of the crossing. First leaving Colon and the passing under the Atlantic Bridge.

Click on the galleries below to bring up scrollable windows with full size pictures – the gallery previews may show just thumbnails of the pictures. By the way, the pictures look much better on a tablet or a computer than they do on your phone. Just saying.

Then through the three Gatun locks:

We took a fewer pictures as we passed through the huge Gatun Lake. We hoping to spot some of the protected jaguars on the shorelines. But no such luck. We did see deer. And one lonely scraggily heron. All through the locks and the lake the ship is under the navigational control of local pilots who board off and on at different points. While they are on board, the Captain cedes control of the ship to them.

Then we passed through the second set of three locks. I only took a few pictures. Below you can see the electric “mules” that are attached to the ship when passing through locks. We had three on each side. They are very powerful and ensure that the ship stays centered in the lock. You can also see how close the ship got to the side of the lock.

Finally we were out of the locks and we passed under the Bridge of the America at Panama City as we sipped cocktails with a couple of our friends at the Living Room bar. Now we’re in the Pacific Ocean (unless, of course, Trump has renamed it).

Dinner was in The Restaurant with Peggy who is pictured with Elaine above in the bar. Peggy is from Australia. The other woman (whose name escapes me) is from Tucson. There are lots of people from Arizona on board.

If you missed yesterday’s Christmas Eve in Cartagena, it’s here.

Aside from Christmases in Melrose and Scottsdale (and I think one in Albuquerque), we spent three Christmases in Dingle. Now we are spending our warmest Christmas ever in Colon, Panama. By the way, we both read the book The Path Between the Seas by David McCullough before we began our trip. Tomorrow we will be on the canal to experience what we read about.

Early morning arrival in Colon:

Today we had a six hour excursion around Colon. It was really just two stops plus one for lunch. First stop was at the Agua Clara Panama Canal Visitor Center at the north end of the canal where we will enter tomorrow. Since we’re going from the Atlantic to the Pacific, you’d think the canal ran east to west. But it doesn’t. It runs from north (Atlantic side) to south (Pacific side). There’s yet another geography lesson for you.

The visitor center is very well done. After being greeted with Christmas candy canes and cookies, we watched a huge container ship entering the first of three locks at the north end. After the locks, ships traverse man-made Gatun Lake (which is mostly fresh water) before entering the three locks at the south end of the canal emptying into the Pacific. Gatun Lake, when it was created, was the largest man-made lake in the world. Now there are a couple in Africa that are larger. These locks at the visitor center are the new locks (opened in 2014) to allow much bigger ships to use the canal. The original locks are still in use – they opened in 1914. I believe we will go through the original locks. The locks operate 24/7. The new locks are one directional – ships alternate going north to south and south to north. The old locks are two way – ships pass each other going in opposite directions. In one picture you can see the Atlantic Bridge off in the distance.

Next we went to the Shelter Bay Marina located in what once Fort Sherman, an American military base in the Canal Zone, the portion of Panama that was run by the United States until we handed it back to Panama when Jimmy Carter was president.. We had lunch at the Shelter Bay Yacht Club. We had nice fish and local beer.

Then it was off to the Castle and Fort of San Lorenzo at the mouth of the Chagres River, the source of all the water that produced Gatun Lake. You can see the Chagres in the first photo as it hits the sea. The Fort and Castle are now a UNESCO world heritage site and restoration has begun.

Then we headed back towards ship by way of the Atlantic Bridge and a view from the bus of the Gatun Dam that allowed the creation of Gatun Lake. The second picture is taken from the Atlantic Bridge and shows the old and new lock channels as they empty into Gatun Lake.

Then it was back to the ship for Christmas carols, Christmas cocktails, a turkey dinner with stuffing, and a good time had by all.

Sunny, hot and humid in Cartagena, Colombia. First time either of us has set foot in South America. Colombia interestingly is the only South American country that lies on two oceans – Cartagena lies on the Caribbean Sea while another part of Columbia lies on the Pacific. That’s your geography lesson for the day.

Our tour for the day was a Journey through Cartagena. The bus was blessedly air conditioned. The guide, Vicki, was delightful and a fountain of information. Cartagena is a city of 1.4 million, the fifth largest in Columbia. There is a very modern new city filled with skyscrapers and large apartment complexes. And there is the old city including a walled portion which has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Our first stop was at Convento de Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria, or Convento de la Popa for short, at the summit of a large hill. The views from here are outstanding and stretch all over the city. The convent’s name literally means the ‘Convent of the Stern,’ after the hill’s similarity to a ship’s back end. Founded by Augustine fathers in 1607, it was initially just a small wooden chapel, but when the hill was fortified two centuries later it was replaced by a stouter construction.

City scenes in Cartagena.

Elaine is in one picture. Our guide Vicki is in another. There are street vendors everywhere selling everything (Panama hats, sunglasses, trinkets, Colombian cigars, water, beer, etc.). They are persistent but they do take no for an answer. You’ll see one picture of a woman in traditional dress that I had to pay one American dollar for permission to take the picture. You will also see a statue of Simon Bolivar (Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar Palacios Ponte y Blanco) on horseback. There are statues everywhere of him. Bolivar led what are currently the countries of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Panama, and Bolivia to independence from the Spanish Empire. And you’ll see a Christmas decoration depicting Santa Claus.

Our last stop was at Iglesia de San Pedro Claver. Saint Peter Claver was a Jesuit who dedicated his life to helping the poor of Cartagena. Pope Francis visited here in 2017. (The only American president to visit Colombia was Barack Obama.)

A Christmas eve mass was taking place in the Cathedral when we stopped by. It’s just a short walk from the church above.

Back at the ship we wandered about for a bit in the aviary that is part of the terminal complex. We also enjoyed a local Colombian beer.

Whew! That’s enough for today. I’ll skip dinner on the ship. At 2 PM we set sail for Colon, Panama. I’ll be back on Christmas day from Colon.

Partly cloudy, hot and humid, and an occasional rain squall. That seems to be the weather pattern we are in. We are chugging towards Cartagena, Columbia.

Click on the galleries below to bring up scrollable windows with full size pictures – the gallery previews may show just thumbnails of the pictures. By the way, the pictures look much better on a tablet or a computer than they do on your phone. Just saying.

Today was breakfast and then some reading. Today’s sitting area is Elaine’s locale of choice for her morning reading. It’s part of the Explorer’s Lounge on deck seven. Self-service coffee, juice, and smoothies.

Nearby is Mamsen’s, an alternative breakfast and snack venue. We’ll try the waffles there some morning.

Lunch today was at the Pool Grill. Hamburgers and fries. Beer.

Then Elaine did some reading on the balcony while I napped. Then we went to the Star Theater to watch a talk about Cartagena and Colombia.

Cocktails at 5 PM as per usual in the Living Room Bar. Here are some pictures of the Atrium near the bar.

Then dinner tonight in Manfredi’s, the Italian themed specialty restaurant. Their specialty is a steak. This is not the exact menu from tonight, but it gives you an idea: The Bistecca Florentina is the pièce de résistance.

We had a nice bottle of wine. Naturally I had the steak. Elaine had a risotto dish which looks appetizer size because it was. We both had soups as starters.

I forgot one detail from our visit to Pueblo del Maiz yesterday. We got to watch them make Mayan chocolate. And, of course, to taste it. Muy bien. The cocao bean is actually quite bitter, so the crushed beans are infused with melipona honey from local stingless bees (melipona beecheii) to make a delicious treat. By the way, Elaine had been to Cozumel many years ago (before we even met). First time there for me

Today is mostly sunny and hot and humid with an occasional brief rain squall. The ship is wonderfully air conditioned, so you only feel the heat on the pool deck or walking decks.

Today (and tomorrow) we are and will be at sea on the Caribbean heading from the island of Cozumel to Cartagena, Colombia. We’ll be on the underside of Cuba and will pass by (well out of sight) Jamaica on the port side and Honduras and Nicaragua off starboard.

Sea days are a challenge for pictures. A new feature on sea days will be pictures of different places to sit on board. Today we feature one small area of the Explorer Lounge:

A word about the ship’s restaurants. All fifteen Viking Ocean ships have the same restaurant configurations. There are:

The Restaurant – main dining room, no reservations required (BLD)
The World Cafe – Casual dining cafeteria style where you serve yourself from buffet stations (BLD)
Manfredi’s – Italian themed with a great steak – reservations required but no up charge (D)
Chef’s Table – Set menu with rotating themes – reservations required but no up charge (D)
Mamsen’s – Breakfast and lunch snacks and specializing in Norwegian waffles (BL)
The Winter Garden – Only serves afternoon tea
The Pool Grill – Specializing in hamburgers and hot dogs at lunch time (L)

We (or sometimes just I) always have breakfast in the World Cafe except for maybe once at Mamsen’s. Lunch is either in the World Cafe or the Pool Grill. We will have dinner twice in Manfredi’s and twice at Chef’s Table with the rest of our dinners split 60/40 between the World Cafe and the Restaurant. We would be perfectly happy eating every meal in the World Cafe – serve yourself, no waiting, enormous choice, delicious food.

We normally have cocktails at 5:00 PM in the Living Room bar with is located near the atrium on deck one. The atrium extends upward for three decks and today there is a welcome champagne reception for repeat Viking cruisers. I would guess 80% of the 980 passengers are repeat Viking cruisers. So our normally quiet happy hour with just a few regulars was very crowded tonight. Our lovely regular female bartender (from the Philippines) was busy but we were well taken care of. The Captain spoke briefly as did the delightful female Cruise Director (she’s in the last picture). And there was entertainment on the piano and from the four young vocalist entertainers.

The weather continues to be good – mostly sunny but very hot and humid. It’s not like our Arizona hot but the humidity can be oppressive. The seas have been pretty calm.

This morning we docked in Cozumel, Mexico. Also docking here today – the Disney Magic, full, I’m sure, of screaming children. It’s on a five day cruise in the Gulf of MEXICO from Galveston, Texas. We love Viking’s “no children” policy. The Magic holds 2700 passengers; the Sky holds 980.

After breakfast we headed ashore for our excursion for the day.

Our excursion today is to El Pueblo del Maiz, a Mayan village. Cozumel’s heritage is Mayan. We learned all about the Mayans and met many of them. We were treated to several Mayan cultural shows. It was a good excursion.

We had our faces painted with traditional Mayan symbols.

And we created some Mayan painting using the traditional Mayan paper and paints, all produced naturally from natural materials. Nal is corn. Ajk’ot is carving (I think).

Mayan dance was next including fire rituals.

It’s hard to upload videos on the ship’s wi-fi but here’s a link to one that I managed to upload during the night:

Mayan Fire Ceremony

I posed with some of the performers. Do I look Mayan?

We also learned a lot about Mayan traditions and way of life. It was a fun experience. The last picture below is not upside down. The first two pictures are of two Mayan beauties.

At the end of the excursion there was one more not so traditional Mayan custom to observe. We participated willingly given our satisfaction with the whole tour. Elaine also bought some Mayan earrings from the Mayan artist who made them. Perhaps a future picture will display them (when she wears them and if I remember).

Want to know more about the Maya civilization? – visit Wikipedia here.

Then it was back to the ship for lunch and a quiet afternoon. Dinner was in the World Cafe with a new friend – an Australian woman we met at the Living Room bar at cocktail hour.