Acapulco, famous for its cliff divers who jump into the pacific from 45 meter cliffs. That is ~ 135 ft! Acapulco was also the big attraction as a high society / celebrity party town, where the jet sets would mingle and have a great time. But that was from the 1920s until the 1970s. Those times are over, but it still has its charm and beauty.

We took off on our own to find the Mercado Central; we love markets, markets where the locals buy their daily goods of fruit and vegetables, but also household items, craft supplies, spices, mole pastes, piñatas, toys, clothes, stoves, cookware and – very important – life size figurines of crucified Jesus and his gang.

Then we went to the beach, which was wonderful! We ate tacos at a beach restaurant, walked along in the sand and enjoyed the water.

For our evening entertainment we chose the musical Jersey Boys. It was fantastic!!! Stage, costumes, music, fabulous singers; I had not expected such a good show at all! Standing ovations were well deserved 🤩

Another leisurely day on board, but everything but boring! I worked for a few hours, trying to outsmart the onboard internet and prepare my spring semester classes, which was only partly successful. So one thing I learned from this trip with 3 cruises along the way: do not rely on the Internet on board of a cruise ship! Fortunately almost all my prep work was done, just a few last minute add-ons and we can start the semester the day after tomorrow.

We discover new things to do every day, for example a “Wine and Cheese Paring” event, that we enjoyed a lot. Not only was the wine very tasty and the cheese combinations surprising, but the sommelier, a Russian woman, presented her knowledge in such a fun way – she should do a comedy show with that! We had a great time! [Champagne, Sauvignon Blanc, red wine blend from Argentina, Port]+[parmesan, goat cheese, cheddar, blue cheese]

All that wine called for a nap: I haven’t been drinking any wine recently and I felt like I had been partying the whole night, so a nap was needed. And after a late lunch / early dinner we watched a Beatles show (very good! A group from Argentina that was enthusiastic and had a great program!) and another show from the “Nashville Tenors” (3 singers from N. with a surprising repertoire of song interpretations).

Sailing along the coast of Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, where we will anker in Puerto Quetzal. The name Quezal is the name of the local currency and the local bird. From there we’ll go on an excursion to Antigua.

The wind is very strong today (32miles/hour), leaving whitecaps on the surface of the water. By now we are halfway done with our cruise, 2400 miles to go, 2400 miles already done. Time flies! And last night, we changed time, falling back 1 hour!

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Sailing along the coast of Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, where we will anker in Puerto Quetzal. The name Quezal is the name of the local currency and the local bird. From there we’ll go on an excursion to Antigua.

The wind is very strong today (32miles/hour), leaving whitecaps on the surface of the water. By now we are halfway done with our cruise, 2400 miles to go, 2400 miles already done. Time flies! And last night, we changed time, falling back 1 hour!

Antigua, Guatemala, was a very surprising day trip. It is a 1.5 hour bus-ride from the harbor, up the mountains along a few of Guatemalas 37 (!) volcanoes. Guatemala is roughly the size of Ohio; 17 million people live there, 62% Ladino people (half Spanish, half Mayan) and 37% Mayans. And yes, it’s spelled Ladino, not Latino 🧐

Biggest exports (#4 in the world) are sugarcane and bananas, but also cocoa and coffee! No wonder, Guatemala means “land of many trees”

Antigua is surprisingly small, a town that was built for 5500 people, a grid of 9 avenues and 9 streets, all houses are single story. No wonder, it is in a very active earthquake and volcano area; on our way to Antigua we passed an area where a volcano eruption killed 300 people in 2018. 3 villages have been completely destroyed.

Time flies! And today is another day at sea before we’ll reach Guatemala.

We just watched a funny cooking demonstration from Tennayaki, a Japanese restaurant here on board. Similar to Benihana, where the cooks juggle with their tools and ingredients, but somehow we ended up with a lot of broken eggs on the floor! It was very funny. And amazing. And entertaining!

Travel use we are not even halfway done; so far we sailed 2050 miles since Miami, with 2800 miles to go. Transitioning through the Panama Canal was the halfway point for me and my psyche, but it was more the 1/3 – 2/3 point in reality.

The afternoon we spent at the pool, watching the young crows dance to “our” music! Apparently ABBA is the big hit, is it “Dancing Queen” or “Gimme, Gimme”, the kids got crazy! And so did we 🤩 – did I ever tell you that I like ABBA music? Another big surprise in the DJs music selection: “Daddy Cool” from Boney M, the German answer to disco music!

Our evening entertainment was a miracle magician Gleason from Las Vegas (Gleason Magic: Catch me if you can). His card tricks were so well done, we were stunned! How can you make things disappear and show up again, how can you play with illusions in such a way that people question their minds? This show was amazing!!!

We were so fascinated by the Panama Canal transit, that we booked a tour to go back and experience another transit: the old lock with a ferry boat, that gives you a more direct, hands-on view of how things are done to get those ships over the mountain range.

The new locks, operating since 2016, have double sliding doors, which use less water than the old hinged gates. Each time those old gates are opened, 52 million gallons of fresh water from Gatun Lake are washed into the ocean. The new locks recycle 60% of the water, collecting it in 46×46 meter basins. And what fascinates me most: all water movements are done without any electricity, without pumps, but plain gravity! The only electric part of the canal is the movement of the gates!

In case you wonder about how much a transition through the Panama Canal cost: here are the numbers – and please sit down first: the amount a ship has to pay depends on the size of it of course, but also on how many containers it has loaded or, for a cruise ship, how many occupied cabins it has. In our case, the Norwegian Bliss has to pay $480.000 for the transit! A cargo ship with 15.000 containers on board has to pay ~$1million! And that is roughly 1/3 of the cost of sailing around South America, not included the extra 3-4 weeks time and the danger to sail around Cape Horn! So if you do the math and think about 35-40 ships going through each day, 7 days a week, year round, you’ll end up with quite a nice amount of $$$ in your bank. But of course the maintenance of those locks, the administration cost, logistics, etc. eats up a big portion of your income. It takes 150 people to make the transit of a ship possible.

One more fact: Gatun Lake, the man made lake 26 meters above the ocean level, took 3.5 years to fill with water from the river and rain. It rains 8 months of the year, so that is a significant amount of water.

When we transitioned through the old locks today, we and another little ferry boat were lucky to be bundled together with a tanker from Singapore, that barely fit inside the lock! There was about 1 – 1.5 ft space on each side! So they better make sure that the ships are transitioning through without damage. And that is not as easy as it sounds: the movement of the ship due to water and wind is significant, considering the size of it! That’s why those big ships are guided by locomotives on each side of the lock. They strap the ship in between them to make sure no damage will occur. Because Panama Canal Company is responsible for damages that would happen during transition!

And here we are: the Panama Canal, the worlds greatest shortcut! The passage is approximately 80 km long. It is the transition between the Atlantic in the north and the Pacific in the south and named one of the seven wonders of the modern world!

History

The idea of connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific originated from the 16th century when the Spanish arrived at the Isthmus, the narrowest point where North and South America meet. In 1880 the French tried the connection, but failed: financial difficulties and tropical diseases made it impossible.

When Panama consolidated its independence in 1903, it agreed with the USA to build the canal which was finished in 1914 and administered until 1999.

Between 2007 and 2016 the canal was expanded to double its capacity. A third lane was added to accommodate larger ships (and they are already talking about another expansion because there are 160 ships who wouldn’t fit through this needlehole)

Challenges

Because of a mountain range between the two oceans, it was difficult to connect the Atlantic with the Pacific. Creating a man made lake was the solution. That lake is called Gatun Lake. But the water surface is 27 meters higher than the sea level, so what to do? The engineers built locks, three on each end, to lift the ships up to the Gatun Lake surface and at the other end, 27 meters down to the ocean level again.

The extension was built as a green construction with sustainable construction: instead of wasting 52 million gallons of water with each transition, they save / reuse 60% of the water now!

Interesting Facts

• The 1 millionth ship transitioned in 2010
• The shortest transition time was 2h 41 min – 1979, a hydrofoil from the US Navy
• Most of the ships going south to north through the canal deliver merchandise from Asia to the eastern United States, and vice versa, ships going north to south deliver LNG (liquid natural gas) from the US to Asia.
• Since 1968 the Panama Canal operates 24h daily.
• The Panama government is not in charge of the canal. It gets the surplus at the end of the day, but the Panama constitution protects the canal being influenced (or taken over) by the government.
• There are many tugboats moving around those locks, helping those ships to maneuver through the transition. They don’t pull or push, they just guide. One tugboat is on each end of each ship inside the locks. Price tag of 1 tugboat: $11,000,000 (yes, $11 million!) Panama Canal Operation bought 14 of those tugboats when opening the new addition in 2016. According to our captain, “the only thing those tugboats cannot do is fly”!

We officially arrived in another continent today: we are in Cartagena, Columbia, which is in South America!

Founded in 1533, Cartagena served as an important trading port and was subject to attacks and invasions from early on. As a result, part of the city is well fortified, and known as “La Ciudad Amurallada”, the “walled city”. It reflects a turbulent history of conquistadores and pirates!

Today is a very easy temperature to remember: 28=82 (28Celsius = 82 Fahrenheit)

Starting the day with a long overdue pedicure – all those long winter shoe months didn’t call for it. But here we are: sandals and flipflop weather!

The whole day was very relaxing, late breakfast at the observation deck, reading, playing Romme, reading, eating and reading. The observation deck is a great place with comfortable lounge chairs, a small buffet with everything to keep you hydrated, healthy and happy.

We tried to hang out at the pool for a while, but Ted was just melting. I guess we are not used to 30 degree weather anymore. Now we hope we resolved our cabin temperature discrepancy (Ted likes to sleep with the a/c on, I like the balcony door open) by switching beds, so he will sleep underneath the a/c and I sleep near the balcony door. It just needed an extension cord and some rearranging of our stuff. We shall see if this does the trick and we are more happy tomorrow morning!