My Fabulous Panama Canal Cruise

This really was a fabulous 14 day cruise on the Norwegian Star, a ship that hold about 2,350 passengers at full occupancy. It is 965 feet in length, and is called a "panamax" ship because it is the largest size that will fit through the current Panama Canal.

The cruise began in Miami and ended in Los Angeles. There were 6 port calls: Cartegena, Colombia; Puntarenas, Costa Rica; and Puerto Chiapas, Huatulco, Puerto Vallarta, and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The transit of the Panama Canal took a full day, from about 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The rest of the days were at sea. There was plenty to do, and lots of food. The buffet was open almost constantly from early morning to late night, and there were other venues in which to eat, too. The entertainment, particularly the shows in the theater at night, was superb. We like Norwegian Cruise Line because it is casual. There are nights when you can dress up, if you want to, but it is not required.

I really looked forward to the first port, Cartegena. We chose a "hop-on, hop-off" bus excursion arranged through the ship. Although it was not quite as "hop-on, hop-off" as big city bus tours of the same type (they only had 2 double-decker buses that ran every 45 minutes or so), it did give us a good overview of the city and included a walking tour of the old town section.

This is the tower at the main entrance to the walled Old Town section of the city, where our walking tour started. The old city is a UNESCO world heritage site.

This is the interior of the cathedral.

This a street scene near the cathedral.

This is the church of San Pedro Claver.

A view of the walls.

Beyond the old town, this is el Castillo de San Filipe de Borajas, built by the Spanish to protect the city beginning in 1536.

 
Finally, this is a view of the Bocagrande beach resort area, taken as we were leaving port. I was a little surprised to see how built up it was. It is a very crowded, high-rise beach area, and the narrow streets were clogged with traffic on the day we were there.

This was a quick stop in Cartegena; we had to be back on the ship by 1:30 p.m. It would be nice to go back and see more of Colombia and Cartegena some day.

Tomorrow: transit of the Panama Canal.