Panama to Mexico

Rough Seas

More rough seas accompanied us as we made our way south through the Gulf of Mexico, through the Yucatan Channel and into the Caribbean.  In our imaginations, the Caribbean is a beautiful, blue calm sea – not when winter storms are swirling through in January!

Panama Canal

What a joy it was to finally arrive at the entrance to the Panama Canal on a calm and peaceful early morning.

Rightly referred to as one of the Modern Wonders of the World, this 51-mile canal connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans thereby reducing, by some 8000 nautical miles, the journey time for maritime shipping. The French began the construction in 1881 but later abandoned the project.  In 1904 the Americans took on the task, completing and opening it in 1914.  In the late 1990’s Panama assumed the management and operation of the Canal.    Over the many decades of the build approximately 25000 men died.  Yellow fever and malaria were the biggest killers plus terrible working conditions led to many work-based accidents.

This feat of engineering includes three locks rising 85 feet from the Atlantic – the Gatun Locks – which lead into Gatun Lake.  The lake was created by damming a nearby river and a smaller lake.  A further three locks – the Pedro Miguel and a pair known as Miraflores – drop back down to the Pacific Ocean.

In 2016 a further wider lane of locks was added allowing the transit of the very biggest vessels.  Normally 40 ships pass through the canal every 24 hours.  At the moment, due to the drought caused by El Nino, only 22 ships are permitted to pass through.  It is hard to imagine the eye-watering amount of toll fees that ships pay to pass through  – We were told that Borealis would pay about US$200,000!

Our transit made for a fascinating day.  An onboard expert, having already delivered three lectures during the previous sea days, then gave us an up-to-the-minute commentary from the bridge throughout the day. This was broadcast to all outside areas – so that those who wanted a quiet day (or knew it all before!) were not bothered by the tannoy. Bear in mind that we were now in the Tropics – it was 30C and VERY humid.  Spells on the outside decks got shorter as the day wore on – we all needed to acclimatize!   

The day finished with a disappointing announcement from the Captain, informing us that we would only be visiting one of the two planned ports in Costa Rica, due to a delay in refuelling the ship.  We spent most of the night being ‘topped up’ in Panama, before enjoying a glorious, calm (yes, CALM!) day at sea whilst making our way to Punto Arenas in Costa Rica.

Costa Rica

Costa Rica stretches north from Panama and has both Atlantic and Pacific coasts.  With a population of approx. 5 million, its main industries are agriculture and tourism.  Rice, coffee, and bananas are exported around the world.  And believe it or not, there is a huge export market in house plants!  The continual warm climate, and (normally) high rainfall makes this a plant paradise. 

We enjoyed a two-hour journey up into the mountains to visit the cloud forest.  The effect of El Nino was noticeable – nothing was a deep lush green, the whole countryside was ‘off green’ or even brown. 

The forest is home to many species of animal and bird – we were lucky enough to see some birds which are fed deliberately to show the tourists what they look like!  We saw nothing whilst doing a fairly extensive walk but could hear them. 

As always, our guide gave us a fantastic insight into the history and culture of the country.  Costa Rica is a definite for a future winter holiday – there’s lots more we’d like to see. 

Sadly Punta Arenas itself is quite shabby, although the beach is lovely.  We were thrilled to be able to use our Spanish in the bank, the post office and a café, as we meandered our way back to the ship.

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Three more days at sea took us north passing Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala before berthing (at 7am) at Puerto Vallarta, which you’ll find on your maps is north-west of Mexico City.  We were lucky to be the only cruise liner moored for our brief visit, although we were sharing with both a rather swish gin-palace/floating hotel and an ancient pirate ship!

 Puerto Vallarta is said to be the most luxurious vacation spot in North America. – if you were American, you would probably amplify that to ‘the world’!  It’s a fusion of Mexican culture with modern-day resort living – humble dwellings to millionaire’s mansions.  Many rich and famous make this their second home  – indeed, allow me to relate a story our guide regaled us with.  Richard Burton had a house here, and Elizabeth Taylor lost no time in coming to join him (she needed to keep an eye on him!).  The Catholic priest got to hear of this, and pointed out to them, that this was a Catholic country and people did not live together ‘out of wedlock’.  Richard Burton managed to buy the plot of land on the opposite side of the road to his, and built a house for Liz to live in.  Shortly after the building was completed, a bridge was built across the road, joining the two houses. . . .  Well, it makes a good story!

We were lucky enough to visit the Botanical Gardens.  After an hour’s drive up into the mountains that run along behind the coastline, we arrived at this little paradise.  Lots of colourful plants and shrubs, and lots of birdlife.

 

We were given a brief history of the area by our local guide during our journey, but were then free to wonder on our own within the gardens  – all the plants were well labelled in Spanish and English.  The majority of the patrons of the Gardens are American – as mentioned, it is one of their favourite holiday destinations. There was a wonderful Peace Garden which surrounded a small, quiet chapel.  Enjoying the calm of this area was a real ‘pinch me’ moment  . . was I really in the mountains off the west coast of Mexico?

Our planned Mexican port had been Acapulco, but that was changed following the hurricane last November.  Hurricane damage was evident on our way up the mountain, although presumably not as severe as in Acapulco.  Landslips, trees snapped in half, and huge boulders washed high up on river banks.  Evidence of hurricane damage was still noticeable on some on the roofs in the garden. 

Annoyingly/frustratingly we had to be back onboard immediately after our trip to the gardens.  It was a VERY short visit – we sailed again at 2pm, so there was no time to have a little explore of the old town or the shops.  Those who hadn’t booked a shore tour had enjoyed the shops, but were aggravated (like us) that there wasn’t time to do both.  This is one of the main irritations with cruising  – will this put us off in the future?  Only time will tell. . .