South America and Pacific Cruise - Sector Five

31^st March - 23^rd April 2015

San Francisco - Cabo San Lucas - Puntarenas - Panama Canal - Curaçao - Antigua - Ponta Delgada - Southampton

Just click on the thumbnail to get the photo full size. Close window when finished, Home Page is still open.

31 March. San Francisco, California, USA. Our second day in San Francisco and basically it was a shopping day. We did stroll along Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39, where we saw the sea lions.

03 April. Cabo San Lucas, México. My second visit in two years on a cruise. Barbara and I went to research a cruise for 2016, then we wandered back to the tender point. We decided to have a margarita in a local bar and ended up in Señor Frogs. Lots of the ships photographers, entertainment team and dancers were there. We looked for a table and found two of the bar stewards we'd made friends with sat drinking a bucket of beer. They gave us one each. We then bought us all some margaritas. We were all given silly balloon hats. We had a great time.

07 April. Puntarenas, Costa Rica. A hot day. 10 of us from the ship were on a private tour. First stop was at a private garden where we looked at different fruits and medicinal leaves. We saw cashew nuts growing. The nut appears first and the fruit follows. Both can be eaten. We also tried a fruit called, I think, nona. This smelt like blue cheese, but tasted terrible. Then we went to a beach where we saw a pair of red macaws in a tree, After that we went to Río Tárcoles for a boat ride. The river is home to crocodiles and our boat driver got out and fed a 3 metre crocodile, they called Monica Lewinsky. He also fed another, smaller, crocodile called J-Lo. We then continued the river cruise and saw termite nests, mangrove swamps and many more crocodiles. There was plentiful birdlife, including frigate birds, ibises, egrets, herons, cormorants and many more. Rob and I then went zip lining with a couple of other passengers, the rest went on an aerial tramway. We were taken to the first zip line in a trailer pulled by a tractor up a very dusty track. There were twelve lines and on number six we were given the option to go upside down. I took the option. During the event, we saw wild turkeys. A good day.

09 April. Panama Canal, Panama. My second transit of the canal, last time I went east to west, this time vice versa. We entered the canal around 06:15 passing first under the Bridge of the Americas and then through both the Miraflores and Pedro Miguel Locks. Then we passed under the Centennial Bridge and through the Galliard Cut. The crew vs passengers deck quoits match took place during the passage through the cut. The crew lost every game! After that, we sailed through Gatun Lake and on to Gatun Locks. We passed through the locks and out towards the Caribbean around 16:00. During the passage we saw the new locks near Miraflores for the new canal that is due to open in 2016. The construction is much more advanced that two years ago. Whilst passing through the Gatun Locks, the ship hit the wall, I was touching the lock wall at the time! A rail between decks 8 and 9 is no longer as attached to the ship as it used to be!

11 April. Willemstad,Curaçao. I came here two years ago and this time the six of us plus Norman and Lynda grabbed a cab to Blaubaai for a morning at the beach. This was our only beach day of the cruise. After that we strolled into Willemstad, which is the colourful capital of Curaçao. We saw the Queen Emma pontoon bridge opening a couple of times, but didn't actually get to ride on it this time.

13 April. St John's, Antigua. Antigua was my first ever Caribbean island, way back in the 80's. This time Yvonne and I went swimming with sting rays. It was great. We travelled on a fast boat to a pontoon and then got into the water with the sting rays. They were wild and free to come and go as they please. We held them, fed them squid and they just swam around us. I also picked up a sea cucumber. Snorkel gear was provided and underwater we could see the rays and lots of other fish including sergeant majors. There was also a fairly tame barracuda swimming nearby. Back on dry land we were fed very strong rum punches before a raucous journey home. In the evening there was another Great British Sailaway, which are always fun.

19 April. Ponta Delgada, Azores, Portugal. This was the first port of call on the 2013 World Cruise, on this cruise, it was the last. We took an open topped bus tour and then looked at St. Joseph's church in Campo San Francisco. After that we looked in one of the two botanical gardens where we saw a huge rubber tree, amongst other things.