ocean all to myself once more....
Just before 5am - yes, 5am!, I woke up and immediately saw lights all
around us outside. Frank was already in the shower and I quickly
grabbed Gypsy and headed outside. We really could save some time by
dragging the mattress outside!.. There I was met by a gazillion gold,
white, green and red lights everywhere I looked. It looked as if
someone has sprinkled my world with gems and made them all sparkle.
Just beautiful. As the sun slowly stuck its head above the horizon, we
could see the shapes of the ships that owned those lights....... and boy
were we surrounded. Right as I first grabbed the camera, Frank pointed
outside with big eyes as a container ship filled our view - totally! I
was absolutely surprised at how incredibly close we were. The crew were
yelling Felis Navidad over to us and I swear that one big swell would
have had us connected! No one seemed unduly worried, but no ship came
near as close to us after that either.
Anyway - there we were, plugging along at a fair clip, totally
surrounded by ships and boats of all sizes and shapes, the sun rising
and its not even a decent time of the day by far yet. But, off we half
ran to the top deck and....yes, we clicked away happily for the rest of
the day, for a total of 1397 photos for the day! Yup.... At one point
I tried to count the ships milling around but they all kept moving and
we agreed that it was lots more than we would have been comfortable with
in any other setting..
We got to the first lock a whole lot earlier than originally thought -
there were 42 boats/ships passing through the canal today and we lined
up right behind a huge yellow tanker. Its very strange to see a huge
ship 85 foot higher than we are and that view really put it all in
proportion for us The first of the locks is the Gutan Locks. This is a
series of three different locks that takes us up to 85 feet about
Caribbean Sea level and basically over the Continental Divide and its
mountains. We fitted very snugly into the lock - one foot space on each
side and about two feet open at the rear, with her bows kissing the
front gates. It was tight. The mechanical mules tied up to us with
huge lines to make sure we did not swing side to side - they are not
strong enough to pull this ship at all, and we entered the lock under
Constellation Power. The locks are really huge, I mean the whole
support structure and everything around it. After locking up to the
third level, it was a short way to the Gutan Lake where many of the
cruise ships turn around and go back to Florida. We were really glad to
be able to go on forward...... I would have been terribly inquisitive
about the rest of the lock if we had not. Did you know that the ocean
is higher on the Pacific side than on the Caribbean side of the Panama
Canal? If I remember correctly there is about 17 foot difference. Also,
we noticed that the water is blue on the Caribbean side and green on the
Pacific... I am going to check that out closer tomorrow.
All along the sides is forest, thick dense incredibly green forest. We
could hear bird calls and I think I heard the howler monkeys at one
point, but wont bet my bottom dollar on that one. The water is still
very high from the recent flooding and closing of the Canal and the
water is very muddy, a medium, murky, swirling brown..
And so we happily tootled along the fairly wide Canal, me walking from
one side of the ship to the other and bow to stern trying not to miss a
thing.... that was all but impossible. The Canal is dotted with
islands, lighthouses and all sorts of things to see, not a dull moment
at all. Through the Gutan Lakes we went, under the Millenium Bridge
which is a road used by the locals to cross over the Canal. Its
huuuuge! Getting pictures often entailed leaning waaaay over the
railings trying to snap photos that did not include peoples hands or
hats they were dangling over the side. I always had one foot entwined
in the railings - just in case.
There is an area that they had to blast huge amounts of the mountain
away and the ships still go through there single file to prevent
accidents. Its commonly known as "the Cut" and also has two much more
official names that I will have to look up again. I would not be
comfortable if there was another ship coming towards us in that narrow
section. This is a hugely impressive project and just fantastic to
see. We also saw quite a bit of the construction for the new set of
locks for even bigger ships. As we watched a dredger do its job, it
occurred to me that we had literally just seen history in the
making..... the new construction. One day there will be old photos of
this too and people will wonder about how it was done.. Watching this
reminded me of some road construction we saw being done in Costa Rica -
the guys were using wheel barrows and spades to build the road! And
here they had the very best of everything - quite amazing. This whole
project is going to be mind blowing by the time its done, its already
totally fascinating.
The second set of locks was.....well, it was only one lock with a drop
of around 30 foot. I spotted the live cam there and waved to anyone who
was watching.....remember that link I sent you? Yeah, I know, should
have sent it again. That lock did not take too long to go through but
what was interesting was watching the ship in the lock right next to us,
how they got all connected to the mules and were pulled or guided in,
made to slow down and stop before crashing through the gates in the
front. Its just brilliantly orchestrated.
And then the third set of locks was right there and we could also see
the Bridge of the Americas...... This bridge is just beautiful and it
literally joins the north and south American Continents. Its also a
part of the Pan American Highway that runs from Alaska to way down south
in South America. We have been on it in various places both in North
America and South America - and now we have been under it as well. The
final lock set when smoothly and also gave us plenty time to enjoy the
incredible skyline of Panama City. Well first, as we passed through the
last lock, there was the Canal Tourist building, all four stories of it,
almost filled with people watching us go through the lock. Apparently
its quite a thing to get to see a cruise ship go by and there was much
waving, yelling, of good wishes flying both ways. I wonder how many
photos there are of us picturizing them while they picturized us :)
The flashing of cameras was almost continuous - generally a lovely
moment that made both sides happy.
So now we were on the Pacific side of the Panama Canal and I was almost
disappointed - we had got through about and hour and a half faster than
anticipated, but that was probably good too. My arms and face are bright
red, I did not stop for breakfast and had only an apple and half a
banana and Gypsy and Nomad (Franks camera) were bursting at the seams.
Frank spent much more time in the shade, but I was too busy trying to
make sure I captured every possible thing. The Canal is really
beautiful with the greenery, the quiet as we slowly snaked our way south
through it and it kept us up and awake all day long.
The cost for this cruise ship to pass through the Panama Canal is just
under $290 000,00. Yup , you read that right.... The price is based on
how many passengers the ship can carry -not how many are actually on
board. The container ships are also rated like that - on how many
containers they can carry, not how many they actually have.... so all
the ships seem to be as full and loaded as possible.
After soaking up the Bridge of the Americas, ooh-ing and aah-ing at the
Panama City skyline, we headed into the bay and all the other ships just
seemed to melt away.... Suddenly the ocean was ours again. It was
almost silvery and difficult to discern where the horizon was - it all
sort of melted into a gentle blur. By now I was starting to come down
from all the excitement and my feet were killing me after standing all
day long in the hot sunshine. So we headed home to a shower and then to
try to connect with the kids while they were all together for Christmas
Eve. No luck at all really. Earlier today I had discovered that we
cannot connect to Skype from the ship and had a little pity party of
about 10 minutes. Actually, I was really sad - I was so looking forward
to seeing them all! Anyway - we did have brief contact over Yahoo mail
talk thingy and managed to get happy wishes flying both ways..... Made
me smile again.
So off to dinner, more pics of a lovely sunset and then back to the
cabin to put my feet up with a cuppa coffee for a while. We sat on the
balcony jsut watching the sky - it is so clear tonight with the stars
just hanging in there like diamonds floating around. There is a lovely
breeze and the sound of the bow wave.......well, it put Frank to sleep.
I had words tumbling around in my mind all day trying to describe the
awe and beauty of what we had seen so I carried a glass of wine out here
on the balcony and am sitting here in a little cocoon of darkness
absolutely loving the down time.
There are a good many shows on all around the ship tonight, and I might
pop in to one or two of them when I go and send this, but maybe not.
Today was a day filled with people, every time we turned, there was
somebody bumping into one, all jostling for the best possible place, the
best possible view. Even when they opened up the Helipad so that we
could stand up there - well, it was so full up that I came back down
again. So its really nice to just sit and be quiet and not hear a
single voice. Its been about an hour now of voiceless time - beautiful :)
The people watching was prime time today! Some people came on deck this
morning at 5am in ball gowns - seriously!...... and there they stood
next to those that chose to view the Panama Canal in their bath robes -
also serious! We had a good few 'little black dresses' on deck too,
which always had a following of menfolk behind them wherever they
walked. Today the kids on board were a lot roudier than the other days,
music blaring from a good few places and the smaller kids playing hide
and seek in one of the dining rooms..... I think someone put a stop to
that because it did not last too long but I also think that the kids are
getting cabin fever and they have all been fantastic so far.
I just noticed a beautiful orange moon and tried to get photos of it
too, but Gypsy did not want to wake up properly. Ah well. She will be
all ready again in the morning, like I will. This is about the quietest
Christmas Eve we have had but its good. The day has been wonder filled
and interesting and fascinating and it was lovely chatting to everyone
on board.
There are many South Africans on board, but one newbie. Her 6 month
contract just started with this trip and all her luggage got lost! Her
mom had packed her a good amount of biltong (beef jerky) and she is
hoping that its vacuum packed or all of it will be rotten by now. She
is already home sick and we were talking about out favorite places in
Cape Town and her little baby blues were just overflowing with tears. I
had made some beef jerky, vacuum packed it and brought a few bags along
with us and it was great to be able to part with some and make her day.
And so we are now about to turn and head north again... we have two days
at sea and then we stop at Puerto Something or other.... I don't
remember which place we stop at first, but its somewhere in Mexico. I
will let you know next time.
Ok - that's enough rambling for a Christmas Eve.............It's time to
grab more ice and enjoy the moonlight...
Here's wishing you all a very Happy Christmas and may the new year bring
all things in good proportion........ along with oodles of love, light
and laughter.
Annie
http://cruisebaggs.blogspot.com
PHOTOS: http://s992.photobucket.com/home/travelbaggs
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