Our first week+ January 5-13, 2013

Another add-on.  We’re in Manta, Ecuador on the 13th with everything working on the ship.  This is a long entry so I’ll save Manta and the Panama Canal until the next one. 

I’m adding this to the original post on January 11th as we steam through the Panama Canal.  I   was going to send it earlier but a storm on the night of January 9th has knocked out our satellite antenna (More on that later).  So we are without email and telephone. Today is our son Sean’s birthday and we were going to call him….sorry Sean. Equipment and personnel are joining us during the Canal passage to try and fix the antenna.  If they aren’t successful we’ll be out of touch until Ecuador.  So you may be getting this around the 13th.  Now back to the original post.

We are officially off and running on our cruise. The first thing that came to mind was a reminder of small ships vs. big ships. We’ve been sailing some larger ships over the past year and forgot how the sea affects the little guys. The Prinsendam has been rocking and rolling for most of our time sailing, even in the Caribbean. The green apples and crackers are out again for those who remember our Alaska blog storm entry. As we get further south the swells get larger as the winds blowing across the waters have nothing to imped them. That is why they are called the Trade Winds as they are reliably constant. It isn’t until we pass the Windward Islands that we’ll get a break in reduced swells. It really isn’t that bad and neither Noreen or I get sea sick. In fact Noreen loves it as the rolling rocks her to sleep, one of her favorite things on cruising. It is also a good cover for drinking as we are all walking like drunken sailors as we move about the ship.

Our first stop on January 7th was Grand Cayman. We’ve been here many times, In fact we were just here on our Thanksgiving cruise on the Westerdam (another dam ship). Noreen decided not to go ashore and spent a relaxing day aboard. I went for a SCUBA dive excursion. We did two dives in the warm, clear water around the island. Water temp was 80 F. My dive buddy had a camera and took some pictures. The lack of color was due to a lack of natural light at depth..

Picture of me on the dive about 70’ deep. Note the excellent visibility. Interesting point about the picture date. My dive buddy, Jacques, is Dutch. In Europe they do day/month/year while in the US we do month/day/year.

A turtle we came across. Turtles are a rare treat to see, especially this close.

This is a Lion fish, an invasive species which is very damaging to the local species. It is also a problem in Florida.

Even though the diving was an adventure, the really exciting event occurred that evening at dinner. It was our anniversary and we celebrated it with our table mates. Here we are enjoying our champagne and my surprise flowers to Noreen. This picture may look familiar to those who followed our world cruise in 2011.

Our next stop was Puerto Limon, Costa Rica,  This a another port we have been to many times on our Caribbean cruises.  Columbus was here in 1502 and Spain began to colonize in 1506.  It receives over 13 feet of rainfall each year!!  Fortunately for us it was sunny when we were there.  On previous visits I’ve done diving and a number of zip lines.  This time we just opted to walk around town and stay close to the ship. But we have to have a couple of pictures for the blog.   Here we are by the welcome sign.  Two pictures because I am working on my picture merge skills this trip.  Hasn’t worked yet.

It was sailing the evening of the 9th between Puerto Limon and the San Blas Islands that we hit the unexpected storm.  We were expecting some choppy seas but apparently a rapidly developing depression in the Atlantic hit us with a stronger but short duration squall during the night.  The winds knocked out our satellite antenna and caused us to divert from our planned course for smoother waters. Noreen and I did fine and kind of enjoyed the lively action of the ship.  Some of our fellow passengers were not so enamored with the action.  I’ve posted a short video from the morning of January 10th at this link http://youtu.be/ya29A77GN9Y showing the seas after the major event.  They did cancel water aerobics that morning (Watch the video and you’ll understand.).

By noon on the 10th we were back on schedule and pulled into the San Blas Islands; a part of the San Blas Archipelago.  This chain of approximately 365 islands is located a few miles off the Caribbean coast of Panama.  The islands are home to the Kuna Indians who are living today much as they did hundreds of years ago.  The Kuna are one of the three original indigenous tribes to Panama and have their own unique language and heritage.  While a part of Panama the Kuna within the San Blas Islands are left very much to their own administration.  As you look a the pictures understand that visitors to the islands are expected to live and eat within the naïve hospitality of the Kuna.  There are no “tourist” or more modern faculties.  Best to visit by cruise ship.  In all our cruising of the Caribbean over 30 years we have never heard of this Island people or obviously been here.

This is a shot of how the villages are built directly in the shore line.  Not to far above sea level for storm protection.

Picture of a whole island.  Not very big.

We had to tender to the main island.  This is our tender dock area.

Getting between close islands

Going between distant islands

A commuter bus.  Many of the men and women commute to the mainland during the day for work.

The main street of the main island.  The cement building on the left is part of the government administration complex and school.  The natives bring out their handmade wares when a cruise ship visits and line the street.  They do have electricity provided by a generator.  Several of their homes have TV and we saw people using cell phones.

Close-ups of home construction, streets, and the community church/meeting center.

Buildings right down to the water.  Note no motors on the boats.

Then it was back to the ship and heading for the Panama Canal.  I’ll save that for our next entry.  This is long enough  Hope all is well.  Let us hear from you..