MAYBE YOU’RE WONDERING WHERE WE’VE been since Brazil. Or probably not. Anyway, we had airline tickets from Rio to Miami and were planning to stay in Fort Myers Beach until January but Hurricane Ian blew those plans away along with our condo and many others. Instead we hopped on the Caribbean Princess for a cruise to the Panama Canal.
Ian forced us to go to Plan B
Aboard the Caribbean Princess
Cruise lines are back to their pre-Covid selves—no testing, no masks—but the ports-of-call haven’t yet recovered. Too many people are all trying too hard for too few dollars. Falmouth is a slummy introduction to Jamaica and Puerto Limon is a back-door entry to the beauty of Costa Rica. Cartagena, Columbia was wonderful but “been there, done that” for three days back in ’13.
Is this Jamaica, Mon?
Costa Rica's Back Door
A colorful—if not smiling—welcome to Cartagena
The Panama Canal is an engineering marvel, especially considering when it was built—even the “new” Agua Clara Locks, which opened in 2016, which we entered. But raising a cruise ship 85 feet then anchoring in Gatun Lake isn’t very exciting. By the way, even though the Canal connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans it doesn't go from East to West. It goes from North to South. Really!
Our escort into the Panama Canal
Grand Cayman, a good place to stash your money
The most “livable” of our ports had to be Kingston, Grand Cayman, a mix of Caribbean vibe and English charm. And it makes 167 countries for John, only three behind Connie now.
