Day 73 Panama Canal

An amazing and beautiful day! We got up at 4.30 a.m. as planned, the ship was heading towards the first lock, the Gatun Lock. It was quite a sight to see a ship in front of us being elevated to a total of 85 feet during its journey through the 3 locks. This system has been operating for nearly 100 years and its still uses the same techniques from that time. There is a new canal being built which will be open in about 5 years. I sat in the Patisserie on Deck 5 and as we as we went through one gate, I could feel the ship descending as the walls of the canal came up, quite incredible. Most of the decks were packed from very early morning right through till late afternoon as we left the final lock. On both sides of the Canal was tropical jungle along with many sightings of alligators. We had lots of bumps as we hit off the sides, only 2 foot clearance on either side. so I think a paint job will happen soon!

Its been a long day so this will be a short blog! We had a drink with some friends to celebrate going through the Panama canal.

Day 73 Continued

 

Day 73 sea day

Just to let everyone know the times we have been given for our transit through The Panama Canal.

6.30 a.m. arrive at Gatun lock

1.15 p.m. Pedro Miguel Lock

2.55 p.m. Miraflores Lock

Not sure if anyone wants to check the Webcams but if you do , you may see us waving haha

Will blog as soon as we can with all the photos tomorrow. Early to bed for a 4.30 a.m. start...looking forward to this big event.

Day 72 continued

 

Day 72 Curacao

We arrived at the picturesque city of Curacao early this morning, it was only a short walk to the main streets. We walked over the Queen Emma pontoon bridge, quite a construction. It swings open to allow passing boats and does this even when people are walking over it. There is a strong Dutch connection here and our Tuk Tuk driver told us that the election is soon and will decide whether Curacao stays with the Dutch or becomes independent. Pretty as a picture with all the colourful houses and buildings, there is a large paint store here and everyone is encouraged to use any and every colour. Also we noticed the cleanliness, no rubbish anywhere and we saw people sweeping up all over. As it was Sunday, a lot of the shops etc were closed but it was nice to walk around. We came across a little bar/eatery along a back street and it was right on the water front. I think we were the first customers for the day, so we had our beers with the eels swimming below us!

The Tuk Tuk driver was very proud of his lovely country and gave us a guided tour.

Curacao is famous for the liqueur so we had to sample some....very nice and the it is available in many colours too.

An update on our situation yesterday...3 hours later the power came on! It was a very long 3 hours though and chaos reigned. There were no clean plates at the Buffet so that was closed down. toilets were closed too, lifts didn't work either. Our toilet did not work till 6 p.m....9 hours for us. Oh but El Captain was most kind and gave us all a free glass of vinegar, oops I mean wine at dinner. This certainly made all the difference!!

Today all is well and fingers crossed it continues. The Panama Canal is coming up and we will have to secure our viewing seats for that. There have been fights in the past we have heard!!