Our second trip to Panama began on February 7, 2012, with an early wake-up and drive to the San Antonio Airport where we caught a flight to Houston and then a nonstop flight to Panama, arriving around 7:15 pm local time. Gretchen arranged for us to be met by a man from the US Embassy who has a taxi service on the side. We arrived at Chris and Gretchen’s apartment about an hour later. Unfortunately for us, Sophie-Claire was already asleep but we could peek in on her sleeping like a little angel. After a glass of wine over conversation we turned in early as it was a long day for us and a work day for Gretchen and Chris.
The next day, Wednesday, we awoke to sounds of Sophie-Claire coming from the living room so we hurriedly dressed and went out to meet her. She wasn’t very shy to see us again and soon was playing with us around the house. Her nanny, Eladia, came while Gretchen and Chris went off to work. We spent the day playing with Sophie-Claire and noticed that she talks more now and certainly gets around walking and running. The last time we saw her she was just starting to stand up and walk around furniture while holding on. Now she’s running everywhere! Their apartment is more baby-proofed now as well. We discovered that she understands a lot of Eladia’s Spanish and that she calls out for water by asking for “agua”. But her first word was “kitty”.
The next couple of days we amused ourselves playing with Sophie-Claire and going for walks to lunch spots near their apartment. One day we ate at their apartment swimming pool clubhouse which has a nice restaurant poolside. On Fridays Gretchen and Chris get off work at noon. Gretchen took us to their nice shopping mall where I bought myself a guyabera shirt and we bought some toys for Sophie-Claire for the cruise.
Saturday morning Gretchen, Sophie-Claire and I went for a walk looking for bird life. We saw robins, orioles and tanagers but we didn’t find any toucans. Later Gretchen and Chris took us all to a nearby park where Sophie-Claire could run free. Afterwards we stopped at Duran Coffee Shop for a cool mocha coffee drink. Back at the house we had plenty of laughs watching Sophie-Claire dance along with the Muppets on a Sesame Street video. In the evening the four adults went to Tinaja’s where we had a nice dinner and floor show with dancers doing native dances. The women dancers were nicely dressed in the bright Panamanian dress called the pollera.
Our cruise began late Sunday afternoon so we had plenty of time to do laundry, pack and repack. At noon we were transported by van to the eastern side of Panama at the small port of Colon. Here we filled out paperwork to depart and boarded our cruise ship, “The Grandeur of the Seas” which is run by the Royal Caribbean line. We found our rooms – Rita and I were in 4550 (4th deck) while Gretchen, Chris and Sophie-Claire were just down the hall in cabin 4562. We had a nicer, roomier cabin than we expected with an adequate shower, plenty of storage space, and a queen sized bed. We also had a nice, big glass window looking out at the sea.
We had a nice buffet lunch in the Windjammer restaurant then set out to explore the ship from the top deck nine to our deck four. More cabins were on decks three and two but they didn’t have windows. The crew is even lower on deck one. While exploring, our luggage was delivered and we stored everything away for the next week’s voyage. At 5:45 pm we had a mandatory safety drill which seem sort of chaotic to us. At 6:30 pm we cast off just about sunset.
We had to book our dining time before we started the voyage and the earliest we could book was the 7:00 pm time slot which is about the time Sophie-Claire goes to sleep. But the five of us were assigned table 100 right in the middle of the very nice Great Gatsby dining room. We had the same waiters, Alton and Jackie, who were both from Jamaica, for the entire voyage. For some reason Alton frightened Sophie-Claire that first night which was to remain for the rest of the week. He caught on as well and tried to tone down his outward manner towards her but she remained cautious of him.
The service in the dining room, as well as everywhere else on the ship, was top-notch. Every dinner was three courses of starter, main and dessert with five to six options to choose from in each category. We ordered wine with each dinner which was not included in the cost. The first night I had an onion tart starter, pork medallions with vegetables for main course and a strawberry pavlova for dessert. All our food was very delicious. Sophie-Claire was sleepy after a long day so she went off to bed with her parents while Rita and I visited the Palladium Theater where we saw a dancing and singing variety show. Spanish was the first language on this cruise but it wasn’t a hindrance because Gretchen speaks fluent Spanish, Chris speaks quite a lot, Rita and I speak some and the crew all spoke English as well.
Monday morning we met Gretchen, Chris and Sophie-Claire in the Great Gatsby dining room which opened at 8:00 am most days for breakfast service. If one wanted to eat earlier they could visit the Windjammer restaurant which was breakfast buffet and more informal. Each morning we had different waiters but they all migrated towards Sophie-Claire and did their best to make her laugh or at least smile at them. A word about the great crew – they were from dozens of different countries and all of them were well trained to treat us with the utmost of friendliness. Many were young men who had families back home (India, Indonesia, Jamaica, etc.) and children of their own who they missed so naturally they were attracted to Sophie-Claire and asked many questions about her as well as ourselves.
Our ship entered the harbor of Cartagena, Columbia, about 9:30 am and we tied up to the dock about10:30 am. Since Sophie-Claire was napping, Rita and I found a taxi and went to the old historic town where we planned to meet Gretchen and Chris about noon. We met at the Fort San Felipe which is a large earthen work fort several stories high. Then the five of us walked (well Sophie-Claire was in a stroller) to the Clock Tower entrance to the central historical town which is quite large. Many people still live here and traffic is heavy. Many buildings are painted bright colors with balconies overlooking the streets and colorful bougainvilleas blossoming year round. We found a café mentioned in the Austin newspaper called La Mulata where we stopped for lunch and Columbian beer. We had a tasty meal at a reasonable cost and were treated nicely by the staff.
We walked a lot after lunch and finally ended up at Bolivar Square and the Palace of the Inquisition. We toured the museum there and saw several old instruments of torture as well as a guillotine used in the time of the Inquisition. We found an ice cream shop nearby which had the best dark chocolate ice cream I have had since Paris. We walked more and stopped at a nice old hotel where a friend of Gretchen and Chris was staying. They knew him in Monterrey but he is now in Bogota and was on a business trip. We left them to talk and took a taxi back to our ship to get cleaned up. We met again at dinner and this night I had crab cake, Dover sole and a lemon pie for dessert. Rita and I went to watch part of the variety show in the theater. Our ship sailed about 9:30 pm.
Tuesday was spent at sea all day. After our normal big breakfast we sat on the sun deck reading our books and cat napped. Mid-morning Rita and Gretchen went to the spa for pedicures. We all met for lunch then found the small children’s play area with several big Fisher-Price electronic toys. Sophie-Claire liked that. She enjoyed the ship a great deal because during the day Gretchen and Chris found bars and spacious areas that were not occupied and where she could walk for hours on end. Rita and I had iced coffees at Seattle’s Best and read some more in the open sea air. We all met at the Windjammer bar for drinks about 5:00 pm then cleaned up for the night’s formal dinner. We did not take tuxedos but did wear ties and jackets while the women dressed up nicer than normal - after all it was the Valentines Day formal dinner. Gretchen and Chris used the ship’s baby sitter service for dinner this evening. I had shrimp cocktail followed by roast beef and a chocolate soufflé for dessert. The center of the ship, called the Centrum, had a nine-deck high atrium with outside elevators and balconies overlooking the bottom deck where the ship’s captain had a reception. It was very crowded so we opted out of meeting him. Instead we went to the Palladium Theater and watched a fairly good Beatles impressionist band called “Beatle Mania”.
By Wednesday morning my body was telling me that I was eating too much and not exercising enough. But that didn’t stop me. We arrived in Kralendijk, Bonaire, about 8:00 am. Kralendijk is a very small, sleepy town with not a lot to see. After breakfast Gretchen stayed with Sophie-Claire during her nap so Rita, Chris and I explored the small town. Rita bought some earrings then we wound up at the small Bonaire Museum which we toured for about $1 each. It was a jumble of items that looked like a garage sale gone badly but the people there were friendly. We visited the small Oranje Fort with all of two cannons. We met Gretchen and Sophie-Claire and all went to lunch at the dockside City Café. I had chicken satay with rice, an Indonesian dish that the Dutch had brought to these Dutch Antilles. It was very good and with lunch we had Polar Beer which is brewed in Venezuela, just off the coast from where we sat.
Next we took a taxi to Soroban Beach to give Sophie-Claire a chance to swim in the ocean and play on the beach which she enjoyed. She is such a water baby but the ship has a rule that children under three cannot go into the pools. So her parents took her into the sea where she kicked and splashed to her delight. Later she was partly covered up with sand on the beach and instead of complaining she delighted in the mess. On the ride back to the ship we saw wild flamingoes in the nearby rushes. On board ship I went to the Windjammer bar and had a beer while watching us cast away at sunset. We all met for dinner where tonight I had antipasti plate then shrimp scampi for main course. A very nice chocolate cake with ice cream topped off the meal. In the evening Rita and I went to the rather large casino and played slot machines for a while then watched a Carnival Party in the Centrum with faux Village People singers.
Thursday we docked in Willemstad, Curacao, early in the morning and where we had our first inclement weather with rain showers off and on all day. Most of the trip we had nice, warm weather and, as this is normally the dry season in that region, we were surprised to find the rain in Curacao. After breakfast we watched Sophie-Claire while Gretchen went to swim with dolphins at a local marine park. This excursion was planned for ahead of time and Chris went along to watch. We walked Sophie-Claire around a great deal of the ship then put her down for her morning nap from 9:30 to 10:30 am. Rita napped as well while I read my book. We took Sophie-Claire to the Windjammer and fed her lunch and met Gretchen and Chris there about noon. We got the stroller and set out to explore Willemstad and have lunch for the adults. We walked a good distance to the Avila Hotel set in a 200-year-old mansion with a nice restaurant called Belle Terasse. I had a local treat called keshe yane which consisted of baked Gouda cheese stuffed with spicy chicken, olives, and raisins. It tasted very nice and as we sat outside under a cover the rains came hard.
We caught a taxi to take us to the Chobolobo Mansion built in the 1800s and home of the Senior Company distillery of Blue Curacao liqueur. There wasn’t a great deal to see there and after a quick look around we caught another taxi into town where the rain had eased. We walked around the old town which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and saw the Mikve Israel-Emanuel Synagogue, the oldest synagogue in continuous use in the western hemisphere. We saw other nice buildings such as the Courts, Fort Amsterdam, Fort Church, and the Governor’s Palace. We stopped for coffee at an outdoor café and then walked to the floating market where we arrived just as the rain came down hard once more. We walked back to the ship in the rain (we had umbrellas) across the swinging pontoon bridge which opens up the harbor for ship traffic. After dinner Rita and I played slot machines then walked outside to watch us depart Willemstad about 8:30 pm.
Friday was sunny and warm once more as we arrived in Oranjestad, Aruba about 8:00 am. Chris had an excursion tour set up this morning to go snorkeling which is the main attraction of the Dutch Antilles. Gretchen put Sophie-Claire down for her morning nap while Rita and I walked Smith Street, one of the main shopping streets of the island. We checked out some restaurant menus but didn’t see anything that seemed out of the ordinary so we returned to the ship and had lunch at the Windjammer restaurant. When Chris returned we all headed out once more into Oranjestad where Rita, Gretchen, Sophie-Claire and I had poffertjes, tiny sugar-coated pancakes, at the Dutch Pancake House. We loved those in Holland and so does Sophie-Claire. Chris went off on his own while Gretchen and I tried the local Balashi beer which is brewed on the island.
Soon we set out on foot and explored the town seeing the small Fort Zoutman with its Willem III lighthouse tower. We went inside the Renaissance Marketplace and Hotel where motor boats can come inside right up to the Starbucks Coffee shop and pick up passengers. We found some old manor houses and a shop that had great Sophie-Claire dresses at bargain prices before returning to the ship. Since Sophie-Claire did not have an afternoon nap and was a bit cranky, we ate dinner in shifts in the Great Gatsby dining room. After dinner Rita and I went to see the “Tango Buenos Aires” show in the theater which turned out to be our favorite show of the cruise.
Saturday, February 18, was another day at sea all day. It was a relaxing day but we still managed to eat too much again. Rita and I bought a stuffed monkey for Sophie-Claire which is a Pets-at-Sea toy that comes with a birth certificate saying where and when it was born. It comes flat and they attach it to a machine that blows stuffing into the monkey making it whole. The shipboard shops had some bargain sales so Rita and Gretchen found some items to purchase. After lunch there was a “Mojadera” Carnival Party around the outdoor swimming pool where partiers were sprayed by a large fire hose as they danced to music. We watched that for a while before cleaning up for dinner.
Sunday morning we set our alarm clock for the first time since we had an early, 6:30 am arrival in Colon, Panama. We had to repack all our stuff and after breakfast we left the ship about 8:15 am. We found our luggage fast and zipped through customs and immigration. Our van was waiting for us and took us back to Chris and Gretchen’s apartment where Rachel and Deana were waiting. They had arrived in Panama earlier in the week. We all played with Sophie-Claire who was happy for all the extra attention.
Around 1:00 pm we took a taxi and Gretchen’s car to Veracruz, Panama, where we had a big late lunch or early dinner, at Veramar restaurant on the water. I ate octopus, squid, clams, red snapper, shrimp and langoustines and washed them down with Balboa beer. Sophie-Claire did as well but she didn’t have the beer. In the evening Gretchen and Chris went to a nice hotel where they had previously won a free night’s stay. The grandparents and aunts got to spoil and watch after Sophie-Claire. She was no problem and everything went off well.
Monday Sophie-Claire woke about 6:30 am and had four adults to change and feed her. Gretchen and Chris arrived about 11:00 am. Gretchen, Rita, Rachel, Deana and I went to the handicraft shops in the old YMCA building where a few purchases were made. We stopped at the Gourmet Deli and picked up sandwiches to take back to the apartment for lunch. After Sophie-Claire got up from her afternoon nap we all went to the clubhouse swimming pool to watch her laugh and splash in the pool. In the evening a baby sitter watched Sophie-Claire while the adults went to La Poste, one of the nicest restaurants in Panama, where we all had a delightful meal. Rita and I were treated to dinner and a bottle of Champagne for our 48th wedding anniversary which is actually tomorrow. We’re sure the others had cooked this up beforehand.
Tuesday Rita and I had to say goodbye to all and left early for a ride to the airport where we caught our flight to Houston and onwards to San Antonio. All went well with no surprises. We stopped for dinner and shopped for a few groceries before arriving home where everything was shipshape. It was a great trip where we got together with our great family and especially our granddaughter Sophie-Claire. We would do a cruise like that again!
