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 floorshow 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 (4
th 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!
No comments:
Post a Comment