Ladewig.com

My last cruise post covered our day in Guatemala. That evening, when we returned to our cabin, the Princess Patter (the daily guide to cruise activities) was waiting for us as always. In the navigation section they talked about a phenomenon known as Tehauntepecanos or Tehauntepecer. Cold air moves down into the Gulf Mexico and cross the isthmus from the Caribbean side to the Pacific side through a gap in the mountains between Mexico and Guatemala. As a result you can experience force 10-12 winds (48 – 65 knots, up to 75 mph or more) when passing through the Gulf of Tehauntepec. They occur about five times a month. Well, we were “lucky” enough to experience this on our cruise.

We woke up Sunday morning to find our window covered with spray. At first I thought it was raining but then realized it was from the wind blowing water from the surface up to our window. A short while later we heard an announcement from the captain advising us that due to the winds as well as our late departure the night before we were going to be late getting into Huatulco and that people should stay off deck due to the wind conditions. They expected the winds to subside once we exited the gulf, and they’d know better how our day in Huatulco would be affected.

By midday they had reopened the decks put the deck chairs back that had been lashed together to keep them from blowing around. (Someone at our dinner table had been walking on deck early that morning and saw deck chairs being picked up and thrown around at the pool area before they had been tied down.) Unfortunately, the winds were still higher than expected, although not gale force, so they would not be able to arrive on time. As a result they had to cancel all shore excursions for Huatulco. Even worse, depending on conditions when we arrived, there was a chance we might miss our stop entirely. We were scheduled for a sail and swim trip that was going to take us out on a sailboat to see a few of the bays around Huatulco before stopping at one to go swimming. Needless to say we were disappointed, but that’s how things go when you’re on a cruise.

By the time we arrived at Huatulco, conditions were safe to enter the harbor. They delayed our scheduled departure time by an hour so we had a few hours to go onshore. There was a nice beach right onshore next to our pier, so rather than waste time trying to go to one of the other beaches, we found a couple chairs and made ourselves comfortable. This was the first stop on the cruise where we had a chance to visit a beach, so we made the most of it. The water was quite warm although there was a steady succession of fairly large waves, even inside the breakwater.

After swimming and getting some sun, we did a quick walk through the shopping area by the beach. Kristin bought a bracelet, and we had a bit of a shock when the credit card slip said we were charging $935! That is when we learned that the symbol for the Peso is the same as we use for the dollar. The exchange rate was around 11 pesos to the dollar, so for the rest of the trip I had to keep reminding myself to divide by ten otherwise I’d have a stroke when I saw the prices.

We returned to the ship and returned to our cabin to shower and get ready for dinner while the ship departed. In this port, the ship has to push away from the pier, then back out of the harbor in reverse. Once she clears the breakwater, the ship will pivot and then head out to sea. At one point his process, the ship listed much more than what would be normal. I looked out the window and could see that we were very close to the rocks that line the entrance of the bay. And when I say we were very close, I mean close enough to wonder if we might be getting too close! But we didn’t get any closer and we headed off on our way and everything seemed normal.

What we didn’t realize was that while backing out, the ship actually touched bottom. Whether it was the high winds (that had picked up while we were in port) pushing us out of the navigation channel or the local pilot making a mistake, or some combination of the two, we don’t know. As it was we didn’t find out any details until after we arrived back in the US, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Our next port stop after Costa Rica was Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala. We were booked for the Lake Atitlan tour. After we boarded our buses (this was a popular tour, four buses) and hit the road, we immediately noticed a big improvement in the roads. Very modern, we were on a divided highway much of the way. Someone asked our guide about the roads and he commented that a lot of work had been done in recent years on infrastructure such as roads. Definitely made for a more pleasant ride to the lake.

At one point, we pulled over so people could take pictures of some nearby volcanoes. As we returned to the buses, some people noticed that we had a police escort with the buses. Our guide explained that cruise lines require that the tour companies provide the escorts, although our guide said they really weren’t necessary.

We arrived at San Lucas Toliman, a city on the south shore of the lake. A volcanic eruption 85,000 years ago created a huge crater that eventually became Lake Atitlan. The lake is 50 sq mi in area and over 1100 ft deep. The lake is surrounded by several villages along its shores along with three volcanoes, two of them active, on the south edge of the caldera.

We boarded two boats for a leisurely cruise past a couple villages before arriving at Panajachel. As we pulled up to the shore, a swarm of local people, mostly women, poured onto the beach. The villages are primarily Mayan, and the main products to sell to tourists are various hand woven products. As we made our way up to the hotel for lunch, we had to constantly tell people that we weren’t interested in buying anything. Although they were all very pleasant and wouldn’t persist after you said no, we had to keep saying no over and over again.

Lunch at the hotel was fantastic. The beef on the grill smelled wonderful, and it tasted even better. After we finished lunch, we rested for a bit, not really wanting to face the hordes again that we could see milling about outside the hotel entrance. We made our way back to the shore and our waiting boats, passing the same folks selling their wares although the prices had dropped significantly in the meantime. We climbed back on board the boat to find that several of the locals were on-board as well, mostly kids, to keep selling. Some people made some last minute buys, and then we were on our way back to San Lucas Toliman. The wind had really picked up while we were in Panajachel, so the ride back was a bit rougher ,and I nearly lost my hat (thankfully it flew back and fell back on deck before blowing over the side).

Back on the road in our bus heading for Puerto Quetzal, we found ourselves stuck in slow-moving traffic. We would stop for a several minutes before edging our way forward, only to be stopped again. Eventually we made it past the congestion and were told that a couple hours earlier there had been an accident involving a truck that had blocked the two-lane road. The accident had been cleared, but things were still jammed up when we arrived on the scene. It became apparent that we probably weren’t going to be back to the ship on time. Since this was an organized tour, we didn’t have to worry about being left behind, since the ship will wait for all tours to return.

We made it back to Puerto Quetzal and were back on the ship shortly before 6 PM, headed straight for our cabin, and changed for dinner. No time for a shower or anything more than washing your hands and face. There were a fair number of us straggling into dinner late that evening. We left port about an hour behind schedule which became more of an issue for our arrival in Hualtulco, Mexico, the following day than we expected. I’ll save that for the next post.

Overall I found Guatemala to be quite beautiful, and the people seemed very friendly. On our drive we passed many small cities and villages on our drive to the lake and back. Many of these villages were nothing more than large collections of tin shacks, very poor. Yet nearly everyone smiled and waved as we passed by. If I were living in the same conditions, I’m not sure how friendly I’d be to a bus full of Americans on vacation, but it was very welcoming.

Our next port stop was Puntarenas, Costa Rica. We were booked for the Monteverde Cloud Forest tour, so we hopped on our tour bus and headed out on a 2.5 hour drive. The roads were pretty narrow and as we wound our way up from sea level to ~4,500 ft, we wound up on some narrow and winding roads, many of them gravel. As Filander our guide had mentioned, the tour came with a complimentary back massage courtesy of the gravel roads. A little asphalt and a few guard rails would be some great additions to the area.

We arrived at Selvatura Park, the site of our tour, and spent a little under two hours on the treetop walkway tour. The path winds through the forest in a loop with several suspension bridges that give you a canopy-level view. After the tour, we had lunch, a tasty buffet of local food. Then off to the hummingbird garden where we saw some of the largest hummingbirds I’ve ever seen. I was expecting the tiny birds we have here at home, but these were enormous in comparison.

As we were getting ready to leave for our last stop on the tour, people noticed an animal that had made its way out of the forest right to the edge of the hummingbird garden. A white-nosed coati, it sat there rummaging on the ground for something to eat and didn’t seem to mind the gawking crowd. After a few minutes it wandered back into the forest. Here’s a photo:

We ended our tour with a visit to the “Jewels of the Rain Forest” insect museum, created to house the collection of biologist Richard Whitten. Insects of every size, shape, and color. Then back on the bus for the drive back to Puntarenas and the ship.

The last time I blogged was last month while on vacation. We returned home from our cruise on February 21, and I’ve been bogged down trying to get caught up with email and work and just haven’t had time to post anything. Figured I’d better give a rundown on what happened after my last post.

Our day in the Panama Canal was quite an experience. It started a couple hours later than expected due to inbound traffic. We were sailing from the Caribbean to the Pacific, so we entered at the Gatun Locks. There are three chambers, each one lifting vessels 28 feet for a total of 84 feet, in order to reach Gatun Lake. As we approached the locks, we saw Coral Princess, the sister ship to Island Princess, the ship on which we sailed for our Alaska cruise last year. Coral was entering the lake, but would head back out later that day back into the Caribbean.

To get a good view, we headed to the front of the ship to the viewing area on Deck 8. We were there from the time we approached the breakwater all the way into the second chamber. We finally retreated back inside due to the unbelievably intense sun. We returned to our cabin to apply more sunscreen, and I fashioned some protection from the sun by putting a hand towel in my baseball cap. I looked like an extra in some low budget movie about the French Foreign Legion film. We watched the rest of the Gatun Locks from the back of the ship where there was shade.

The next several hours were spent making our way through the canal. Along the way we saw crocodiles and various types of ships including one U.S. Navy ship. Quite strange to pass ships heading the other way, with little room to spare. Finally we passed through the Pedro Miguel lock (one chamber) and then the Miraflores Locks (two chambers) and then on our way under the Bridge of the Americas. Because of the late start to the day, we didn’t make it to Puerto Amador until late, so we tendered in the dark and went on our tour of the Miraflores Locks and Visitor Center. It was interesting, but probably would have been more so had we not been in the canal all day long.

The following day was a sea day, and then we arrived at Puntarenas, Costa Rica. More on that in the next post.