While the Caribbean is one of the most popular cruise destinations in the world, a transit of the Panama Canal is still seen as rather "exotic".  Several things make these itineraries seem more  unusual than the regular "island hopping" cruises:

•  a different beginning and end to the cruise.  For full transits of the canal, ships can start in LA and end in Ft. Lauderdale (or the other way around), so passengers need to make two, one-way travel plans,
• the Panama cruise season does not go all year but is basically a mirror of Alaskan itineraries and runs from October to April with the Central American rainy season not ending until November/December,
• Panama transits tend to be 14+ day plus, making them more of a time commitment than the 7 day Caribbean cruise.
• because of length of the cruise and the cost of the canal transit, these are more expensive than a usual Caribbean cruise.
• the canal can only accommodate ships up to "Panamax" size, making ships like Coral Princess the largest ones that can transit the canal.  This leaves the new mega ships unable to do the crossing at this time.

A Panama transit can seem more like an urban tour as the ports of Cartegena, Panama City and Acapulco are large cities and offer a different atmosphere than smaller ports in the Caribbean.  Be assured, with stops in Huatulco, Aruba, or Cabo San Lucas, there are still plenty of beaches to explore. With cruise lines also including stops in Costa Rica or Nicaragua, passengers can also do a little jungle exploration.

The transit of the canal itself takes ships through three different sets of locks and Gatun Lake.  This literally immerses you in the history of another time as two nations, France and the United States, designed and eventually completed what was the most ambitious engineering achievement of its day.  If you approach the canal from the east, your ship will enter the first set of locks at dawn and will take until mid to late afternoon to clear the last locks on the west side of the canal. 

Along the way you will see engineering activity maintaining the current canal and work on the addition of new, longer locks to allow larger ships through the canal system.  Jungle crowds in on both side of the navigation channel and it is easy to see how difficult it would be to build anything in this area during the dry season let alone the rainy one.
 
If you have "done" the Caribbean and are interested in a different itinerary in this part of the world, consider a Panama Canal cruise - either into and out of Gatun Lake or a complete transit.  The ports are varied and interesting and the transit itself is a true wonder.





 

I didn't realize that Aruba was only thirty miles from the sun.  It's hot there.  Shake you by the collar there.  Get my shorts and t-shirt there.  Let's have margaritas for breakfast there.  Can I take my air conditioning with me there.

We sailed in on Coral Princess and docked next to downtown Oranjestad (Orange Town) just before dawn on Christmas day.  This was our first port of call and we were still thawing out after leaving the deeply frozen north for this warmer climate. Stepping out on deck and into 100F and 100% humidity, my camera lens immediately fogged up - even my eyes developed a light haze.  While I waited for the fog to lift we decided to make a run to shore before the sun came up and it became any hotter.

 While there are wonderful opportunities to go diving, fishing and exploring the natural beauty of Aruba, we chose to take the more relaxing option of walking around Oranjestad instead. The downtown streets facing the harbor are lined with pastel coloured buildings housing every kind of tourist shop where you can spend from a few dollars on ice cream to thousands of dollars on a Rolex.  Christmas was blissfully quiet as no stores were open and few of our fellow passengers ventured to shore so early.  The accompanying photo is of the main street near the harbour - L.G. Smith Boulevard on probably the one day of the year when there is little traffic and fewer tourists about.

The motto on car license plates in Aruba is "One Happy Island" and the few locals we did meet were relaxed and friendly.  The downtown is easy to walk through and there is quite a bit within a few block of the pier to keep the interest of photographers.  Like many of the ports in Alaska, there are hawkers at the pier entrance who will drive you to a beach or take you on tours of the island.

Aruba is a beautiful island and Oranjestad is a fascinating town just to walk around and enjoy.  Next time I am going to prepare myself better from the change in temperature though by sleeping in my oven for a week or two ahead of time.

We arrived in Cartagena, Colombia on-board Coral Princess on a typically hot and humid day in December. The port was celebrating an anniversary and had a sound stage set up on the pier. School groups as well as professional musician took turns filling the air with the driving rhythm of Latin music and singing. As this was our first visit to Cartagena, we appreciated the musical welcome that emphasized that we were now on a new continent and in a new and vibrant culture.

Cartagena is a city of extremes – new high rises and colonial architecture all exist within a few minute’s drive of each other. The best thing for travellers is to walk the streets of the colonial city and feel the excitement of the place. The heat settles over you like a warm wool blanket and you naturally slow down and seek the relief of the shade. Vendors prowl the streets everywhere offering to sell leather goods, toys, sunglasses or $25 Rolex watches. While the vendors are friendly and don't appear to be threatening in any way, they have no sense of personal space and will engage you in negotiations for their wares several inches from your face.

We had opted for a walking/bus tour of the city and on the ground we worked hard to keep up with our tour guide - a wonderful lady of a "certain age" who scampered through sun-baked plazas, through cathedrals and museums holding up a closed umbrella that quickly disappeared into the distance.

Later in the afternoon she led us up Fort of San Felipe, a huge 17th century fortress, like some adolescent lemur trailing puffing tourists in her wake. Let me just say that it's not nice to march gringos up such tall structures in the middle of the afternoon, but in spite of feeling like porters on a mountain trek, we made it to the top and back. Oxygen bottles would have been nice though.

This is a fascinating city and in spite of the fact that at the end of an independent or conducted tour you are going to feel like you were using a stair-master in a sauna, it's the kind of place that will draw you back again. The people are friendly and the history of this place oozes from every colonial door. Do yourself a favour and find a reason to visit this incredible city.