FORT LAUDERDALE MINI CRUISE

Since we had a late afternoon flight back to Reno, we took advantage of our day in Florida to explore the Intracoastal Waterway (a change from our open ocean cruise!) to Port Everglades, where we saw the Prinsendam still docked, preparing for the next leg of its journey.

Our bus drove us through the city, along the Riverwalk and Las Olas Boulevard with its boutiques, cafes and galleries, and we then boarded a paddlewheel riverboat. We spent a delightful hour and a half soaking up the sunshine and cruising through the various manmade canals, admiring and envying the beautiful luxury mansions with their lush landscaping, saw many mega-yachts and sailboats, Navy ships and submarines, and Burt Reynolds' restaurant. We now understand why this part of Fort Lauderdale is known as the 'Venice of America.' On our way back to the bus, we had to pass through a St. Patrick's Day parade and were amused that vendors were selling Irish whiskey drinks at stands along the sidewalk!

After a long flight home, we finally arrived in Reno to the cold reality of winter's freezing temperatures and snow ... but all our wonderful memories and our joy in seeing our 16-year old dog, Higgins, soon warmed us up again.

This was indeed a Grand Voyage!

CREW FAREWELL & PACKING FOR HOME

What a fabulous experience this has been! We travelled 17,233 nautical miles (19,818 statute miles) beginning at and returning to Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 66 days.

We completely circled the continent of South America, venturing deep into the heart of Brazil along the mighty Amazon River to Manaus, a favorite gathering place for the rich and famous in the heyday of the rubber barons in the late 1800s and early 1900s; we visited tiny, primitive native villages and the sprawling, modern metropolises of Rio de Janiero and Buenos Aires; we were awestruck by wonders of the world -- Iguazu Falls, Christ the Redeemer, Machu Picchu and the Panama Canal -- and the beauty of nature in the fjords and ice covered glaciers of Chile and icebergs of Antarctica, laughed at the antics of the penguins in their reserves on the Falkland Islands, and enjoyed the dining, pampering and entertainment on board our 750 passenger ship.

As we struggled to fit all our treasures and souvenirs into our luggage (we had three pieces more than we brought!) we reminisced about the people we'd met, the friends we'd made and the things we'd learned about the people, cultures and history of the countries we'd visited ....

Sadly we bade farewell to our wonderful crew, fondly remembering the attentive service and personalities of our stateroom, dining room and wine stewards, and the accommodating front desk staff. This was another "once in a lifetime" journey, leaving us with many marvelous memories.

Early morning arrival in Fort Lauderdale.

The end of another amazing journey of world discovery!

ORANJESTAD, ARUBA

Our final port of call was in Oranjestad, the capital city of the island of Aruba. It is one of six islands that make up the Netherland Antilles, the three most important being the ABC’s -- Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao. (The Netherland Antilles were dissolved in 2010 and the islands are now autonomous).

It is thought that Aruba was first inhabited about 4500 years ago by natives from South America. In 1499 it was claimed for Queen Isabella of Spain by Alonzo Ojeda, but it wasn’t even colonized because they thought it had little value for Spain. Its name may have come from the Spanish “oro hubo” which means “gold was there” or from the Arawak Indian word “oibubai” meaning “guide”.

In 1636 the Dutch helped themselves to the island, and it has remained under Dutch control ever since. The first governor in 1643 was Peter Stuyvesant, who moved after 4 years to become governor of Niuew Amsterdam (later New York).

The southwestern coast of this small island is vacation paradise with all its many resorts, beaches and casinos, and just emerged as a tourist attraction in the last ten years. Oranjestad is noted for its seven mile white sandy beach, and the clear, blue waters have beautiful coral formations and many off shore shipwrecks for scuba divers. The city itself is very charming, with narrow winding streets lined with pastel colored colonial buildings. Each morning the locals shop at the colorful produce and fish markets. We browsed through the many duty free jewelry shops (and even purchased some gifts and souvenirs!), and admired the handicrafts in the stalls conveniently located near the pier. We also enjoyed the harbor front malls with their designer merchandise, and checked out the casinos where we sampled a Heineken beer! We loved the picturesque white coral bridge formed naturally by the ocean surf and tides.

The World:

We were excited to see that the only operational condominium cruise ship, The World, was in port for 2 days. This is a 12 story cruise ship, with all the usual amenities i.e. spa, gym, fine dining, private hot tubs, golf driving range and putting green, etc. However, the “staterooms” are 165 fully equipped condominium units, +/- 2,000 square feet each, minimum $5 million investment, fully equipped kitchens with all the most modern appliances and full size washer/dryers, tons of marble and granite, full time high speed internet and satellite phones and TV, sumptuous luxury, custom decorated. It’s more like a private yacht than a cruise ship. Some owners even use this as their permanent residence and conduct business from on the high seas all over the world! Of course we weren’t able to board and look around, but I understand that there are a few resale units available if anyone’s interested …. This is the only one in service at this time, although there are a few others on the drawing boards … What fun to see it!

It was easy to explore the town -- the population is only about 70,000 people -- but they represent 60 different nationalities! Everyone was very helpful and they all had a smile on their face -- it truly is a Happy Island! We concentrated on shopping and visiting the town, but there were tours to the rugged and windblown north eastern coast where goats eat the landscape, and wild donkeys could be seen roaming the hills. The Dutch dismantled a 200-year old windmill in the Netherlands and brought it to Aruba where it was reconstructed and is now a symbol of old Holland, and houses a quaint restaurant.

The Aruba Natural Preserve comprises a quarter of the island and contains the highest peaks on the island. There are nature trails that showcase the many kinds of local plants and animals like the windswept “divi-divi” tree, rare and exotic cacti, tropical flowers, birds and iguanas.

What a lovely spot to end our cruise! And now to the challenge of packing our treasures for the journey back to reality …

PANAMA CANAL

PACIFIC TO ATLANTIC PANAMA CROSSING

Controlling the water level

There is a Visitor Observation Gallery at this lock

Water level control gates

Deepening the canal

Bridge of the Americas

Barge being loaded with dirt & rocks

Loaded barge

Dredging operation

Moving through the locks

The "mules" at work on the tracks

An automobile cargo ship

Waiting to be lowered down to the next level

Inside of one of the lock gates

Transiting the Panama Canal makes me marvel at the ingenuity, hard labor and technology that made this possible. Since ships are getting bigger and carrying much heavier loads, it's necessary to enlarge the existing canal system. This will be done by adding two new sets of locks beside the existing ones, one set on the east side of the Gatun Locks (Atlantic side) and the other on the south-western side of the Miraflores Locks.

It will be necessary to deepen the inlets into the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, to build new access channels to the existing sea entrances, and to raise the level of Gatun Lake. In 1939 work was begun to build a third canal, but it stopped in 1942 when the U.S. entered WW II. Much of this excavation will be utilized for today's construction of the new locks and access channels.

We were able to see dredging and digging activity as we passed through the canal, and watched the efficiency of the barges as they removed the dirt and rocks, and were immediately replaced with an empty barge so there was no break in the work. The project is due to be completed in 2014.

The new locks will be much longer and wider than the existing ones, and will use rolling gates instead of miter gates, and tugboats will be used to position vessels instead of locomotives or "mules". These technologies are well-proven in locks of similar dimensions.

Webcams are situated at the Miraflores Locks and Gatun Locks, and my sister took this shot of our ship passing through the Miraflores Locks (at 4 a.m. California time!!). Unfortunately she wasn't able to see me waving my gold top hat for almost an hour, which raised eyebrows on my fellow passengers! The website is http://www.pancanal.com/ and it has a lot of information on the canal.

PANAMA CITY (FUERTE AMADAOR), PANAMA

Fuerte Amador on the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal is an artificial peninsula that connects three small islands to the mainland and to Panama City. The skyline is amazingly long and modern, with the "corkscrew building" being one of the more unique structures.

We took a local tour through the city, and saw the old colonial buildings and churches in the Casco Viejo (original part of Panama City) which are in the process of being restored; walked on the remains of the wall of the old Spanish fort that had prison cells under it; drove to the top of the mountain where the huge flag flies proudly over the city, and is replaced every three months, and enjoyed the panoramic views; stopped at the gazebo and park the Chinese community donated to the city commemorating 150 years of settlement there; and visited the memorial to the different ethnic communities in Panama -- Spanish, American, Chinese, Italian, Greek and Jewish.

We also crossed over the Bridge of the Americas, part of the Pan American Highway that starts in Alaska and ends in Ushuaia, Argentina, and stopped at the old canal zone and observation center where we watched, up close and personal, as two tourist boats passed through the Miraflores Locks.

Returning to the ship, we felt that we had had an excellent overview of this important city in Central America.