November 24 - December 5, 2021 Panama Canal Cruise

Monday November 22, 2021 Our Adventure Begins : Today we excitedly got up to prepare for our trip to Ft Lauderdale for the 11 day Holland America Cruise we were doing with Kevin over Thanksgiving. This is our first post-pandemic cruise. Our itinerary is to sail from Ft Lauderdale, to Half Moon Cay, Bahamas, then Aruba, Curaçao, Columbia, go through the Gatun Locks of the Panama Canal into Lake Gatun and then come back out the same way, on to Costa Rica and back to Ft Lauderdale.

The first obstacle is to get covid tested. We had to have negative results within two days of departure for the cruise line and we made appointments at a clinic in El Paso. We were surprised that it was not a nasal swab but a saliva test.

It was unbelievably hard to fill up a test tube to the 1 cubic cm mark with spit! But we eventually were successful. Now we wait and check our email for the results.

After the test, we ate dinner, drove to the hotel near the airport and checked in. We were excited about the next day.

November 23, 2021 We departed from El Paso, TX to fly to Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Masks are required at all times in airports and on airplanes. Here we are enroute to DFW.

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As we were approaching DFW for our plane change, Barry took this photo from the plane near Ft Worth. It was familiar territory as the photo captured the Lockheed Ft Worth Plant and the former Carswell AFB.

At our layover in DFW, we checked email and found our Covid test results - both were negative!

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Wednesday November 24, 2021 Boarding the HAL Eurodam: Kevin arrived last night late and we all met up at our hotel. At 11 AM we caught the shuttle over to the cruise terminal and checked in, made our way onboard the ship and found our cabin. Because of Covid and the longshot possibility of being confined to our cabin, we had gotten a small veranda suite. Three weeks prior to the cruise, we were offered an upgrade for a larger suite for a small additional charge. After thinking about it we decided to do it.

Here is a view of the Port Everglades cruise terminal as our ship turns to make way out to the Atlantic Ocean.

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Thursday November 25, 2021 Happy Thanksgiving from Half Moon Cay, Bahamas:

Our first full day aboard the ship and we are making our first shore excursion at Half Moon Cay, Holland America's private island. The trip there overnight had seen some rocking and rolling as we made a relatively high speed dash from Ft Lauderdale to the island east of the Bahamas. But as promised we were at anchor by 8 AM.

We slept relatively late, got dressed and went up for breakfast. It was a nice 75 degrees with a light breeze and a few clouds.

A view from our veranda of the tender dock at Half Moon Cay, Bahamas.

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A pretty view of the beach at Half Moon Cay. Look at that beautiful blue water!

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Barry and Kevin enjoying the beach at Half Moon Cay.

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Friday November 26 was a day at sea and we enjoyed all the ship had to offer. This was a gorgeous sunset amid stormy clouds we saw from our veranda. We brought a murder mystery game to work on and we started that adventure. Barry and Kevin worked out. It was Gala night so we dressed for dinner and Barry and I went to a dance performance on the Main Stage called "Humanity" performed by the Step One Dance Company.

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Saturday November 27, 2021 Oranjestad, Aruba: We were coming into port when we woke up.

We saw two offshore platforms just outside the port of Aruba.

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A tugboat helping the ship to come into port.

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Today we had booked a shore excursion - Aruba Town & Countryside. It started with a bus ride to the Casibari Rock Formation. Along the way we saw these blue horses grazing near the port.

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We are amazed by the amount of cacti present on the interior of the island. Our guide tells us it is a desert. This is a stand of Cadushi cactus which dominate the landscape. I would describe the island as residential areas interrupted by large wild areas covered in cacti, beaches and more cacti. They even use the Cadushi cactus to build impenetrable fences!

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As we neared the Casibari Rock formation there started to be more and more large rocks and this particular one is called the big fish.

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The Casibari Rock Formation is a variety of large rock outcroppings with a large central rock that you could climb up. The summit provided was a nice view of the island. There was also a garden area down below with a variety of the 21 types of cactus that are on the island and a restaurant across the street where we bought some bottled water. They also had restrooms for a dollar.

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Barry and Kevin took a self portrait from the top of Casibari Rock. The haystack, which is a local landmark and the highest point on the island can be seen behind them.

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After leaving the Casibari Rock Formation we drove to the windward side of the island. There was no sand but only coral rocks and volcanic rocks. The coral rocks made a cap on the landscape and everything was very angular and sharp. In places the waves had cut dramatic inlets into the rock.

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The next stop was the Baby Arch at Arikok National Park. The coral rock cap forms a limestone bridge that has been undercut by the waves. A small pool has formed inside the arch.

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Adjacent to the Baby Arch is the fallen Big Arch. The debris field is larger than we expected. According to our guide it collapsed in 2005 and was 100 ft long before its collapse, the largest arch of its kind.

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On this particular stretch of coastline, there are rock outcroppings of mostly volcanic rock and tourists have made dozens of cairns of different sizes.The waves of the Atlantic ocean are spectacular.

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Lori and Barry near the Baby Arch.

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We drove on to the Alto Vista Chapel. It is a very scenic little church originally built in 1750 by the Spanish and services are still held once a month. The benches in front are for the worshipers who spill out of the chapel. The current church was completed in 1952.

The Spanish influence is still strong in spite of it being a Dutch island. Our guide indicated most islanders speak four languages: Papiamento (a hybrid of Dutch, Portuguese, native, and Spanish), Spanish, Dutch (the official language) and English.

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Here is another unique plant called a Divi Divi Tree. As our guide joked it looks a lot like a woman's hairstyle in the island winds.

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We also saw many trees with orange blossoms on the island. We think they are Geiger trees.

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We passed this cemetery. Our guide explained that burials were above ground in family mausoleums. The bodies were left there for 20 years, then the bones collected, placed in a container and moved to the back of the vault. Then the vault could be used again. This is not an uncommon practice in locations where land is at a premium. Most of Aruba is Catholic and until recently cremation was not an option.

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Our final stop was the California lighthouse built on the west end of the island and named for the S.S. California, a ship wreck that inspired its construction in 1910.

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This is a view of the leeward side of the island from the California Lighthouse. Many of the highrise hotels and resort areas in Aruba are visible in the distance. You can also see some more cactus growing in the foreground.

We returned to the ship through the resort area where there are many new high-rise hotels along with the more charming older low-rise hotels.

Our impression was that Aruba was a very friendly and prosperous island with lots of commerce. It seemed to have a much higher standard of living than many other Caribbean islands we had been to.

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Sunday November 28, 2021 Willemstad, Curaçao : We arrived in Curaçao around 8 AM and they cleared the boat for disembarking shortly thereafter, but we had no shore excursion planned so we had a leisurely breakfast and then decided we’d go ashore around 11 and walk downtown to eat lunch.

After breakfast we went up to the observation deck to get a panoramic view of Willemstad. It is a very picturesque city with colorful buildings and red tile roofs. It is also very historical having been built in the early 1700’s.

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Barry and Kevin went to work out and I enjoyed the veranda while listening to the announcements for the emergency drills for the crew. When Barry and Kevin returned we got ready and left for the walk to lunch. Here is a view of the Eurodam from our walk to town.

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We walked through one of the shopping areas of Otrobanda which had some beautiful Christmas decorations.

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We crossed over the Queen Emma pedestrian bridge from the district of Otrobanda to Punda.

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We went to the Wilhelmina Plein restaurant with its open air dining. It was pleasant in the shade and the food was good. The temperature was a little on the warm side (85 degrees F) but the breeze helped.

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After eating we started back to the ship but got stopped when we found out the Queen Emma bridge swings open for ship traffic and we had to wait while the ships transited and the the bridge closed again. This ship seemed to be an offshore well support ship owned and operated by Pemex. In the background is the Queen Julianna Bridge across St.Anna Bay.

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Video of the Queen Emma pontoon bridge closing after allowing a ship to sail through. The blue boxes near the control shack are two large engines which power the motion.

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Monday November 29, 2021 Day at Sea : We decided to indulge ourselves by ordering breakfast in the room so we could eat on the veranda. We set an alarm to make sure we were up and dressed when it arrived. Today was the only day we did this, but we noticed from the number of room service trays we saw being collected every day, that many of our neighbors did this almost every day.

The weather was very pleasant, there was a light breeze and we really enjoyed ourselves on the veranda. We read our newspapers and talked. After breakfast Kevin wanted to work on his blog so Barry and I went up to the Panorama Deck and walked around.

After lunch we came back to the room and worked on our murder mystery game - "Lights, Camera, Murder." We still hadn’t solved it when we broke for the day.

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We had a bit of excitement when the ship made several announcements about a missing passenger which were increasingly more urgent in tone. Kevin came back from the Crow's Nest and said a team of officers were on Deck 2 with pictures and looking very worried. We learned later that evening that the guest had been found. It turned out he had been sleeping on deck and didn't hear the announcements.

Tonight we went to dinner at Canaletto, one of the specialty on-board restaurants. This one was Italian and tonight the special entree was Osso Buco. It was fantastic! Barry and I rushed from dinner to the Main Stage to see the One Step Dance Company’s performance of "Tandem." It was once again very high energy modern dance to a number of different genres of music.

We met up with Kevin in the cabin and he and Barry worked on a coding challenge for a while. Then off to the Ocean’s Bar to play general trivia. That was a bunch of fun.

Tuesday November 30, 2021 Cartagena, Columbia : We set our alarm to awaken at 6 am so we would be ready for our 7:45 tour departure. We had booked Cartagena City Highlights.

While we were waiting for the ship to be cleared, we sat on our veranda and Barry was watching the pelicans play near the ship and perch on one of the concrete tie-down piers.

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After they announced we were clear for disembarking, we hurried to our room and then down to A Deck to disembark. When we got off we were directed to our bus. First the tour operator wanted to get a picture of our electronic ticket. Then they made a seating chart by room number. Then they took photos of our room key card. This took 30 minutes or so and no explanations were provided. Finally we left the port area. I miss the days of paper tickets...

The traffic and trash were atrocious. The city is overcrowded and oppressive. Here is a view of a service staion just outside the port. Yes that really is six lanes of cars from the service staion trying to merge onto the two lane road with no traffic signal.

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We also noted the gas prices from the service station. These are in Columbian pesos. At an exchage rate of about 4000 pesos to the dollar, the gas price was a little over $2.00 a gallon for Plus and almost $4.00 a gallon for premium.

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Our first stop is Castillo San Felipe de Barajas and it is the highlight of the trip. Here is a view of the fort from the small park near the entrance.

Unfortunately, when we got to Castillo San Felipe de Barajas, we got off the bus and were besieged by street vendors who would get in your face and swarm around you. They were selling hats, t-shirts, bags, leather bags and belts, magnets, etc. This continued until we went into the gate at the fort. Then there was a different group inside the fort, but they weren't as pushy. Since they were all selling the same wares, it seemed ludicrous that one vendor would watch you reject another vendor and then offer you exactly the same thing.

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The fort is spectacular in its massive fortifications. It is a fine example of 17th century engineering. We did a thorough tour of the ramparts with their beautiful views of the city.

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Barry standing on one of the ramparts of Castillo San Felipe de Barajas overlooking the new downtown area of Cartagena, Columbia.

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A cannon pointed out to defend the fort from invadors. One interesting thing we saw were that intersections of the huge ramps leading up to the fortress were cannon tube buried and pointed skyward. We found out from the guide that these were captured Brittish guns that the Spaniards repurposed to serve as strong points for pulling heavy cargo up the slopes.

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The base of the fortress is honeycombed with tunnels for getting unseen from one part of the defenses to another and also for escape if necessary. Here is Lori entering into one of the tunnels which led up a steep slope from one level to another.

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We saw many blue pigeons within the walls of the fortress. They would perch on the uneven walls and would also take advantage of ventilation shafts as shown here.

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Barry and Lori at one of the sentry posts at Castillo San Felipe de Barajas.

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After we left the Castillo, we ran the gauntlet of street vendors as we went back to the bus, the we drove to Las Bovedas, originally a dungeon, which houses a handcraft shopping market.

On to Old Town (shown here) where we walked to the church of San Pedro Clavier. It is a pretty city with narrow streets and a lot of charm. Unfortunately, we were mobbed once again, going and coming.

The only time the vendors were not ever present was inside the church which was built in the 18th century. It is a beautiful church with a central courtyard and lovely stained glass windows.

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We were given some free time to shop and we opted to find a quiet bar and have some wonderfully cold Diet Cokes while the lazy fan overhead created a nice breeze. After that we headed to the bus to for our trip back to the ship.

One of the other passengers decided to go off on his own and was “lost” so we got to wait while he was located. Fortunately the bus air conditioner was working. His wife had gotten off the bus to stay and wait for him and we started the leave the area when he and one of the tour service guides came running up. He boarded the bus and that got us back to the ship after the all-aboard time. But, fortunately, it was a cruise-sponsored tour so they waited for us.

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Wednesday December 1, 2021 Half Transit Panama Canal : Barry and I get up early to watch the approach to the Panama Canal. First we went up to the Crow’s Nest, but the commentary wasn’t being broadcast there. So we went down to the front end of Deck 7 which is an outside balcony area just below the bridge. We could see the entrance into the canal and hear the broadcast. It was a lot of fun watching the operation of the locks and watching the ship in front of us being moved in and raised. Then it was our turn. At this end there are three sets of locks because the ground below couldn’t support the weight of water required to raise the ship in two sets.

This is a view of the Gatun Locks entrance in the early morning hours. It was a damp misty rainy morning.

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We are waiting just outside the first lock for our turn to enter. In front of us is another ship and a tugboat being raised to the first level.

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Now we get to move into the first lock. On the left you can see one of the mules which only serve to keep us aligned in the lock. The ship actually moves under its own power.

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We met Kevin in the Lido for breakfast and watched the rest of the transit from there. Since we had no shore excursions, we had a day of leisure planned. After we finished breakfast, we walked out on the aft end of our ship and took this photo looking back on the locks.

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The Gatun Locks Port of Entry.

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As we got back to the room and went out on the veranda to sit and relax, we passed this car carrier in the last lock. Car carriers are massive ships and we thought the name was interesting. They also seem to have very few crew onboard because there is but a single lifeboat.

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The Gatun Dam over the Chagras River making the whole Panama Canal concept viable. It was difficult to get focus on the dam because of the misty weather.

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Our ship lowered a lifeboat to serve as a tender for the folks who took a shore excursion. We opted not to do that because all of them were long and, while interesting, would have resulted in hours on the bus.

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The lifeboat tender moving to the other side of the ship to pick up passengers.

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We were a little disappointed that we mostly anchored in Lake Gatun, at first to let shore excursion folks tender to shore, but then waiting for our place in line to go back through the locks. We did get to watch a number of car carriers and container ships go by and start into the locks. Here is a container ship with other ships in the background.

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For a while in the afternoon, we worked on our murder mystery game and got some new clues and have another list of interviews to conduct to see if we can crack the case.

We transited back out of the canal, passed under the Atlantic Bridge which is breathtaking. Then we went the short distance to Colon and docked. A few people went ashore and we waited for the Panama shore excursions to get back. They are notoriously late because of traffic, distance to the other side of the country and poor planning.

Kevin and I ate in the Tamarind, an Asian-themed specialty dining restaurant. We had fun and the food and ambiance were great.

Afterwards we joined Barry in the Billboard, Deck 2 for Music Trivia and then we all went to the Lincoln Stage to hear the Eurodam musicians play Music from Ballets. They featured several pieces from the Nutcracker and we enjoyed their performance.

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Thursday December 2, 2021 Puerto Limon, Costa Rica : Today is our last shore excursion before we head across the Caribbean to Ft Lauderdale. We are doing the Caribbean Train, Countryside and Tortuguero Canal.

While we are eating breakfast, we dock in Puerto Limon and the ship is cleared for passengers to go ashore. After a quick trip to the room we assemble in the Main Stage and wait for our tour to be called. We got our sticker and go to the aft port door. We scan off the ship, get stopped by Costa Rican officials to scan our vaccination card. Although we had been told to take it at every port, this is the first time anyone has wanted to see it. They photographed each one.

We get to the bus to get our tickets scanned and squirted with hand sanitizer. For the very first time ever, we are first on the bus and get to sit in row number 3. A very good omen for the day.

After everyone is aboard the bus we start our drive to the catamaran and the canals with our guide Alfonso telling interesting facts about Puerto Limon. What we see out the window is that Costa Rica (or at least this part) is a desperately poor country with skinny dogs, skinny cows and tumble-down housing.

We arrive at the canal, a murky brown body of water and board the catamarans for our tour of the wildlife. There are several boats departing the area at once and we have a traffic jam.

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The first birds we saw are snowy egrets and we saw a number of them. They were, however, very elusive to photograph because they were so white against the dark background they would quickly overexpose. They had these wonderful yellow feet that almost looked clownish next to their delicate legs and graceful bodies.

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Our guide pointed out several sloths. They didn't move very much and were adorable. This mother has a baby on her stomach. You can see his paw along her side.

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If you look closely you can see a green male lizard which looks like a leaf. Our guide was remarkable at picking out the wildlife in the dense foilage.

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This is the female lizard of the same species.

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This is one of many heron species we saw. This is a vaiety of Tiger Heron.

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Little Blue Heron

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This beautiful bird is a green heron. A very delicate and graceful bird.

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A black hawk almost invisible in the vegetation.

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We also saw a band of white faced Capuchin monkeys that were playing on a railroad bridge and then played chase through the trees. They were small and quick and the foilage was very dense. This made them hard to capture in an image. Here is a mother with baby on her back.

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These ducks were playing near the docks of the tour operator. They have very interesting coloring.

After 45 minutes we land back at our starting place, have a snack of salted banana chips, a fresh banana and a bottle of water. Bananas are one of the huge agricultural exports of the area. We also get to shop in a small kiosk and Barry finds a great sloth t-shirt!

What is so amazing is the diversity of animals we see on this mile long stretch of the canals.

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We get back on the bus to drive to the train. We take Highway 32 which runs to the capital of Costa Rica. The drive to the capital takes anywhere from 3 to 7 hours depending on the traffic. Today I am pretty sure it would run closer to the 7 hour mark as traffic is dense and chaotic.

The guide points out these animal bridges put up every half mile or so across the highway. He indicated they are used by all sorts of small mammals from racoons to sloths to safely cross the highway.

At one point the road has a barrier running along one side and the bus pulls off and then backs a half mile down the dirt shoulder so he can turn into the road to the train stop.

We arrive at the “train station” - really two seemingly abandoned cars with an engine attached. The train was a classic Costa Rica shoreline train used by the tourists up through the 80’s.

We spend a lot of time traveling by the banana plantations. Banana production is extensive. They wrap the baby bananas in a blue plastic bag which has lots of tiny perforations. This keeps the temperature warm and humid and allows the light to enter more uniformly resulting in the perfect banana shape.

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Here is a stalk of bananas with the blue bag off.

Our guide tells us that in 14 short weeks a stalk of bananas are ready to harvest. They are then cut off, separated, dunked in water to lower the temperature, sorted by size and packed in crates. Then the crates are refrigerated and shipped. Two months later they will show up on your table in the U.S.

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Along our train journey we pass over this old truss bridge.

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When the trian journey finished, we took the bus for a short ride back to the ship. We got back on board the ship, washed up, and went to lunch. Then we took a nap. Barry went and walked and Kevin went up to the Crow’s Nest to work.

Barry and I went to dinner while Kevin ran and then we all met up for the National Geographic production of "One World, Seven Continents" along with the Eurodam musicians who performed the score live. It was a terrific show and we enjoyed it a great deal.

Friday December 3, 2021 : Day at Sea

Today we are at sea cruising north to Ft Lauderdale and we are holding 19-21 knots. The boat is rocking quite a bit. After breakfast in the Pinnacle (what a treat), we settle in to work on our murder mystery game. By lunch we have hit another dead end but we have made some interesting discoveries. After a relatively quick lunch in the Lido, we work on it again. We manage to find two really good clues and then we can answer 4 of the 5 questions. Kevin and I continue to bat it around. We finally hypothesize something for the fifth question and open the results. We got everything right but that one. There was also a wrap up "confession" included.

The murder mystery was a lot of fun and we all agreed we’d probably do another one.

Our last Gala Night and here we are in our cabin before heading down to dinner. After dinner we went up to the Crow’s Nest and Barry and Kevin played Chess.

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Saturday, December 4, 2021 : Day at Sea

We got up and it was a beautiful clear day about 75 degrees F. We were passing by the west coast of Cuba which we could see in the distance.

Kevin went to run before breakfast on Deck 3 to make his 5000k goal since he started record keeping with Nike. Then we all went to breakfast.

On our way back we determined that the SEC championship would not be broadcast on the ship. So Barry will have to call it from his iPad.

We had a lazy afternoon, prepared our tip envelopes and mostly packed our suitcase in preparation for our departure tomorrow. At 4 pm we went to team trivia on travel. We struggled with the accent of the trivia caller and the questions were pretty difficult. We only got 11 of a possible 17.

We returned to our room and sat on the veranda. Barry kept us posted on the Alabama - Georgia SEC Championship game score. It was a pretty day and we were passing by the north shore of Cuba, not too far from Havana. But we were pretty far off the island and couldn't really make out any details.

Tomorrow we begin the journey home. It is somewhat bittersweet. We are excited to have been able to cruise in spite of Covid and a little sad that it is coming to an end. But Christmas is just around the corner and it will be nice to get back home, decorate the house and wait for Santa's arrival.