The Panama Canal Epic # 2: The Queen of the Spanish Main

After two sea days of sailing south from Florida, our first port call of this cruise was the port city of Cartagena, on the northern (Caribbean) coast of Colombia. On the way south, we spent hours sailing through endless rows of sargassum weed, more or less parallel, their direction marking out the direction of the ocean current slowly sweeping these colonial organisms towards land.

 

 

This is expected to be a bumper crop year for sargassum washing up on beaches. It's already begun coming ashore in vast, smelly mats on the Florida Keys. These strips which I've seen down in the Caribbean Sea are likely to wind up on the shores of Yucatan, Cancun, Cozumel, and Belize.

 

While I studied the sargassum from my balcony, I was also studying (as I always do) what first appears to be another colonial organism, albeit a much more orderly one.

 

 

That's the drainable matting which Princess puts on the private balconies of all its ships. The geometric order and complexity of the pattern always fascinates me.

 

For me, this visit to Cartagena marked not only a new port and a new country but my first-ever landing on the continent of South America. Actually, this was my first landing on the mainland of the Americas south of Mexico.

I take the trouble to refer to it in that detail for an interesting reason. From its use in fiction and films, I had always thought that the phrase "the Spanish Main" referred to the oceans controlled by Spain around its colonies in the Americas. Just to prove that even lifelong teachers of history are always learning new lessons, I have now learned that the term refers to the "mainland" areas of Spanish America as opposed to the islands, called the "Spanish West Indies." 

If you already knew that before I did, you are now allowed to look smug, at least until the next test!

 

The city of Cartagena was founded in 1533 to take advantage of a strategically placed harbour, and grew slowly under successive Spanish governors. Eventually, it became the key port for the export of the silver from the Royal Mint in Potosí (Bolivia), and for other valuable products of the Spanish Main (like coffee and chocolate), to be shipped to Spain. This made it a desirable target for pirates and corsairs funded by various other European powers, especially France and England, and the city fell prey to a number of raids through the years -- raids which ended, not in occupation by other colonial powers, but in the payment of substantial ransoms.

 

Base map attribution:     https://freevectormaps.com/colombia/CO-EPS-02-0001?ref=atr

As time went by, the fortifications in and around the bay grew larger, more massive, and more daunting. Today, Cartagena boasts a modern city with the expected amenities, surrounding the walled, historic, old town district which is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

 

With that, let's get to looking into Cartagena in detail. 

At first light on April 30, we glided slowly into the bay of Cartagena, and docked at 7:00 am. The first tours left the ship at 7:30. Thus, the buffet was already packed with the early breakfast shift by 6:15. This might seem like a barbaric hour, but we are fully into the tropics. Here, it pays to be early and try to beat both the heat and the likelihood of rain coming on later in the day because of daytime heating.

We did neither.

On a steamy, cloudy morning, we boarded buses to be driven off and around the town. Our first stop was at a small theatre where we saw a 40-minute folkloric dance show. My efforts to photograph the performance failed due to the extensive use of black light (ultraviolet) which highlighted the colourful, swirling costumes, but didn't do much for the remainder. No matter. The energy of the performers was especially notable at 8:30 in the morning, and the applause from the audience was well-earned.

Across the street from the show venue was the massive hilltop fortress of San Felipe, the largest such fortification in all of Spanish America and the West Indies. I was just as glad I didn't visit it, as the ramp up the hill looked like it would reduce me to a melted puddle on the ground in 3 minutes. ("I'm melting, melting.... Ohhh, what a world, what a world....")

From there, we drove into the Old Town district, a walled city which is designated in its entirety as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, primarily for its fortifications. 

 

 

But the government has gone further, protecting all buildings in the district as heritage buildings, whose exteriors cannot be altered. The result, as we saw on our walking tour, is a fascinating time capsule of various periods of Iberian and colonial architecture, leavened with a generous dose of vibrant Caribbean colour. Imagine how much more spectacular it would look on a sunny day!

This house especially caught my attention, not only for the vivid blue colour, but also for the inset shrine to the Virgin Mary, similar to ones I saw in Genoa (Italy) and which doubtless can be found in other Mediterranean countries.

Many street corners display these lovely old tiled street signs, inlaid into the walls of houses.

Just down the street from here, we came to a square where we again could see the city walls, and where this ornate lamp standard caught my eye. I'm pretty sure it dates back to the age of the gas lamp because it's been brought into the electrical age by a wire strung through the air!

 

Another short walk brought us to a monastery church which we might possibly be allowed to enter (since it was Sunday, we'd have to dodge in between the numerous scheduled services).  And just then, while our guide was inside checking to see if a visit was possible, the heavens opened. 

Eventually, we were allowed to enter, but we all got thoroughly soaked just crossing that narrow street. Inside, we met an interior which was cooler and far less ornate than I expected. An unusual touch was the row of stained glass windows around the interior of the dome which is a smaller version modelled on Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome.

We also visited a small museum attached to the monastery, where I was taken with this little shrine or reliquary. I think the figures inside were portraying a Nativity scene. The whole thing would sit neatly on my laptop with room to spare all around.

Eventually we staggered back to our bus and crawled aboard, thoroughly wet and bedraggled. The rain had eased off a bit during that last leg, but then it poured down full force again as we arrived at an emerald "museum" -- really, a kitschy little dioramic recreation of traditional emerald mining, followed by a large jewellery store (surprise, surprise). Thank goodness we were only stuck there for half an hour. By this time I was thoroughly done with standing, with sightseeing, with humidity, with heat, with rain, you name it. At last we got on the bus and made our way back to the pier. That gave us a chance to view at first hand the results of this torrential monsoon downpour.

Great fun for our bus driver! Here, as we crossed a bridge over the river channel from the island holding the old city to the mainland, we could see the hope of drier skies ahead.

By the time we got back to the cruise pier, the rain had stopped, and the air was a good deal cooler and not nearly as crushingly humid. The expected dockside souvenir store was a good deal more imaginative than many of its kind, being approached through a tropical jungle and aviary.

The five-minute walk down the pier from there gave me a chance to see the Island Princess from a different angle.

And a chance to pose with the ship -- still soaked to the skin, but at least my hair was starting to dry out!

As we sailed out of Cartagena Bay after 3:00 pm, I had a chance from my balcony to photograph one of the two fortresses which guard either side of the entrance to the bay (there are half a dozen more on various islands inside the bay).

And with that, off we sailed to the west, heading for our next destination where we are expected to arrive at the crack of dawn tomorrow. Another early morning get-up-and-go!

The Panama Canal Epic # 1: Introduction

By now, some of my "fan club" (using the term very loosely) are probably rolling their eyes on hearing that I am off on yet another holiday. I have to admit, I'm even a bit surprised myself. But the biggest single expense of this trip, the two-week cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Los Angeles via the Panama Canal, was actually paid for a long time ago. 

Regular readers may recall that in December of 2021, as the omicron variant of Covid-19 was spreading rapidly across the continent and the globe, I cancelled my planned cruise over Christmas and New Years. Since I had bought Princess Cruises' premium trip protection, I got 100% of the fare back as a future travel credit, a credit which had to be used within 2 years of the original sailing date. Part of it went towards the cost of my transatlantic trip in November, but the bulk of it went to pay the entire cost of this cruise.

So, off we go again. And again, I'm going to be landing in or passing through three new countries, and calling at four ports which I've never seen before.

With that, here's the ship: the MS Island Princess, shown here entering one of the locks in the Canal.

Princess Cruises photo

 

Actually, to be completely honest, it could be her all-but-identical sister ship. This is one of two ships in the Princess fleet which were built to the largest possible size that would fit into the six original locks of the Panama Canal -- a size which goes officially by the name of "Panamax." The other of the pair, by the way, is the MS Coral Princess. Although they look impressive enough on their own, these are now the oldest and smallest ships in the Princess Cruises' fleet, and by a fair margin. Island Princess, which entered service in 2003, is a 92,000-ton vessel with a capacity of 2,200 passengers. 

By the way, it's easy to see that the picture is a few years old. Those two tubes at the top of the funnel, which look for all the world like a pair of jet engine pods, are missing from the ship since the latest refit. Their absence suggests that they didn't fulfil any particular function which could not be met in some more conventional way. I always felt that they looked just plain weird on a modern cruise liner.

 

And here's a map to show the cruise route, with the ports of call labelled in red: 

 

Source Map Attribution:  <a href="https://www.onestopmap.com/middle-america/middle-america-476/"

>Free vector map of Middle America political with shaded relief - by One Stop Map</a>

 

Originally there was to be another port of call at San Juan del Sur in Nicaragua, but the Nicaraguan government closed the port to cruise ships about a month ago. If any of you are wondering about health requirements, the government of Colombia has required full vaccination against Covid-19 -- or else the passengers must present proof of a medically observed test within 2 days at the time of embarkation from Florida. No test, no sail. It's either that or have the entire shipload of passengers prevented from landing at Cartagena, which is the reason Princess Cruises enforces the requirements.

 

There are a couple of key points to consider if you are thinking of taking or actually planning a Panama Canal cruise. 

 

[1] Full Transit (not Partial Transit)

 

The first and foremost is to make sure you are choosing a "full transit" cruise, not a "partial transit." Multiple cruise lines are now offering shorter partial transits where the ship comes from the Atlantic side, enters the canal via the three-stage Gatun locks or the newer and parallel Agua Clara Locks, motors around among the islands in the artificial Gatun Lake, and then returns down the same locks to the Atlantic Ocean. 

 

Doing this "short version" takes almost as long as the full transit, but deprives you of the most spectacular part of the entire voyage, the dramatic and entirely artificial 7-km-long valley through the Culebra Range (the Continental Divide), called the Culebra Cut, which links the Gatun Lake to the Pedro Miguel and Miraflores Locks down to the Pacific Ocean. You should consider the full transit as an essential feature for a Panama Canal cruise.

 

In that case, it's very likely that you will make the trip in the spring or the fall. These full-transit voyages are usually (but not always) built into a cruise line's plans as a "transition cruise," moving the ship from the Pacific Ocean and the summer Alaskan trade to the Caribbean for the winter season or vice versa. I got reminded of that fact in a conversation with a staff member at my hotel the day before we sailed. As soon as I told her I was joining a cruise, she knew right away which company and where we were going. The explanation was simple. As the Caribbean season was winding down, this was the last ship to leave port on a transition voyage to its summer location -- and the hoteliers in Fort Lauderdale are well aware of when these ship movements take place. 

Once I got aboard the ship, I was promptly set straight by the notice on the lunch menu that this was the "Island Princess World Cruise 2023." In fact, this is the final leg of a cruise which began in Fort Lauderdale about 100 days ago, and is now continuing on to its final destination of Los Angeles. As is usual with Princess round-the-world itineraries, this layout makes it possible to do a full circumnavigation starting in either Florida or California.

[2]  Historic Locks (not the new locks)

Equally essential, to appreciate the engineering ingenuity of a century-old project which had no models elsewhere to imitate, you need a cruise which will make the full transit through the historic locks, not the modern and larger parallel locks which opened in 2016. That means you need a ship the size of Island Princess or smaller, built within the original Panamax dimensions -- not the "new Panamax" size which now accommodates many larger vessels. Here are the original Panamax limits:

 

 

My biggest reason for taking this voyage now was the realization that, with ships getting bigger all the time, it may soon be possible to travel through the historic canal only by going with an ultra-luxury small ship line, which would almost certainly exceed my budget. So here I am. 

 

The importance of the Panama Canal to the world's economies can be readily grasped by looking at this global map, which shows the cruise route in red and the longer route that would need to be followed without a Panama Canal in brown.

 

 Source Map Attribution:   https://freevectormaps.com/globes/americas/GLB-AM-01-0001?ref=atr

 

Even with the contraction of the southern latitudes on this map, it's easy to see how immensely much longer the voyage would have to be. What the map doesn't show you is the horrendous, howling gales around the southern tip of South America in the Drake Passage, which make the effort to pass Cape Horn and get into the Pacific Ocean so perilous -- and, in certain seasons, nearly impossible.

So the Panama Canal has become a marine expressway and shortcut, connecting the east coast of the Americas and all of Europe and west Africa to all of the booming economies of the Pacific Rim. The Canal itself, then, is an engineering work of great historic, technical, economic, and scenic significance. It's no wonder that it features on more and more cruise itineraries every year, even if many of them are the less desirable "partial transit."

I'll have a lot more detail on the canal itself once we actually get there. We've just set out on our southwards voyage from Fort Lauderdale, and this is our first full sea day of two before we reach our first port of call at Cartagena in Colombia. Perfect time to get in a few photos introducing the ship!

 

We'll start with the heartbeat of every Princess Cruises' vessel: the central atrium, here called the Princess Plaza. Unlike the larger ships, this one extends four decks high, rather than three, and has a most unusual floating staircase at the lower end, as well as eye-catching "pod" scenic elevators.

 

 

Behind the hanging banner in the lower picture is the Crooners Bar, which features piano music at various times in the afternoon and evening. Other times have musicians playing at the small stage area on the lowest level.

A larger music venue is found in the Wheelhouse Bar, with old-style figureheads and a ship's wheel striking a nautical theme.

 

The traditional dark-panelled corridor leading to the Wheelhouse Bar is decorated with paintings or reproductions of classic ships from the olden-days fleet of the Peninsular and Oriental (P & O) Steamship Company, reminding us that Princess Cruises began as an offspring of P & O. 

The second one shows a 1930s-vintage P & O liner calling at the essential stopping point of Gibraltar, a port which I have visited on a Princess Cruise.

As well as the two main dining rooms, Bordeaux and Provence, the Island Princess has two extra-charge specialty restaurants. This Roman artwork points the way towards Sabatini's, one of the most striking Italian restaurants I have ever visited, anywhere. A night or two here is a highlight of every Princess cruise for me. I'll be there tomorrow night for dinner.

 

 

Then there's this painting, and if anyone recognizes the buildings, they'll have no trouble guessing the theme of the other specialty restaurant: the Bayou Cafe and Steakhouse. I'll be eating there in a few more nights.

Up topside, the ship has two large pools. One, the Lido Pool, is pretty typical of cruise ship pools, placed in a well surrounded by a higher deck, with sun loungers everywhere.

 

The other, the Lotus Pool, is like no other pool I've ever seen on a cruise ship, and that's not just because it's enclosed inside a glass Conservatory.

Say hello to my new best friend!

 

It seems ironic that the smallest ships on the Princess Cruises roster should have the most spacious promenade deck. Sadly, on the largest current ships in the fleet, the Royal Class, the Promenade Deck has vanished altogether except for a short segment on either side just at midships, or at the stern. But Island Princess has space to burn and dozens of chairs for people who want to sit and read or think in a shady location that's more peaceful than the Lido Deck around the pool. And yes, those are the lifeboats hanging overhead.

As we sailed southeastwards along the north shore of Cuba, we had a distant view of the mountainous island. This picture, taken with a zoom lens, shows clearly that cruise ships, if at all possible, give the widest possible berth to land at all times. 

 

Ship captains also give a wide berth to other ships. Here, we passed our much larger fleetmate, Caribbean Princess, which was sailing back towards Fort Lauderdale. Caribbean Princess is one of the small handful of cruise ships which operate in the Caribbean all year round. That ship is two or three decks taller and carries almost 1,000 more passengers than ours. This photo was also taken with a zoom lens; the ships were actually separated by several kilometres of ocean.

 

 

Generally, you'll only get heart-stopping views at close range from a ship when entering or leaving a port, or when sailing in confined waters like the Inside Passage of Alaska -- or the Panama Canal. Thus, there's no point in fussing over which side a cabin is on for views. 

In the tropics, though, there's a great deal to be said for following the rule of "POSH." This word, meaning luxurious or elegant, is more common in Britain than in Canada. What many people have forgotten, though, is its origin.

In the glory days of the P & O Steamship Company, people constantly travelled by sea from the United Kingdom eastwards to India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, and New Zealand. This was before the invention of air conditioning, and the cabins on the south side of the ship, exposed to direct tropical sunlight, would become fiendishly hot during the daytime, nor would they cool off much at night.

As a result, the cabins on the north and slightly cooler side were highly valued, and shipping companies charged much more for them. To get on that north side, you had to take a port side cabin on the eastbound voyage, but starboard side on the westbound trip. Thus, to a Brit: Port Out Starboard Home. And since all the wealthy people followed this rule, and could afford to do so, "POSH" came to mean "deluxe" -- and also, to a degree, "stuck up."

Even on a modern air-conditioned cruise ship, you'll likely have to keep your window curtains closed as long as your side of the ship is catching direct sunlight, because the air conditioning will have trouble coping. So, I'm travelling posh. My cabin is on the starboard side. Once we get through the canal, and travel mainly westwards, it will be the cool side. I'm cool with that.