14 day Panama Canal Cruise...part 7...Cabo

Good afternoon.
After a day at sea, the last stop for our cruise was Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. It's at the end of the Baja Peninsula.  We didn't do an excursion here, but opted to do a walking tour of the city, which is right on the bay.

Below, is the only pic of all 6 of us that I managed to get on the entire cruise.

The time went so quickly before we realized we didn't have a pic of all of us.
Cabo is a pretty little port.

The port is so small, our ship had to sit out in the bay and tender us in.

We had a nice day there and bought several t-shirts.
Back on the ship, as we left, we headed out around the tip of the peninsula.

Below , look closely, and you can see the small little bay where the docks were located.

And look to the left of Craig's shoulder, and you'll see an Arch. This is the main tourist sight. There were many, many boats taking people out to see this arch.

That evening, we attended a dinner with Dave and Gloria. It was Dave's birthday, and he wanted to celebrate it with all of us.

 He treated us to one of the specialty restaurants, Teppanyaki's. It's where they cook the food at your table. Yes, this was on the ship. They had 15 dining options altogether.

Very entertaining and very good food!
So, after another day at sea, we arrived in LA.
The ship had shuttle service to the airport, and we arrived back in Vegas Friday afternoon.
So 2 safe flights, great ship, good weather, and good friends. It was a good trip!

14 day Panama Canal Cruise...part 6....Gautemala, and Acapulco.

Good afternoon.
Sorry for the delay of this post, but I got busy with booking air and hotels for my summer trip back to Michigan.
We decided we didn't want to do that long drive again this year, and I calculated and discovered it will be about the same price to fly and rent a car, as it would to buy gas and rent all those hotel rooms. So i did all that today.
Anyway, on with our cruise.......
After Nicaragua, the next day we stopped in Guatemala. Since there weren't any excursions that interested us and we had just been on long bus trips the last 2 days, we decided to get off the ship and go to the little shopping area they set up just for cruise ships. And to say we were on Guatemalan soil.   :-)
Bought a couple of t-shirts, and back to the ship.
Then it was a day at sea, and then Acapulco, Mexico. Here, we had an excursion to see the city and the famous cliff divers.

The cliffs in the middle right of the above pic shows where they were going to jump from.

We were seated at a cliff side restaurant so we would have a great view.

You have to look close or click on the pics, but there are guys climbing the cliff.

Above, you can see them near and on the top, with one guy diving from the middle.
Below, a guy diving from the top.

To me, it looks crazy dangerous. From what the tour guides told us, there are 54 divers that belong to a union. The union decides how many divers go for each performance. Could be anywhere from 3 to 10. We had 8 divers for our performance. It was quite a sight!
Below are some skyline pics of Acapulco......

Acapulco sits in a large circular bay with a narrow opening. A perfect area for beautiful beaches and swimming. That's why Acapulco became so popular as a tourist destination many years ago.

Above are Gloria and Dave. Our neighbors who went on the cruise with us.

We really enjoyed our stay here.
Tomorrow, another day at sea, and then our last stop....Cabo San Lucas.

14 day Panama Canal Cruise...part 5...Nicauagua and the Colonial City of Leon.

Good morning.
We arrived the next morning in Corinto, Nicaragua. This is what greeted our ship....

There was music and dancing. Adults and children. The warmest welcome we've had on the entire cruise! Here's a pic of me on our balcony as we waited to disembark.

There were children handing out gift bags as we came off the ship. Below, Craig, Carmen, and Pat.

The tour we booked for this stop was the Colonial City of Leon. It was founded in 1524.
Became the capitol when the United Provinces of Central America broke up in 1839, and Nicaragua became a separate country.
The capitol was moved to Managua in 1852.
Anyway, the main building in town is the Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary built between 1747 and 1814.

A massive structure for such a small town. It dominates a square in the middle of the city of 200,000.

Up on the roof, you can see more detail in the arches.

And of course, the sounding area.

Around the square are government buildings, shops and cafe's. This is a very popular tourist stop.
And believe this.... They had a McDonald's just sown the street! We wandered some shops and had a beer at one of the cafe's. Didn't buy anything here.
The town was about an hour and a half bus ride to and from the port.
So far, we've had great weather, although quite humid.
Next stop....Guatemala.

14 day Panama Canal Cruise...part 4...Costa Rica.

Good morning.
After a day at sea, we arrived in Costa Rica. For some reason, no pic of the dock area. That was because, this is just a shipping port. No city here to speak of. Just cranes, warehouses and shipping containers.
But our excursion here was for the Rain Forest Sky Walk.

After a short climb to the top of a hill, we went on the first of 4 suspended bridges.

The view from the top of the first hill was real nice.

You see Craig in most of these pics because I take better pics quickly. He takes a lot of time trying to focus and there were a lot of people on this tour.

There were a lot of interesting trees and plants. There was a possibility of seeing birds and monkeys, but this is their dry season and there were none to be seen.

But it still was an interesting tour. We did stop at a market where Craig bought a t-shirt and they gave us a snack.
Then back to the ship.