Steve and Cathy's Blog

Unfortunately we won’t arrive in Cartagena (often referred to as Cartagena de Indias) until 11:00am, so we take advantage of the extra time and have a full breakfast in the Grand Dining Room.   As with all the meals, everything is perfectly prepared and creatively presented. In fact, our meals are so good, we take pictures of them! Steve has Swedish pancakes and bacon, Cathy has the “egg special of the day,” spinach waffle with poached egg,

Most every ATW guest has been waiting for this day for the entire time we have been on the ship. Going through the Panama Canal is a bit of a rite of passage.  It is a big deal to most everyone who has ever had the opportunity, sort of like the first time you cross the equator.  In fact, most of the people that booked this last segment from Los Angeles to Miami did so specifically

We are opposite the Pacific coast of Panama right now (7 degrees Latitude, 82 degrees longitude) cruising at 14 knots, heading for our rendezvous with the Panama Canal tomorrow morning. Since we have been in Guatemala, the guides on our excursions have been saying that we are in the rainy season here in Central America.  We have been getting ample demonstrations of that at night, with thunderstorms well off to our port side near land.  Some

We arrive at 6:00am as scheduled at the port of Puntarenas (which is Spanish for ‘sand point’).  Unlike much of Central America, this country has a stable, democratic government, a booming economy, a sophisticated literate population and per capita income well, well above that of their neighbors.  With the exception of needing improved infrastructure, especially highways, it is a success story and has been since the 1840s. Our tour begins right on time and we are

During the night, if we get up for any reason (wonder what that could be?) , we witness another huge lightning storm, this one off the coast of El Salvador as we sail southeast on our way to Costa Rica.  They are so far away that we rarely if ever hear the thunder, but it is an impressive sight, especially at sea.  I stand at the door to the veranda and watch for ten minutes or

We arrive at Guatemala’s largest Pacific Ocean port right on time around 8:00am.  Even on the way in, we can see the reason that almost all of the previously scheduled excursions in this country were canceled: 12,000-foot high Volcan de Fuego (a picture of what we see begins this post).  It began its latest eruption on June 5thand has killed 114 people.  In the interest of guest safety, any tour that comes within thirty miles of

We left Acapulco at 10:00pm last night and have 572 nautical miles to travel to our next destination, Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala.  During the night, we woke up to flashing lightning, with storms just off the shore in the distance.  These lightning storms go on for an hour or more.  Tis the season – the rainy season – in Central America.  The rainy season begins in June and, depending on the country, will last until September in

We arrive just around noon, which is a good thing, because we have booked Historical, Picturesque & Cliff Diversas our excursion that begins at 12:45pm. Immediately upon boarding our van, we are to go to “La Quebrada” to watch the world famous Cliff Divers at 1:00pm.  We have a quick lunch at Waves Grill, get our bus assignment from Destination Services and leave the ship.  In the terminal, we are greeted by beautiful young women and

We haven’t mentioned this part of our day in months, so we will do it now.  We start every day at 5:45am, when coffee, milk and a croissant are delivered to our stateroom.  For the past few weeks, it has been brought to us by a very cute and energetic young woman named Jay, who is from the Philippines.  First she calls on the phone, which is right on the wall next to Steve’s side of

This morning we receive a letter from Captain Maroje Brajcic announcing something we have been expecting for days: our stop in Nicaragua is canceled.  We have been hearing about the political protests and the street violence, and figured that Oceania would opt to play it safe and skip this call, especially after the news that an American was shot dead there.  So we can add that to our list of reasons that we have missed visits.