Panama Canal Cruise - April 2015
In April 2015 I took a 21-day Holland America cruise aboard the MS Westerdam, Ft. Lauderdale to Seattle, that featured as its highlight transiting the Panama Canal, something I've always hoped to do. The cruise touched at ports in the Bahamas, Colombia, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Mexico, the US and Canada. Here are the better photos taken on the trip.
Beach Day - First stop at Holland America's captive Bahamian island, Half Moon Cay
MS Westerdam's cast of singers and dancers. I photographed a performance, which eventually led to a change in HA's policy regarding photographing the live stage performances.
Cartagena, Colombia -- a gal who solicited money from tourists but was not having much luck this morning
A Cartagena street vendor in the Old City, possibly commiserating with a friend over end of the cruise season -- our ship was one of the last, and perhaps the absolute last, ship to visit Cartagena.
Approaching the Panama Canal at the Atlantic end, in predawn light. Ship at left has just entered the lock; ship at right has been raised 28.5 feet to level of second lock. We would follow that second ship on the right side.
Passing from first to second lock. The "mule" on the right was one of four keeping our ship dead center within the lock chamber; they did not pull us through the locks.
Costa Rica -- two scarlet macaws far overhead. They mate for life.
A cormorant spreading its wings.
Two white ibises.
León, Nicaragua -- one of the world's universal businesses.
Inside the Centro de Arte Fundación Ortíz - Gurdián -- an excellent small art museum in downtown León.
Doorkeepers at the León Cathedral.
Little sister braiding big brother's hair. In León's Parque Central in front of the Cathedral.
The universal condition: teenagers are the same everywhere.
Guatemala -- at a market on the drive back from the Iximché Mayan ruins; this little girl did not crack a smile the entire 15 minutes I observed her.
General Juan N. Alvarez Primary School at Ejido Miguel Aleman, Suchiate, Chiapas, Mexico (close to Puerto Chiapas) -- a schoolchild.
Another schoolchild.
Middle and upper school children performed for us in traditional dress.
She was not at all shy.
Another schoolchild.
San Sebastian del Oeste -- in the Sierra Madre Mountains east of Puerto Vallarta.
Making tortillas.
An enthusiastic artisanal baker in San Sebastian.
Two icons of our modern world: the Virgin Mary and an electric meter.
Doing her homework outside her mother's organic coffee emporium. I want to know why she has a red star on her forehead.
Cabo San Lucas panorama. The town is behind us.
San Diego Harbor -- Navy Seals performing a "fly-by."
Victoria, B.C. -- local transportation: slow and steady does it.
Vancouver harbor, B.C. -- seaplane port at left and a pile of sulfur in the far distance dead-center.
Vancouver -- a junior poseur with admirer.