Panama Canal Cruise Days 7-8

February 2, 2024 At Sea

We spent 2 nights and 1 day at sea enroute from Panama City to our next port of call – Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala. It was a busy day of activities on board the ship!

I woke up around 7:30am and headed up to the Observation Deck for the continental breakfast – hot oatmeal embellished with granola, cinnamon and raisins complemented with coffee, a fruit bowl and – my weakness – a chocolate croissant. Have I said this already? There is NO shortage of good food on a Norwegian cruise ship!

After breakfast, I worked out in the fitness center. We were passing along the coast of Costa Rica today and from my treadmill I spotted a whole pod of dolphins! How exciting!! Afterwards, I joined in on another line-dancing session! Following a light lunch, my sister and I sat in on the Art Auction. I was curious about how it worked – the bidding process, the artwork and the price points.

To start the auction, participants are given sticky notes and asked to move around the art offerings and mark the ones they might be interested in. There is no obligation here but it allows the staff to choose which pieces to auction based on interest among the crowd.

There was definitely something for everyone – from pieces in the low-hundreds to many thousands. The “mystery” category offered the most value but you were bidding on the unknown. You did have the option once you could view the artwork in the mystery category to back out – so it was low risk.

We had fun watching others bid on the many pieces. I had never been to an art auction so I learned a bit and came away a tad more knowledgeable! 🙂

We chose to have Happy Hour in the Wine Bar this day and then returned to our stateroom for a shower before enjoying a light dinner.

There are some shows in the Bliss Theater that must be reserved in advance. One of the shows we reserved is the British musical comedy “Six.” It was a wildly lively and exotic interpretation of the lives of the six wives of Henry the VIII. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

To end the night, we popped into The District Brew House to listen to the talented singer/guitar player who frequented this venue – Juci Do Carmo. He had a popular following among the crowd and played a fair amount of songs from our era.

February 3, 2024 – Puerto Quetzal and Antigua

The title of our excursion today is “Easy Antigua” and it was a tour that all three of us – Mom, Vicki and I – could take together. We once again chose to eat breakfast at The Local since it was so convenient to our stateroom and also to the Bliss Theater where most of our tours met before disembarking the ship.

We crossed over this bridge from the ship to our tour busses and started this tour with a very lengthy bus ride to the interior of Guatemala to the ancient city of Antigua high in the mountains.

We passed through the rural countryside of Guatemala and miles of sugar cane fields that were being burned. Our tour guide was afraid that the smoke might obscure our views of the picturesque volcanos on the way but that was not the case. Many of my photos before reaching Antigua were taken through the bus window – so less than ideal – but you get the idea!

Burning sugar cane fields is a practice that has been declining due to the negative impacts it has on the environment and on the health of locals who live near the sugar cane fields. However, in some places, it is still practiced just before harvest as a means of removing the parts of the plant that are not needed so that harvesting the sugar-laden stalks is rendered easier. Our guide was definitely in the camp that disapproved of continuing this practice.

As we got closer to Antigua, we started to climb into the mountains and the sugar cane fields disappeared to be replaced with coffee plants at the higher elevation. Antigua is at an elevation of just over 5,000 feet and is surrounded by volcanos. It is quite a picturesque setting. Antigua held the distinction of being the capital of Guatemala for over 200 years between 1543 and 1773. After a series of devastating earthquakes, the capital was moved to the current location of Guatemala City.

Today, the town enjoys the distinction of being designated in 1979 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. According to the World Heritage Convention website, the following criteria in particular supported this designation:

Criterion (ii): Antigua Guatemala contains living traces of Spanish culture with its principal monuments, built in the Baroque style of the 18^th century preserved today as ruins. Antigua Guatemala was a centre for the exportation of religious images and statues to the rest of the American continent and to Spain during the 17^th and 18^th centuries.

Criterion (iii): Antigua Guatemala is one the earliest and outstanding examples of city planning in Latin America in which the basic grid plan, dating from 1543, has been maintained. Its religious, private and government buildings are outstanding evidences of Spanish colonial architecture in Antigua.

Criterion (iv) The many churches and monasteries in Antigua Guatemala testify to the influence of the Christian church, during the colonial period, on every aspect of daily life in the city. Barroco antigueño developed in this area, a regional adaptation of the Baroque style designed to withstand the earthquakes common in the region. (From: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/65/)

Because the main part of the historic center of Antigua is relatively small and contains very narrow streets, large tour busses are not permitted in the town. We drove to a location just outside this historic district and transferred to smaller “mini-busses”.

Much of our view of the town was while riding in the mini-bus but we did have a couple of opportunities to leave the bus for short excursions via foot.

We visited a jade museum where we could tour the factory and, of course, visit the gift shop. We also got an opportunity to use the restroom facilities here. What was interesting was that they had lost electricity prior to our arrival, so using the restroom was a particular challenge! Thank goodness for cell phone flashlights!! The museum was also without power but the natural daylight was sufficient for us to walk through and see some of the artifacts. There was a person giving a talk on the history of the jade industry here but it was so crowded and we could not get close enough to hear what she was saying.

From my own research, I learned that Guatemalan Jade is actually rather rare. It is a form of the mineral called Jadeite that is found in Guatemala and it was highly revered by the Mayan culture. They considered jade to represent eternity and it was a symbol of wealth and prestige.

Jadeite is found in only one other place in the world – Myanmar. The jadeite mined in Guatemala is quite diverse in color – from light to dark green and also shades of lavender, yellow and white. When the Mayan society was under threat by the Spanish invaders, they did not want to expose where they mined the jade and kept it hidden from the conquerors. Since the Spanish did not really value jade, the locations where jade was mined remained lost for centuries. I was surprised to learn that it has only been in the last 50 years that the jade industry has been revitalized in Guatemala.

Several jade enthusiasts – geologists and researchers – began to study jade in Guatemala in the 1940’s and located some in the Motagua River Valley. It was not until 1974, however, that an American ex-patriate couple located more in the same valley – Jay and Mary Lou Ridinger – and began to seriously invest in revitalizing the industry. They set up shop in Antigua – and were the original owners of the shop we visited.

After visiting the jade museum, we toured through the town and eventually came to the Parque Central (Plaza Mayor) in Antigua – a popular hang-out with lots of benches and food vendors and eateries.

We had the opportunity to exit the bus and explore on our own for awhile. Mom chose to find a seat and people-watch! 🙂

My sister, Vicki, and I walked around the perimeter of the plaza and explored the Catedral San Jose.

On a side street behind the church, I noticed a old ruin that intrigued me and I went to explore. It was the Ruinas de La Antigua Catedral Metropolitana de Santiago de Los Caballeros de Guatemala. Originally constructed in 1545, it suffered at the hands of several earthquakes over the years.

As we ended our self-guided walk around the plaza and headed back to our tour bus via the “mini-bus”, I tried to capture some more of the town from the bus window.

We got back to The Bliss at dusk. I must admit that this excursion was my least favorite of the entire cruise. It was so very crowded in Antigua and the drive to the town was long – too much sitting. I suspect my view of this tour is also somewhat skewed as well due to the onset of a nasty bug that hit me today. As the day wore on, I started to experience a sore throat and completely lost my voice by the time we returned to the ship. I was pretty much worn out at the end of the day as the germ sapped my energy and trying my best to hide it. I was the third in our party of three to finally succumb to illness. 😦 I hoped that it would not persist. When I got back to the ship, I retired to the stateroom for an early night. Our next day was to be a day at sea so I thought perhaps I would have the opportunity to rest and recover.