Panama Canal Cruise Days 9-11

February 4, 2024 – At Sea

It was another day at sea for The Norwegian Bliss as we made our way from Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala to Acapulco, Mexico. I was thankful for that as it gave me a chance to rest and recover from this bug that I seemed to have picked up. I slept a good part of the day and even missed dinner and the musical Jersey Boys – which we had reserved for this night. I was worried about having a coughing attack during the performance and disturbing those around me! I was bummed to miss the show but discovered there was another performance the last night of our cruise and I reserved a spot for myself in advance.

I went to bed that night convinced that I was feeling better and would be up for our Acapulco excursion the next day.

February 5, 2024 – Acapulco

On October 25, 2023, Hurricane Otis hit the city of Acapulco full on as a Category 5 hurricane. According to the NOAA, it had sustained winds of 165 mph. The news outlets reported catastrophic damage. To give you an idea of the magnitude of the destruction, I welcome you to access NOAA at this website. It was noted on other websites that the cost to repair and rebuild is in the many, many billions of dollars.

I was curious how the city has rebounded from this catastrophe 3 months later. It was clear from the moment we boarded our tour bus and started towards our first excursion destination that hardly any buildings escaped the rampages of the hurricane. The widespread destruction was jaw-dropping and the city clearly has years of work ahead to complete a rebuild and restore the resort town to its former self.

Our excursion titled Historical, Picturesque and Cliff Divers of Acapulco started off with a stop at the Fuerte de San Diego – Fort of San Diego. Dating to the 17th-cenury, the fort was built by the Spanish empire as a fortification to protect Acapulco from invasions by pirates. After suffering damage from an earthquake in the 1700’s, it was rebuilt and remained an active military installation into the 19th century. In recent years, the fort has become a popular historic landmark and houses an extensive museum that outlines the history of Acapulco. Unfortunately, we visited Acapulco on a Monday and the museum is closed on Mondays! So, we walked around the perimeter of the site but could not enjoy the museum. Bummer!!

Our next tourist stop was the famous Los Flamingos Hotel. Built in the 1930’s, the hotel was purchased later on by several Hollywood actors and became their “home away from home” for many years. Some of the members of this “Hollywood Gang” were Johnny Weissmuller, John Wayne, Red Skelton, Richard Widmark and Cary Grant. Along the walls of the hotel are many historical photographs depicting life during its Hollywood era.

We were afforded an opportunity to walk around the grounds and get a feel for what this place must have been like way back then. It seemed to be in a state of disrepair but perhaps that was due to the destruction caused by the hurricane.

Before heading over to view two other highlights of the day – the famous Acapulco Cliff Divers and the hillside Capilla de la Paz – we made a stop at a open air market. I was not impressed with the quality of the merchandise – mostly tourist-type cheap souvenirs – but we wandered around and stretched our legs.

Our next stop was an interesting landmark called the Capilla de la Paz – the Ecumenical Chapel of Peace. Located in an exclusive neighborhood high on the El Guitarrón hill, the chapel was commissioned by renowned Mexican businessman Carlos Trouyet as a memorial to honor his wife – who had the initial vision for this Chapel of Peace – and his two sons who were killed in a private plane crash in 1967. Architect Gabriel Chavez de la Mora led the way in bringing the current chapel to fruition. The Trouyet family’s remains are interred in a tomb on the lower level of the chapel.

The Chapel of Peace was designed to be interdenominational and is open to all regardless of their religion or creed. It really is a peaceful place.

Also on the grounds is a sculpture designed by Claudio Favier called The Hands of the Brotherhood. It represents a hand of each brother reaching to the heavens in prayer and is said to symbolize the fraternity between the two brothers. It is very moving.

On the way down the hill from the chapel, we drove through an exclusive neighborhood and I tried to take some photos from the bus. We were told by the tour guide that the house in the photo below belongs to Sylvester Stallone – not sure how I would verify that! I did do an internet search and found that he did indeed stay in this house during the filming of Rambo but did he own it?? Who knows??

On our way to our final destination – the Cliff Divers! – I grabbed some more photographs from the bus of some of the scenes along the way.

We arrived near the area where the La Quebrada Cliff Divers performed and to my dismay it was very crowded. I did not think we would get a good spot to watch – let alone take pictures. We followed the crowd however and I kept walking down the many flights of stairs until I reached a point where I could get a decent view. I was not able to see the divers when they entered the water but I could get pictures of them in mid-air and on the cliffs.

The La Quebrada Cliff Divers are professional divers paid by the city of Acapulco (or so we were told). They put on daily shows for the public and dive from heights up to 135 feet. The water they dive into is actually a narrow channel that is affected by the tides so they must time their dives to land in the water when the depth is at its greatest.

The divers walk down the lengthy staircase past the crowd of onlookers, swim across the narrow channel and climb the cliffs on the far side until they reach their diving spot. They dive from several different points on the cliff – with the more experienced divers climber higher and diving at greater heights.

We fit quite a bit into this tour and it was very hot – especially while watching the cliff divers. I had climbed down a few flights of stairs to get the vantage point I had and, of course, then had to climb back up! I was glad to get back into the air-conditioned tour bus!

Back at the ship, we got ready for dinner and chose to eat in the “fancy” Manhattan Room – one of the places considered “complimentary dining.” My choice for dinner included Seafood Croquettes, a Spinach Salad, and Kahlua Cream Cake for dessert. Oh yeah – mouth-watering!

After dinner, we enjoyed a comedy act in the Bliss Theater – Dan Bennett – who embellished his comedic conversation with juggling acts. He was very entertaining. I returned to our stateroom after the show to rest up – as the long, hot tour today took its toll on me because of this evil bug I was fighting off! Tomorrow, our port of call is Manzanillo. It is the one port that we opted out of an excursion and decided to stay on board the ship. I would be able to recover more from this nasty infection.

February 6, 2024 – On Board Ship

When I saw the town of Manzanillo from the ship, I was a little disappointed that we had not booked an excursion. It looked like a small, colorful little village compared to the skyscrapers of Acapulco and Panama City – a place I might like to explore. But, this sore throat/laryngitis/achiness that I was still feeling made me realize that it was best to relax on board ship. And, with many other passengers off the ship on excursions, it meant we had the place “almost” all to ourselves! I did take a few photographs of the town from various places on the ship.

We spent the day “hot tub hopping” and lounging around! We were able to convince Mom to join us in the Deck 17 hot tub area and afterwards grabbed a couple of lounge chairs to dry off.

After we got dried off from our hot tub soak, we decided to try the American Diner venue for lunch. We had not explored this eatery as yet. It was set up to resemble a typical “diner-style” restaurant with a menu that reflected what is often available in American diners.

Since we were still on Deck 17, we decided to check out the Spice H20 Bar area which spans the entire
VERY back of the ship on this deck. It is a very cool space and not crowded today so a great time to hang out here. We ordered some drinks from the bar and Vicki and I took another dip in the hot tub here while Mom hung out in the shade enjoying the view and reading her book.

In the evening, we watched the comedy act at The Social Club. It was good but I have to admit that I enjoyed the two comedians who started the cruise with us more than the two who came on board mid-way through the trip. I can’t explain why – just a different style of humor, I guess.

Tomorrow, we would be calling at Puerto Vallarta and we had what appeared to be a busy tour day ahead of us. Hoping for a good night’s sleep with minimal coughing episodes…