Malaga is such a beautiful city! There are so many great thing about this wonderful expat sanctuary!

Pacific ocean is full of marine life… Saw dolphins frolicking at sea during breakfast

Forgot to mention that it has been super hot and humid since Cartagena Colombia, can’t wait to get back to the super comfy weather that’s been waiting for us in Los Angeles…

We were just here in Dec 2022 when we did the Antarctica cruise… Let me share some pics from that cruise

Originally R was not planning to do anything this time ( as the memories from last time were still fresh) just bump around the port while P wants to check out the capital San Jose but tour got canceled due to potential strike on Labor day. …. but we ran into a friend this morning who bought a Coffee, chocolate and Sarchi experience excursion but didn’t feel well enough to go, so we decided to go for it.

Costa Rica’s volcanic soil makes great coffee…. Golden beans they were called… It funded the growth of the country through the years. Today, We visited the coffee plantation 1.5 hours away from pier in the Naranjo region

Afterwards we get to tour Sarchi oxcart factory… Apparently it is a cultural thing thats very significant to Costa Rica…. Because of the high altitude of the coffee plantations, the coffee beans  have to be manually picked and transportation of the coffee beans or any other produce still rely on oxcarts and these Sarchi oxcarts were beautiful painted and very well made

We were glad we did this tour especially the coffee part… I will do medium roast from now onwards instead of dark roast… No wonder all these years of dark roast never jolted me to full awakness 🤔

Sunrise today…. Very pretty… Notice the black fume on the right side? That’s our ship emitting Sulphur oxide and nitrogen oxide…. We always tried to brush it aside and ignore it…and  we are happy to hear that Princess is adding newer ships that burns LNG (liquefy natural gas) instead and largely reduced green house emissions

Below is our wall where we stick magnets, P’s art work and pictures token with friends and crews onboard and…. After 103 days it’s getting quite busy..

Such a rich culture, and a strong passion for life and their trades… Kusadasi, Turkiye

Did not expect the water to be so beautiful here. Wow…

So the French and the English both attempted to build the canal but failed… The US successfully built it (costs US 375 million) and in the process also helped Paname became independent from Colombia…… Total of around 27000 people sacrificed in building this canal… What a history

Pic above From Wiki as well as: “The American Society of Civil Engineers has ranked the Panama Canal one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.”….. We were very excited to cross it today

The whole crossing took about 9 hours, we were going through the old locks that opened since 1914 (an expanded canal opened in 2016 that can fit bigger ship) old locks can only fit ships up to 1000 feet long, our island princess is 964 feet, one of two older smaller ships of Princess fleet that can fit into the old locks of Panama canal

The first lock we crossed is the Gatun Locke which had three chambers that raise us a total of 85 feet to a man made lake : Gatun lake

After exiting the first lock, we were at Gatun lake which was surrounded by dense forests with wildlife activities… It was sunny at first, but then it starts pouring rain….beautiful rain or shine..

Took about 3 hours to arrive at the second lock Pedro Miguel lock to begin our descend into Pacific ocean

3rd lock is called Miraflores locks

After we exited the locks and level up with Pacific ocean, breathtaking view of Panama city and Frank Gehry’s museum was in sight

We were so happy to be able to cross the Panama canal since we were diverted and couldn’t cross the Suez canal (Suez canal is a sea level canal that does not require locks and chambers to transit) … Panama canal is truly a man made wonder and we are grateful for the opportunity to cross it…. If it was not build, all ships needs to go all the way down to Cape Horn, risk the treacherous sea near Drake passage that surround Antarctica and loop back… And that’s a much scarrier and longer voyage….

We did not expect too much from this port stop but turns out it has strong characteristics and idiosyncracies…. The fun starts at the cruise port and they said it’s one of the most beautiful cruise port in the world… Packed with parrots, peacocks, other birds, fishes, monkies (we did not see monkies but others did) .. .. Like a tropical paradise

We tried to get an Uber to go to the old city and our driver turns an Uber ride into a private tour with great value… Thanks Pedro!!

The historic old city of Cartagena and the Castle San Felipe de Barajas were both listed on the Unesco as world heritage site and that’s where we were going…

Castle San Felipe de Barajas was uniquely shaped and grande with many tunnels… We don’t know why Pedro took us to a shoe sculpture and insist it’s a hot spot for photos but we humor him… We really enjoyed the castle, spent almost an hour there climbing up and down through tunnels and stairs

And then he took us to a chocolate and coffee shop…. Both important Colombian delicacies

Next Pedro drove us to historic city center and went on walking tour… First stop is Las Bovedas, a formal prison dungeon turned big market place

We love the way women here dress..

Pedro lead us through streets, some touristy, some quiet… All so very beautiful

We were overwhelmed by all the beauties and colors of the old city of Cartagena…. Another city we definitely wants to come back again