First, a bit of history and geography! The Suez Canal was built in 1859 to 1869 and is a "sea-level" canal, no locks. The man who was involved, Count Ferdinand de Lesseps, then moved on to attempt the Panama Canal. He formed a stock company for the venture in 1879. After 10 years of effort the company stopped work and was in financial ruin. The terrain of Panama made a sea-level canal very difficult. Five years later, the company tried again with a plan to install locks, but did not have the resources. During this time, Panama was part of Columbia, but in 1903 won it's independence. It became the southernmost country in Central America. Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, and Belize are all closer to the USA than Panama which is located only 7 degrees north of the equator. The US Government bought out the French company and started construction 1904. The canal was opened ten years later on August 15, 1904. In 1977 an agreement was signed between Panama and the USA to turn over the canal on a planned schedule. That plan resulted in Panama taking full responsibility on December 31, 1999. The agreement provides that the USA will continue to have a responsibility to defend the Canal from any threat. The Panama Canal Authority appears to be doing an excellent job of running the canal. Remember all of this! There will be a question period later.

• The trip included five "dress-up" nights. Here is Grandma ready for the first one.

• There were five other cruise ships at Georgetown, Grand Cayman on our arrival Easter Monday.The town is well equiped to handle a large number of tourists. The shops seemed to mostly feature jewelery.

• A highlight of our Cayman visit was our descent in a submarine to a depth of 100ft. In ths photo,it had just surfaced from a previous trip.

• This photo shows the previous group exiting the sub.

• There were many fish and a few turtles to see but they didn't photograph well through the sub windows.

• The San Blas Island group, off the east coast of Panama, are inhabited by the Kuna Indians. They are said to be the second smallest people on earth after the pygmies of Africa. Women wear long skirts and appliqued blouses. Their faces sometimes have a black line painted from forehead to nose tip. A gold ring is worn through the tip of the nose. The people are very poor, living in villages of shanties. We felt very uncomfortable visiting the village from our fancy cruise ship. It felt like we were "invading" & exploiting these poor people.

• Upon entering the Panama Canal on the Carribean (Atlantic) side, two pilots came aboard to completly take over handling of our ship for the 50 mile, 8 hour trip.

The first locks on the Atlantic side are called Gatun locks as they elevate the ship to Gatun Lake. The lake is man-made by daming up a river. The three locks are filled with fresh water from the lake by gravity flow (no pumps). The total lift is 85 ft, or about 30 ft per lock.

Mules were used at first to guide the ships through the locks. Now they use 4 to 6 diesel engines per ship for the job but still call them "mules".

Photos show a bulk carrier in the adjacent lock. There are two lanes through the locks allowing either east or west traffic at the same time.The Panama Canal Authority controls all traffic. Tolls per ship for one crossing can run to $250,000 paid in advance.

This inscription on building at Gatun Locks commerates the 1913 date of completion.

As our ship rises in the final of three locks, we will be at the level of the Lake.

Rain threatened during our transit. The area gets a lot of rain and needs it to replenish the water level for use in filling the locks. Here we were sailing across Gatun Lake.

In order to descend to the level of the Pacific Ocean our ship had to be lowered 85 feet. This is Pedro Miguel Lock on the Pacific side.

Mira Flores Lock is the final lock on the Pacific side.

Exiting the Canal we passed under the Bridge of Americas over which passes the Pan American Highway. One can drive from Alaska to Argentina. Panama City is just south of the Canal exit.

Beginning our Nature Walk near Puntanenas, Costa Rica. These Crocodiles appeared to be 12 to 15 feet long.

A map of our Nature Walk in the Carrera Biological Reserve in Costa Rica. The walk was to be 700 meters and take 1 1/2 hours, but we walked for almost 3 1/2 hours and covered well over 700 meters (with temperature in the 90's and humidity near 100%) .

An Iguana; We saw many in CR and Mexico. Our guide told us to be alert and stay single file in the center of the path thru the jungle pointing out several hurtful bugs, and animals. Single file also helped when "things" fell from above; the person behind could knock them off. We saw many birds including large toucans, heard but did not see howler monkeys. On our trip back to the ship, the guide also showed us cashew and banana trees.He explained that the part of the banana we eat is actually the ovary of the plant.

Our guide on the Nature Walk.

Poisonous snake on Nature Walk.

A BIG welcome on the pier at Huatulco Mexico.

A pretty chapel in Huatulco, Mexico commemorating an early missionary.

Imagine our surprise upon docking in exotic Puerto Vallarto, Mexico to see an old friend from our cabin window!

Matlazon, Mexico; truly an active industrious city. Home port to Mexico's largest shimping fleet.

Pichilinque (La Paz) Mexico provided a welcoming band at the dock. We found La Paz a peaceful "real" town and we were not overwhelmed by "tourist eaters".

A very hot day on shore prompted Grandma to not one, but two, beers on the pool deck. We also ennjoyed a delicous BBQ on deck. No formal dining room tonight!

The southern most part of the Baja pensinsula, called "Baja Sur California", is truly the most beautiful. It is desert so don't visit in summer when the temperature is about 112 degrees. It is a playground for rich American and Camadians. Cabo San Lucas is the southernmost city.

Our 19 day trip ended with two days in San Diego, truly one of the most attractive cities in America. A 2 hour tram tour provided us with the highlights and we didn't have enough time to go back to all. The museum area in Balboa Park took most of our time.