We are at sea today, traveling from Curacao to the Panama Canal. We think we will be cruising the canal in the morning, into the lake in the middle of Panama and about half-way across to the Pacific Ocean, and then do an excursion in the afternoon, at Cristobal Pier, but we are not sure of where Cristobal Pier is. Maybe it is in the lake, Lake Gatun.

There are always activities to do all day long when we are at sea. Thursday, there was a sexy leg competition for the men, judged by a panel of experts (female passengers) and by audience applause. The men had to dance around and shake their booty in front of the judges. One guy seemed to be quite full of himself. He thought he was a shoe-in to win. The rest of the guys were doing it for kicks, and one man was in a wheelchair. He did his little dance by wheeling around in the chair. Today was a team event, the battle of the sexes with a team of 4 men and a team of 4 women. They had to swim a relay race, first putting on a t-shirt, swimming down and back in the central pool, passing the t-shirt to the next teammate, etc. The men won. Then there was a synchronized swimming portion of the competition, with first the men and then the women doing a synchronized swim, which was hilarious. They were so bad. Here are some of the spectators. A motley crew! These people represent the average ship shape on this trip. It surprises me how many older men are in speedo type suits. Their wives should tie them up and and not let them out of their staterooms with these suits. Apparently this is the norm in Europe. Remind me never to go to a beach in Europe.


There were also cooking lessons, a movie in the theater, yoga or stretching classes in the fitness center, and lots of other little things to do. We just went to the pool, where there is a band and a singer every day. Bob and I either read or listen to a book on our Ipods. And lots of activities happen around the pool.

I keep seeing a man on this ship who looks familiar. I thought he might be a sports commentator for football or something, but Bob didn't recognize him. Then I had this image of him in a futuristic/military type outfit, so I think he is a minor actor who has been in Star Wars or something. He is older, with very short, slightly receding white hair, a very rugged looking face. I will have to browse through imdb.com when I get home to see if I can find him. Not sure what movies he has been, but I KNOW I recognize him. We have seen him a lot, and we have never seen people stop him to chat with him, so he is not a big star or anything. I doubt I will even recogize his name. I took my camera with me today to the pool area and around the ship in case I could get a shot of him. I saw him a few times, one time I followed him to the fitness center, where he went to do some weight lifting, but I didn't get close enough to get a good shot of him. I will keep trying.....

Every evening while we are at dinner, our room attendant brings clean towels, leaves the daily schedule for the next day and turns down our bed. He always makes an interesting shape out of the pillows, something different every night. Here are two night's formations. The first one shows the flowers Bob bought for me too. The second one uses a towel and my sunglasses, and Bob's Carter Pillow is in the back lying on its side- we brought this to support his left arm. We call it the swiss cheese.

We have not gone back to the dining room for dinner. The service is just so painfully slow, it is not comfortable for Bob to sit that long and not be able to prop his arm up on the table, and then having to keep up a conversation with our table mates makes it seem longer, so we have been going to the cafe, where we will go tonight and then to the show. Tonight's show is a comedian impressionist. Should be lots of fun! I should get lots of good photos of the Panama Canal tomorrow. We can't wait to see it.

4:15 PM NEWS FLASH!
We went back to our room and were relaxing and watching a TV show on the building of the Panama Canal, and it seemed like the boat was stopped or backing up, and we should be in the middle of the ocean. I looked out the window to see we were really close to shore! I thought it must be Venezuela, but I was told it is Colombia. The ship kept backing up and then idling. So here is the photo of the Colombian coastline. I have never seen South America before!


Bob called Guest Relations and asked what was happening. We were told there was a medical emergency and we would be moving again soon. I rushed up to the pool deck where everyone was looking out over the starboard side. There were so many people all on one side of the ship, I thought we were going to tip over. Ha ha,

I found out from another passenger that this morning a man was walking or jogging on the walking track, and he passed out. He did wake up, but later passed out again, and then no one knew what happened after that, but he must have needed more medical attention than the ship could provide, so we got pretty close to shore, and two small boats came screaming out to our ship. I watched from one of the upper decks. The little dock on the second floor of the ship was opened up, and the larger boat docked and dropped off a guerney, and then the second, smaller boat docked, andl I got sick of waiting, but I am sure the man was hoisted over onto the boat and both boats went back to shore. In the photo below, the larger boat was making its approach. You can see the little dock on the ship way down near the water.

We are now back on our way.

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