Tom and Steve at Sea: Latin America, Panama Canal and Christmas 2014

The past few weeks have gone by quickly but we have had fun visiting Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Colombia and sailing through the Panama Canal for our 3rd time. After a short one day stop in Fort Lauderdale where our friends, Fred and Ken, plus many others disembarked, we have now sailed into the Caribbean for the holidays. Below are some photographs from the last few weeks. We hope you are also enjoying this Holiday Season and we thank you for following us on our world cruise!!

In Mexico, we learned (and tasted, haha) how premium Tequila is made from blue agave grown near Puerto Vallarta and San Sebastian.

We visited Guatemala where our granddaughter, Kylie, was born. We toured the historic city of Antigua where Steve and his son, Steve Jr, paid a visit in 2005. On this visit, Tom was told about a 5-star hotel named Santo Domingo where we had a very nice lunch. We discovered there were beautiful gardens and a museum on the premises of the hotel. Afterwards we walked the cobblestone streets of Antigua and Tom's bright shoes helped Steve keep him in sight.

In Costa Rica we took an eco-Tour and saw lots of animals, including white-faced monkeys and colorful birds. And we watched fierce 20-foot crocodiles swimming below us as we stood on a bridge along the roadway south of our port city, Puerto Quetzal.

Entering the Panama Canal, it's always interesting to watch how the locks operate allowing ships to be raised over the mountains of Panama. We could see the new locks under construction nearby that should open next year to accommodate the even larger passenger and cargo ships being built today. And we passed under one of the beautiful bridges that connects the continents north and south before sailing towards the beautiful skyline of Cartagena, Colombia.

Then we sailed north to Fort Lauderdale and the ship was decorated for the upcoming holidays. We had lunch with a wonderful lady of 95 years who has been sailing with Holland America since 1939. Having previously met Julia on our world cruise in 2013, we are delighted to learn she and her husband, Don, are joining us again on the world cruise starting this January 2015. Would you believe it is her 33rd world cruise?

Our first stop on the Holiday portion of this cruise is Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas, which is a private resort owned by Holland America Cruise Lines.