Latin / South America 2015

We stopped at a couple of South American ports before and after we traversed the Panama Canal, this time from east to west, on this cruise around the world.  

The first was Santa Marta, Colombia where we visited a museum that displayed gold and artifacts recovered from archaelogical digs in the vicinity of the city and we were driven into the countryside where we enjoyed visiting an estate that was the final home of Simon Bolivar, the famed liberator of Colombia and other neighboring countries in the northern half of South America.

We enjoyed refreshments at a nearby beach resort hotel and witnessed a folkloric dance by local residents.  Steve was invited to join this exotic, or should we even say, "intentionally erotic" dance and he couldn't resist. 

Leaving Colombia we sailed to the San Blas Islands which are located just east of the isthmus of Panama on the Caribbean side.  The Kuna Indians that inhabit the islands were very friendly and proudly showed us their handicrafts. 

We really enjoyed this port and our friends, Sandy and Jack, agreed with Steve how much fun it was interacting with the local residents.  Tom and another good friend, Anna, shopped seemingly forever so after awhile Steve decided a little girl he saw had the right idea if he could only find a big enough hammock.

Tom was introduced to the self-proclaimed Mayor of the island, Jose Domingo, and was given a personal tour of the Mayor's compound.  While the San Blas Islands remain very primitive, its residents clearly enjoy their circumstance and, together with the Toucan photographed below, they were unfazed by the "invasion" of so many voyagers from the MS Amsterdam that afternoon.

As the clouds thickened, we departed by tender back to the ship and set sail for the Panama Canal.

This being our 4th time to traverse the Canal since we began sailing together in 2005, we didn't take as many photos this time.  But still the operation of the Canal is so very interesting, we wanted to capture the scenes below for this posting of our blog.

Seeing the skyline of Panama City off in the distance, we are reminded we still want to return to Panama someday to explore its capital city.  But on this cruise, our next port of call is Manta, Ecuador which we also visited in 2013.  It's where the famed Panama hat is said to have originated and Tom wore his new hat at a special luncheon on the ship the day before we arrived.  We were excited we would be flying the next day from Manta to Quito, the capital of Ecuador. 

 We met new friends, Larry and Bill, plus Stephanie, on the way to the airport for this one day tour of Quito arranged by Holland America.

The photos below will give you just a glimpse of this wonderful city high in the Andes Mountains.  At over 9,000 feet, it is nestled in a valley between many volcanic peaks and the weather the day we visited was just perfect.

From a beautiful park overlooking the center of the city, we could see the historic part of Quito which has been named a UNESCO World Heritage site. 

Our tour guide, Eduardo, spoke English perfectly.  He enlightened us on the history of Quito and he talked about the great bio-diversity of Ecuador, with its many types of plants and flowers and species of animals.  Our new friends, Bill and Larry, toured the park's gallery with us and we marveled at the exhibits.

The City's streets were often times very hilly and quite old, yet very clean.  We saw a Gothic style Catholic cathedral and a Convent with walls and ceilings adorned in gold-leaf.  There were magnificent gardens in the courtyards of many buildings and we enjoyed lunch at a beautiful hotel across the square from one of the Presidential residences.

In the afternoon, we visited the park that honors the location of the Equator and we stood with feet in both the North and South Hemispheres. 

At the present, we are sailing across the Pacific Ocean to the Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia and our first port of call will be Nuku Hiva.  Please check back in several weeks to see photos of this stop plus our visits to Tahiti, Tonga, and the Cook Islands.  And thanks for following our adventure around the world.