We had a very early morning again this morning with Jason. We had a togo breakfast from the coffee shop and met him outside. We were driving into the mountains to meet a friend of his, Michael who had a farm where the Resplendent Quetzal's nested. The drive was along steep mountain roads and it was so foggy we could barely see the front of the car. To make matters worse there were trucks and construction happening on the road. Somehow we made it safely to a small roadside caf

We got up very early this morning for our birding tour with a private guide, Jason. Conrad went to the coffee shop to pick up our to go breakfasts and we then met Jason at the entrance to the hotel. We headed out of San Jose while it was still dark to visit from national parks outside of San Jose. We stopped for breakfast on our way. We hiked through a heavily wooded area in a national park for what seemed like a long time. Jason was focussed on very small birds through his s

We disembarked the ship today in Costa Rica in a port town about 2 hours from San Jose. We were loaded into a van inside of the secure port area and bussed to a parking lot outside of the port where after a bit of confusion, we found our private transfer. He ended up being a very nice guy who took us from the port to the Marriot Hacienda Belem. The area appeared to be very industrial and was only 8 miles from the airport, but we were pleasantly surprised as we entered through

Today we visited Quepos, a small port town which was mostly rural. We drove to the Manuel Antonio National Park where we took a guided tour. This wasn't an excursion that we would recommend to others. The entrance to the park was in a small tourist area with narrow streets and long lines to get into the entrance to the park. Once inside the park we were guided by tour guides with spotting scopes who took us down very crowded paths, and when they were told by other guides abou

Today we are on Puerto Jimenez Costa Rica. We anchored in the harbor and were tendered to shore in the life boats today. Puerto Jimenez is located on the Osa Peninsula on Costa Rica’s southern Pacific coast . The town sits on the southeastern side of the peninsula, adjacent to a wide bay called the Golfo Dulce (Sweet Gulf). This bay is actually a tropical fjord, a deep ocean inlet that is rich in marine life. It’s one of the only tropical fjords in the world. Aside from a few

Today we are anchored off of Isla Parida. Isla Parida is the largest island within Panama's Gulf of Chiriquí National Marine Park, offering a protected, tropical destination known for pristine white-sand beaches, lush jungles, and diverse wildlife. It is located in the Pacific Ocean. It's made up of 25 mostly uninhabited islands. We took an excursion called Dolphin and Monkey Watch. Our excursion boat picked us up right from the ship and we headed out to do a hike on one of

Today we are at sea heading towards Isla Parida where we will go looking for more monkeys and dolphins as well as have a beach BBQ. We didn't do much today. We visited the hot tub which our balcony overlooks. Shawn went to a cooking presentation, and we had some bird sightings from the balcony. We have dinner tonight at a specialty restaurant onboard called Candles. In the hot tub Brown Booby Brown Booby We had a nice dinner at Candles, which is the Veranda restaurant during

This morning we had an early excursion from Panama City back into the canal to see Gatun Lake and some of the wildlife there. Gatun Lake is a mostly freshwater reservoir to the south of Colón, Panama. It sits at 26 meters above sea level, it forms a major part of the Panama Canal, carrying ships 33 km of their transit across the Isthmus of Panama. It was created June 27, 1913 when the gates of the spillway at Gatun Dam were closed. The locks on the Atlantic side of Lake Gatun

Today we woke up early and went to breakfast so that we could get back to our room for the entry into the canal. We have the best view possible of the canal with the largest part of our deck facing forward on Deck 6 and the wrapping around to the side so that we have shade at times as well. We watched some final loading and unloading of the container ships before we departed. The working port in Colon A pilot joined our ship and we were off towards the Canal. As you enter the

Today we left our hotel in Panama City and traveled by bus to Colon Panama to board our ship. We had a nice breakfast at the hotel, and then had to wait until 11:00 to have our luggage loaded onto a truck to take to the ship which was docked in Colon. We then waited until 12:30 to get our bus to Colon. We arrived and passed through a very brief customs process, then boarded the ship which was docked in a busy industrial port. The registration process on thei ship was quick an

Today we traveled from Philadelphia, through Miami to Panama. We stayed at the airport in PHL because our flight was at 5 AM. Our flight was on time and pretty uneventful although despite them telling us to be at the airport 2 hours early, neither the AA counter or Security were open when we arrived. We had a beautiful sunrise view on the flight. Sunrise on the way to Miami Once in Miami we had about 2 hours to wait for our next flight so we sat in the Admirals club there. Th

We are about to embark on a relatively short adventure to Panama and Cost Rica. The Itinerary is as follows: Day 1 - We will have an early flight out of Philadelphia this morning through Miami to Panama City. We will then transfer by land to our hotel in Colon Panama. Panama City is on the Pacific side of the Panama Canal and Colon is on the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal. We will transit this in the opposite direction by ship as we start the cruise. Day 2 - Colon Panama