Instead of being wordy and describing everything in excruciating detail, I decided to pick the best and add a brief comment to each. That way; you can hopefully experience some of what I saw and felt.
Deciding which ones to share has been a chore. I hope these meet with general satisfaction.
A brief description of the journey: We took a ten-day cruise from Ft. Lauderdale, FL to Panama with stops along the way. We were on the Holland - America cruise ship 'Volendam' and headed first for their private island 'Half Moon Cay' in the Bahama's. This was followed by stops in Oranjestad, Aruba; Willamstad, Curacao; Puerto Limon', Costa Rica and then Panama, but not necessarily in that order. It just sounds better that way.
This is a view of our stateroom. Even in First Class, space is at a premium.
Another view of our stateroom - sleeping in the king size bed was the only time we felt 'roomy'.
Sunrise at Sea
Our Ship, Holland - America's HM Volendam
Half Moon Cay, Holland - America's private islands in the Bahama's
The 'fort' on Half Moon Cay. Spanish theme.
The view from the 'fort' wall. No photo editing done on this, the colors are real, from the lavender sky to the turquoise water.
The 'fort' walls
Aruba startled me with its' aridness. Being on the wrong side of the trade winds makes the island dry and promotes a lot of desert life such as these cacti which are everywhere.
Cacti grow so well here that people commonly use them as natural fences. We were told this one took about three years to grow to around four feet tall. Lots more effective (and cheaper) than barbed wire!
Granite formation - Table Rock in a natural rock garden on Aruba. These rocks were everywhere and this is an example of one of the larger ones.
Another rock formation
Aruba is an island of extremes. This is the barren North Shore. The cracks you see are the remains of their original 'Natural Bridge' formation that collapsed a few years ago.
A smaller 'Natural Bridge' still standing.
The stacks of rock you see here are commonly called 'wishing stones'. It's believed that the higher you stack them, the more likely your wish is to come true. In addition it's considered bad luck to remove someones stones or take them to make your own. One of them had twelve stones, and another had ten. I did one with five. What's fascinating is that there are thousands of them all over the shoreline.
I kept remembering Aruba's famous ad "Come back to Aruba" done in Calypso music and showcasing the colors and culture of the more inhabited areas. The north shore is so desolate that there are no buildings, not even restrooms, just one main building setting way back. The water is too deep, too rough and too dangerous to allow swimming, diving or surfing. They made a National Park out of it and forbid development here.
This is part one of my vacation. In the next section I'll show Curacao (Cure a Sow), Part III will be Panama and the final segment on Costa Rica - the links are here -
Part II: http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977322497
Part III: http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977325767&nav=Namespace
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Comments: 18
You'll have to tell us your favorite place you visited.
Thanks for posting to By The Sea.
like the cactus fencing and the hues of the water are so rich....
*i just posted the color version of the Koi pond so you can see the details and get a better idea about the b/w one you saw...always a pleasure to read your feedback,Rog
cheers,gayle
Too many times people are mislead into believing they're getting more than they pay for; and in fact may be getting a lot less.
A detail of our cruise was that we were only going through PART of the Panama Canal. How many times during the trip I heard so many complaints as people found out they weren't going all the way through to Panama City. We knew the itinerary because we checked and questioned our Agent at AAA. If she didn't know, she found out.
Rooms are meant to look huge. The actuality is a LOT different. There are 'inside staterooms' that sound nice and are CHEAP...yeah! Gimme that one. The truth is they are rarely larger than closets. Some people rationalize that they will be off the ship most of the time so no big deal. But on those 'days at sea', you should hear them kick and scream.
The 'shore excursions' I show in my travelogue are all 'over and above' the cost of the cruise. THEY ARE NOT INCLUDED. You get a list and a brief description of the excursion and you decide if you want to go. An advantage of booking early is we always get what we want and there's a lot of time to research it.
Then you get on board and people go down to the Shore Excursions at the last minute and complain when they find out their choice is sold out.
We're already planning next years Vacation. Which would you choose: A shoreline cruise from Newfoundland to New York City in autumn to watch the leaves or cut to the chase and head straight for the Antarctic?