October 20th: Puerto Quatzel, Guatemala and on to the Panama Canal

After two days at sea we arrived at Puerto Quatzel, Guatemala. Having experienced the uncomfortable ride in the small van at Mazatlan, I decided to skip the tour into Antigua. It was approximately a 2 hour ride and I really was not intrigued enough with Antigua to make the trip. Linda never even considered it but Cindy and Randy went for it. As Cindy said, " I've never been to Guatemala and will probably never come back, so I"m going." Instead I went ashore and walked through the vendor area by the pier. It was much nicer than I expected. The vendors were definitely selling, but no high pressure. The most frequent question I got was, "What size do you wear?" When I said thanks, but I'm not interested, they typically said, "Well enjoy our country." There was also a good sized pleasure boat marina I enjoyed walking around.

Cindy and Randy returned that afternoon after a longer than expected bus ride. There was construction and there was some mild concern about getting back to the ship before we set sail. The bus, as it turned out, was very comfortable and they actually enjoyed the ride and the city.

As we left the pier I noticed it was going to be a great sunset. I went to the highest deck on the ship to take some pictures. I only posted two but I took a lot because they just kept getting better.




We were now on our way to the Panama Canal transit. On the map you can see Acapulco and the green dot is Puerto Quatzel. I say, "Transit" because we were not stopping in Panama, just going through the canal.

Knowing it would be a long time at sea we made reservations to see a live performance of Footloose. It was excellent. We were amazed at the staging and quality of the performance.

Panama Canal waiting anchorage

We made our way to the holding area for the Panama Canal. Ships were anchored, lined up waiting their turns to go through. We joined the group.

Fuel barge and attending tugboat

As we were anchored, waiting to go through the canal early the next morning, there was an announcement that the ship would be taking on fuel. We looked over the railing on our balcony and sure enough there was the fuel barge and a large tug boat. They pumped fuel for a very long time.



 The next morning we headed to the pier before the first lock.There is a steady stream of ships going through the canal. There are actually two canals since a larger canal was added next to the first canal. You can read an interesting and lengthy history of the canal, including information about the additional new canal we went through, here.  Panama Canal History

Lock door opening

We waited for the large ship in front of us to exit the first lock. Then we could watch the door opening. It rolls to the side as you can see in the picture. We moved into the lock and could easily see the ship in front of us that moved into the second lock. (There are three at each end of the canal.)


It was a hot and muggy day so many people were watching from the inside, forward observation lounge. There was a nice view of the canal and locks because the observation lounge is on deck 15.


As we progressed through the locks, it was explained that much of the water used in the transfers is reused by storing it in the lakes in the pictures. Because the locks are above sea level, all the water used in the locks comes from the tremendous amount of rainfall in the area. The rainwater would eventually end up in both oceans on either side of the canal, whether it was used for lockage or not. No water needs to be pumped into the system from either ocean for the locks to operate.

It took most of the day to get through the three locks on the Pacific side, through the man made canal to the three locks on the Atlantic side, and eventually out into the Atlantic Ocean.

One nice feature of the canal is that no building is allowed along the length of the canal. The wetlands are a protected nature preserve. It was surprising and enjoyable to travel through the very lush green waterway.

There was only one more port before Miami, Aruba. However, it would be two days at sea to get to Aruba and then two more days to get to Miami.