Celebrity Mercury, October 1, 2010, San Diego to Baltimore
Cruise thru the Panama Canal and visit:
Cabo San Lucas – Acapulco - Huatulco, MX – Puntarenas, Costa Rica - Cartengena, Columbia and Santo Domingo
The Panama Canal, an incredible marvel of engineering, a liquid highway of commerce flanked by a fabulous rain forest, a must see on everyone’s list, what better way to see it than by “Sea?”
Traversing the canal is an extraordinary experience. You'll want to stay on deck most of the time to observe the
Panamanian countryside. One of the world’s largest artificial lakes, Gatun Lake covers more than 160 sq mi and is an integral part of the canal passage. Gatun is rich in wildlife, as your ship sails around islands that were once hilltops, you're likely to see lots of birds. (Take good binoculars.) Crocodiles can sometimes be seen raising their snouts from the water.
Some of the ports you may visit and fun things to do on your journey in Panama are listed below.
Cabo San Lucas is part of the region known as Los Cabos, or the Capes. Sitting almost where the desert peninsula crumbles into the Sea of Cortez, once a ramshackle fishing village it is now more tourist oriented than San Jose. The town is the center of the region's ever evolving shopping and dining scene, Boulevard Marina is lined with restaurants, bars and shops. West of downtown is El Faro Viejo, the old lighthouse set amid sand dunes on the Pacific Ocean. There are no paved roads out to the lighthouse; visitors can see it by all-terrain vehicle or boat excursion.
Acapulco, Mexico's original seaside resort has enticed vacationers for years and is also a backyard beach to residents of Mexico City, as a result, Acapulco feels more authentically Mexican than resorts such as Cancun or Los Cabos, which are tailored to vacationers from abroad.
Home to dazzling restaurants and a decadent disco scene, this stop is a playground that never sleeps. Famous for having the first major rock 'n' roll club in Mexico called Tequila A Go Go, now a shopping mall, once drew celebrities and launched Acapulco’s reputation as an after-dark mecca. Be sure to try the city's most famous drink from any local pub, the coco loco is tequila, coconut milk and a splash of secret ingredients.
Huatulco's Mexican colonial style architecture is just a few decades old. This is the country's newest Pacific-coast resort area and is an attempt to balance tourism and environmental preservation. Mexico set aside about 60% of Huatulco (pronounced wah-TOOL-koh) as an ecological reserve, and all new construction adheres to strict codes: No buildings taller than six stories and plenty of open space and natural vegetation in between.
If you want to visit the beach, your biggest dilemma may be to choose which one, in Huatulco you’ll discover nine gorgeous bays and 36 golden beaches, many ringed by coral reefs, underwater grottoes or canyons that attract shoals of fish. The bays are protected national parks and are home to 413 plant species, 291 types of birds, 130 different mammals, 72 reptile and 15 amphibian species. Santa Cruz, the original fishing village, has been completely transformed. You can stroll around the open plaza and visit the pottery, silver and leather artisans. Just a mile inland you can visit “downtown” La Crucecita, everything is new, though it looks similar to a Mexican village that's grown up naturally. Unlimited water sports as well as adventures to nearby coffee plantations and mountain streams mean there's something for most visitors to do, or simply relax in deluxe seclusion.
Puntarenas, Costa Rica, a small Pacific coast city about 50 miles west of San Jose is built at the tip of a long, narrow peninsula. Restaurants and shops line the Malecon, a pedestrian walkway that runs along the waterfront north of town. Take an hour or so to explore the city, it's a good place to shop for unique souvenirs, have a local coffee and take photos. A small museum has displays on regional indigenous pre-Columbian culture, the importance of coffee in the town's evolution, plus miscellaneous pieces and maps that relate to the maritime history of Puntarenas.
Costa Rica is considered by many to be the sport fishing capital of the world or explore the tropical forests on horseback, a good place for spotting monkeys, sloths and other wildlife. Be adventurous on the zipline canopy tour or ski-lift style cages that whisk you up a forested mountainside.
Cartagena city walls stand as a romantic reminder of its glorious past, they were the city's main defense against pirates in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. The magical presence of the walls has protected Colombia's northern land from social, political and drug-related violence. The narrow cobblestoned streets are enchanting as you stroll among Emerald and leather shops that fill the colonial buildings.
The city has been a refuge for Colombian and foreign vacationers, Greta Garbo was a regular visitor, and Marlon Brando stayed for a little while after filming in the 1970s. Fidel Castro appeared in public without his military uniform for the first time in Cartagena, bowing to the city's code of informality by wearing the traditional white cotton shirt of the tropics.
