CRUISE VALPARAISO, CHILE to FORT LAUDERDALE, USA

April 1 to April 19, 2015

We did not have far to go to get on the Holland America Cruise (Zaandam) in Valparaiso. We had stayed one month in Vina del Mar which is only a few kilometers from the port. We had previously done this portion of the trip before but in the reverse but it was a great way to get back to where our car was stored in Miami before we started this adventure to Bogota, Colombia and Chile. 

View from the Zaandam with Valparaiso in the back ground

Our first stop was Coquimbo which happened to have a huge fish market the day we were there.

Lots of wonderful displays of fish for sale

Unusual fish in the foreground

The town of Coquimbo

The Cross is 83 meters high and 40 meters wide

The beautiful Inca Tern

General San Martin is not much of a stop except to go into the Aticama Desert.  We opted to take a shuttle to the town of Paracas where they have done a great job of fixing the water front and adding hotels.

Seaside in Paracas, Peru

The view of the Candelabro on the hillside which is part of the Aticama Desert and the Nazca Lines

After a couple of sea days we landed in Callao, Peru. We thought we would just walk around the city as we had previously had a very good tour of Lima. Callao is the port city for Lima. We took the shuttle bus out to the gate from the container port. We walked only a half block and at the first intersection we were met by the Tourist Police and they would not let us go further as it was too dangerous. No one was allowed beyond this point – the only way was by taxi or tour. This was our first experience with this dangerous problem. We naturally obeyed and thanked them for the advice, but we were disappointed as we always enjoy our walk and sightseeing in different cities.

The Tourist Police who stopped us from going any further

In Trujillo, Peru we took a shuttle bus into the city centre. It was only 9 km but took almost      1 1/4 hours as the traffic was terrible. The city centre was very colonial and historical and quite beautiful.

Plaza de Armes in Truijillo

Manta, Ecuador is the tuna capital and boats were unloading their catch. The unloading of fish into containers took all day and this was done by huge buckets and cranes. We did our usual walk around the town and to their museum. We even visited the local grocery store just to peruse the merchandise – this is always interesting.

Tuna net being hoisted on ship

Men straightening out the nets as it is being loaded

Tuna Capital of the World

Going through the Panama Canal in the opposite direction certainly gave us a different perspective. The expansion of the canal is horrendous and will be huge when it is finished next year. We had a good view of Canopy Towers where we had a great birding trip a few years ago. We could only see the huge yellow globe of the old USA radar site.

View of Panama City from our ship

The Bio Museum in Panama was designed by Frank Gehry.  This museum took longer to build than the Panama Canal

Construction began in 2004 and almost finished finished in 2015

   see   en.wikipedia.org/wiki/biomuseo

Dinner on the ship with Panama in the background

Travelling under the Bridge of the Americas

Entering the Miraflores Locks

The yellow globe of Canopy Towers in the background.  This is an old USA Radar Station which is now a fabulous bird watchers destination

This was our first visit to historical Cartagena, Colombia. We took a taxi to the city centre and walked many streets in the walled city. This city was established in 1553 and was protected from pirates by a fort in the city and a fort at its entrance, where they would capture the boats as the tried to enter the protected waters and pillage the city of its gold and silver.

Entering the ancient walled city of Cartagena

The Fort at the entrance to Cartagena

The opposite side to the Fort at the entrance to Cartagena

The Welcome Centre to Cartagena was the most beautifully appointed we have seen. It had a outside restaurant, shops and an aviary where local birds were on view. This was a special attraction for everyone and all this was in the shade of high trees as it was very hot.

Another visit to the private island of Half Moon Cay, Bahamas. Again, it was very hot and we walked some trails and watched people swimming with manta. It is a beautiful beach with very clear water.

The beach and the beautiful sea at Half Moon Cay

People swimming with the Manta Rays

Everything went very smoothly at Home Land Security when landing in Fort Lauderdale. We took a shuttle bus to Miami airport and then to the hotel where our car was stored. We found everything in good order and started our long drive back home to Winnipeg.

We stopped to visit with friends in Alabama as we were on our way home