Hello. My wife and I are back from a Costa Rica and Panama cruise.
It’s our fifth cruise, and first time doing Winstar. They have smaller ships – about 220 passengers plus crew. Much smaller than those large cruise ships that we’ve always taken before.
Not all our vacations are cruises. But my wife loves them so we go on them often.
My wife and I have a hard rule that every year, we have to leave the country to a country we haven’t been to before. This year started out with Costa Rica and Panama.
Costa Rica and Panama have gorgeous beaches and wonderful weather in January. I got a slight sunburn as I stayed in the water all day. I’m pretty dark so it’s not easy for me to get burned. I pretty much have to stay in the water all day.
But it’s hard not to. It’s so warm and lovely.
We saw dolphins, monkeys, sloths, toucans, parrots, and macaws. I didn’t bring a good camera. Just my cell phone. So these pictures aren’t great.
I’m more into having a good time anyways than taking pictures.
However, I did take a lot of jungle shots. I’ll be using them for my tropical mermaid paintings.
So, I also learned a few things. Do you know the difference between African monkeys and South African monkeys? South African monkeys have prehensile tails, meaning that they can use them like an extra limb.
Pretty cool to see them doing it live. I didn’t get very close as these shots were taken in the jungle.
Do you know why it’s called a Jesus Christ lizard? This lizard can literally run across the water.
No, I didn’t get any video of him doing that. However, at least I got a picture of him chilling.
All in all, had a great time. Definitely ate and drank too much. Looks like I’m going to have to hit the weights harder and incorporate some running in there to work some of that vacation weight off.
But, had a great time.
We finished the vacation crossing the Panama Canal. Highly recommend for people who like technology as for its time, it was an engineering miracle. France begun the work in 1881 but had to abandon it due to a high mortality rate for the workers. The USA took it over in 1904 and completed the work in 1914. The American Society of Civil Engineers lists it as one of the 7 wonders of the modern world.