Where in the world

My, how time flies... Yesterday we transited ( listen to me being all nautical) the Panama Canal from east to west. Going through the Canal for us was the point of this trip. Lots of cruises visit one side of the Canal or the other but relatively few go all the way through.

We've been at sea ten days now and are halfway through our cruise. My apologies for not having blogged before this but shipboard internet is a wee bit pricey. We bought the cheap plan at $100 for 250 minutes and picked today to have it start. Of course if we had bought a more expensive cabin package internet would have been 'free' but that cabin would have cost thousands more.

So far we've made port at Bonaire, Aruba, Santa Marta (Columbia), and Cartagena (Columbia) before making our way through the Canal. We're heading next to Puntarenas, Costa Rica and then on to Nicaragua, Guatemala, Mexico, and north to the U.S. We're onboarding the Norwegian Cruise Lines Gem which is one of their medium-sized ships. It doesn't have the fancy ziplines, wavepools, and go carts of their larger ships but it's still very luxurious for this Colorado boy who'd prefer being in a tent in the high country as being put up at a Four Seasons. That said, we're being pampered and coddled like royalty and the crew and staff of the Gem are more than attentive to our every need.

From my limited experience cruising, this being only our second cruise, the bane of being shipbound is the potential lack of meaningful exercise compounded by food buffets just begging to add pounds and pounds to one's waistline. Thankfully my beautiful wife makes sure I'm up at O-dark thirty every day participating in stretching, yoga, spinning, TRX, and Pilates classes supplemented by poolside Zumba and aerobic-dance classes. And then it's time for breakfast... Just kidding, these classes and more are offered throughout the day (and night) wrapping up with 10 p.m. poolside dancing guaranteed to make you sleep like a baby. Please take note of the number of dance-oriented classes (aerobic, Zumba, Latin, country western, and many more). If this poor boy gets any more chances to swivel my hips or shake my booty somebody's going to have to rescue me. I'm moving parts and 'thangs' (as the instructors call them) I didn't know I had. And now that I've discovered I have them I'm not so glad I do. I'm sorta looking forward to going home just so I can stop shaking things that IMHO don't need to be shaking in the first place.

Of course there's all sorts of other entertainment from Broadway shows, piano bars, karaoke (if you've ever heard whale songs from the depths you have some idea of me doing karaoke), to casinos, craft classes and the opportunity to spend what little money I have left on some very nice, but very expensive, artwork.

Well, this has turned into a rather long blog, so I'll sign off for now. Besides, I've gotta head up to deck 12... the poolside barbecue just opened for lunch...