Jan 13: We started our trip to Central/South America a day earlier. A while ago, there was constant news of flight cancellations and delays due to the weather and computer system failures. Especially two days ago, the FAA flight system failed, causing all flights nationwide to be temporarily suspended for a couple of hours. It made us feel nervous about flying on the day of boarding a cruise and worrying about missing the cruise; we decided to fly to San Diego a day earlier. Upon arriving at San Diego airport, as usual, we were going to call Uber or Lyft, but it turned out that the city bus stop was right outside the terminal building. So we took the bus, a 10-minute quick ride to the hotel near the historic district - Gaslamp Quarter. Dropped off the luggage, we headed straight to the seaside. We had a couple of tacos at the pier first, then boarded a local tourist boat for an hour bay cruise, whose tickets were included in the destination fee our hotel collected from us. The tour guide on the boat was quite good, and he provided a lot of information about the bay. We really enjoyed the tour. Disembarked, we walked to the historic Gaslamp Quarter and were disappointed that the place was deserted and almost empty in the afternoon. After a simple dinner at the hotel, we returned to the Gaslamp district in the evening. However, this time it was much different; the streets were full of restaurant patrons and bargoers, but it was still not as lively as expected on a Friday night.

Jan 14: We signed up for our cruise embarking time at noon and had the whole morning to spare. After breakfast, we went to the Italian neighborhood just in time for the weekend market and saw some snacks we had not seen before. The line at the pozole booth was long, so we decided to give it a try. We had a cup of hot pork pozole, a Mexican pork soup that tasted great and was perfect for a cold day. After returning to the hotel and picking up our luggage, we boarded the NCL Jewel cruise ship. We officially began the first leg of our trip to Central/South America, a 12-day San Diego to Panama Canal cruise.

Our room was not ready when we boarded the ship. So with our suitcase in hand, we went directly to the Garden Café for a buffet lunch. Around 1:30 pm, the PA announced that the rooms were ready. Our room was a good size cabin with a balcony, and it was in a perfect location. At 4 pm, the ship slowly left the Port of San Diego in heavy rain. As we stood out on the balcony to watch the skyline of San Diego Bay disappearing in the low cloud, we felt very lucky to tour the bay area under the decent weather yesterday.

We had our first dinner at the Chin Chin Asia restaurant, which was really disappointing. Among all the food we ordered, the Kung Pao chicken was the worst. It came with clear-cut chicken cubes mixed with a little vegetable and sauce, and it was the worst Kung Pao Chicken we have ever had. We were unsure if we would return to the restaurant during the rest of the cruise. We didn’t finish the dishes, so we still had room for more food and went up to the Garden Café for the second dinner, a piece of delicious Prime Rib.

Jan 16: After leaving San Diego in the late afternoon on the 14th, our ship headed south and spent the whole day yesterday at sea. This morning we arrived at the first port of call, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The sky was clear, and the temperature was around 70F. We just visited this place a little over a year ago on another cruise trip. Without any special activities planned, we just walked along Medano Beach for four hours. At noon, we had some tacos from a Taco Bar at a hotel by the beach and enjoyed some people-watching. We wandered around the marina area looking for a coffee shop but couldn’t find one we liked, so we walked further away from the tourist area. We found a local coffee shop offering a decent Latte for $2.5 and good WiFi, and it was half the price we paid on the ship. Tonight, we went to see the magic show.

Jan 17: The Jewel left Cabo San Lucas last evening and arrived at Port Vallarta at noon today. We were lucky to see whales accompanying us this morning. It was our second time to visit Port Vallarta. More than a year ago, when we visited this beautiful city, we didn’t join any organized tour; instead, we explored the town by ourselves, taking the local buses and Uber. The city gave us a good impression. This time we signed up for a tour from the ship to explore more than just the new town area. First, the tour bus took us to the city center, the city hall, and the church. The city hall was crowded not just because of tourists like us, but many local people were waiting in line to pay the property tax. They get a 10% discount if they pay in January. Mexico also has a senior discount for property tax, and Mexican legal residents or citizens 60 years or older pay only 50% of their property tax. We wish the US had a similar policy.

Then the bus took us to a jewelry store in the old town, a tourist trap that provides a bathroom facility and free drinks. Visiting a ceramic tile factory across the street was much more enjoyable. The workers hand-painted each tile before firing them. The store sells different types of ceramic products. The bus finally took us to an old tequila winery passing through a village outside the city. The distillery is no longer used for production but focuses on tourist services. The owner’s son gave a short presentation and showed us a few old pieces of equipment for the distillation process. There were a few blue agave plants in the garden. It was not the typical brew/winery tour we had before. The tour's highlight was to taste their tequilas, a total of six different kinds, from cheap to expensive ones. Watching fellow passengers drink shot after shot and finish all six shots in no time, the two of us felt a little embarrassed because we did not even finish half a shot combined, definitely saving some tequilas for the winery. The primary purpose of the tour is to sell their Tequilas, and the free Tequila shots did the trick. Within the tourist complex, they also serve tacos—each chicken or pork taco with a freshly handmade tortilla sold for $2. We had a couple of them, which looked simple but very tasty, and we think they were better than those in the United States.

After the tour, we were back on the ship. We went to the main dining restaurant for dinner. The food tonight was delicious. There were not too many people in the restaurant tonight; probably because the ship had a late departure time, many people were still hanging out on the shore.

Jan 19: It took another sea day from Port Vallarta to reach the next port. Our ship docked early in Acapulco, Mexico, a new coast city to us. We started the day on our own and first visited the local church and the town square. It was early morning, and the people had just started setting up the booths in the square; not much to see. Then we walked along the beautiful seaside. We stopped by, watching a local fisherman beginning to fire up a charcoal stove on the edge of the shore wall for a while. He heated the pan directly over the fire and added some oil and garlic. Then he deep-fried fresh mahi-mahi fish eggs. The smell was good, and the taste must be delicious, but we did not dare try it.

Acapulco is another tourist resort town but less popular than Cabo San Lucas and Port Vallarta. We recently watched an Acapulco seaside cliff diving episode called Human Playground on a Netflix show, and a comedy show from Apple TV+. We joined the tour in the afternoon, and the highlight of this tour was seeing a diving show, which lived up to its name. Eight divers climbed the cliff and dived into the water below. The show lasted about 15 mins.

The tour's final stop was the Fort of San Diego, built by the Spanish Empire and one of the most important Spanish fortifications along the Pacific coast. Unfortunately, the Acapulco Historical Museum was closed under restoration. We just wandered around in the fort courtyard under the scorching sun, and we could not bear the heat anymore and returned to the ship. We hope the weather will be cooler as we travel to the south in the next few weeks.

Jan 21: Yesterday was another sea day. The wind and waves were very calm in the morning. The only ripples you could see were caused by our ship's sailing. The sea was so beautiful and looked like a painting. After taking a few cruises, long and short, this was the first time we saw such a calm sea. From time to time, Sea turtles could be seen floating in the calm water.

Done with Mexico ports, we headed to the largest Port in Guatemala, Puerto Quetzal, today. We arrived early this morning, and it was one of the smallest cruise ship terminals we've ever visited. The terminal only had a souvenir market for tourists but nothing else. Most passengers from the ship headed out to the ancient city of Antigua - the old capital of Guatemala. We took a tour called “Antigua on your own.” As the name indicated, the tour company only provided roundtrip transportation to Antigua. The bus ride to Antigua took 90 minutes. It was a scenic ride. Along the way, sometime, we could see coffee farms, massive sugar cane fields, and the Volcano De Fuego erupting every 15-20 minutes. Unfortunately, we were sitting on the wrong side of the bus and didn't have a good picture of the erupting volcano.

Antigua was an ancient city consisting of many old buildings and cobblestone streets. There were a lot of tourists visiting the town. After we arrived, we first went to the Hill of the Cross across the city to the far north end. The ongoing construction was on the spot, but it has an unobstructed view of Antigua and Volcano Agua. The area is free of charge, but a guy with a firefight uniform asked for a $2 donation on the path, which we did. On the way down to the town center, we walked through the quiet neighborhood, and the local houses were very distinctive, which we liked very much, and we thought we could stay there overnight or two. The main tourist attraction in Antigua is Santa Catalina Arch. Tourists and local vendors filled the area. We took some pictures and moved on.

We stopped by a couple of churches and ancient ruins, and then it was time to find a place to have some decent Guatemalan food. We went to Rincon Tipico, highly recommended by the Lonely Planet tour book we bought before the trip. The small restaurant was in the courtyard with simple bench tables. The chicken and potato were cooked over coals. Ordering food in non-English speaking places is always a challenge for us. Their menu on the wall was in Spanish with pictures. We had one chicken plate with potato and another chicken dish with a bowl of soup; all were very delicious. After lunch, we hit two more tourist spots before returning to our bus at 1 pm. We only had four hours to spare, and it was definitely not enough time to explore the area.

After another 90 minutes bus ride, we returned to the pier and spent some time at the market. We had fresh coconut water, local beer, and Guatemala Coffee, an excellent and happy ending to our very short Guatemala visit.

Jan 22: We were supposed to go to Nicaragua today. Probably for some safety reasons, We were informed that the Port of call to Nicaragua had been canceled when we boarded the ship in San Diego, and it was changed to another sea day. As usual, we went to deck 11 Garden Cafe for breakfast around 7:30 am and walked around the ship on deck 7. Typically, we would walk 8000 to 10,000 steps in the morning on a sea day. Last few days, some sea wildlife always accompanied our ship to make our walking routine more enjoyable. Today we had no exception. Seabirds accompanied us along the way, bringing much happiness to the boring sea travel. We brought our Sony Camera and took many photos.

Today was also the Chinese New Year, Spring Festival. The ship was slightly decorated, and every time we entered a restaurant or cafe, the staff would say "gong xi fa cai" to us. This is a rabbit year, so the food sculptures of rabbits, made of watermelon, fruits, veggies, etc., were everywhere. We broke our promise not to return to the Chin Chin Asia restaurant. We thought having a Chinese New Year dinner at the Chinese Restaurant would be appropriate to celebrate our holiday, even if the food would not meet our expectations. They didn't serve any unique dishes for the holiday. The food this time seemed to be a little better than the first time we had tried it; of course, we stayed away from that chicken dish.

Jan 23: We arrived early this morning at Puntarenas, Costa Rica. We had signed up for a crocodile river tour with the cruise. We waited in the theater for a while to go on the tour until we realized something was wrong after 30 minutes passing the scheduled time. We talked to the short excursion staff in the theater and were told that the original half-day tour was canceled. We didn't receive any cancellation notification and were a bit disappointed. We went ashore to book a local tour that cost us half what we would pay for the cruise tour. Eight of the passengers from the cruise were packed into a van. The first stop was a private property near the main highway to see the monkeys. A group of white face monkeys lives in the area. You pay $3 per person to feed the monkey with crackers. When you held the crackers in your hand, the monkey jumped to your head to take them from you and eat them. It was fun, and we took a few nice pictures with monkeys on our shoulders. Most time, after eating the food, they would get off us. But one of the monkeys jumped on one of us and stayed on her head for a while. It was a hilarious experience.

Our next stop was The Original Crocodile River Tour. We boarded a boat down the Rio Grande de Tárcoles, home to approximately 2,000 crocodiles. Surprisingly we only saw one motionless giant crocodile and several small ones. We saw several types of birds and black monkeys in the trees. Then we made a short stop at another private property to see Macaws. The tour was not exceptional, but it was okay. Today, we just got the first taste of Pura Vida in Costa Rica. Next month we will come back for ten more days.

After returning to the ship for a short rest in the afternoon, we got off again and walked around the pier. We walked along the beach to the lighthouse and watched the locals playing soccer and relaxing on the beach as the sun set on the horizon. The Ticas must enjoy their simple life. Before boarding the ship, we couldn't resist another fresh coconut. The last time in Guatemala was $1; today, it was $2 in Costa Rica.

Jan 25: Yesterday was the last full sea day before the Panama Canal, and we were lucky to see the stingrays jumping out of the water. We took pictures using the 70-300 mm lens, but it wasn't long enough to get a clear picture. We felt so lucky to see different sea creatures every day for four days at sea and spent hours watching them each day.

Passing the Panama Canal is always on our bucket list. We had wanted to do this for a while. We found this one-way cruise to take us through the Panama Canal and start our Central/South America trip. Today is the canal crossing day. Crossing the Panama Canal consists of three locks and three bridges from the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean Sea. Our ship was scheduled starting at 6 am and ending around 4 pm, for about ten hours. We got up early before dawn, and went to the bow on deck 8 about 15 minutes before 6 am. Based on the schedule, the ship would pass under the Bridge of the Americas, completed in 1962 at the cost of $20 million from the United States of America, around 6 am. The bow area on deck 8, which was closed to the public during the cruise, was supposed to be opened to the public during canal passing. When we arrived on the 8th floor, People were lined up to wait for the bow area to open. We hesitated to go elsewhere because we were afraid of missing seeing the bridge, so we patiently waited in line. The bow area was finally opened after 6 am, but we indeed missed the bridge. The Bridge of Americas was already far away when we entered the bow area. Very disappointed.

There were several places on the ship to watch the Panama Canal passing. We just went up and down to find the best position to see the canal passing and to take pictures. One of us even sits under the flag pole to have the best view and enable her to take photos without reflection from the glass shield. In the middle of the day, it became hot and humid. So we mostly stayed inside the view lounge in the afternoon. We also saw our sister ship the NCL Joy cruise ship in the middle of the lake of the canal, which we were on that ship three months ago, and the Joy happened to cross the canal in the opposite direction. What a small world!

After crossing the canal, our final destination, Colon, was nearby, but the cruise ship was not scheduled to dock tonight. Instead, the ship sailed to the Caribbean Sea for a big loop. There was nothing to see since it was getting dark. In the meantime, the vessel encountered strong winds and waves, which made us seasick. Passing the Panama Canal today meant that our 12-day cruise was ending, and tomorrow we would disembark and start our independent trip.

1/13: 提前一天开始了我们的中南美州之旅。前一阵子不断有飞机航班取消和延误的新闻，而前二天全美国飞行系统出故障造成所有飞机短暂停运后，让我们觉得有必要避免上船当天坐飞机，临时决定改机票提前一天来到圣地亚哥。顺利到达圣地亚哥机场后，原准备叫Uber 或Lyft, 结果发现市区公交车很方便又便宜，且车站就在停机楼门外。坐着公交车十分钟便来到历史小区-油灯区附近的酒店。放下行李之后直奔海边，先吃上几个Taco垫底后，就上了当地的海湾游船在海湾里转了一个小时。船上的讲解员蛮不错的，嘴没停过。下了船后走去油灯区，有点失望，冷冷清清几乎没人。晚上在酒店里吃上简单的晚餐之后又再次去油灯区走走，比下午稍好些， 虽然满街都是饭店和酒吧又是周五晚上，但还是没有想像中那么热闹。

1/14: 中午才上游轮，早上还有几个小时可以转悠。早餐后我们先去意大利小区转了一圈，正赶上周末集市，看到一些以前没见过的小吃，在那里喝了一杯墨西哥的猪肉汤，味道很不错。回酒店拿了行李之后我们便登上NCL Jewel游轮，正式开启我们中南美洲行的第一段－十二天圣地亚哥至巴拿马游。傍晚游船在大雨中慢慢地驶离圣地亚哥港。

上船后第一晚就去了船上一家中餐馆，实在太失望。尤其是要的宫保鸡丁从来没吃过这么差的，估计不会再去了。试了西式餐厅，味道还可以。

 1/16: 我们的船自14号晚上离开圣地亚哥之后，一路南下，今天（16号）早上来到第一站墨西哥的Cabo San Lucas。晴空万里，气温在70F左右。一年多前刚来过这里，今天故地重游。我们没有什么特别活动，沿着海滩走了三，四个小时，中午就在海滩边一家酒店的Taco Bar每人两个Taco, 味道不错。回船前，还去了一家当地的咖啡店，一是用一下WiFi，二是喝杯咖啡休息一下，$2.5一杯拿铁味道相当不错，价格也不错，是船上的一半。今天天气好、玩得很轻松，晚上会去看一下魔术表演。

 1/17: 昨天晚上离开Cabo San Lucas, 今天（一月十七日）中午来到Vallarta港。今天早上很幸运，在海上不时有鲸鱼陪伴我们。一年多前我们也来过Vallarta 港，很漂亮。当初我们俩是自由行，坐了公交车，也坐了Uber。这次我们参加了龙舌兰酒庄游，先把我们带去市中心，市政府楼和教堂，然后就去老城区的珠宝店，陶瓷店和皮革店，最后来到旧酒庄，那里好像已不再用于生产了，而是专做旅游服务了。介绍了龙舌兰酒生产过程，请大家品味六种不同的龙舌兰酒，每人总共喝六杯。看着别人一小杯一小杯喝，我们俩加一起也没喝到半小杯，真是便宜了酒庄😜。洒庄里还有卖Taco。酒后在那里每人要了个Taco, 有鸡肉和猪肉，饼是手工现做的，$2一个。这几天在外面天天吃Taco，看着很简单，但觉得就是比美国的好吃。回到船上已是晚餐的时间，晚餐很不错，蛮合我们胃口。今晚的餐厅人不太多，估计因为船离开得晚，好多人还在岸上晃悠。

 1/19: 经过又一天的海上航行，今天一早停靠墨西哥阿卡普尔科(Acapulco), 上午上岸后先自由行看了一下当地教堂，又沿海边走了一段。看到当地的渔民在水边直接烧火煎鱼子，先在生鱼子上撒些盐，然后是热油，大蒜🧄，鱼子下锅直接煎，非常馋人，味道肯定不错，但没敢尝试一下。Acapulco 是一个旅游度假城市，最近在Netflix秀Human Playground 中看到海边悬崖峭壁跳水的一集，所以这次来此的亮点就是去看跳水表演，名符其实值得一看。今天烈日当空，外面转了几个小时，就有点受不了，不知下面几星期继续往南走，天气会是怎么样。

 1/21: 昨天在海上航行一天。上午风平浪静，只有我们船开过时海面才泛起阵阵涟漪，很美，看着像画。坐了不少游轮，好像还是第一次看到如此平静的大海，时而可以看到海龟们在海上漂游。

今天一早来到瓜地马拉最大的港口，也是我们到过的最小游轮码头之一。码头上只有一个为游客开的市场，周围其它一点东西都没有。几乎所有游客都参团去了安地瓜古城－旧首都。有不少古建筑，当地的民居也很有特色，整个小城很漂亮，就是游客多一点，玩的时间也不够，以后有机会该在那里住上二，三天。从码头到安地瓜开车一个半小时，一路上可以看到火山喷发的白烟，咖啡农庄，甘蔗田等。在城里转了一圈后，在一家小店里吃上当地的午餐，还不错。在码头边，喝上新鲜的椰子水，当地的啤酒和瓜地马拉咖啡,也算是给瓜地马拉游划上一个美好的句号。

 1/23: 昨天应该去尼加拉瓜的，可能是因为安全原因，上船后被告知取消了停靠那里而改成又一天海上航行。一路上有海鸟们陪伴着我们，给平淡的海上行带来不少快乐，拍了不少照片。昨天春节，船上也稍稍布置一下，每次进餐厅工作人员会对我们说恭禧发财，也算有点气氛了。

今天一早来到了哥斯达黎加的Puntarenas, 原本订半日游被取消了，也没通知我们，有点失望。我们自己上岸找了一个当地的半日游，带我们去看了小猴子，鳄鱼，各种🦜等，结果还是很完美的。今天算是先来哥斯达黎加探探路，下个月我们还会回来自由行。下午回船稍做休息后又下船，在码头附近走一圈，新鲜椰子汁肯定少不了的，上次在瓜地马拉$1一个，今天在哥斯达里加$2一个。

 1/25: 昨天是到巴拿马运河前的最后一整天海上航行，很幸运，除了鲸鱼，海豚，鸟之类的，又看到了新动物－黄貂鱼(sting ray)，还是第一次看见黄貂鱼跳出水面。四天海上航行，每天有不同动物陪伴着我们，我们时常会花上几个小时在甲板上或者阳台上捕捉它们的身影。

坐游轮过巴拿马运河是我们最向往的旅游项目之一。今天终于迎来这一天。一早天没亮就起床，上串下跳的找最佳位置看及拍照。过运河一共过三个船闸，穿过三座大桥，早上六点开始到下午四点从太平洋来到加勒比海，整整十个小时。今天还碰巧了与我们三个月前刚坐过的NCL Joy游轮在运河中间的湖中相遇，Joy正好是反方向过运河。今天过巴拿马运河意味着我们这次12天游轮即将结束，明天就要下船了，开始我们的自由行。