The San Diego Museum of Art houses contemporary works by Californian artists as well as Old Masters and Asian pieces.
At the Mingei International Museum of Folk Art we viewed the special exhibit, "Silver and Silk", textiles and jewelry of Guizhou, China
Annamarie, on deck, ready for the traditional evening sail-away party at 5:00 PM.
For $1.50 we made the trip into town and back on this city bus. People were very friendly and helped us get off at the right stops. One of the local men entertained the passengers with guitar music.
Due to Hurricane Kenna the main section of town was barricaded off by the military. This is the closest we could get to the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
One of the main streets in town, not far from the Plaza Prinicipal.
We were fascinated by the flora and fauna.
After our walk we enjoyed a Costa Rican lunch at a hotel. This cart was in the lobby.
We loved the Costa Rican art work.
The Costa Ricans are very proud of and enthusiastic about their country. On our four hour round trip bus ride, he and another guide kept a running dialog of everything from the top industry, which is INTEL, to the national political system and their various political parties.
Next we cruised through five mile Miraflores Lake, and here we are exiting the Pedro Miguel Locks. A local guide/narrator and a special pilot from the Panama Canal Commission were with us during the entire seven hour transit.
This is the infamous eight mile Gaillard (or Culebra Cut), a V shaped channel through the Continental Divide, carved from granite and volcanic rock. Due to soil instability on both sides it was the biggest engineering obstacle in the Canal's construction and required the excavation of hundreds of millions of cubic yards of rock and dirt.
When it was first created. Gatun Lake (160 sq. mi) was the largest man made lake in the world. It is 85 feet above sea level and is restrained by the locks and Gatun Dam on the Atlantic Ocean side.
Just to our left a container ship was leaving the Gatun Locks. ahead of us. These triple locks, dropped us down in three 28 foot segments. This picture was taken from the "The Crows Nest Bar" on deck nine.
These new buildings have been designed to retain a similar historic style.
This is a traditional house that was donated for public viewing.
This church was visible from quite a distance.
This steeple is on a building next to the church, not atop the actual church.
This channel connects the sea to a mall across the street. The Zaandam is in the background.
One of seven natural arch bridges on the north side of the island. This was formed by erosion of material under a layer of lava.
We went down in this 65 foot Atlantis XI submarine to explore the coral reefs and feeding grounds of exotic sea creatures at 80 to 100 foot depths.
There wasn't enough light to get good pictures at this depth, but this one captures some of the color. Our guide explained that red breaks down at 60 feet while yellow appears to look like green and at 90 feet green begins to look like blue.
The plantings on the grounds are quite colorful and there were lots of things in bloom. Holland America turned this into an ideal resort.
It was 82 degrees with a moderate breeze and lots of sunshine and Annamarie didn't want to leave this lovely place, but it was time to sail to Port Canaveral, FL, our final port of call.