• Dinner last night was very good at Canaletto — the pasta course being especially superb, particularly the pan fried gnocchi with short-ribs
• Adrian, our cabin steward, is a wiz at folding towel animals. He made a point of especially inviting us to a demonstration today, and he seemed to be genuinely moved that we showed up for his event (he was one of two stewards hosting the show). He even invited Emerson by name onto the stage to help him fold an animal.

Meet “George” — Emerson’s towel animal creation…

Many of the sloths that we saw were permanently injured, abandoned as babies, or orphaned at too young of an age. As a result, they’ve become full-time residents of the sanctuary for the rest of their lives, which could last up to 40 years.

They’re fascinating creatures — not lazy, just “energy efficient.”

After visiting the residents and nursery, we took a canoe out onto the local canals in search of sloths in the wild. Being arboreal and colored as they are, they’re remarkably difficult to spot by the untrained eye. Indeed, even when expertly located and pointed out, they’re still remarkably difficult to see. But, we did ultimately see one well up in the canopy, and we certainly enjoyed the peaceful ride in the canoe.

On the way back to the ship, we stopped at a local shop selling Costa Rican coffee (which we heard from our guide is the coffee origin “best in the world” having just “won an international competition” — somewhat suspiciously we heard the same story from our guides in Colombia and Panama too) and local produce (which I have read in numerous books is considered to be wonderful in its quality, abundance, and affordability):

The coffee was ok. But, the bananas were wonderful!

Dinner tonight–although Thanksgiving–was at “Rudi’s Sal de Mer,” which is really the Pinnacle Grill with a higher priced menu ($50 per person) focused primarily on classic French, mostly seafood dishes. Here’s Emerson tucking into a classic preparation of escargot:

The food was good, but I don’t think it was worth $50/pp. Watching Emerson happily extricate and willingly consume snails? Priceless.

Yup, this was another “typical” Thanksgiving for our family. Indeed, in reflecting upon it, I believe Emerson’s spent every Thanksgiving of her life traveling somewhere outside of the country. One the one hand, that’s just very different from the more traditional Thanksgivings that Libby and I experienced in our childhoods. On the other hand, the variety of experiences she’s enjoyed is something in and of itself to be especially thankful for. In the end, we’ve just established a very non-traditional tradition.

Today’s box score: +1 country (Costa Rica)

Indeed, I sat smugly at breakfast this morning talking about how I wasn’t even sure if a partial transit really counted for a Panama Canal transit for someone wanting to scratch it off their bucket list. (For the record, I’m still not sure, but I’ll go with “why not” if pressed.) While others scouted out prime spots on deck long before our arrival at the first lock, I munched on one of HAL’s sublime bran muffins confident in my superiority. Yet, as we finished breakfast and approached this wonder of the modern world, I couldn’t help but find myself a bit excited by the prospect of experiencing it firsthand.

Of course, by this time the bow of the ship was positively crammed with fellow passengers.

Undeterred, we watched closely the movement of ships ahead of us and exiting the canal in the other direction. For those that don’t know, the locks of the Panama Canal work like a kind of escalator for ships: the lock gates open, a ship enters, the water level rises/falls to match the water level in the direction of travel, the opposite gates open, and then the ships moves on. That’s how all canal locks work. Of course, the Panama Canal does this on a grand scale (and even a grander scale for the new locks, which support ships considerably larger than the historical Panamax size).

To get a private, front- (well, back-) row seat, we returned to our aft-facing balcony cabin on the stern of the Zuiderdam.

Entering the first of the Gatun Locks…

This provided an unobstructed view of the operation of the lock gates behind us.

In the second lock, watching the water rise…

After making our way through all three of the Gatun Locks, the ship stopped in Gatun Lake and disembarked passengers (including us) going on excursions in Panama. Our plan for the day? An ecological adventure on the man-made Gatun Lake in search of native wildlife, especially monkeys.

Unfortunately, it was a bit rainy (that’s our ship on the lake!)…

Zuiderdam on Gatun Lake

But, hey, it’s the rainforest! This is part of the adventure! Besides, we took a lot of sea-spray from the boat on the river anyway.

Being at water level on the Panama Canal really changes one’s perspective. It allowed us to better examine the topography of the land and imagine the islands of today as the hills of a bit more than a century ago.

Boating along Gatun Lake…

We did manage to see some monkeys (though the photos are much better on my SLR — I’ll have to upload those later).

Following our two-hour boat tour, we all were thoroughly soaked for our return to Colon, where our ship was awaiting us. It had transited the Gatun Locks in the opposite direction while we were on tour. Needless to say, our shipmates were all keen to get out of their wet clothes and warm up. As such, nobody had a desire to explore Colon on our arrival there, which was a good thing as Colon has a bad reputation (not a place to wander outside of the port gates).

Indeed, I have to say the town looked fairly rundown and rather seedy. This was one of the nicer streets:

Colon, Panama

All in all, we had a fun day… I like a mild adventure and sense of slight discomfort sometimes when traveling (which isn’t especially easy to do on a cruise). It makes me feel a bit more alive.

Today’s box score: +1 country (Panama)

We undertook this exercise and then explored the port area of Belize City (nothing too exciting there). Most major sights are located some distance from the city… however, we didn’t bother with an excursion as most were to either Mayan ruins or the beach–neither of which seemed worth the expense and travel time to us based on past experience. So, we returned to the ship in time for lunch, a nap, and dinner at Cagney’s (the ship’s steakhouse). All in all, it was a pretty good day.

Today’s box score: +1 country (Belize)

So, we all piled into a somewhat dilapidated minivan and set off with our driver and tour guide. The trunk latch of the van was broken; as a result, we had to put Pop’s wheelchair up with us between the middle and front seats. This meant the tour guide had to sit sideways facing me… probably a good thing, as she didn’t really project her voice much for the mildly interesting narration.

The island itself is relatively attractive, but it’s a bit like Grand Cayman in that its primary allure seems to be offshore. It’s also relatively poor, though far better off and much less rough than mainland Honduras, which is one of the poorest and crime-ridden countries in the Americas. Indeed, French Harbour–which was one of the local communities that we visited–had homes that looked to be little more than garden sheds in need of repair. That said, the infrastructure isn’t too bad and evidence of development in the locals’ areas suggest that this island is on the economic upswing.

We returned to the ship for lunch and had an afternoon nap. We then watched the sail away from our balcony before heading to La Cucina for dinner. In the past, we’ve never been overly impressed with NCL’s Italian venue, but it was very good last night. The restaurant’s staff was especially fond of Emerson. They gave her a Happy New Year’s hat and took pictures of themselves with her. Needless to say, Emerson enjoyed the attention.

I’d like to say we stayed up late and rang in the New Year “partying like a Norwegian,” but in truth we were in bed by 10pm after seeing the musical show. I did wake up to hear the Captain announce the arrival of 2014… at 11:30, 11:50, 11:55, 11:59, and finally for the countdown to 12:00. However, by our standards, this was a very festive way to ring in the New Year!

Today’s box score: +1 country (Honduras)

The dock in Roatan:

Happy New Year:

The 7 day cruise is to the Western Caribbean and visits Mexio, Belize, and Honduras, as well as Key West. That will add +2 countries for us — making our projected total a net gain of +7 in 2010 (including our trip on the Nieuw Amsterdam in July — not bad, all things considered).

Here’s a photo of the Pearl (taken on a weekend cruise in October, 2008):