January 18–February 2, 2019 · Fort Lauderdale to San Diego
Linda and I had wanted to visit the Panama Canal for years. In January 2019, we finally made the trip aboard Holland America’s ms Volendam. My brother-in-law Bob and his friend Suzi joined us for a fifteen-day cruise from Fort Lauderdale to San Diego.
The canal was the reason we chose this journey, and watching the mechanics of going through the locks became its highlight. Along the way, our travels also took us from the turquoise water of the Bahamas to a crocodile-filled river in Costa Rica, a coffee plantation in Guatemala, and Mexico’s Pacific coast.
This was before I had thought about creating a travel blog. I took vacation snapshots without planning a story around them. Looking back years later, those pictures—and the dates and locations saved with them—helped me piece together the journey.
A Bahamas Beginning
Our first stop was Half Moon Cay on January 19. One of my favorite pictures from the beginning of the trip shows Bob and Suzi at a waterfront bar beneath a thatched roof. Behind them, the water is a brilliant turquoise.
It is a simple vacation scene, but it belongs in this story. The trip was about a place Linda and I had long wanted to see, and it was also a chance to share the journey with Bob and Suzi.
Bob and Suzi at Half Moon Cay, Bahamas, January 19, 2019.
Watching the Panama Canal at Work
On January 23, we reached the experience we had been looking forward to most: our passage through the Panama Canal.
Linda and I especially enjoyed watching the mechanics of going through the locks. From aboard Volendam, we could look down into the chambers and study the equipment along their edges. The photographs show the lock walls, the rails running beside the water, and the machinery working close to the ships.
Our view of the Panama Canal locks from aboard Volendam, January 23.
A cargo ship occupied the neighboring lane. In one photograph, the name Pacific Talent is clearly visible across its bow. Seeing another large vessel alongside us helped put the dimensions of the locks into perspective. So did the people leaning along our own ship’s railing, watching the passage unfold.
Pacific Talent alongside us during the canal passage.
These pictures capture what fascinated us most. We had come to see the canal, and being aboard a ship moving through it made the operation feel immediate. There was plenty to hold our attention right beside the railing.
After wanting to make this trip for so long, we were glad to have experienced the locks ourselves.
Crocodiles in Costa Rica
By January 25, the subject of my photographs had changed considerably. Their location records place us in the Tárcoles River area of Costa Rica, photographing crocodiles and birds.
Some of the crocodiles are partly submerged, with a head and an armored back visible above the water. Another is stretched out beside a log, its long jaw reflected at the river’s edge. A separate photograph shows a tree crowded with birds.
A crocodile in the Tárcoles River area, Costa Rica, January 25.
The contrast with the canal photographs is striking: enormous ships and lock machinery give way to muddy banks, wildlife, and trees. These are the pictures that preserve our Costa Rica outing, even though I no longer have a detailed record of the excursion itself.
A Coffee Plantation in Guatemala
On January 27, we visited Finca Filadelfia near Antigua, Guatemala. The photographs document this stop particularly well, from the young plants in the nursery to the coffee spread across the drying patios.
Rows of seedlings stand in individual bags beneath the trees. Farther along, clusters of red and green coffee cherries fill the branches. Then the scene opens onto broad patios, where coffee lies in long rows across the ground.
The drying patios at Finca Filadelfia, near Antigua, January 27.
In one picture, a worker turns the coffee with a wide wooden rake. The rows form curves and stripes across the patio, with the plantation buildings and hills in the background.
Coffee cherries on the branches at Finca Filadelfia.
When I revisited these photographs, the saved locations and the signs on the buildings helped establish exactly where we had been. Together, the pictures give this part of the journey a sequence: nursery plants, fruit on the branches, and the work taking place on the patios.
Sailing in Huatulco
The next day, January 28, found us out on the water in Huatulco, Mexico.
Our photographs show a sailing outing aboard a much smaller boat than Volendam. Bright orange life jackets, towels, and colorful swimming noodles fill the scene beneath the sail. Beyond the boat lies a sandy beach backed by a wooded hillside.
Linda and me aboard our sailing excursion in Huatulco, January 28, 2019.
Our sailing outing in Huatulco, Mexico, January 28.
This is one of those snapshots that records the ordinary details of an outing—the people, the equipment, and the beach just ahead. It helps bring back a day on the Pacific coast without needing to be a perfect photograph.
Around Mismaloya and Puerto Vallarta
Our January 30 pictures follow an outing around Mismaloya and Puerto Vallarta.
One view looks across Mismaloya’s sheltered bay. Small boats sit on the blue-green water near the beach, with buildings along the shore and a green hillside rising behind them.
Mismaloya Bay, south of Puerto Vallarta, January 30.
There is also a photograph of an iguana encounter, followed by views of Los Arcos and the coastline. The large offshore rocks make a distinctive subject, and a boat passing nearby gives a sense of their scale.
Los Arcos along the coast south of Puerto Vallarta.
Another photograph looks back toward Puerto Vallarta, where buildings follow the curve of the bay and mountains rise in the distance. The dates and locations saved in these images helped connect them as parts of the same day.
A Trip We Had Wanted to Make
We arrived in San Diego on February 2, completing our fifteen-day journey from Florida to California.
I wish I had kept more notes. There are stops on the itinerary that my photographs do not document, and details I would record differently if I were taking the trip today.
But the collection still brings back a great deal: Bob and Suzi at Half Moon Cay, crocodiles at the river’s edge, coffee drying in Guatemala, and our outings along Mexico’s coast.
Above all, it brings back the canal. Linda and I had wanted to see it for years. Watching the locks at work from aboard Volendam gave us exactly the kind of experience we had hoped for—and a lasting memory of a journey shared with Bob and Suzi.
