2011 Carnival Freedom Cruise to Colon, Panama. After a bus ride from Colon, Panama on the Caribbean Coast to Panama City on the Pacific Coast we took the Panama Canal Excursion from Panama City through the Miraflores and the Pedro Miguel Locks, the Gailard Cut, the Centenary Bridge to Gamboa for our bus ride back to Colon.
More 2011 Cruise Adventures:
Pictures and video from our shore excursion in Limon, Costa Rica. White Water Rafting [Class III] on the Rio Pacuare River. After a bus ride inland we set-off near the site for a new dam that would end this stretch of the river’s whitewater days.
Unfortunately, even with an underwater camera we were so busy paddling during the rough stretches we seldom got off a good picture of the more intense sections of the river. Usually having to settle for photo’s of other rafts coming through the end of those sections.
More 2011 Cruise Adventures:
Spent a day living a dream aboard the vessel Miguelito in the turquoise water off of the western side of the island.
The 3-Reef trip was relaxing as we would plunge into the waters with our snorkel guide and instead of swimming around you let the currents move you along above the reefs as our guide would swim down to the reef to point out the fish and sometimes ‘scoot’ them out from their hidden spots for us to see them.
Afterwards the Miquelito dropped us off at a great beach clubs for lunch [included in fee] where we had an awesome beef burrito that was a struggle to finish…big, meaty, fresh cut vegetables.
http://www.eagleraydivers.com/Snorkel.htm
We booked this tour ourselves before boarding our cruise ship, well worth the price. We caught a short [$8] cab ride to the marina and found the Miquelito easily.
In Roatan we met our tour guide just outside the port [Mahogany Bay] where he drove us to the Pirates Of The Caribbean Canopy Tour where we took the extreme tour which included ‘zips’ of over 1,800 feet at altitudes of over 300 feet. Our guides on the zip-lines were Dwayne and Bud.
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Please be patient. I will be completing the videos and pictures from the cruise [Honduras, New Orleans and the Carnival Triumph] and posting them soon.
After the zip-line we visited a local ‘zoo’ were we were allowed into the enclosures with some of the animals.
Links to some of the animals pictured:
I wasn’t feeling well that day [sinus infection] so we cut the rest of our tour short and returned to Mahogany Bay and the ship. We would recommend Tony’s Independent Tours in Roatan for their personal and flexible service.
After anchoring of shore we ‘tendered’ to the dock [video below @bottom] and met our tour guide. We took a bus ride to the location, ‘harnessed up’ and preceded on our descent into caves once used by ancient Mayans.
We hiked, crawled, climbed, repelled and ‘zip lined’ through the various caves while viewing artifacts and learning some things about the Mayans.
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Cozumel, like Nassau, had a lot going on at the port. If you liked shopping the and some nearby shopping centers were easy access. We did an ATV adventure with Wildtours [link to the left] which included a beachside restaurant with pool, hammocks, shops and massages.
The ATV adventure included a sinkhole and a ceynote. Prepare to eat dust.
We did a lot in Calica. We snorkeled off the beach at a ‘grazing’ area for sea turtles [I didn’t see one but Kelly did, I did bother a barracuda though], we snorkeled in a cave and at a lagoon, we did a zip line and we toured the ruins of Tulum. We had a great and busy day. As usual we booked our own excursion and received great service for a great price.
We arranged our excursion with Edventures and were very satisfied. We did the ruins of Tulum in the morning. [see Ruins of Tulum link back on the "Activities" page.] We walked the ruins on our own instead of using a guide but hiring a guide is pretty cheap.
After the ruins we did the zip line which was a blast. Edguardo [he's the Ed in Edventures] took our cameras for us and took our pictures coming down the zip line. We then did the Dos Ojos Ceynote. It was too dark there for our cameras so the pictures in the slideshow were not taken by us. "Dos Ojos, meaning 'two eyes,' has become a world famous dive spot for obvious reasons. Divers and snorkelers alike cannot wait to traverse this vast cavern, considered one of the longest, and most decorated, underwater cave systems in the world. Enter through one of the two separate pools, which look like two large eyes, and explore an intricate, and surprisingly clear, maze of caves and limestone formations." From the restaurant we loaded up in two boats and went out in the serve and down the beach to a point where sea turtles graze on the bottom. Kelly saw a see turtle but was out of film and I was too slow to keep up but I got a great picture of a barracuda. BARRACUDA! Our last stop was a beautiful lagoon where the springs from the ceynote enters into the gulf. The fish there are beautiful, big, small, whatever and if you don't splash around they will lets you get so close.
When we left the lagoon for the ride back to the ship everyone marveled at how much we had done in one day and for a low price to boot.
Edventures don't seem to have a website but if you email me I'll send you their email and a breakdown of our excursion.
