We then traveled down to Central America and stopped at Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala<\/strong> where we took a river excursion up into the mountain, met the local indigenous people and shopped (of course!)<\/p>\n Next, we traveled on to Puntarenas, Costa Rica<\/strong> where I took an excursion to a coffee plantation. Wow! Since coffee is one of their main exports (and my favorite drink,) the locals have put a co-op of growers into place\u00a0to help the struggling economy. I’m happy to report that it’s now a thriving industry – and what an aroma!<\/p>\n A decorated coffee wagon at the Puntarenas coffee co-op<\/p><\/div>\n Entering the Canal under the Americas Bridge<\/strong> and three locks was fantastic! I watched from the forward lounge of our ship with panoramic windows and did not stop taking pictures. To know that I was watching history being made – they are \u00a0currently adding more locks to the canal – made this journey especially meaningful for me.<\/p>\n Sailing under the Americas Bridge<\/p><\/div>\n The day we cruised the locks was such a treat too. The lakes were beautiful and the areas we passed were lush and green.<\/p>\n Going through the locks. What a beautiful day!<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n Not only was it beautiful it was exciting to see history being made as they add new locks to the canal. Of all the cruises I have done, the Panama Canal was one of the most interesting and eye opening trips<\/strong> I have made as a modern day Wonder of the World.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It was my great pleasure to cruise the full Transit Panama Canal, which means that I went from the Pacific Ocean through the canal to the Caribbean Sea and ended in the Atlantic Ocean. We started in San Diego and cruised to Cabo San Lucas – a small port city with wonderful beaches – and … Panama Canal Cruise: One of the Wonders Of the World<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":160,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[16,26,694],"class_list":["post-156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-destinations","tag-cruise","tag-panama","tag-panama-canal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruiseexperts.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruiseexperts.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruiseexperts.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruiseexperts.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruiseexperts.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruiseexperts.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruiseexperts.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruiseexperts.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruiseexperts.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruiseexperts.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.cruiseexperts.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Panama-Canal-Cruise-Coffee-Wagon1.jpg\" "\\"Panama")
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