Cabo San Lucas and points south, Mexico.

October 24 last year marked our 51st anniversary. After missing out on the scheduled 50th Anniversary cruise in 2020 due to Covid, we rescheduled to sail on one of the first cruises from Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) for 2021. Cruise lines were slow to come back online, in fact, as of May 2022, NCL finally put the last of their cruise ships back in service.

We’d reserved a week on the Norwegian Bliss and headed to Los Angeles to sail away. We were traveling with my niece and her husband and we spent one night in an L.A. hotel before we took an airport shuttle to the cruise pier.

The Mexican Riviera is a term given to the ports on the western coast of Mexico. Different cruise lines have different itineraries varying from 3 to 7 days or even longer. Cruisers who opt for a full Panama Canal crossing often get several stops along the Mexican Riviera as a bonus. I prefer a 7-day cruise with a few sea days rather than stopping at a different port every day. On this cruise, there were three sea days to relax and enjoy the amenities on the ship.

The Bliss is one of the largest cruise ships I’ve ever sailed on, and it towers over the landscape at Mazatlan. We enjoyed our first cruise back and scheduled a pair of back-to-back cruises out of Puerto Rico in January. Omicron put the kibosh on that adventure, so we decided to wait until July. By then, the Bliss would be sailing out of Seattle for Alaska. If all goes well, we would be on a land-sea tour of Alaska when this post is published. Fingers crossed. (Note: all didn’t go well, as I write this, it’s July 24, one day before we were to leave, and last Thursday I tested positive for Covid. Looks like my second Alaska cruise will have to wait for another time.)

Cabo is a tender port, the harbor is too shallow to support large ships docking at a pier. Cruisers are shuttled to shore via small tender boats that hold 50-100 people at a time. On the day of our visit, there were two other cruise ships in the harbor. The Celebrity Millenium (on the right in the background), was just beginning a 15-night Panama Canal cruise, and their first stop was at Cabo. The Disney Wonder (on the left in the background), was on a 4-day Mexican excursion on a”Halloween on the High Seas” cruise out of San Diego. Even allowing for the fact that from my vantage point for this photo, the Bliss was closer, it’s easy to see how large it is by comparing the number of decks compared to the other ships.

At Puerto Vallarta, Holland America’s Westerdam was waiting in port to return to service having been stored there during the cruise shutdown. As of this writing, the Westerdam is scheduled for Alaska itineraries during the summer of 2022.

One of our favorite places to hang out on the Bliss is the Observation Lounge, deck 15 forward. The view out of the front windows is from the deck just above the ship’s bridge.

From the upper decks of the Bliss, you can look over the pier area at Puerto Vallarta. Watching the cliff divers is a must-see attraction, but since we’d seen them on our last stop there in 2019, we decided to do a Puerto Vallarta tour that included a stop at the Malacon on the beach and a historic downtown church. The rest of the time on the tour was spent while the guides led us through various shops. Let’s just say that we won’t be taking that excursion again. I will cut the tour operators some slack. Every one of the places we stopped was surely happy to see cruising restart after over 18 months of few to no customers.

From our balcony, we enjoyed the sunset views that are so magical after a day at sea. After missing so many sunsets at sea, we are happy to see cruising restart in earnest. As of this writing, most cruise lines are back to full operating capacity though they are still sailing with generally lower capacity to decrease Covid risk.

There are those who think that cruise ships are not yet safe from the pandemic given the long association times and closer contact quarters. Cruiselines, however, are still asking for pre-cruise testing as of this writing as I prep this post for publication in a couple of days. Most lines insist on a highly vaccinated customer base, 90-100%. NCL is still sailing with 100 percent vaccinated crew and passengers, however some cruise lines have adopted 95 or 90 percent vaccinated.

Even with the precautions, cruise lines are experiencing small covid outbreaks on some sailings. There have been no real issues with the highly vaccinated passengers, the symptoms have been mild to completely asymptomatic in the vast majority of cases. Generally, the worst of it is being confined to an isolated cabin for at least part of the cruise and potentially a quarantine stay in a hotel and rescheduled flight home. It’s important that, unless you wish to self-insure the potential expenses, you carry travel insurance that has a covid inclusion.

Travel insurance is important for other reasons than Covid. If you or someone in your party becomes ill or injured while at sea, and the ship’s medical bay can’t support the level of treatment you need, you can expect a very expensive helicopter ride to the nearest medical facility at home, and maybe a very expensive plane flight back home on top of it. There is currently a horror story of cruisers on a Mexican holiday similar to our cruise. Apparently, they did not purchase travel insurance and had an accident during an excursion that required hospitalization. They ran out of cash in their accounts at about $50,000 USD and still had to hire a private plane to fly them back to the U.S.

Medical facilities on a cruise ship are not included in the price of a cruise. Any charges for use of the facilities are typically added to the onboard expense account that is due and payable on the last day of the cruise. In this case, however, the injuries were too severe to be treated on the ship. A stay in a Mexican hospital was required. Travel insurance, if you have it, will reimburse you for those medical expenses up to the policy limits upon your return home.

We arrived at Cabo in the early morning hours. Once the port authorities cleared passengers for departure, they would board one of these tenders to be shuttled to shore. Our tour included a trip to the end of the Baja Peninsula to view El Arco (The Arch) close up, a visit to a glass-blowing factory, and a bus ride to a viewpoint that looks over the bay.

The Arch is normally shown in images from an angle that shows only blue sky and ocean behind it. We discovered on our boat trip that from the southwestern side of the arch, it lines up with a cave/tunnel that connects the Pacific Ocean on the west side to the Gulf of California on the east side.

El Arco is often shown from the east side looking west. In our previous excursion to Cabo in 2013, we didn’t get nearly this close to the arch.

As we sailed into the port at Puerto Vallarta, the sun rose over the mountains east of the city. The morning sun bathed the highrise condos in the tones of the morning golden hour.

All along the Malacon, street vendors and entertainers plied for those tourist dollars. These musicians were performing in wardrobes that depict warriors from central Mexico rather than from the western coastline of Mexico.

Since we are skipping the Alaska cruise, by the end of 2022, we hope that Covid is held in bay enough for use to complete two cruises, one on Carnival, and one on NCL. On Carnival, we are planning a fall journey from New York to Canada and hope to capture many fall colors at the ports along the way. On the NCL Dawn, we’re trying again for that 50th-anniversary European cruise that didn’t happen in 2020.

For a 2K HD look at any of the images, click the photo to visit my Flickr site, or click here to view the entire album of images that accompany this post. As I conclude this retrospective of our first cruise after the industry’s covid pause, I hope there will be no further editing to note that the Alaska land-sea cruise was also interrupted by covid restrictions. Well, I guess my hopes were dashed for us making the cruise anyway. We were to travel with my niece and her husband, so they will have to take lots of pictures and tell us about the trip. I am glad I have travel insurance and yesterday, I started the process of documenting my illness and applying for the insurance reimbursement of the cancelation charges which, this close to sailing, are extensive.

By the way, I am writing this postscript on Sunday, July 24. My wife tested positive on Saturday so I gave up trying to isolate myself in the spare bedroom. From the beginning, my symptoms were mild, a sore, scratchy throat, and some chills on the first full day. I started a course of Paxlovid, and After one day’s treatment, I feel almost normal. I’m assuming the Paxlovid is working.

Lynn started showing symptoms last night, so we will stop by the County Health Covid Test Center today (Sunday) to confirm what the home test and her symptoms have already shown us. We are hoping she will be able to get a Paxlovid prescription when her doctor’s office opens on Monday morning so she can start her own treatment. It was Monday that we were supposed to drive to Minneapolis to get on an airplane to fly to Fairbanks to start our Alaskan adventure. On the bright side, by the time we are ready for our next cruises, we will have our doctor’s certificates of Covid recovery that in most cases will allow us to skip any required testing.

John Steiner

Cozumel, Mexico.

This week, Anne Sandler of Slow Shutter Speed challenges us to focus on water. Now that’s certainly a diverse topic with lots of potential for variety. She writes, “Water enhances our photos, adding impact. Photographing it is also fun and sometimes a challenge.” You can read her entire challenge post here.

In my library, I’ve got many photos with water as a background, or a body of water as a subject of a travel post. For this challenge, I decided to focus on water as a life source. Every creature on the planet needs water to live in some way, but there are creatures that depend upon the water surrounding them and water provides for their daily existence.

When I think of lakes, rivers, and oceans, and the creatures that live there, I think mostly about fish or the few mammals like dolphins and whales that call the undersea world their home. Living underwater, though, are a wide variety of plant and animal life forms. There are entire ecosystems in our oceans and seas, the largest of which are coral barrier reefs. The Great Barrier Reef in coastal Australia is the world’s largest, but off the coasts of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras you will find the Mesoamerican Reef, the second-largest reef system in the world, and the largest in the Americas. For my challenge-response, I feature the tropical waters of the Caribbean Sea and its inhabitants.

Views of the coral reef that is almost 700 miles (1126 km) long can be viewed by glass-bottom boats, but the best views are from a submarine similar to the Atlantis in the opening photo. In February 2020, we visited the reef via a glass-bottom boat at Isla Roatan Honduras, and again off the shore of Cozumel, Mexico where we boarded the submarine.

Obviously, humans can survive but moments underwater without some form of mechanical breathing apparatus, but with the aid of a submarine, we can get a glimpse of life in the reef ecosystem. With the pandemic, the Atlantis Submarines Expedition was closed for a time, but I see that people can now purchase tickets online to view the reef and its inhabitants. There is a reference to covid protocols on the site, but I would have to decide whether or not I want to be in such close proximity to strangers right now. But I digress from the photo challenge.

The variety of fish that depend upon the reef is wide and the relationships between fish and coral help to keep them both healthy providing places for fish to hide from predators while there are fish that feed on the algae that could harm the reef.

As we descended into the depths of the Caribbean, we were accompanied by many of these colorful striped damselfish. The sub went to a depth of about 50 feet (15 m) to view the ecosystem and then dived further to our maximum depth of 100 feet (30 m).

A minesweeper from the Mexican Navy (formerly bought from the United States Navy) was scuttled near the reef to provide a safe place for divers to explore while keeping them away from the fragile reef system. The ship lies at about 82 feet (25 m) below the surface of the Cozumel Underwater Marine Park that is responsible for protecting the reef and its valuable ecosystem.

Thanks to Anne for this week’s challenge topic. It reminded me of that day that we first visited the world under the surface of the water in a real submarine. You can view these images in 2K HD and some additional images of the reef on my Flickr site here.

John Steiner

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

The Pacific Ocean crashes against rocky shorelines, provides wonderful beaches, and creates beautiful sunsets for thousands of miles along the western coastlines of the Americas. The photo above features a view of the land’s end at the entrance to the Sea of Cortez, also known as the Gulf of California. Behind that arch lay thousands of miles of the Pacific Ocean.

At the southern tip of the second-longest peninsula in the world is a natural limestone rock formation called simply “The Arch”, or more appropriately in the country of Mexico’s language, “El Arco.” The Baja California peninsula parallels the western coast of Mexico for about 775 miles (1,247 km) and the long, narrow body of water that separates the peninsula from the Mexican coastline is the Sea of Cortez.

In late October, we were on our first cruise since the restart of cruising in 2021. It was our third visit to Cabo San Lucas so we decided our excursion would include a short trip by boat around the southern end of Baja to view El Arco closeup again.

About the photo: Though I took plenty of images with my Nikon D500, I’m always ready to grab my Samsung S20U cellphone to compare the results between the two cameras. Though the D500 has a 16-300mm zoom, the cellphone with a 12000×9000 (108 MP) sensor provides a respectable zoom range by simply cropping in post-production. As it turned out, the boat we were on provided a close enough view of the land’s end that cropping wasn’t necessary. In Adobe Lightroom, I tweaked the composition to level the image on the horizon behind the rock, touched up the contrast, and sent the image to Luminar AI to use the program’s AI module to bring out the detail in the sea and the limestone rock. You can pixel peep at the final image in 2K HD by clicking on the photo to view it on my Flickr site.

I encourage fellow bloggers to create their own Cellpic Sunday posts. I never have a specific topic for this feature, and the only rules are that the photo must be captured with a cell phone, iPad, or another mobile device… If you have an image from a drone, that’s acceptable as well. The second rule is to link your challenge-response to this post or leave a comment here with a link to your post in the comment.

John Steiner

Before we started our cruise to the southern Caribbean, I hadn’t heard of the Mesoamerican Reef system. I’m still no expert, but I’ve seen the northern and southern ends of the reef up close and personal. Readers of last week’s Travel Tuesday post “rode along” with us in a glass-bottom boat. This week, we go as low as 100 feet (30 m) underwater in the submarine Atlantis. As I noted last week, if you wish to visit the reef only once, my recommendation would be via this submarine. For more on the specifics of the reef and its treasures, and view some more undersea images of the Mesoamerican Reef, my original post is here. This post is all about the excursion.

The excursion started with a ride to the dock where, after a briefing on basic submarine safety procedures, you will board a ferry boat that will transport you to the submarine which is on-site near the Chankanaab underwater park. They load the front half of the ferry with up to 40 passengers. The rear of the ferry has room for forty more passengers. Those guests will be returning to shore from their submarine excursion.

As we neared the location of the submarine, we could see another boat in the area. This boat is the support boat for the submarine and is in constant communication by radio with the submarine below. You may note that in the image above, there is an area in the water that is a lighter blue than the surrounding water. This was our first underwater view of the submarine. It won’t surface until the support boat confirms there are no vessels or other obstructions in the water immediately above the submarine.

On the 15-minute ride to the submarine, our tour guide gave us more background and information on boarding the sub and briefed us thoroughly on what to expect when it came time to board.

As the sub pulled alongside the support boat, two of the three-man submarine crew came topside to prepare to disembark the passengers who had just finished their tour of the underwater park.

As you can see in the image above, the ferry boat on the left first allows passengers exiting the sub to board the ferry and have a seat in the rear seating area. The support boat on the right is also attached closely to the other side of the sub to provide more stability during the passenger transfers. Once all of the passengers from the sub are loaded, it was our turn to board.

After climbing single-file down a 7-foot (2.1 m) ladder, each passenger, in turn, sat on a bench with form-fitting seats each in front of their own viewing window. Though not spacious, it felt far roomier than the glass-bottomed boat we were on at Isla Roatan. Once everyone boarded, the ferry headed back to port with their load of returning passengers, the support boat moved away and the sub started the journey to the underwater park.

Guests, cellphones and cameras at the ready, look intently as the tour guide describes the sights outside the sub. If you enlarge the image, you’ll see the red depth gauge readout showing the sub at 52 feet (16 m) below the surface. That was the nominal height for viewing the reef at its base. At one point, we reached a dropoff that marked the undersea edge of the island of Cozumel. From there, the depth was described to be about 2000 feet (600 m) below the surface.

The last minutes of the tour found us at 112 feet (34 m) below the surface. This depth marked the lowest descent on our excursion. We went that deep to see a scuttled ship that was purposely placed in the underwater park to act as a home for the reef dwellers. For this and all of the underwater attractions, the sub was maneuvered so that people on both sides of the sub could see. Of course, wildlife swimming nearby might not be visible from both sides, nor could the sub turn fast enough to allow both sides to view. Still and all, there were enough attractions on either side so that I don’t believe anyone felt like they missed out because they were “seated on the wrong side” of the sub.

Too soon, it was our turn to disembark. We climbed up the ladder, one by one and each found a seat at the rear of the ferry for our ride back. As the cruise ship dock was closer to the sub’s working area, the ferry took us directly to the cruise ship dock saving us a shuttle ride back from the sub’s home terminal. Looking online, I see the major travel review sites all give the excursion at least a 4/5 rating. I would certainly have given it a 5.

As this was written during the COVID-19 pandemic, please check to be sure this attraction is available before making specific travel plans.

John Steiner

The Caribbean Sea.

On a recent cruise, we visited the Mesoamerican Reef, the western hemisphere’s largest barrier reef. At almost 700 miles (1126 km) in length, it is one of the largest barrier reefs in the world. Second only to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, it stretches from the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico to the islands off of Honduras. At some locations, the reef is barely below the surface of the water. At Isla Roatan, we sat at the bottom of a V-hulled boat with viewing windows to observe the reef and its inhabitants. In the opening photo, the tiny bubbles near the top right of the image are an indicator of how shallow the water is offshore of this Honduran Bay island.

This close to the surface, the red and yellow end of the color spectrum is filtered from the natural sunlight leaving only blues and greens. Also known as the Great Mayan Reef, people traveling the western Caribbean can find places to visit the reef along the way. Our journey to visit the reef allowed us to view the coral structure and get a glimpse of only a few of the hundreds of species of sea life.

At Cozumel, we visited a deeper part of the reef on board the submarine Atlantis. Here the environment is completely blue. Our submarine’s depth of between 50 and 110 feet (15 to 33 m), only the blue spectrum of light is readily visible. In the image above, those iridescent blue fish are blue chromis. They are herbivores that spend their lives cleaning the algae from the reef. Other small fish that support the health of the coral in the reef are several different varieties of parrotfish. Almost every photo of the reef from the submarine featured at least one of these little blue algae eaters.

As we descended in the submarine, we saw plenty of these sergeant major damselfish. These little fish liked to swim close to the submarine as we descended. This one, for example, was only a few inches from our porthole and accompanied us for a while on our descent to the reef some 50 or so feet (15 m) below the surface.

The reef is endangered by an invasive red lionfish. Fortunately, we didn’t see any on our visits to the reef. What makes the lionfish so damaging is that it is a predator to most of the algae-eating species that tend the reef and help it survive. The reef is also home to many species of endangered sea turtles and manatees. According to an article on Wikipedia, the lionfish can remove almost all of the reef-supporting algae-eating species in only a few months ensuring the death of the coral reef in that area.

As we dove deeper into the reef, we visited a scuttled ship, the FELIPE XICOTANCATL C-53. This Mexican Navy ship was originally a United States Navy mine sweeper ship. In 1962, it was sold to the Mexican Navy, converted to a gunboat, and stationed in the Mexican Caribbean. It was scuttled and sunk purposely to provide a safe place for divers to explore while keeping them away from the fragile reef ecosystem. It now lies in about 82 feet (25 m) of water near the edge of the underwater park off Cozumel. Viewing the reef requires a wristband that indicates fees paid by the wearer to support the Cozumel Underwater Marine Park.

Prior to returning to the surface, we left the area of the reef and descended to 110 feet (33 m) below the surface where we followed the white sandy bottom of the island of Cozumel until it abruptly fell away. Each side of the sub was allowed to see the abyss that descends to a deep trench sinking to a base of about 2000 feet (600 m) below the surface. This drop-off is essentially the end of the island of Cozumel.

We journeyed to the Mesoamerican Reef from Honduras and from Cozumel, Mexico. On my Flickr Gallery here, you will find many more images from both undersea venues exploring the reef.

John Steiner

Who’da thunk? It’s ironic that I should pick this country as my choice for Tina Schell’s photo challenge this week. She writes in part, “Last week Amy challenged us to share images of the countryside and/or a small town. This week we’re asking you to look a bit farther afield. Each of us at some point has visited a place that holds special memories. It may have been a small town, a big city, or even better, an entire country.  We’d like you to capture the spirit of a place that is vivid in your memory. What was it that drew you in and why did it capture YOUR heart?” You can read her entire challenge post here.

OK, the truth is, I don’t really know the entire country or even very much of it. My impressions of the friendly people and beautiful scenery are limited to the western coastline resort communities where many an American expat have relocated in their retirement. After so many years of ignoring our neighbors to the south, partly because North Dakota is not exactly next door, my son called to let us know that he and the love of his life were getting married. They planned to be married in Mazatlán, Mexico.

I won’t go into more detail about the wedding, but the photo above features one of the views from the hotel terrace where the ceremony was held on that beautiful February day. Since our first visit to Mazatlán, we have returned to that city by the sea and other coastal resorts several times on family vacations over the years.

Not to be outdone, our daughter and her husband chose another Mexican resort, Ixtapa, to formalize their nuptials as well. The sunset view from the beach invites the photographer in all of us. I was not surprised at the number of people on the beach taking photos of this very sunset that January 15.

Add to that the several resort communities and surrounding small towns we’ve visited on cruise ship excursions and the photo opportunities are plentiful. Just this year we had the opportunity to visit Acapulco and the famous cliff diver show. There were lots of gringo touristas like us, but a long zoom lens is helpful in avoiding the crowds in the photos, at least.

This young man is earning his keep by demonstrating a skill practiced by his ancestors at shaving the coconut meat using a very sharp knife. I’m sure he was working for the gringo tips that were left for him.

I conclude my visit to Mexico with one of my favorite images of Mexico (above) and a note about the opening image in this challenge post. The two beach vendors comparing notes at the end of the day (so I surmise, anyway.) The photo was captured during the golden hour on the beach at Mazatlán.

In the opening image, I captured a street performer at San Juan del Cabo playing and singing for tips. I used a bit of artistic license on that photo by applying some of the artistic filters in Adobe’s Photoshop Elements, the “poor man’s” version of that powerful image manipulation program. Most browsers will allow you to click on any of the images to enlarge it for a better view. Thanks again to Tina for allowing me to share memories of our trips “South of the border, down Mexico Way.”

John Steiner

One of the most important Spanish fortifications on the Pacific coast of Mexico, the Fortress of San Diego is now a museum dedicated to the history of Acapulco’s fortress from the city’s earliest beginnings to more modern times. In the opening photo, a display model at the museum shows the fort’s commanding position on the Mexican coastline. Positioned high on a hill, the fort provided protection for the growing community and trading port of Acapulco as depicted in the early days of its existence.

While the Americans to the  north were fomenting revolution in 1776, a major earthquake in the Mexican state of Guerrero significantly damaged the fort. The damage was so extensive that the fort was demolished and completely rebuilt. The star shaped fort was renamed as the Fort of San Carlos, however the locals continued to use the San Diego moniker and the reigning monarch, King Carlos III, was cheated out of having the fort named after him by popular disuse.

Our tour guide that accompanied us to the cliff divers provided some basic history as we traveled back to the cruise ship port. Instead of us continuing to walk toward the cruise terminal, we climbed a ramp that led to a beautifully designed pedestrian bridge that carried us over the heavy traffic on the main thoroughfare below. Once we entered the museum, the tour guide became the narrator of our museum tour.

After entering the nearest chamber in the fort, we came upon a royal coach that was beautifully and accurately restored. The tour guide was knowledgeable about the artifacts he discussed, but I was somewhat disappointed that we stayed as a group along with many other groups from other tours. We were not allowed to explore on our own and inquire of the museum staff about items that might have interested us. Of course, it’s quite possible that not all of the museum staff would be able to respond in English so the method they chose to use was probably the best given the situation.

As we walked from one area to another, the tour guide answered questions that came up about the specific areas on our tour and we did walk through several different rooms in the fort, each one configured to a specific topic or set of topics. We learned that after the rebuild in 1783 the fort remained a valuable defense for the city. The Spanish even used the fort in their ill-fated attempt to defeat the Mexican insurgents that ultimately won independence for Mexico and the fort fell into the hands of the revolutionaries.

Once we were finished with our guided tour of the museum artifacts, we were given the opportunity to walk the grounds of the fort and soon found ourselves at the upper level looking through the openings in the parapet walls to see the views from over the top of the antique cannons on display.

Looking toward the harbor, it is easy to see the commanding height of the fort. From here, only the upper decks of our cruise ship are visible. The longest top deck you can see in the photo is deck 13 on the Norwegian Star. The number of antique cannons on display certainly gave the impression that the fort was well defended when it needed to be.

All too soon, it was time to cross the pedestrian bridge again and complete the short walk to the cruise terminal to reboard the Star for our next stop and our first stop outside of Mexico. The gallery of images below feature scenes from the fort’s upper levels and some of the artifacts we viewed in the museum. As usual, in most browsers, you can click on an image to enlarge it and scroll through the gallery.

John Steiner

La Quebrada stands 115 feet (35 m) tall and it looms just as large in a tradition that reaches back into the 1930s. When we looked at the list of excursions available at our cruise ship stop in Acapulco, virtually all of them started with “Acapulco Cliff Divers and…” We chose to visit the fort that is located right across the highway from the cruise ship dock, but first, we got on a bus and headed to the cliffs at the edge of the ocean. Of course, we arrived early, just in time to shop for souvenirs at the nearby stores and “gift shops”. Once our allotted shopping time expired, we met our tour guide who walked us toward the viewpoint where the divers would appear. We got no real direction as to what to watch or where to look. We didn’t exactly know what to expect. For those who might happen upon this post while researching their own trip to Acapulco, this photo story will help orient you as to where to look and what to expect before and during the five or so shows daily.

The shore is rocky and it is obvious at first glance that the divers will launch from the edge of the cliff near the large banner and shrines at a point where the cliff provides a ledge at the aforementioned 115 feet from the water. That distance varies depending upon the tides and shows are scheduled at high tide periods where the channel into which they dive is only about 13 feet (4 m) deep at the most.

As we arrived at the viewpoint steps, there were plenty of other tour buses there already disgorging their passengers, all making their way down the many ramps and steps to the viewing areas. The walk to the viewing area isn’t so bad going down, but it can be a challenge to walk back up the many steps that get you close enough to overlook the viewpoint cliff into the water. There were so many people ahead of us walking down and already in that area, we opted to stay at one of the higher viewpoint areas knowing that we would not see the divers actually hit the water from our vantage point. I feared that by the time we got down to that level, due to the crowds, I would have trouble getting good photos looking down anyway. From our upper vantage point, we could see the divers quite clearly and with the help of my telephoto lens, I was able to “get up close and personal.”

What we didn’t know is that the divers start by entering the water at the base, swim over to the edge of the cliff and then climb the rock face up to the ledge at the dive point. We watched as the divers made their climbs with the majority stopping at the platform as you can see in the photo below. A few of the divers stopped short of the platform to launch their dives from nearby ledges that were beside or slightly below the main diving platform.

I was to learn later that at least one of the higher viewpoints does allow a viewer to see the divers hit the water. If that’s part of what you want out of the experience and you don’t want to challenge yourself to come up from that lower viewpoint, ask your tour guide where you can get a view of the water without having to travel all the way down those many steps and ramps.

When all the divers arrived at their designated points, the dives began. Some in pairs, some singular. I captured many images of the divers, but chose to focus on several images captured on a single dive. That sequence is featured in the gallery of images below. You will want to take advantage of clicking on the first image so you can enlarge the photo and then scroll through the gallery.

The program is certainly entertaining and its easy to understand why it’s featured on virtually all of the Acapulco excursion itineraries. When the show was over, the divers came over to the area where the visitors walked to get back to their tour buses. Ready to sign autographs, sell photos, and accept tips, the divers were friendly and accommodating for photos as well. Clearly the cliff diving program is a highlight of a stop in Acapulco.

John Steiner

He started with a glowing orange glob of molten glass. He then dipped it in white and yellow glass beads. Our last stop on our excursion to San José del Cabo found us almost all the way back to Cabo San Lucas and the marina bay. We visited The Glass Factory, a business that creates many hand-blown glass products. The large store adjacent to the work area offered many fine examples of the artisans’ workmanship, and in the “factory” itself, there are two areas set up where the artists work in front of small bleacher arrangements. Guests from the tour buses are ushered into the area to have a seat on the bleachers to watch the handiwork in progress. Of course, at the end, the artisan shows off his work, tip jar handy at his side. Today’s Travel Tuesday post is short on words and other than this paragraph contains only a photo gallery featuring the creation of a water pitcher. If your browser gives you the option, I recommend that you click on an image in the gallery to enlarge it, see the details, and scroll through the photos therein.

John Steiner

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

We are off on another Panama Canal Cruise. When we first went in 2013, our thought was that this would be a “once in a lifetime” trip for us. Last year that changed when my sister and her boyfriend said they were thinking of making the trip. After asking lots of questions about our trip, their decision was to make the trek through the canal. They invited us to travel with them. In April, we found ourselves boarding the Norwegian Star out of Los Angeles bound for Miami. We also picked up a niece of ours and her husband making this a truly family cruise. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing photos of the excursions we opted to choose, this time all from the list of available choices offered by Norwegian Cruise Line.

Though some of the ports were the same as in 2013, we were careful to choose different excursions so that we may visit different places than on our original trip. We would also get to add two new countries to our (admittedly small) world travel list. But I digress from our visit to Cabo San Lucas.

In Cabo, you might as well be in San Diego, California. On our bus tour, we went by the Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and any number of U.S. based fast food places. The tour we chose would take us out of the city to San José del Cabo, some 20 miles (32 km) from Cabo. But first, we stopped at a bar/restaurant that provides an encompassing view of the harbor area. We recognized this place instantly. It was the first stop on our tour in 2013 as well.

The harbor at Cabo is shallow. You’ll note in the photo of the cruise ships that they are anchored offshore some distance. The port at Cabo requires the use of tenders to shuttle passengers to and from the dock. Across from the dock where the passengers go ashore, a large hotel and resort complex complete with nearby marina attracts longer term guests than us cruise ship day-trippers. When we were here in 2013, those buildings were but a concrete shell, construction having barely begun on the project.

When we arrived at San José del Cabo, we dispersed into the center square with lots of touristy shops and a beautiful church, a staple of all of the Mexican communities I have ever visited. Believe it or not, we’ve been in about a dozen different small towns in Mexico over the last couple of decades, this after deciding I would never go to Mexico. How time changes things.

We had only about an hour to visit the town square, so our first stop was that beautiful Catholic Church you can see in the image above. All of the Central American countries are predominantly Catholic thanks to the influence of their Spanish conquerors many centuries ago.

Once we left the church grounds, we had some time for a bit of gift shopping and a quick, but expensive, lunch. Yup. We might as well have been in California. Except I did have to smile at the Mexican take on the border wall that is the subject of so much discussion in U.S. politics.

On our way back from our visit to the town square, we stopped at one more attraction, a glass blowing factory. Next week I will share some photos of those talented artisans who create those beautiful glass articles. In the meantime, I submit for your review, a gallery of images captured on our visit to San José del Cabo. In most browsers, you can click on an image to enlarge it and to scroll through the gallery.

John Steiner