Back from my cruise! A few Caribbean & Central America shots...

I'm just about getting all caught up, with the cruise dumping me back in Florida just in time for catching up 11 days worth of work in 1 day, then Thanksgiving, then birthday, and the nights spent getting all the trip photos sorted. ; And there's still a long week of work next week and a weekend of putting up Christmas lights, before Pixelmania the following week. ; Tight schedule - but at least much of it is fun stuff!

Anyway, thought I'd share a sampling of my cruise from start to finish - I shot with my DSLR and my mirrorless camera, depending on conditions and location...here's the travellog quickie version...

Left Ft. Lauderdale in the early evening:


Stopped in Half Moon Cay, of the most gorgeous waters:


Passed really close to the beautiful, mountainous Haiti - the far western peninsula where the deforestation and overpopulation have not affected the island's natural beauty:


After a day at sea, arrived in beautiful Aruba:


Then the almost too picturesque Dutch island of Curacao:


Then another day at sea, before transiting the Gatun locks of the Panama Canal:


The ship squeezes its way through...I mean SQUEEZE! ; Check out the clearance to the lock walls on BOTH sides of the ship, measured in inches:


Then we stopped in Costa Rica, a land of beautiful birds:


And strange but peaceful creatures:


It's lush and verdant:


With towering volcanic mountains:


Sunsets at sea on the final days home are always spectacular:


One last day at sea, sailing east towards Florida:


And home in Ft. Lauderdale again:


Of course, many more photos in between, but that's a quick summary!

 

Thanks guys. ; I had whittled down from 1,400 photos to 750 photos, then down to 540 keepers, then had to further knock that down to about 175 to upload to my online gallery, and about 215 to use for the 'family slideshows' on the big screen. ; It's always tough getting it down to a reasonable number to share so you don't bore the heck out of everyone but enough to still try to show the whole trip.


If interested, here's the full cruise gallery:
http://www.pbase.com/zackiedawg/zuiderdam2012


Coming up on Pixelmania so fast, there's barely time to format the SD cards before I'm shooting again!

 

He's not lying. ; I counted at least 50 species of birds while walking around a park about 100x100 yards, in roughly a 2 hour period. ; Along with howler monkeys and 4 sloths. ; And that was a park IN TOWN! ; As in, I was just a few dozen feet from offices and restaurants. ; I photographed 15 species of birds there - many are not really keepers but more for identification purposes on some of the oddball species I didn't recognize.