Chile to Florida Through the Panama Canal--Intro

So, we had to get away from the winter weather, but I still wanted to add a few countries to my list.  I then spied a cruise on the Celebrity Infinity from Valparaiso Chile, up the South American coast, through the Panama Canal, to Ft. Lauderdale.  Not only would this provide the requisite sunshine and warmth, but I could pick up three new countries--Chile, Ecuador, and Colombia (numbers 90, 91, and 92).  Brenda wasn't as excited about the new countries, but she found 15 days on a cruise ship to be acceptable. 

Our route

Celebrity Infinity

All other things being equal, we avoid big cruise ships, but all things weren't equal.  On our retirement from SAS, based on our accumulated years (60 between us) we each got a very nice gift certificate instead of gold watches.  Unfortunately, the certificates were only good for specific vendors, but we discovered that we could use them for a Celebrity Cruise.  That, plus the aforementioned chance to get to 3 new countries, made the decision for us.  Also, by today's standards, the Infinity is not a big ship--it holds 2,070 passengers, which is less than half that some of the newer ships hold.  More on the ship later.

By the way, if you ever go on a cruise, I highly recommend the website www.cruisecritic.com.  You can find out all about your cruise ship before you leave, but more importantly, you can meet up online with some of your fellow passengers and exchange information and book shore excursions with them--more on that later.  

We had to get to Chile to get on the cruise, and I managed to score a couple of tickets from Miami to Santiago on American Airlines using frequent-flyer miles.  Say what you will about American, but they do seem to have frequent flyer seats available when I want them.  We tacked on a couple of days in South Florida at the beginning of the trip to visit relatives and thaw out.

We've been to just about every tourist attraction in South Florida, but we managed to find one we had missed--Butterfly World near Ft. Lauderdale.  It's fairly pricey (about $25.00 a person), but the butterflies and birds are impressive.

 

The next day, we went to Delray Beach, which was a lot less chaotic than most of the beaches in the area.  Unfortuantely, it never got above 65 degrees.....bummer.

On our last day in Florida, I discovered that the Tigers were playing the Mets "only" an hour and a half from where we were staying, so a drive to Port St. Lucie was in order.

Beautiful Tradition Field, home of the Mets

With my help, the Tigers crushed the Mets 9-1, and we then headed to the Miami airport for our red-eye flight to Santiago, Chile.

If you want to see more from the Florida part of the trip (including some nice butterfly and spring training shots, as well as pictures of me and my cousins), click here.

Next: Santiago