Panama Canal & Curacao from Ft. Lauderdale – Emerald Princess – 11 March 2025
Panama Canal & Curacao from Ft. Lauderdale with Stays – Emerald Princess – 11 March 2025 – Emerald Princess – 11 March 2025. The Isthmus of Panama, is only about 50 miles wide at its narrowest point. Characterized by mountains, impenetrable jungle, deep swamps, torrential rains, hot sun, and debilitating humidity. Some of the most geologically complex land formations in the world. Most of this was apparent to the explorers and surveyors who explored and measured the land. What was not obvious was the geological makeup of the land. Which is a constant challenge even today, one that is held at bay, but not yet conquered. Another thing that was apparent was that building a canal across Panama had already defied and defeated the technical expertise of one of the greatest nations on earth.
Low green mountains rising up behind coral shores look benign and inviting. However, unlike most mountain ranges, instead of being formed by folding due to lateral pressure. These mountains were formed by the upward thrust of individual volcanic actions. Independent formations of different types of hard rock are interspersed and layered between softer rocks and materials in a disorderly and unpredictable patchwork of strata and angles. The Isthmus has also been subjected to several periods of submersion beneath the sea, thus adding cavities of marine materials to the geological mix. This, in addition to there being six major faults and five major volcanic cores in just the short distance between Colon and Panama City adds to the area’s geological challenges. Engineers of the time were unaware of this complex Isthmian geology, and perhaps fortunately so, for it might have frightened them off.
Curacao,Pietermaai came into being in the late 17th century in the area east of Fort Amsterdam and De Willemstad, as Punda was called in those days. The district takes its name from the ship’s captain Pieter de Meij. The latter settled in Curaçao from Brazil around 1674. He owned a plantation near the current Julianaplein called ‘Zeelucht’ (Sea air). In 1680 the West Indian Trading Company (‘WIC’) auctioned off a plot in that neighborhood, which is mentioned as being close to Altena and was also called ‘Pieter de Meij.’ Nicolaas van Liebergen, the then-director of the WIC in Curaçao, bought this lot. He had three houses built there for himself by slaves and with building materials belonging to the Company. His successor, director J. van Erpecum, thought this way of behaving was reprehensible and informed the Amsterdam chamber.
Pietermaai has always had a mixed population. Ship captains and ship owners settled there as long ago as the 18th century. Moreover, civil servants, merchants, craftsmen, and free Negroes and Mestizos (in Curaçao: people with discernible amounts of both European and African ancestry) lived there. It must have been a pleasant neighborhood, especially for people who preferred to live outside the densely built, stuffy inner town. In the 20th century, the neighborhood was popular as well.
Overview
- Spacious, en-suite cabin accommodation
- 24 hour complimentary room service
- Enriching youth & family program in partnership with Discovery Channel
- All meals and snacks onboard
- All entertainment
- Movies Under The Stars®
- Specialty dining
- State-of-the-art fitness centre
- Port and Handling fees & taxes