Our back-to-back cruise on Holland America’s ms Zuiderdam started in San Diego, cruised many ports in Mexico then stopped in Guatemala, Panama City, transited the Panama Canal, to Cartagena, Columbia , Half Moon Cay, Bahamas and finally finished in Miami, Florida.
We arrived into Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala in the early morning just as the sun was rising. Puerto Quetzal is the largest Pacific Ocean port for Guatemala so is an important port for both commercial cargo ships as well as a stopping point for cruise ships.
Given the short time in port and the long distances to any of the key tourist locations such as the volcanoes, temples or the historic city of Antigua we just made a short shore visit to the port area where they had numerous markets and shops and a small restaurant. The markets had a wide variety of local arts and crafts and I managed to pick up some local coffee beans from a mountain area to be enjoyed when I returned home.
Stuart Taylor of HighlanderImages Photography has been making images for over 40 years focusing on Asia with a documentary/photojournalistic style.
Stuart is available for a variety of assignments in subject areas of photojournalism, commercial, architectural, real estate, industrial, interior design, corporate, urbex, adventure, wilderness, and travel.