A Colorful Christmas Season

You arrive in Willemstad, the capital of Curacao, and explore its well-preserved colonial architecture, restored facades, and colorful Dutch gabled houses. You can also take in the harbor canal, azure bays, and pearl-white beaches that surround the city.

You spend these days sailing at sea. You can watch the crew climb the rigging, handle the ropes, and set the sails by hand. You can also relax on a deck chair and enjoy the sailing experience.

Cartagena was once the richest city in the New World and a popular target for pirate attacks, since a large part of the Spanish treasure was stored there. Sir Francis Drake also instilled terror into the Spanish city. After Drake's invasion, the city was fortified with a 7 mile-long rampart and the immense San Felipe Fort. Today Cartagena is one of the most beautiful colonial cities on the American continent and is protected by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

Climbing the rigging, untying ropes, setting sails – today is all about sailing. Time to lean back and relax in the deck chair and watch the passionate crew hoisting the sails by hand.

The idea of connecting the Atlantic and Pacific at the narrowest part of Central America had been around for many hundreds of years, but from a technical perspective this tremendous achievement only became possible much later. The French took on the project in 1881, after the successful opening of the Suez Canal in Egypt in 1869. But it would be more than 30 years before the canal was finally completed in 1914. This masterpiece of technology is just under 50 miles long, has 12 lock basins and negotiates a difference in altitude of 85 feet. The Panama Canal is one of the world's most important waterways and most spectacular ship canals.

A monument on the seafront commemorates the man who gave the city its name. In 1513, Spanish conquistador Vasco Núñez de Balboa arrived here, becoming the first European to reach the Pacific Ocean over land. Nowadays, the Puente de las Américas, an enormous arched bridge carrying the Panamericana road, spans the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal in Balboa connecting North and South America. East of the canal, breathtaking skyscrapers tower above Panama City, whose glitzy boomtown ambiance contrasts starkly with the lovingly restored Casco Viejo. Balboa’s old town dates back to the colonial era, and the ruins of Panama Viejo are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.