Panama Cruise 2025 Day 6 San Diego

We arrived in San Diego at around 8:00 am and went up to have breakfast before we headed out to explore.  When we first got into port we could see a large yacht docked right beside the cruise ship. It turns out it was a seized yacht of a Russian Oligarch. 

Our mission was to find the train depot and take it to Old Town, however when we got off the ship we turned left instead of right and I am not used to using google maps. It was supposed to only take us 8 mins to get to the station and I thought we were just walking slow so that’s why the time was getting longer, turns out we were heading the wrong direction. Only took us 20 mins to figure it out. Got headed in the right direction, found the station and the train took us right to Old Town. Got there about 10 minutes before it opened so it was all good and we had an enjoyable walk along the sea walk.

Old Town San Diego is considered the birthplace of California. Four nations had ruled over California during the 1800’s , Spain 1785- 1822, Mexico 1823- 1846, USA 1850 – 1858, when California became the 31 state and the Bear Flag Republic in 1846 when the US declared war on Mexico and 33 settlers in Northern California declared themselves a republic and raised a homemade flag which was replaced with the stars and stripes when the US army arrived to replace it with the stars and stripes.

Old Town was all decorated up as day of the Dead. Day of the Dead started in the early 1800’s as a somber event. Mexican Catholics celebrated All Saints Day on Nov 1^st and All Souls Day on Nov 2^nd. People dressed in black would walk slowly and quietly from the chapel to the cemetery with lighted candles to honour the dead.

Now families create special altars to honour loved ones who have passed away. Some of the deceased’s favourite things are place on the alter. Items such as sugar skulls, flowers and candles are also displayed. They also had many skeletons dressed up in Mexican attire displayed all over. The origins of Day of the Dead are unclear, some think that its roots lie in Aztec, European and 20^th century traditions but whatever the true origins me be Day of the Dead is a beautiful and meaningful time-honoured tradition that Mexico has shared with the world.

There were not a lot of historic building to actually walk through most of the buildings housed gift stores. There was a blacksmith shop that was actually working. We watch a fellow make a decorative snake out of an old wood rasp. There was this fantastic big tree in the middle of the park, not sure what kind it was but it was enormous.

After old town we took the train back down to the water front where we stopped to take a picture of the Embracing Peace Statue. We headed back to the ship where we spent the rest of the afternoon up on the pool deck reading and catching some sun.

After an evening in the sun it was back to the room for a shower and then off to dinner.  We shared a table again with new people. Dinner was great as usual. After dinner we again headed to the theatre where we had the same duo Ebony and Ivory (Nathan Chester and Emily Viancourt) from our first night, the first show they focused on 70’s music and tonight they sang more Jazz style music. They were excellent both nights. Tonight they also had a comedian in the Universal Lounge so after the theatre we made a beeline to the back of the ship to catch his show. Then it was back to the room for a sound sleep before we head north to Santa Barbara.