Costa Rica!

 We made port in Colon, Costa Rica.

Today’s tour took us to the Veragua Rainforest.

Located less than one hour from the historic Caribbean town of Puerto Limón and with enchanting views of the endless mountains of the Talamanca Range, the Veragua Rainforest Eco-Adventure allows visitors to explore the natural wonders of Costa Rica’s breathtaking tropical rainforest.

This tour is really for adults, children will be bored.  If you want to learn about the rainforest you’re in the right place.  If you expect to see lots of animals, you might be disappointed.  We saw a sloth from the bus, but didn’t see any additional sloths or howler monkeys.

 As you might expect, it’s a walking tour.  The guide took us through the park, showing us all the different species of plants that grow in the area.  Some plants even grow on top of the trees, to get more sunlight.

There was a building devoted to snakes, another to frogs and toads, and a third devoted to butterflies.

This is ginger:

An orchid.

We actually saw a hummingbird.  See if you can spot him.

  

There’s an aerial tram that takes you down the mountain.

  

Once you reach the bottom, there are two paths.  One path leads to the river, the other leads to a waterfall. The waterfall is atop 175 stairs. At the beginning of the tour you are asked ‘stairs or no stairs”. I chose stairs, but couldn’t actually climb them.  Wound up waiting for the group by the tram.

The views from the park are amazing.

We were given lunch —nothing fancy — and had a chance to shop for souvenirs.  And then it was back to the ship.  On time. 

Did I mention that not only is the ship decorated for Christmas, but that we are also celebrating Hanukkah?  There’s a lovely menorah in the lobby, and every evening a Rabbi lights candles.

  

 

The evening’s entertainment?  Tonight the main stage entertainment was Attraction, a Hungarian troop that won Britain’s Got Talent and competed on America’s Got Talent.

 

Their act consists of music, dance and puppetry, all done with black lighting and other lighting effects.   Very enjoyable.
 

Another wonderful day.

Panama

 

The ship made port in Colon, on the Caribbean coast of Panama.  It was an all-day excursion, booked through the cruise line.  Five buses —about 150 passengers.  Our tour guide explained how Panama had the first transcontinental railroad, built by Americans in the 1850’s to accommodate the California Gold Rush.  He explained how the French tried to build a canal but failed, how the Americans under Teddy Roosevelt were able to get the job done. How the US helped Panama gain its independence from Colombia. He talked about John McCain being born in the Canal Zone, and how Jimmy Carter negotiated the treaty that returned the canal to Panamanian control.

The buses took us to Gatun Lake, a man made lake in the middle of the country.  The lake feeds the canal. It’s also a “parking lot” of sorts — traffic travels either Atlantic to Pacific or Pacific to Atlantic, but cannot travel in both directions at the same time.

At the lake we boarded a ferry and began our journey to Panama City, on the Pacific coast.

The canal is dependent on a system of locks that take a ship up from sea level, then down to sea level at the other end.  This is because sea level on the Atlantic side is different from sea level at the Pacific.  We had to wait for a couple of large ships before the canal authority would open the locks for us.

The first lock was amazing.  The second was interesting.  By the t8me we got to the third … the afternoon was beginning to drag at bit.

We had lunch in the boat (nothing special) and eventually reached the Gulf of Panama.

Now, here’s where we ran into a problem.  “All aboard” the ship was scheduled for 5:30 PM.  But at 5:30 we were just getting off the ferry in Panama City, with a 90 minute drive back to Colon still ahead of us.

They held the ship in port for us.  They weren’t about to strand 150 passengers.

We arrived back at the ship around 7.  Had dinner in the buffet and saw the show in the main theater — Broadway cabaret.

The show relies heavily on jukebox musicals and movies that were adapted to the stage.  I would have liked to have seen more original Broadway material.  But I did 3njoy the performance.

 

Cartagena

 Last night’s entertainment was comedian Lenny Schmidt.

I think I may have seen him on Cimedy Central, some of his material sounded familiar.

There was also a late night adult show called Elyria, featuring the production cast.  

It’s presented as a fable about an island where everyone was happy until the evil Morgan Le Fey came along.  Our narrator is in drag and spends a lot of time talking about sex.

Today’s excursion took us to the Old City of Cartagena.  The city was founded as a hub to transport the riches of the New World back to Spain.  After the city was briefly captured by Sir Francis Drake, the Spanish built heavy walls and fortifications.

Our first stop was the fortress of San Felipe.

The entrance to the fortress is up a steep ramp.  I must confess that the ramp did me in! I only got halfway to the top.  

Here’s a cannon.

The views are amazing,

Next stop was the dungeons, now an artist colony where we could shop.  Then we strolled through the Old City, where we saw a church dedicated to Peter Claver, who ministered to the African slave population.

We also saw the Palace of the Inquisition.  The Inwuistion had all but died down in Europe when it was started in the Americas.

And, of course, we had to see the statue of Simon Bolivar, who liberated the region from Spain.

When the bus dropped us off at the port, we saw the cutest monkey at the aviary, trying to steal a drink from one of the tourists.

More to come …