JANARY 9 TO 12, 2014 PUERTO LIMON TO MANTA

January 9 to January 12, 2014

Thursday, January 9, 2014 we arrived at Puerto Limon, Costa Rica in a light rain. Why not? After all there is a rain forest here. As we ate breakfast in the main dining room, the rain worsened. Fortunately by the time we disembarked the rain had stopped.

The plan is to tour on foot today. The only ship’s tour of any interest to us includes an aerial tram through the rain forest canopy. We have tried this elsewhere and found that by the time we were looking where the guide pointed the specimen had moved on. So we will be walking on our own.

Leaving the ship we ran a gauntlet of taxi drivers and tour operators. All of them were pleading for our business.

Directly to the right of the port terminal we found a city park with a nice gazebo and a children’s playground. The paths were a bit wet, but not enough to get our shoes muddy. Moving past the park we followed a street along the waterfront. The sea wall was high so we had to step up to a ledge to view the water. As we approached the wall 2 large crabs scurried along the to[ and over the side. When we got there they completely out of site in some crevasse. The sea bottom here is volcanic rock unsuitable for swimming.

We moved along, and found ourselves downtown. The city is quite old and pretty run down. Wandering past small shops and a few hotels got us to the central market. The stalls were filled with vendors selling various handicrafts. We did not contribute to the economy.

Moving on we found the cathedral. The sea air takes its toll on appearances by causing a lot of black growth on concrete. This church was not spared, but it still was clean enough to show off its construction. The doors were beautiful, and inside, the stained glass and simplicity of the altar were striking. We did not see an organ anywhere.

As we left the church we neared a taxi stand. Suddenly one driver jumped out and started pushing his cab. We thought he had engine trouble, but no. Suddenly he was tugging pack on the driver’s door to stop the motion. Cabbies turn off their engines when they wait in line. They restart them only when they get a fair.

We meandered through some shops across from the market One had beautiful birds for sale. A large selection of tropical fish was also offered for sale. Rounding the corner toward the port we were accosted by another taxi driver wanting to sell us a tour. He was adamant, and so were we. As we moved on he assured us that when we changed our minds we could find him right there.

We returned to Prinsendam, and as we sat down for lunch the rain started again. This time in earnest. We had been spared, and we had an enjoyable walk around downtown Puerto Limon.

Friday, January 10, 2014  was Panama Canal day. We arrived at Cristobol at 5:30 AM: to take our place in line. This followed a rather rough night at sea as we faced 13-foot seas in an unpredicted storm. The seasick bags were out. We slept well.

 I was the first one in the Crow’s Nest. After watching from here for a while I moved up to the top deck forward. The view was great. As the sun rose, the pilot and line handlers motored out to join the ship. The canal narrator came as well. All was ready as we entered the Gatun locks at 8. Our transit of this first set of three locks went smoothly. We were raised a total of 85 feet into Gatun Lake for the long transit to the Pacific side. Before entering the locks the narrator pointed out the new approach being dug for the wider locks that will go into service sometime next year. They were supposed to open this year for the 100^th anniversary of the canal, but you know how construction projects can go.

The transit of Gatun Lake was tranquil. We were the fourth cruise ship transiting the canal in our direction. The single lock at Pedro Miguel and the double locks at Miraflores passed without incident. You may recall from my earlier blog that in 2012 Alice and I spent 4 days in the hospital in Panama City, after I was disembarked for what turned out to be a mini stroke that blocked vision in my left eye. This time we were happy to avoid the excursion, and know that Ecuador would not be missed.

We hope that some day you, too, will experience this impressive transit.

Saturday, January 11, 2014  was a sea day. More lectures. More eating. More struggling with my two left feet, as we tied to learn the dance steps for the rhumba.

The highlight was finally being able to successfully update this blog. The new Internet provider has not improved our satellite throughput at all.

I still have not picked up my book. Tomorrow is Manta Ecuador.

January 12, 2014  Manta Ecuador - we docked this morning the piers were crowded with boats from the tuna fleets. They are required to suspend fishing from November 18 to January 18. This gives them the holidays with families and helps the fisheries as well.

We took a tour here. Our first stop was a “button factory” where we learned how the tagua nut is transformed into buttons and small art objects for sale. This nut is extremely hard and is likened to ivory. The process of cutting , drying and forming the material is painstakingly carried out in family businesses called factories. But these are not factories s we know them. In a family compound family members and neighbors do the work. The results are very pretty, and reasonably priced.

Then it was on to  Monte Cristi, where we learned how Panama hats are made. This process can take 1 to 3 weeks for a hat in the $35 to $50 range. The finer hats take progressively longer with the finest taking 6 months or more and cost many hundreds of dollars.  The entire process is done by hand and the art is being passed from generation to generation.

I did buy a hat. Mine took only a few weeks to make.

Now we visited an eco reserve in a protected portion of the rainforest outside the city. Until now we had been in the dry forest. This gets little rain and is very brown. Suddenly we entered a microclimate that gets rain and is very lush and green. We entered a restaurant  that is part of a lodge. Here local people taught us how to make a bolon. This is a ball made from cooked plantain, leeks coriander and cheese that is then baked or fried. It was tasty, and could be made even better by changing the filling from chees to vegetables or even meat.

Our hostess explained that many species of birds are found here. She pointed out some that were at the feeders outside the window. There is also a colony of 30+ howler monkeys that live here. On the way back to our coach we saw 3 of them feeding in the trees above the path. This included a baby with its mother. The price of the tour just went up for this non-included feature.

After a visit to the seaside, we returned to the ship. All of this took 6 hours. We were impressed with what we had learned and depressed by the poverty we viewed. Our guide told us that many foreigners come to Manta to escape the cold winters. They live in an affluent area of the city. Surrounding this are are very poor neighborhoods. In fact we were cautioned to use the ship’s shuttle service to leave the port, and not to venture off of the main street that followed the coast. Indeed, as our tour bus left the are we were surprised at the high police presence.