Costa Rica 12/22/ 2017 & Colon, Panama 12/23/2017

Costa Rica is at the end of this post.  Panama is in the beginning.

Pictures below now.  Originally, I did a post for two days at once as the extremely disappointing wifi on the Viking Sun had not been allowing me to post pictures at all.  No wifi meant I couldn't transfer pictures from my Elph Camera to my computer.

We docked in Colon, Panama, a very shabby, dirty and quite depressing city.  Riots in the 1960's that were politically instigated began the start of the city's decline.  Military dictatorships accelerated the city's decline.  Colon is located on the Caribbean Sea, near the entrance to the Panama Canal.  The average high is 85 degrees and the average low is 75 degrees.  The average rainfall is 136 inches per year.  The driest months are February and March.  In 2014, a massive restoration and reconstruction project began, but from what I saw - this city has a long way to go.

My tour today as an open-air aerial tram ride in the Gamboa rainforest.  On our way there, we stopped at the Gamboa Rainforest Resort which offered lovely views of the surrounding area and was nicely decorated for Christmas.  When we arrived at the Gamboa Rainforest, a guide took us on an informative tour of their gardens which included beautiful orchids and other native plants.

The next stop was the Sloth Rehabilitation Center.  The sloths reminded me of gymnasts on the parallel bars as they moved around and were not as slow as I anticipated.  The sloths did not live in cages, but climbed around on frameworks provided for them.  I guess they are not ambitious enough to run away as there was no confinement.  Our next stop was a butterfly garden.  The butterflies were beautiful, but difficult to photograph.

We rode the aerial tram to the Gamboa Observation Tower.  It was lovely passing through the rainforest vegetation, we did not see any birds or animals as described in the brochure. We were able to view the Chargres River, Gatun Lake and the Panama Canal.

Saturday, December 23, 2017  Colon, Panama  Downtown Colon was very shabby, dirty and quite depressing.

Colon, Panama

My excursion today was a trip to the Rainforest and a ride in an Aerial Tram.  Kim went on a different tour that was located in the same area.  She said it took twenty minutes to get there, my bus took about one hour and 45 minutes.  After our long ride, we stopped by the lovely Gamboa Rainforest Resort to use the bathrooms, enjoy a beverage and a lovely view.  

When we arrived at the Gamboa Rainforest, our bus guide said we would have to wait as there were other groups riding the tram.  Maybe we shouldn't have taken the long way there.   To fill the time, a Gamboa guide showed us around the garden.  He introduced us to a wide variety of rainforest and Costa Rican native plants.  They had a vast collection of orchids which was lovely.  I did a  separate blog post on this around January 7, 2018.

We also enjoyed some time with the sloths that are in a Rehabilitation Center.  They reminded me of gymnasts as they moved around and were not as slow as I anticipated.  The sloths did not live in cages, but climbed around on frameworks provided for them.  I guess they are not ambitious enough to run away as there was no confinement.  Our next stop was a butterfly garden.  The butterflies were beautiful, but difficult to photograph.  I did a separate post on this twice...  12/30/17 (deleted) and 1/7/18. 

An hour later, at noon we began our Aerial Tram Ride.   It was lovely passing through the trees, but because it was the hottest part of the day, we did not see any animals or birds.  Very disappointing.  We climbed a tower at the top of the forest and were able to enjoy the surrounding views including the Panama Canal.  I did a separate post on this on 12.30/17.

It was supposed to rain the last two days so I didn’t take my 35mm camera.  I took my Elph and I cannot get the pictures to download.  I think we are on the Pacific Satellite now and wifi is no better.  The Cruise Director said that the Viking Line has never experienced such high usage  and that is why we are having so many problems. Did they consider we are not on a two week vacation, we are gone for months...? I don’t believe them.  I think they just are not prepared with enough satellite service. 

I continue to meet new and interesting people each day.  The educational talks have been awesome.  Last night’s talk on the rainforest was terrific, but sadly I did not experience any of the animals and birds the speaker described and photographed because I was in the rainforest during the heat of the day.  I am reviewing my excursion choices and cancelling nature trips...  

Tomorrow, we cruise the Panama Canal and Christmas Day we are at sea.  

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Friday, December 22, 2017  We are docked in Puerto Limon, Costa Rica on the east coast.   I did two tours, today.  The first tour was entitled All-Terrain Vehicle Ride and Rainforest Trek.  It is a very romanticized description.  The guides picked us up at port and we traveled what I would describe as back country roads.  We did not venture into the rainforest.  The guide offered a lot of interesting information about his country.   He described the area we were in as very poor.   

The guide proudly pointed out the many schools we passed.  Education is free through high school.  He also said to keep pace in the business world, children in school are learning Mandarin Chinese.  

We traveled by many houses that were very simple, but almost all of them have a satellite dish.  Parents can be sent to jail if the children are not sent to school.  If people live in a remote location, the government will supply the satellite dish to enable home schooling.  Costa Rica does not have an army.  This allows them to put more money into education and elsewhere.  This is the 70th anniversary of no army in Costa Rica.  Costa Rica is the only financially solvent country in Central America, I wonder if that is because they don't finance an army.  

He said the houses used to be built on stilts, but young people decided they wanted to build their houses at ground level.  As these people have learned, flooding is an issue.  Now, it seems houses on stilts are coming back into fashion.

We drove by a banana plantation.  All the banana bunches were protected by blue bags.  The bag protects the banana bunch from water, but allows ventilation.  These blue bags which were created in Costa Rica are one of the top exports.  Costa Rica is also the number three exporter of microchips, I believe behind China and the US.

The bus went by this sloth in the tree.  I wonder if they dropped it off there this morning so we could see it as we drove down the country road.  

The vehicle was something the two guides built themselves.  It was called the Monster Bus and thankfully was air conditioned.  We drove on country roads and really did not enter a rainforest.  

This tree has different kinds of leaves depending on the location of the leaf on the tree.  It is a flat vine at the bottom and then becomes a regular leaf at the top when it receives enough sunlight.  

This was our bathroom stop.  The guide made us a drink he called The Missile, which was quite tasty.  We also enjoyed fresh pineapple and watermelon. 

We enjoyed some pretty views along a river, saw two sloths in trees and saw poison arrow frogs.  We learned about different plants and he directed us to not touch anything.  

Poison arrow frog

River view

Mmmmm.  Narrow bridge.

 

Our afternoon excursion was a boat ride on Tortuguero Canals.  We rode along the waterways and saw another sloth, a howler monkey and some birds.  My wildlife experiences have been most disappointing.  I have posted all the pictures I too,  

On the Tortuguero Canal

Sloth on the Tortuguero Canal

On the Tortuguero Canal

On the Tortuguero Canal

On the Tortuguero Canal

On the Tortuguero Canal

My boat looked just like this one on the Tortuguero Canal 

Howler Monkey? On the Tortuguero Canal

Howler Monkey? On the Tortuguero Canal

Viking Sun Christmas Tree in the Atrium.

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Puerto Limon, Costa Rica on the east coast.   I did two tours, today.  The first tour was entitled All-Terrain Vehicle Ride and Rainforest Trek.  It is a very romanticized description.  The guides picked us up at port and we traveled in a bus they created that appeared to be built for an off-road excursion.  We only drove on back country roads with other cars.  We did not venture off the road into the rainforest.  The guide offered interesting information about his country but some of it was romanticized as well.   

The rural area we were in was very poor.   Houses used to be built on stilts, but young people decided recently they wanted to build their houses at ground level.  These people have learned, flooding is an issue.  Now, it seems houses on stilts are back into fashion. The guide proudly pointed out the many schools we passed.  Education is free and mandatory through high school.  If people in rural areas do not have access to school, they are given a satellite dish.  All children wear uniforms to lessen indications of economic status.  The last two to three years of high school are specialized training, academic or technical.  We saw a sloth in a tree and poison dart frogs.  One tree has different kinds of leaves depending on the location of the leaf on the tree.  It is a flat vine at the bottom and then becomes a regular leaf at the top where it receives enough sunlight.

We passed a banana plantation.  All the banana bunches were protected by blue bags.  The polythene bag protects the banana bunch from disease but allows ventilation.  These blue bags which were created in Costa Rica are one of the top exports.  Bananas and pineapples are the most valuable exported products followed by optical/technical/medical apparatus, fruits/nuts, electrical machinery/equipment, vegetable/fruit/nut preparations, plastics, coffee/tea/spices, pharmaceuticals, rubber, and animal/vegetable fats and oils.  I found this to be quite a diverse list.  Banana farmers on small farms often have a low income which does not allow them to apply fertilizer or fight pest and diseases.  Harvesting the bananas is very labor intensive and there is a short window to get the job completed.  

In the afternoon we went to the Tortuguero Canals and saw a lizard, birds, a monkey and two sloths in a preserve in the Tortuguero National Park.  Wildlife did not abound as in the description of this tour.