We loved Costa Rica! You will see why.

We are on a bus in Limon driving to The Sloth Sanctuary for a tour.  I am taking photos from the bus.  I am not on the ocean-view side of the bus, but this is a sample of what we saw as we drove along.

Two-fingered Sloth

Three-fingered sloth

On this part of our tour our guide was the grandson of the woman who started the sanctuary.   Sloths are very susceptible to disease from humans so we could not touch them.  We just got to look at them.  They seemed to be very curious about all of the people standing around looking at them.    This one is trying to look back at the people behind him.

He would really rather be taking a nap.

If you would like to view a cute video of the baby sloths, check out the youtube video below.

The best part of this tour was the canoe trip through the bayous of the Estrella River Delta.  The

Poro Tree  (orange)

 The Poro Trees are beautiful.  What makes them so beautiful is that when they bloom, they are leafless.  It is the dry season of the year so the trees conserve water by dropping their leaves and then blooming, which also helps with pollination.  Poró extranjero (meaning "foreign poró"), was introduced to Costa Rica from its native South America specifically as a shade tree for coffee.

Why so much information about the Poro Tree?  They were so colorful and all along the bayou they were dropping their beautiful orange blossoms onto the water.  

Great Egret

Howler Monkey

 This was the best photo I could get of one of the monkeys.  They were everywhere.  You could hear them, but they were very difficult to see in the jungle.

Caiman

 This little guy was also very difficult to see.  We were probably about 5' away from him.  He was hiding in the foliage.

Old Termite ball

 These bananas are too seedy for us but the animals love them.

We canoe underneath this tree

 There is a bat hanging underneath.

We are in the last canoe.

Butoroides Virescens

Green Heron.  He flew off and it was amazing how large he was.  He didn't look that big sitting on the branch.  There were too many people in front of me to get the photo of the liftoff.

After the canoe tour we went on a walking tour.

I grew one of these once.  I think it had one branch.

Spider

 Yes, there is a spider in the photo above and a very large web that you can barely make out.  The light just was not right. (or maybe it was the photographer)

I don't know what Retired Mountain Man has in the bag, but it must be important.

After a very nice lunch of fresh fruit, (NOT Retired Mountain Man's favorite), we are back on the bus headed for the ship.

 Our tour guide shows us this blossom and the paste made from it.  In Costa Rica it is added to recipes for both flavor and color.   Anchiote Paste.

 

Next port:  Ocho Rios, Jamaica - 651 nautical miles.  

 We have traveled 3568 miles on the Island Princess for a grand total of 10,093 air and nautical miles.

No wrinkles! The ship photographer was really talented and he was cute!

Panama Canal Transit. I have a certificate.

6:00 a.m.
Our ship, the Island Princess, has been given clearance to enter the canal and the harbor pilot has come aboard.  Our ship is traveling at around 7 knots "Dead Speed Ahead".  If you look closely at the photo below, you can just make out the Holland America ship which is headed into the canal on the right.  Our ship will go into the locks on the left side.

The new canal construction is just below the red 1, (oh oh, another red dot).

Before we can continue through the first lock it is necessary to attach steel cables from the "mules" which will help guide the ship through the locks.  The two men in the rowboat will toss ropes which are attached to the steel cables to the harbor men (I think about 30 come aboard).

This is a mule.  Each mule has two cables attached to the ship.  There are eight mules to take the Island Princess through the canal.  The mules do not move the ship as it is traveling under it's own power.  The mules have been updated with newer models twice since 1913.

There is a road in front of this lock.

Water pours into the lock.

The ships are raised or lowered approximately 20 feet.

 I am on Deck 11.  Then I went back to our cabin to take the photo below.  It's on Deck 8.  I am not far from the mule.

Note the clearance between the ship and the canal.

From balcony cabin on deck 8

 Next, I went to the rear of the ship.  The locks are hollow.  Photographers from the ship were given permission to walk out onto the locks to take video.

 Each ship that passes through the canal uses 53,400,000 gallons of water that goes to the sea.  The water comes from Gatun Lake which has an area of 425 km² (164 sq mi) at its normal level of 26 m (85 ft) above sea level; it stores 5.2 cubic kilometres (183,000,000,000 ft³) of water, which is about as much as the Chagres River brings down in an average year.  We are headed for Gatun Lake. 

Water going from a lock to the sea.

When the ship anchored in Gatun Lake, we took a tender ashore to go on a tour of the locks from land.  In the photo below we are watching the Island Princess going back through the locks to the Caribbean. 

 Note:  It took a really long long time for the ship to go back through the locks.  We were there waiting for about an hour and a half.

 Then we got back on our bus and went to look at the new construction.  It's an unbelievable project.

 Can you imagine doing this back in 1913?

 You can see the Island Princess in the distance.  She is almost back to the Caribbean.  Yay!  More ice cream.  (It's still hot.  There's no air conditioning.  Yes, I am a very spoiled, old American)  I wouldn't have missed a minute of this day though.  I still can't believe I was actually there.

Plus, you get a certificate that says you have made transit through the Panama Canal.   Retired Mountain Man and I have traveled 6515 miles (air and nautical) to get here. 

The new locks are much larger and use more water, but they will conserve some of the fresh water.  The water flows back to the basins, but only 40% of the water required for one lock comes from Gatun Lake.

Bosch photo of new lock design

The Island Princess docks at the terminal in Colon where we get back on the ship.We have a day at sea and then the next stop:  Limon, Costa Rica.

Raymond, we love you!

The Fine Dining is one of the best parts of a cruise.  I love dessert and I love dark chocolate.  It was heaven.

Provence Dining Room Menu

Appetizers

Crab, Scallop and Shrimp Salad featuring a Duo of Caviar, Papaya Dressing

Vegetable Paté with Baby Greens and a Lemon Grass Vinaigrette

Asparagus with Tomato and Italian Bacon with Hollandaise Sauce

Soups and Salad

Chicken and Vegetables in Fortified Broth

Roasted Tomato Cream Soup, Brioche Croutons

Ice-Cold Peach and Mango Smoothie with Dried Apricots

Belgian Endive, Boston Lettuce and Tomato

Choice of Homemade and Low-Fat Dressings

Main Courses

Pan-Fried Filet of Rockfish

Creamy Potato and Leek Casserole, Truffle Oil

Broiled Lobster Tail and King Prawns with Lemon Butter

Grilled Asparagus and Rice Pilaf

Roasted Pheasant in Pan Juices with Caramelized Shallots

Bean and Bacon Bundle, Basted Potatoes

Beef Tenderloin Wellington

Truffle-Madeira Demi-Glace, Duchesse Potatoes

Home-Style Cuisine: Red Wine Braised Beef Short Ribs Hearty Vegetables, Mashed Potatoes

Baked Crepes with Roasted Pumpkin and Walnut Mascarpone Thyme-Cream Sauc

Princess Signature Pastas

Veal Ravioli in Creamy Porcini Mushroom Sauce

Veal Jus Fettuccine Alfredo, The All-Time Favorite from Rome

Alternative Choices

Shrimp Cocktail with American Sauce

Classic Caesar Salad

Seared Salmon Cutlet with Herb Butter

Broiled Chicken Breast with Natural Juice

Grilled Beef Filet Medallions with Black Peppercorn Sauce

Dessert Menu

Baked Alaska on Parade

A three-flavored ice cream cake topped with Baked Merengue

 and served with Chocolate Sauce

Passion Fruit Souffle

Princess Cruises extraordinary specialty

Enhanced with a warm Cointreau Orange Sauce

Black Forest Torte

A rich chocolate sponge soaked with Kirsch Wasser

and surrounded by Black Cherries and Fresh Cream

Swan Chantilly

Swans filled with Fresh Fruit and Chantilly Cream

Swimming in a Lake of  Blended Fruit Coulis

Princess Love Boat Dream

A Rich Dark Chocolate Mousse

with Raspberry Sauce and Fresh Cream

Our head waiter and assistant waiter, Roy and Raymond

 Raymond began every evening with, "Ladies and gentlemen, I have a very special offer for you tonight.  It is a delicious Irish Coffee that I will make for you.  It is wonderful.  You will like it very much."  

"How much is the coffee?" someone would ask.  

"It is only $7.95, a special deal just for you", Raymond would reply.  

Martha, who fell in love with our tour guide earlier, was of course, in love with Raymond.  She had to order a coffee because Raymond got "points" for selling the coffee.  I have to admit that it was pretty impressive to look at.  It looked like a dessert with whipped cream and a cherry on top.  This is before we even start to eat what we've ordered from the menu.  

My favorite dessert:  Princess Love Boat Dream

Passion Fruit Souffle'

 Jon's favorite that he ate every night, Creme Brulee'.

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I never went to the gym but I took the stairs from Deck 8 to Deck 15 as often as possible.

Linda, Martha and I have decided to start up a support group for people who have left their cruise and need help trying to adjust to cooking their own meals and eating Kraft Macaroni and Cheese every night. I think it could be profitable. 

Aruba and Cartagena. I don't want to scare off anyone, but I took 501 photos on the cruise.

This is what happens when you get Retired Mountain Man up at 6:00 a.m., put him in a catamaran and take him to the beach at 8:00 a.m.

The rest of us had a good time.

Photo by Martin McNeese

Photo by Martin McNeese

piña colada time

Leaving Aruba

We were only in Aruba about 5 hours and we were off to Cartagena -382 nautical miles.

My first photo is of the sunrise.  Notice just how big the sun is in this photo.  That's because it's not even 9:00 a.m. yet and it's HOT.  It's not just hot, it's really hot. (and humid)

 We went on a walking tour in the walled part of the city.

Shade tree

It's hot.

There's shade in there.

 We drove by the fort but didn't have time to go there. 

The last stop was the Emerald Museum.  Air conditioning.  Don't worry, we will buy something here.

 Martha wants to adopt our tour guide and take him home with her.

Now we are back at the port terminal.

Why are there so many containers in the port at Cartagena?    The Panama Canal.  Ships that are too large to go through the canal, leave the containers there to be transported through the canal on a smaller ship.

We made it back to the ship, restrooms and ice cream.

Leaving Cartagena

Next stop the Panama Canal, 264 nautical miles.