Arriving back in USA

After 2 days at sea, we arrived early in the morning in Ft. Lauderdale on Friday, December 11.  We have been gone 11 days and sailed 3288. Nautical Miles.  Our ship, Zuiderdam, carried 1977 passengers and 800 crew.  Potable water production per day is 1700 tons.  We consumed 750 tons a day.  Temperatures ranged from 81 degrees in the Bahamas to 88 steamy degrees in Cartegena and Panama Canal.

An interesting fact about Panama:  due to the reclining " S " shape of the Isthmus of Panama the sun rises from the Pacific and sets in the Atlantic Ocean.  Even when you look at a map, this is plain weird.

Joyce and Bob stopped Friday night in Jacksonville, stayed with a friend and shared dinner with two additional friends.  What a lovely way to start the holidays.  In just two weeks they will be heading to Florida for 2 months.  

Lydia and Jerry flew to Chicago on Saturday and were met at the airport by Jon and Joey.  They stayed over the weekend to celebrate Jon's birthday and Monday drove home to Cheboygan.  They have more time to get ready for their Florida trip in late January.  

  

         

                    Lunch one day.

       

 

       

           

Lydia must have been taking the above three photos as 

she isn't in any of them.  This was our last night

 and we were listening to a great band.

 

Costa Rica: PART II

The highlight of the tour was the stop at the banana plantation.  Even though Jerry and Joyce cannot tolerate bananas, they agreed with the others that this was most interesting.  

Costa Rica receives over 214" of rain a year and for this reason, there are deep ditches along the rows of banana plants to drain excess water.  The banana tree is 85% water, so too little water is never an issue.  The first sight that greets us are the rows of blue bags on the trees.

   

                    Out in the field

        Coming in from the field on conveyer belt.

  The bags control the amount of ethylene which determines the ripening.  There is no actual season for growing the bananas as they grow year round. At the bottom of each bag is a colored ribbon designating a time period when the bag was attached to the bunch of bananas.  Bunches with the same color ribbon are processed together and go in the same container.  Depending on how long it takes to ship-- 2 weeks to US and Canada and 4 weeks to European and Middle East, the ribbons tell them which bananas will ripen when, hence which bunch to ship where!  I will never look at another banana the same way.

The bananas are sorted, washed,  packed in trays, labeled and placed in containers ready for shipment.  Normally takes 8 hours work to fill a container.  Seeing how many times they are handled, it is amazing that bananas ever sell for $.39/lb.  That doesn't even count the actuall shipping, then stocking at the store.  

 

                   Ready for processing.

                    

               Banana bunches headed for labeling and then the container.

The plantations are owned by the government and run by a cooperative.  The big fruit companies buy from the cooperative.  This is different than in Hawaii where the companies own the plantation as in a Dole Pineapple Plantation we visited.

Tuesday in Costa Rica

The day has dawned bright and sunny.....possibly not as warm, but probably is.  We have moved time back another hour, so are now on Central Time Zone. About all that means to us is we had plenty of sleep last night.  That helps as we had to rise very early today to leave by 7:30.  We ordered breakfast in our room, so can eat at leisure as we dress for the day.

We have a full excursion off the ship today-5 hours touring many aspects of this diverse country. Costa Rica is the southern most country in Central America with a land mass about the size of West Virginia.  The climate is very diverse from coastal to mountainous.  Today, we are along the coast.  The sea is calm and the surf is spectacular.

                                  

Near the shipping terminal, we see containers from all the big fruit companies-- Del Monte, Dole and Chiquita.  

Later in the post, I will share our trip to the banana plantation where they were packing for Del Monte.

Out tour consists of a narrow gauge rail trip through the dense forest.  Bob was able to capture a photo of a monkey. 

                       

  The dense jungle reminded me of my orthopedic doctor who once was traveling somewhere here in the Central American jungle and became lost. He wandered around for several days before someone found him. Not difficult to imagine this happening in the dense jungle. They have 132 species of snakes-- 18 of them poisonous, so I could see the entire experience as very harrowing.

Our journey also took us on a jungle cruise down one of the canals, taking us into the dense thickets we saw on the train.  This time, we are rewarded by seeing many birds, a crocodile, the largest Costa Rican butterfly-- a gorgeous blue one, some tiny long- nosed bats, Jesus Christ lizard ( walks on water), 3-toed sloth (2), green iguana, and a tiny poisonous arrow dart frog.  

      

                

      

                  

 Three toed sloth.

     

  Poisonous dart frog.

Panama Canal PART II

Transit through the canal is on a first come first serve basis, unless you pay 19% extra on top of your toll to secure a booking slot.  There are 12 slots every twenty four hours.  The size of each ship determines how many ships will fit in each channel for each slot.  We paid extra and had the 7:00-9:00 AM booking as well as the 12:00-2:00PM booking.  Others just wait their turn.   Gatun Lake becomes the holding area as they wait.  We counted 11 ships, plus ours waiting at one time for transit through the canal.  

             

Look carefully to find at least 5 ships waiting.

   

On our way back NE through the Gatun Lock the second time, we have a container ship beside us.  They often hold nearly 2,000 containers.  

      In the middle ( and right )  of the photo are the locomotives responsible for making sure the ships stay in the middle of the canal channel.  They attach to the ships by very heavy cables.  Our ship needs   8 locomotives to keep us centered. 

Monday is Panama Canal Day

We have just found out you can watch us LIVE passing through the Gatun Locks in the canal.  Our first pass is from 7-9:00 AM EST.  We will return through the same locks between 12:00 noon and 2:00.  There is a live webcam streaming 24 hours from the canal.  Watch for the Zuiderdam on the live webcam           www.pancanal.com

Lydia and Jerry are taking a shore excursion through all three locks and will reach the Pacific and return to the Zuiderdam in time for departure.  Joyce and Bob are staying on the ship and will go through Gatun Lock, the first and only one the big ship goes through this trip.  Just traveling through one of three locks, our ship Zuiderdam will have to pay a toll of $345,000. Even going through the two other locks wouldn't  have increased the toll amount. That amounts to $179 per passenger, which I am sure we have all paid. ( one way or the other )

  We are lined up here heading into the canal. You can see the two water levels on the left hand side of the photo. There are actually 3 chambers in this lock.

  This is a tanker beside us in the other lane of the canal.  The dark at the left of the photo is one half of the lock gate, waiting to close.

                   

                This is the tanker that was beside us in the canal channel. 

Sunday in Cartegena, PART II

We are able to visit the church, San Pedro Claver.  No AC though, and the air is stifling.  We skip the museum and head for a beautiful shady courtyard.  It is still very, very warm, but shaded.

        

              

                

                  

We continue on to a local shopping mall, but we need nothing and besides, it is open air and high noon.   There is no way we are leaving the bus one more time.  No one has told us the temperature, but it rarely gets cooler here-- only hot and hotter.

Returning to the ship in time for lunch is the best idea yet.  We set sail soon after our arrival back on ship and will be sailing all night, arriving into Panama area around 5:30 AM.

Sunday in Cartegena

It is a bright, very warm Sunday AM.  Each couple is attending a different tour today-- both will be hot as we can't kid ourselves about that.  As we entered the harbor this AM, we are greeted by a sprawling skyline, the looks of what we have not seen since leaving Ft. Lauderdale.  The population is nearing one million and they must all live in the high rises.  While this is a lot of people, the Capitol, Bogota, has 8 million and Columbia, 68 million.

We  visit the old fortress of the Spanish Conquistadors--San Felipe Fortress.  Then, we head toward   Las Bovedas ( the Dungeons ) where local vendors have set up shop.  

     

    

   

                      

Fortress is well over 300 years old and is 85% original.  Very good condition and other than the steep climb up, it is an excellent tourist attraction.

We stroll down a lovely Old Town street, built very narrow so there would always be shade. Many of these structures date to late 1500s and mid 1600s.  

             

                      

                             The balconies remind us of New Orleans.

We continue with a walking tour and Plaza Bolivar, San Pedro Claver Church and an outside visit to the Minor Basilica Cathedral. It is Sunday, so visitors are not allowed inside.  

Continued in next post!