Pat and Norm's World Cruises and other adventures

January 22, 2019

Corinto is Nicaragua’s largest port and sits on an island connected to the mainland by bridges. It is also the largest country in Central America. And it is a very poor country compared with Costa Rica and other Latin American countries. In fact, we heard it is second only to Haiti in poverty.

Today we didn’t schedule an organized tour, choosing instead to explore the port town. Last visit we went to Colonial Leon and the bubbling mud pots.

There really isn’t much to do in this small port town but we had a good walk around and conversations with local friendly people. Most of them wanted to take us on the bike excursions and just could not understand why we wanted to walk! The farther we got from the port, the cheaper the bike transports became. The most was $10/hour, the least was $1/hour! But we still wanted to walk.

Here’s the view of the port as we arrived.

We were greeted by local dancers, some in traditional costumes. I especially loved the small children who were definitely budding dancers!

There is a small square, a church (which wasn’t open) and some friendly vendors. We do love strolling through the markets.

Some pictures of the square and various statues.

Tomas Martinez Y Guerrero

Nicaraguan culture has strong folklore, music and religious traditions and is deeply influenced by both European and Amerindian sounds and flavors. Lots of music was playing in the square and outside the ship. It is quite a poor country but we saw no begging or apparent homeless people here.

Here are some of the market sights.

Salted meat to preserve it. No appeal for me!

Huge papayas!

On our way back to the ship we said hello to two of the dancers that performed for us this morning!

Why is this cat on a leash?

We now have 2 sea days before our next port of Manzanillo, Mexico. And we have two returning guest cocktail parties on the two sea days. We will get our Diamond pins as part of recognition in the Oceania Club. That also means we get another 14 day free cruise! Life is good.

January 21, 2019

Last night’s sunset was lovely – and they kept the lights on the top deck off so we could see the lunar eclipse/wolf blood moon. Unfortunately my iPhone didn’t capture the moon well (I am sure other will share photos with me) but here is the sunset.

This is our third visit to Costa Rica, and we find that there is always something new to explore. Today our tour is “A Walk in the Clouds”. We had a one hour, 45 minute bus trip to the Continental Divide, the Monteverde Biological Cloud Forest Reserve, where the warm air from the Pacific meets the cooler air from the Caribbean and it forms a cloud cover. The forest is lush and beautiful. Our guide was Jonathan, who lives in Puntarenas but spent 10 years in Summit NJ, so we shared a few NJ stories.

The trip was beautiful – lots of mountains – the country has many forests and it is illegal to cut down a tree here.

Jonathan provided us with a lot of information about his country. Puntarenas, where we docked, means Sandy Point. Costa Rica means rich coast, and the name came from Columbus when he explored this part of the world. It is a small country of only 20,000 square miles.

We traveled part of the way on the Pan American highway which stretches from Alaska to Argentina!

Costa Rica has not had an army since 1949. The money that was previously used for the army is now used for education. The population is well educated. Jonathan says it is the most expensive country in Latin America due to the high taxes. The population is 5 million and many have come from Nicaragua seeking a better life.

Tourism is their chief source of income.

There are 112 volcanoes here and 7 are active. They get 7000 earthquakes a year but only 100 can be felt. This is why there are no tall buildings.

All of the countries in this area of the world claim to grow the best coffee. We had some here and it was definitely good, but our guide in Colombia was so proud of their coffee that he gave us a gift pack to take home!

Once we reached the forest, we first went to an open hummingbird garden where many species of the fast moving birds were drinking the nectar in the feeders. They also love the bromeliads in the forest.

We hiked through the forest and over 4 suspended bridges that are up to 126 feet above the forest. They are between 95 and 253 feet long and gave a beautiful view of the flora and fauna, small waterfalls and streams that run through the forest.

We also visited a small butterfly farm, not too many to see but we did get a few pictures of them and some of the flowers.

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There is a high bridge for bungee jumpers (no thanks) and there is an extensive zip lining adventure too- we saw some of those brave people – who were screaming, by the way.

We had a delicious Costa Rican lunch and left for Le Jardin, a large craft market with a pretty garden in the back. We met up with Pam and Tom for some pictures.

The ship leaves at 4 for Nicaragua and we will have dinner at Toscana tonight with friends Marilyn and Charlie and Rodney and Candace.

January 19, 2019

This is our third time in the Panama Canal and it never disappoints! We arrived at the Gatun Locks at 7:30 AM and the narration began. We had a local historian who kept us up to date all through the voyage.

Our ship with a commercial vessel going in the opposite direction

The canal stretches 50 miles from Colon on the Atlantic side to Panama City on the Pacific side. It provides passage for over 14,000 ocean going vessels per year. The American Society of Civil Engineers has named the Panama Canal one of the seven wonders of the modern world. It is truly amazing that the engineering in 1914 has held until today. A new larger canal opened in June of 2016. It doubles the capacity of the canal to accommodate both larger vessels and increased demand for world trade.

The bridge in the background is one of three that we pass under. This one has never been completed!

Once we passed through the Gatun Locks, we were at anchor in Gatun Lake for three hours. This is because transit is tightly controlled. Most of the commercial vessels go through at night when it is less expensive. For cruise ships, the charge is dependent on the number of berths and it costs over $100,000 for our ship because we do it during the day so we can see the amazing operation of the locks where the ship is raised by 85 feet and then lowered again in the other set of locks. The water that is used to raise and lower the ships comes from Gatun Lake by gravity and is poured into the locks through a system of main culverts, which extend below the chambers of the locks from the sidewalls and center wall.

We passed through the Culebra Cut, which is the narrowest part of the canal and it represents almost one fifth of the total length of the waterway. This segment was excavated through rock and limestone from the Central Mountain Range of the Isthmus of Panama. With the material excavated during the construction, 63 pyramids equal to those in Egypt could be constructed! It is amazing to think of this all happening back in the early 1900s.

At about 2:30, we passed through the second set of locks, the Pedro Miguel Locks. It takes about 30 – 60 minutes to pass through the locks.

The ships are attached by ropes to the “mule” you see in the picture. This keeps the ship in position through the lock. For our ship there are two on each side. By the way, there never were real mules doing this work!

The last set of locks before reaching the Pacific are the Miraflores Locks. We arrived there at 3:30, and once through, we reached Balboa at 6 and sailed for Puntarenas, Costa Rica.

Norm dons a Panama hat! And they are NOT made in Panama, they are made in Ecuador!