Rendezvous with the Rainforest (Costa Rica), March 26, 2019

It was raining as the ship steered into Limon, Costa Rica, early that Monday morning.  In fact, it had rained continuously since the ship had entered the Caribbean, from the Panama Canal. This moisture was in stark contrast to the dry and sunny passage along the west coast of South America. On the Pacific side, it had been beautiful weather all the way up from Lima. It was a very pleasant temperature though and our dynamic duo were upbeat and raring to get after an ecotour on that day. They would visit a coastal mangrove forest by boat, in the Tortuguero Canals and then travel to the Veragua Rainforest. It was a great day in spite of the rain and let's face it, you have to expect some rain if you are next to a rainforest.

Both of the ecosystem tours were very cool. They started with a one-hour boat ride through the mangroves, near the coast. Howler monkeys, sloths, caimans and several species of birds were spotted. Then they proceeded to travel up-country to the Veragua Reserve. This was the highlight of the day.

The Veragua Rainforest Reserve includes almost 1500 hectares of protected habitat that is right next to La Amistad International Park, the largest "national park" in Central America. This pristine reserve was called "Cream of the Cream" of such venues, by National Geographic Traveler. Unlike the poor roads that you must take to get to the reserve, the infrastructure in the park is modern, safe, functional and attractive. Gym and his lovely companion, walked around the park on wide boardwalks to view reptile, amphibian and insect exhibits, a butterfly house and a research centre. Then they descended into a steep-sided valley on an open tram and hiked to a beautiful viewpoint above a waterfall. All along the way, they were guided by an eagle-eyed rainforest guru that spoke English almost perfectly. She spotted many animals as they hiked along, that tourists would never see. the guide also gave us good advice, such as, "don't put your hand in any holes". We saw two species of sloths, more monkeys, frogs, numerous birds and Mrs. Gym spotted a Coati. The most amazing thing though was experiencing the tram-ride trough the canopy of the rainforest and realizing how complex the ecosystem really is. The Veragua Rainforest Reserve is a 5-star attraction and is worth the hassle of getting to and from Limon.

Limon itself, needs a little work. An injection of infrastructure capital is sorely needed. The city's traffic is pretty bad because there is only one road that you have to get on to go anywhere. All it takes is one banana truck stalling on it and everything except the scooters and motorbikes are at a standstill. Gym and Mrs. Gym found this out at rush hour, on their way back to the ship and as a result, were in the last group of passengers to re-board. As Gym dragged his butt to the gangplank, he noticed the Captain standing on the bridge with his hands on his hips.

Limon is in need of a facelift

Blue Heron

Ibis

There is a green lizard here. It is blending well with its surroundings

This is about a 4-foot Caiman

If you zoom in you can see a family of howler monkeys in the top of the tree

This is the beautiful central structure housing gift shops and a restaurant at the
Veragua Rainforest Reserve. Gym may have eaten something
here that caused some GI issues but it was a lovely place.

This is the resident Boa Constrictor at the reserve. His name is Allan.

A shy frog

Our guide in front of a Saba tree, the national tree of Cost Rica.

After a hike of 500 meters, up and down a few stairs , you are rewarded
with a view of this waterfall.

More pictures that Mrs. Gym took for us:

This is an example of the nice trails at the Veragua Reserve 

Here is a picture of the platform where the trams load
at the top of the steep valley.

Here is an empty open-sided tram from which you can view the
rainforest in the canopy layer of the trees

This is a typical view as we descended down to the trails which wound
along the river. We saw a few sloths and monkeys from the trams.

Doing the Ditch - March 24, 2019

Early on the morning of March 24th, 2019, well before dawn, the Marina sailed into the Port of Balboa, near Panama City. Gym was so excited that he couldn't sleep. He was as pumped up as a kid on Christmas morning. For the first time, he and his lovely companion, were about to cross the Panama Canal.

The night before the crossing, Gym had watched a show on TV which described the gargantuan ordeal of building the "Ditch", as it is referred to by some. It becomes obvious as you cross the Central American Isthmus in a ship, that this 82 kilometer waterway is nothing remotely close to a ditch. This wonder of the engineering world, is amazing.

Some of the most interesting facts about the Panama Canal are as follows:

1. Gym and Mrs. Gym crossed it in 2019;
2. The original system of locks is 105 years old and a new parallel system that can handle bigger container ships was completed in 2016;
3. 25,000 lives were lost in building the canal, most from diseases like Malaria and Yellow Fever;
4. The earth and rock removed from the excavations could bury all of Manhattan in 12 feet of rubble;
5. Not far from the Pacific entrance to the locks, the canal goes through the Culebra Cut. This is where they blasted away the American Cordillera which is an extension of the mountain range and it's continental divide, that runs all the way along the entirety of North and South America; and finally,
6. Before any ship enters the locks, a toll based on the size of the vessel, has to be paid in cash a full 24 hours before passage. These tolls ranges from hundreds of thousands of US dollars to over one million for the biggest container ships. About forty ships per day pass through the locks - a good business!

The Marina had informed its passengers that the crossing would take 8 hours. It had been scheduled to take from 7:45 am to 3:55 pm. However, when Panama learned  Gym and Mrs. Gym were aboard, the Marina was given priority. The ship steamed into the Port of Balboa at 6 am and they passed under the Bridge of the Americas at 6:15. At 6:30 they passed the entrance to the new and wider locks which had just come into use in 2016. Then, they entered the original Miraflores Locks at right around 7 am. From there it was a blur but our lucky travelers had a great vantage point to view the crossing with their cabin positioned above the bridge, on the bow of the ship. Before 2 pm they cleared the Gatun Locks and were sailing past the port of Colon, on the Caribbean Sea. We had crossed the Central American Isthmus and the great divide of the Cordillera, one hour ahead of schedule. That night we received certificates for successfully crossing the Ditch.

The Marina sailed out past Colon and headed north along the eastern coast of the Isthmus. The Caribbean greeted the Marina with light rain but the sea was calm. In the morning, they would be docked in Limon, Costa Rica, where an adventure in the rain forest was planned.

Stay tuned!

Approaching the Bridge of the Americas early Sunday morning

Passing under 

We were to use the original Miraflores Locks but on our way to them
 we past the entrance to the much wider, new Cocoli Locks which opened in 2016.

The Miraflores locks are comprised of a set of two locks that fill by
gravity drainage from Miraflores Lake. Each lock raises the ships 27 feet and there is
a 54 foot spillway on the right to handle high water events. Then you travel about
two kilometers across Miraflores lake and climb another 27 feet to a final total of 81 feet above sea level. in
this picture we enter the lake and can see Pedro Miguel lock in the distance.

Once through the Pedro Miguel Lock you see the new, Centennial Bridge
built at the beginning of the Culebra Cut. It helped lessen the traffic jam at the
Bridge of the Americas as the People anAmerican highway has gotten very
busy.

Beyond the Centennial Bridge you are inside the Culebra Cut which
was sliced through the American Cordillera, the backbone of the Americas.

After the Culebra Cut you pass onto the man-made Gatan lake.
Ships cruise the lake for 24 kilometers

At the other end you enter the Gatun Locks which are a set of three.

These three locks lower you by gravity drainage, 81 feet to the Caribbean Sea.

On the way out you pass Colon, Panama.

Exploring Ecuador - March 21 and 22, 2019

Our intrepid travellers continued north along the west coast of South America. They sailed into Ecuadorean waters on March 20, 2019. The sea was quite cooperative and Mrs. Gym had no serious issues. She did however order ginger candies, green apples and bread sticks, just in case.

The MS Marina visited two main ports in Ecuador on consecutive days. Manta, the first Ecuadorean experience is about one degree south latitude and the other, Esmeraldas, is located about one degree north latitude. In between the two cities, the ship passed the Equator during the evening of March 21-22, 2019.

Manta with about 250,000 inhabitants, is located in the province of Manabi. The area is famous for its perfect year-round weather, its beaches, its tuna fishery, and its hand-made Panama hats which Ecuadorians will insist, have no origin in Panama. Landing in Manta, the impression of Ecuador is a country that is doing pretty well. Its not just the fancy new American SUVs lined up on the docks, its the modern highway system winding through town and the attractive strip of hotels and office buildings next to the beach. Ecuador has spent wisely on some new infrastructure. The dock is very impressive for a small city and the roads are decent, except for the numerous speed bumps that have been installed to "calm" traffic.

In Manta, an archeological tour had been booked. The Cerro De Hojas Jaboncillo Museum and archeological site was explored. It was about a one-hour drive out of Manta, up and into the very hot and humid adjacent hills. There in the midst of a 3500-hectare reserve, is a nice little museum and a complex managed by the National Institute of Cultural Heritage. The complex includes a library and a lab for the archeologists to piece together their "finds". Gym and his lovely companion, would tour the museum and then get in a truck and drive up the mountain, to then hike up about 500 meters in the steaming jungle to observe some of the digs and replica buildings. There was a great view from the top. The problem with the whole tour was that there were no English guides at the site and the signage was all in Spanish, so the guide that accompanied our bus had to interpret. If they want cruise ships to send more people they should, at a minimum, offer English signage.

Esmeraldas, the second Ecuadorean port, is known for being the place where the Trans-Ecuadorean Pipeline, the provider of the life-blood of the Ecuadorean economy, comes down to tidewater and joins the inlet to the massive, state-owned refinery. In contrast to the protests that are happening in Canada, Ecuador seems happy with this means of delivering their country from the third world. And the refinery provides 80% of the jobs in Esmeraldas. It is not quite as pristine as Manta here in this northernmost Ecuadorian port and as such, to Gym, it seemed like a tropical Edmonton.

There was no tour of the refinery so Gym and his lovely sidekick opted to check out how chocolate is made.  They drove inland about 1.5 hours to the first stop at a small farm. Here they hiked into the woods to find some cacao trees and linked up with the farmer, who explained the basics of growing cacao. Then down the road a short way, they visited a cacao processing plant where representatives from the coop farmer-owned organization, that explained the fermenting, drying and marketing processes. This cooperative of small farmers uses organic methods to grow and produce cacao that is non-GMO enhanced. It was a really interesting tour and at the end of it, the product was available for sampling and purchase. Mrs. Gym bought a mess of chocolate.

Later that night the Marina left Ecuador and steered a course for Panama. The Marina would spend another 36 hours at sea before she would line up to enter the Panama Canal.

Stay tuned!

Pre-Colombian chair of the village elite, a u-shaped
chunk of solid rock sitting on a crouching ocelot.

A 72 year old lady that hand makes one Panama hat every
three days and sells them for $40

The lady's inventory

Inside the museum

A display with the Chief and his lady on the left and the
shaman and his wife on the right. Note the u-shaped chairs

Another chair in the museum

The "finds" unearthed at the "digs"

Mrs. Gym at the trailhead leading up onto the mountain

A replica building from the period with the trail climbing up to the right 

View from the top after a very sweaty climb

Bamboo grove in front of the cacao orchard in  Esmeraldas

Ripening cacao pods which are about the size of a  mini football

The farmer showing the difference between good beans and bad beans

This is what is inside a cacao pod - a whole bunch of mucus
covered cocoa beans. This is a heathy pod with the proper colour
and nice healthy beans. Gym tasted a mucus-covered bean which you suck on but
then spit out. It has a sweet aroma and taste.

This is one of the coop farmers talking
about growing cacao. The coop crest is on his vest.

This is the fermentation building at the plant. The beans ferment for
five days here.

Then the beans are spread out on these drying racks that can be moved under
tents if it rains.

Each rack is marked with the farm of origin and the date it was
brought in to the plant

After the beans have been tested for sufficient dryness, they are ready to be
made into chocolate. They are ground up and sugar and flavouring is added.
The bars they sold were 70% pure.

Driving back to the port in Esmeraldas we passed a market that reminded me
of some of the Farmer's Markets in Edmonton.

Back on the ship that night Gym ordered sole served in a bowl of its bones.
You could eat the bones too!

Trekking around Trujillo - March 19 and 20, 2019

Let's pick up where we left off. Our hero and his lovely companion, boarded the MS Marina on Monday, March 18th. They then unpacked and spent the rest of the day reacquainting themselves with the ship. This would be their third cruise aboard her. Then later that evening, the Capitan and his experienced international crew would get underway and steer a northerly course, to the first stop at Trujillo, Peru. The next morning, the ship docked at a beautiful piece of man-made infrastructure, next to a coal freighter. For Gym, it was nice to see the Peruvians exporting coal, without protest from anyone.

The stop in Trujillo included a half-day tour of the Moche ruins, a wonderful Peruvian lunch, a Paso horse show, a demonstration of the Marinera dance and a ten-minute drive down the Pan-American highway.

Trujillo is the third largest city in Peru. It is located in the green Moche valley which punctuates a very arid strip of land, on the western slopes of the Andes. This arid zone runs almost the entire length of the country and is referred to as the great Sechura Desert.   The Moche river runs down the centre of the Moche valley and it is here that the modern Trujillo endures. The valley also supported the ancient Moche civilization until its demise in the 7th Century AD.  The Moche archeological sites are on the outskirts of the city, a short drive from the port.

The Moche people existed for about six or seven hundred years from the 1st Century AD. They primarily worshiped the sun and the moon and sacrificed their own people to these gods. These sacrifices were to basically to guarantee no devastating climatic events in the future. Unfortunately, as the scientists have determined, a particularly long and harsh El Nino cycle at the end of the 6th century may have ended the civilization in spite of all the sacrifices. The Moche people did some good work while they were around in spite of the short lifespan of the civilization. In the grand adobe moon temple which was built up over several centuries, intricate artwork was evidenced and depictions of the gods, Moche people, rainbows, spiders, snakes, lobsters and hairless dogs were observed. Gym and Mrs. Gym viewed much of this with Maritza, a great local guide. They got credit for several flights of stairs as well.

The author has another theory on the collapse of the Moche civilization. A Liberal High Priest started rounding up the wood gatherers and sacrificing them instead of the warriors. Then a cold wind blew in from the Andes and they all froze their butts off...................sorry, back to our intrepid travellers.

Next to the ruins is a beautiful hacienda where catering facilities have been established. There, our heroes were served a colourful Peruvian meal, in a ranch-style setting, with a nice green lawn on one side and adobe horse paddocks on the other. After lunch, they were treated to a demonstration of just how proud and smart a Paso horse can be when trained and handled properly by the smartly-attired Peruvian vaqueros. Three local vaqueros provided some flawless Peruvian dressage for the occasion. Then a young Peruvian couple danced the Marinera for the travellers and the fetching young female dancer concluded the entertainment by dancing with a vaquero, on horseback (sounds weird but it worked).

Gym and his fetching wife, returned to the ship after the Trujillo tour and left Peruvian soil for the last time, on this voyage. The MS Marina would leave Peru that evening and once again, run out onto the vast Pacific Ocean. It would sail without stopping for 36 hours, as Wednesday was a sea day. So the ship spent the whole next day and night inching closer to Ecuador where it would make a stop in Manta, Ecuador before it crossed the equator.

Wednesday, March 20, was a fantastic day at sea. The mighty Pacific was quite quiet and calm. The winds were following winds from the south and the temperature was a constant 26C. Early in the morning on March 21, the ship arrived in Manta and docked again in a lovely port facility. Gym and Mrs. Gym were scheduled to tour Manta and the nearby area, on their first visit to Ecuador.

Stay tuned!

Leaving Callao (Lima) and a massive container loading facility

Humping up to the Moon Temple pyramid outside Trujillo

Our guide Maritza who had wonderful teeth and nails from drinking coca tea

In the left mid-ground of this picture is the place they sacrificed
Moche warriors so there would be no awful floods or devastating droughts

Two layers of the pyramid which separated two different dynasties
or generations of rulers

The tombs of the ruling classes were buried below each new level and the
rulers were buried with priceless treasures which were looted by thew Spanish

Looking out from the top of the moon temple pyramid to the  sun temple pyramid.
In between was the two pyramids was the ancient city of Moche.
In the background you can see the modern city of Trujillo.

The sacristy of the moon temple. There is some
fantastic artwork in this area below the ramp of the moon temple.

Looking at a cross-section of all five levels of the moon temple.
The massive  hole in the pyramid is said to be where the spaniards broke in to loot the tombs.

Maritza below the ramp where the ruler was carried up to watch the sacrifices.

A local dressed as a ruler

Peruvian vaqueros on their Paso horses

The dancers

dancing the Marinera

The young lady dancing with the vaquero

Leaving Peru for what would be a beautiful sea day