November 12, 2009: A Sea Day
	November 10, 2009: A Sea Day
	Return to the Index for Our Panama Canal Cruise

Today, we will be docking at Puerto Caldera, Costa Rica. This is a small port on the Pacific Coast of the country, giving access to San Jose, the major city, and also the resorts and parks along the Pacific Coast. Once we've docked, we've booked a shore excursion that will take us to a "jungle canopy skywalk" and the Pura Vida Gardens and Waterfalls.

Costa Rica presents a desirable model for its sister Central American nations. The tiny nation offers public education through high school, and generous government-assisted loans are available to students wishing to attend college. Costa Rica has a very low infant mortality rate thanks to socialized medical services, a minimal suicide rate, an average lifespan of 75 years and a 93% literacy rate. There is no military force of any kind, and universal health care has been in place for over 50 years. With a total area of just under 20,000 square miles, it is the second smallest country in Central America after El Salvador. Most ticos live in the high central Valley of the Saints.

Before the Spanish arrived, costa rica was home to many different independent tribes. The people were not necessarily Maya, Aztec or Inca, but many had come from those great kingdoms. Almost all the people lived in agrarian communities, although there were warriors as well, ans some of the same rituals practiced further north also made their way here. Sculpture and ceramic figures in the National Museum today prove there were talented local artists and an advanced culture.

In 1502, Columbus landed at Quiribri Isle near what is now Puerto Limon and stayed several days. The local people showed some gold, so Columbus named the area Costa Rica ("rich coast").

Docking at Puerto Caldera, Costa Rica

We left Fuerte Amador near Panama City night after last, and yesterday we cruised all day up the Pacific Coast off first Panama and then Costa Rica. At about 7AM, we nosed into the harbor at Puerto Caldera, Costa Rica.

Puerto Caldera - Pacific Side As we came into Puerto Caldera, Fred made a movie of the scene from our balcony. We were on the port side, so his movie looks out to the Pacific and north along the coast, since we came in bow first.

Puerto Caldera - Starboard Side When I made my movie coming into port, I was on deck looking south to the starboard side of the ship. So in my movie you can see the port itself.

As we got closer to the port, I could see the various tour buses and excursion vans lined up on the dock; actually, I'd been watching them arrive as we came in and got very close to the port buildings.

Docking Procedures I was in an interesting location to watch the docking here. In this movie, you can see the crew on a platform that is lowered when docking and from which the lines are thrown to shore.

I thought you might be interested in seeing the port from the air, as our pictures from the ship weren't really very descriptive.

The excursion we had booked for today was Greg, Paul, Fred and myself to go to a "Jungle Skywalk" and to the Pura Vida Gardens. The tour also made two stops at a resort hotel called Villa Lapas which was just off the road that led to both the skywalk and the gardens. I'm not quite sure why the hotel was included on the tour, except that it was used as a refreshment stop before and after the skywalk part of the tour. Although we visited the hotel before the skywalk, I'll group the pictures we took then with those we took when we had refreshments there after the skywalk was finished.

The tour made two other stops on the way back from the gardens- one at the bridge crossing the Tarcoles River where we stopped to observe a goodly number of alligators, and a stop along the highway back to the port where a troop of monkeys was known to hang out.

So those will be the groups of pictures you'll see- the Skywalk, the hotel, the gardens, the gators and the monkeys.

The Jungle Canopy Skywalk

As I said, we actually stopped at the hotel before going on to the skywalk, but we'll look at the pictures from there in a moment. The van continued up the mountainside a half-mile or so until we came to a place where the driver could let our tour leader, Adrian, and the rest of us (about fifteen people, I guess) out. When we got out of the van, we were at the entrance to the skywalk path.

The entrance was really just a gate in some fencing that was more for effect than for security. There was no lock on the gate and I would presume that anyone who knew the skywalk and trails were here could come walk. There just wasn't much place to park, and that's when having a driver was handy.

Adrian gave us a short talk about the flora and fauna of this part of Costa Rica before we started out on the path. (I might mention here that Adrian was a bit too complimentary of Costa Rica and derogatory of its Central American neighbors than I thought he should be. But later on in our cruise, in Mexico, we encountered another tour leader who said the same complimentary things about Mexico. I guess there is a lot of rivalry.)

Leaf Cutter Ants Right at the entrance to the skywalk path, there was a line of very active leaf cutter ants carrying their little leaf sections back to the nest. I tried my best to get a close up view of them, and was modestly successful.

Then we started off along the path. It wound around the top of a hill that offered nice vistas to the north, and then descended into the ravines and the forest. There were two skywalk bridges (suspended cable bridges) on the route- one almost 300 feet long and the other about fifty feet shorter. They were a lot of fun to walk across. Adrian kept up a lot of interesting commentary, and the walk was very enjoyable. Towards the end of the 90-minute trek we encountered a following tour group that was on a different itinerary and different schedule. Fred was particularly interested in some of the very interesting flora- mostly greenery and vines of one kind or another.

Walking a Canopy Bridge I just had to take one movie while I was walking along across one of the canopy bridges; it will give you a good idea what it was like.

Click on the Image Above to View the Slideshow

We took a lot of pictures; rather than try to work them down to just a very few, I have culled out a rather large selection of 28 pictures- some from Fred (the first dozen or so) and some from me. Obviously, I appear only in Fred's shots and he appears only in mine, so I hope you will look at the pictures taken by both of us. I know the pictures of each of us on the bridges gets repetitive, but the bridges were really neat. To make it easy for you to flip through the pictures, they are in a slideshow (at left). I hope you'll look at all of them to get an appreciation for what we saw on our "Jungle Canopy & Skywalk Adventure".

To view the slideshow, just click on the image at left and I will open the slideshow in a new window. In the slideshow, you can use the little arrows in the lower corners of each image to move from one to the next, and the index numbers in the upper left of each image will tell you where you are in the series. When you are finished looking at the pictures, just close the popup window.

At the Villa Lapas Resort

Once again, here is the aerial view of the Villa Lapas resort. Other than the main building and the small river, you can just pick out the swimming pool:

When we stopped at the Villa Lapas Resort on the way up to the skywalk hike, it was just for a short rest stop, but we did get a chance to walk around the main building, which consisted of the hotel restaurant and some of the rooms. The rest of them were in a wing that extended a good deal east along the river. We were able to walk around for a bit and get some pictures of the main lobby building and the swimming pool, and if you click on the thumbnails below you can have a look at them:

When we returned to the resort after the skywalk, the ostensible purpose was to have some refreshment- local fresh fruit and juices. I think, however, that it was at least partly designed as a shopping opportunity, for there were some small shops selling local handicrafts near the small bar where the refreshments were set out.

To get to this area, we had to cross a bridge over the stream, and as we did, Fred got a nice picture of a nearby tree with lots of epiphytes growing on its limbs- not something we see around here at all. Very tropical.

In addition to the small shops, there was a chapel, a central gazebo and a nice fountain where I got a picture of Fred. There were lush plantings and a fountain and pond full of water plants. If you click on the thumbnail images at right, you can see some of the pictures we took here at Villa Lapas before we headed off to Pura Vida Gardens.

Pura Vida Gardens and Waterfalls

When we'd all gotten back in the van, we continued up the same road further into the mountains, past the spot where we'd taken the skywalk hike and about two miles further on to Pura Vida Gardens and Waterfalls.

When we pulled into the parking lot at Pura Vida Gardens, the owner was waiting to greet everyone. In snatches of conversation with him, we found out he was a transplant from the United States, and had owned the house (which was out of sight down the hill) and the public areas and gardens for six years or so. We also learned that the entire complex was for sale; he was having a hard time making a go of it.

Even though the grounds were quite pretty, the complex is rather far off the beaten path, and my guess is that most of his business comes from tour groups that come from the cruise ships or perhaps from San Jose. There are not very many people who live locally and who would be likely to drive up for lunch or just to spend an afternoon.

Pretty soon, the buffet had been set out for lunch, and the people from our van and one additional one that had arrived queued up to partake of salad, bread, chicken, rice, fish, vegetables and beans. There was also coffee and a couple of fruit juices. The meal was really quite good, and there was some cake for dessert. Fred and I each took a picture of the other three of us at lunch, so here is Fred's picture of me, Greg and Paul and here is my picture of Fred, Greg and Paul.

There were a number of parrots around, two of which sat on perches or the railings nearby and were amenable to having their pictures taken- especially a bird named Pedro. They were a lot of fun to watch.

Fred took a couple of good pictures of each of the two birds, and if you would like to have a better look at them, just click on the thumbnail images below:

Pedro the Parrot I took a pretty good closeup movie of Pedro, and he obliged my moving around and mugging for the camera. You might want to have a look.

After we'd finished lunch and were itching to walk around the gardens and down to the waterfall viewing area, it began to rain- hard. So we were trapped on the lunch patio for quite some time. Fred and I, fortunately, had brought our rain gear (but no umbrellas) so when the rain tapered off a bit we could walk around. We first walked along the pathway right near the top of the hill, and out to a gazebo that should have had excellent views. But it was so cloudy and rainy that we couldn't see much. With the rain slowing even more, we headed down the path to the waterfall viewing area.

It was really a shame it was raining, for there were lots of interesting plants out in the gardens. It was much too wet to start walking out onto the grass to see what they were. So we just stuck to the path. Eventually, we came to a right angle turn back to the right and we could see the viewing platform ahead of us. Before we take a look at the waterfalls, I did want to include a picture that Fred took of an interesting shell sculpture that was situated underneath the sheltered portion of the viewing patio. The building was actually a bar and covered patio and then an open patio beyond that out to the railing where the hillside dropped off. I guess that this building is open in good weather for drinks and stuff like that, for there were lots of tables and chairs around, most of them stacked up today. But it would be a great place to relax and take in the scenery on a nice day. We, however, went right to the rail to have a look at the waterfall.

The waterfall was actually some distance away and down below us, but still we could hear its roar. It would have been nice to be able to get down closer to it, and maybe there is a path, but on a day like today it would have been difficult to navigate it unless it were paved. So we had to content ourselves with watching the waterfall from here. Most of the pictures I took of the waterfall did not turn out so well as Fred's, so I am going to include some of his pictures here. If you will click on the thumbnail images below, you can see some of his pictures of the waterfall and the activity here on the viewing platform:

Now for our movies:

The View at the Patio Fred took a very good movie from the viewing area, capturing everything from Puerto Caldera on the coast to the mountains to the viewing patio itself. You should have a look at this movie to get an appreciation for the panorama that surrounded us.

The Waterfalls Fred also took a very good movie from the patio of the waterfalls themselves. His camera really does an amazing job on movies, what with the tremendous zoom he has. His movies will become really great when he gets more comfortable with narrating them and with panning and zooming slowly (as his camera takes more time to focus when it moves and zooms than mine does).

My Movie of the Waterfalls I'm including my movie of the waterfalls not because Fred's wasn't good enough, but rather so that you can see how good it actually is. I've come to the conclusion that the only virtue of my own camera is that I can carry it in my pocket.

Crocodiles and Monkeys

At the right I've repeated the map that you saw earlier so that you can follow along on our trip back to Puerto Caldera.

When we left the viewing area at Pura Vida Gardens, it was still raining lightly. We walked up the path back to the patio building where we'd had lunch. We had about a half hour before the van left for the return trip to Puerto Caldera. When we got back down the mountain road to the main highway, we retraced our route and turned north. Just a short distance north we came to the Tarcoles River and the bridge we'd crossed earlier in the day.

This time, the van driver stopped to let us and our guide off to walk across the bridge. Our guide said there was something we should see- and there was. The river banks, particularly near the bridge, were host to twenty or thirty crocodiles! They were all over the place, just lying around on the mud banks or in the shallow water.

We took quite a few pictures of the crocodiles, but I've narrowed them down to just the best. Click on the thumbnail images below to get some additional looks at the many crocodiles here at the Tarcoles River Bridge:

Tarcoles River Crocodiles I supposed the pictures were enough, but I also made a movie of the bridge and the crocodiles, and you might want to have a look at it.

While we walked across the bridge, the van driver took the van on across and parked at a roadside bar and restaurant, aptly named "Restaurant Cocodrilo," (which I presume means "crocodile restaurant"). There were also a bunch of vendors selling brightly‑colored cloth banners as well as crocodile lawn ornaments. While we were here, I took some additional pictures of the wares for sale, both here and across the street, and also had Paul take a picture of the rest of us by our van. Click on the thumbnail images below to have a look at these pictures:

About halfway back to the port, the van stopped for a final time so that our guide could point out a troop of howler monkeys that, he said, inhabited the trees in this one spot- or relatively close by. Today, there were quite a few of them, and we all piled out of the van to have a look. Fred got the only good pictures with his zoom lens, and if you click on the thumbnail images at right, you can have a look at the best of them.

We got back in the van and headed off back to Puerto Caldera, which we reached about 4PM. Since the ship didn't sail until about six-thirty, we had plenty of time. We hung around on the dock for a while, taking a few pictures. Fred got a nice picture of the flying bridge and one of me by the Oosterdam. I returned the favor and took a photo of Fred by the Oosterdam here in Puerto Caldera.

The rest of the day was pretty routine. We went back to the room and out onto the balcony to look at the Puerto Rican coast north of Puerto Caldera. An interesting ship had arrived during the day; it looked as if it were a live-aboard for sure, but I couldn't quite tell if it was a commercial ship or a private one. Fred also got a picture of me at the balcony rail.

By 5PM we were in the Fitness Center (I hope you're impressed that we were so obsessive about working out each day; it made gobbling up the excellent cuisine a little less guilty.) We ate, I believe, with the guys in the Lido Restaurant, giving the dining room a breather, and Fred and I went to the late show in the Vista Lounge- "Ballroom Blitz," a singing/dancing show put on by the Oosterdam's resident troupe.

Tonight is an "off" night as far as bigger name entertainers goes. The main show featured the Oosterdam Singers and Dancers doing lots of song and dance numbers. First, here are some pictures that Fred took of the performance (they are the best of a large bunch); click on the thumbnail images below to view:

Ballroom Blitz Performance Here is my first movie of one of the performances at tonight's show. (It wobbled a lot at the end, so I trimmed that part of it off.)

Ballroom Blitz Performance II Here is my second movie of one of the performances at tonight's show.

The Cast Takes a Bow I made this movie at the end of the performance, more so you could see all the Oosterdam Singers and Dancers that have appeared as a blur in other movies and pictures.

Tonight, there was an additional show at 11PM in the Vista Lounge- a show put on, as the title suggests, by the Filipino members of the crew. (Why there was no "Dutch Crew Show," I am not at all sure.) Anyway, you can see the one picture I took of some of the performers here.

Filipino Crew Show Dance Routine I

Filipino Crew Show Dance Routine II

You can use the links below to continue to the album page for different day.

	November 12, 2009: A Sea Day
	November 10, 2009: A Sea Day
	Return to the Index for Our Panama Canal Cruise