Wednesday, January 8th--Our 5th Cruise Day--Puerto Limon, Costa Rica.

Wednesday, January 8^th—Our 5^th Cruise Day—Puerto Limon, Costa Rica.

NOTE: Access to the internet from the ship has become very, very slow and at times impossible. And it has also become expensive, since we pay for internet time at sea by the minute. As a result, we will probably not be able to make as many blog posts as we would like or as often as we would like. We most likely will “get behind” in our posts when the internet is inaccessible, but we will do our best to catch up when we can.

After boarding our ship on Saturday, January 4^th, we had 3 full “sea days” before our first port of call—Puerto Limon, Costa Rica.

Costa Rica is located between Nicaragua to the north and Panama to the south, and spans the isthmus—which means it has both an Atlantic (Caribbean) coast and a Pacific Coast.  During the extension of our 2012 World Voyage, we visited Puntarenas, Costa Rica on the Pacific coast—this time, we were on the Atlantic (Caribbean) side.

We arrived in Puerto Limon at 7:00 AM, and “all aboard” was at 3:30 PM so we had about 8 ½ hours at this port. Here we chose to take a 4 ½ hour Holland America excursion tour called “Sloth Sanctuary and Jungle Experience.”

Committing to an organized tour is a “hit or miss” proposition—some tours are wonderful and go beyond expectations, and others are disappointing. And unfortunately one must usually make an excursion choice based only upon a brief book description. Fortunately, this tour fell into the “wonderful/beyond expectations” category—primarily due to three reasons: 1. Our tour guide and van driver were excellent! The guide spoke English very well, and was informative and entertaining while our van driver was willing to take extra time and stop the van at various locations when he spotted something of interest. 2.  We were in a small group of only 16 people. And while we weren’t the only people at the sanctuary (there were perhaps a dozen others), the capacity of the sanctuary was 200, so we were able to ask questions and interact with the staff more than usual. 3.  The places we went and the things we saw were very, very, interesting!

Our tour didn’t begin until 9:30 AM, but we left the ship about an hour early to check out the port area. Like most ports, there were shopping booths at the base of the pier, and Pat found some things she thought our grandchildren might like. We boarded our tour van right at the pier at 9:15 AM, and since everyone was on time, we departed early.

The drive to the sanctuary was about 45 minutes, and along the way, we stopped at a roadside market for some “ladyfinger” bananas—a little larger than a finger—which we all enjoyed. Later along the way, we stopped alongside the road because our driver spotted a family of howler monkeys in the trees. Of course we all got out of the van and began taking photos as fast as we could—even though the monkeys were high up in the trees and it was hard to get a good shot.

After arriving at the Sloth Sanctuary, we heard a brief lecture on sloths:  today there are 6 species of sloth, two of which are found in Costa Rica, the two toed sloth (Choloepus hoffmanni) and the three toed sloth (Bradypus variegates) . (There were once two species of giant sloths—one in North America and one in South America—which are now extinct.)

After the lecture, we saw several individuals of each of the two Costa Rican species close up and learned more about their behavior and the sanctuary. The sanctuary was founded by a woman, Judy, from Alaska who married a Costa Rican man, Luis Arroyo, and when they moved to Costa Rica, they began a sanctuary for injured or orphaned animals which neighbors would bring to them. Eventually they specialized in sloths, and today they have over 75 sloths they hope to reintroduce into the wild, and a few that will remain permanently at the sanctuary for various reasons. Our visit with the sloths ended with a visit to their “Sloth Nursery” where young orphaned sloths were being nursed back to health.

After visiting the sanctuary, we took an hour canoe ride through the jungle on the Estrella River where we saw very dense vegetation—mainly bamboo and Banana plants. Also there was a variety of wildlife—including turtles, howler monkeys, several types of lizards and many, many beautifully colored birds.

After the canoe trip, we heard a short lecture from our guide on jungle vegetation, and learned the lore of the achiote or anotto face painting. The pod of the achiote plant has seeds which—when rubbed with a finger—produce a dark red pigment. This red pigment, used by the indigenous people, was placed on the cheeks of the tribal chief, and on the lips of the women. We couldn’t resist trying some of this face painting, and put some on our cheeks and foreheads (Pat wasn’t excited about putting it on her lips!) and of course completed the experience with a photo.

On our jungle walk, we saw ginger plants and banana plants in full bloom, and the pod of a cacao plant which our guide cut open to show the chocolate producing flesh inside.

After our jungle experience, we had refreshments at the sanctuary lookout where “Buttercup”—a lively and entertaining three toed sloth--put on a show climbing all over, around and even on top of a large suspended basket. We had a chance to chat with the Alaskan woman (the owner/founder) about the history of the sanctuary, and just before we left, a neighbor brought in a four-day-old two toed sloth that had fallen from his mother out of a tree. Apparently sloth mothers will abandon their fallen babies, so the sanctuary was his only chance for survival—a survival that is now highly likely.

About 1:15 PM, we were on the road back to Puerto Limon, but along the way, our driver spotted several sloths in the wild up in trees. Of course, the van stopped and we all got out snapping photos as fast as we could—even though the sloths were a long way off and hard to photograph. We also stopped briefly for photos of the shoreline with Isla Uvita and the ms Amsterdam in the background. (Isla Uvita is the island where Christopher Columbus was forced to land after a hurricane had damaged his ships in 1502. He exclaimed that here he had seen “more gold in two days than he had seen in four years in Spain” and named the place “The Rich Coast” or “Costa Rica.”

Our tour ended back at the port area, and afterwards we took a short walk into town to look around and purchase a few items. But soon it was time to make our way back to the ship and get aboard before the 3:30 PM deadline.

For dinner that night, we had Costa Rican specialties, but we didn’t want to stay up too late because the next day—beginning at 5:00 AM (!)—we would be traversing the Panama Canal!