Adventures in Panama

Okay, we've had the family blog for a couple of weeks now, but only Laura has been posting. I've never blogged before, but she has asked/insisted that I talk about Panama. It was our favourite stop on the cruise, so I'll try to do it justice.

Panama was the last port of call on our cruise (except for Ft. Laud of course). We were still kind of recovering from the previous day with all of the exciting activities in Costa Rica. We got into Puerto Colon pretty early and headed off the ship. (Everytime I got off the ship I felt like we were still on it. Or maybe I'm not crazy and the pier really was rocking back and forth.)

We quickly got onto a bus (and past several dozen taxi drivers, all of whom were more than glad to show us around) and headed off for the Panama Canal. We had a really funny tour guide named...actually I can't think of his name off hand. Laura can't either, but she thought that he sounded like one of the Marx brothers. On the way to the canal we passed some cool things (but apparently I didn't think that they were cool enough at the time to take pictures of them) including a McDonald's that actually makes deliveries and the second largest duty-free zone in the world (after Hong Kong).

We finally made it out to the canal. Canal locks is not a word that I ever learned in Spanish, but I'm pretty sure that's what Esclusas means. And Gatun is the name of a native Panamanian chief in the area.

Here it is in English for the benefit of all the non-Spanish speaking tourists (or those with a Spanish vocabulary that does not include shipping terms).

We climbed into this kind of observation tower right next to the locks, and as luck would have it a ship was just about to head through the locks.

The MSC Tamara was the ship that was making it's way through. It is, like many of the cargo ships, a Panamax. The name is pretty self-explanatory. It's the largest size ship that the canal can accommodate. The canal is 110 feet wide and a Panamax ship is 106 feet wide. That works out to about two feet of space on each side between the ship's hull and the side of the canal. From our point of view it looks like you couldn't get more than about three pieces of paper between them. It was a really tight fit. The other thing that is pretty cool about the locks is how much a ship has to pay to get through. It's based on the amount of cargo. This particular ship payed a whopping $340,000!

After leaving the canal we headed off to the jungle. There were a few interesting things to see along the way. The pic below is the original Panama canal, or as much of it as the French were able to complete. It's not quite as impressive as the American-built one we had just left, and apparently not as useful. The tour guide said no one uses it for anything.

All along the tour the bus driver had his eyes out for wildlife. I have no idea how he spotted this while driving along the edge of a jungle, but he found a super cool sloth. The green dot is from his laser pointer (to help the rest of us find him).

We were just about to the jungle at this point. But we had to pass through an old army base. These, as you can probably guess, were the barracks for the enlisted men. The officers had walls on their buildings.

The start of our jungle walk.

Lots of trees in the jungle.

I have to pat myself on the back for this one. We saw a monkey a little ways off the trail and I quickly snapped what was the coolest picture of the whole day. (I love black and white)

Our trek through the jungle lasted for close to an hour. Our guide was pretty knowledgeable. He had worked with the U.S. military when they still had a base in the area. He would camp out overnight in some kind of wilderness survival training. It's a pretty dangerous place to be. There are these trees called black palms that have spikes that are four inches long, plus bugs and scorpions and all sorts of other things that would make for an unpleasant, if not really dangerous, camping trip.

Once back into the safety of the bus we left for the last stop of the tour: The Fort of San Lorenzo. This really cool tree is near the front of it. The tree is so old and heavy that the branches just sort of lay on the ground.

This is the view from the fort. This is an inlet from the ocean.

The fort was actually built to guard against...I think it was pirates, at least I think that's what the guide said...that would attack from the jungle. So, all of the canons are facing that way.

Laura decided to check them out personally. Can't be too careful in case the pirates come back.

This is the main structure that is behind the outer wall and moat.

I just couldn't resist the chance to take another B&W shot.

Laura loves history!

At the end of the tour we were treated to a few snacks and/or drinks. Apparently the beer was a big hit among most of the other people on the tour. We stuck with the accelerated cheese chips.

I think that this was Laura's favourite pic. For all of you who served Spanish speaking missions, you know how much Latinos love their rice. This sign shows one of the side effects.

Panama really is an amazing country. It was such a contrast with Costa Rica. Both were beautiful, but Panama seems like the more developed of the two. It is definitely a place that we would love to visit again. And there is good reason to. The tour guide personally invited us back to celebrate the opening of the new (and much larger) canal in three years. Maybe we will take him up on that.

In the lovely Costa Rica

Wednesday was Costa Rica day!

Right before we got off the ship, as we were going to get breakfast, we looked on the big screen to see this:
Pretty far away from our lovely little Utah County, and we got to see a news report from American Fork, Utah.

Wolf and I used a private tour guide in Costa Rica instead of going with an excursion from the ship. We absolutely loved it. When we compared our tour to a similar one done by the ship that a different couple participated in, I was glad we did our own little thing. The price was about the same, but ours was about twice the length and we did more than they did. We went with Charlie Soto Tours. We even got to shake Charlie's hand before getting handed to a different tour guide in a lovely air conditioned van. About twenty minute into the tour, we learned that we actually missed our group, somehow so we got put with a group that was doing a different tour. Thankfully, both of our first stops was the same, so we were able to switch to our rightful group.

Costa Rica is poor. As we drove along our merry way, I would glance out the window and see sights like these.

Our first stop on the tour was the Tortuguero Canals. We took a little boat through them. They are an extensive system of manmade and natural canals that connect little villages to the ocean. When the weather takes out paths and roads, the villagers can get around using the canals. Somewhere more inland, on these canals, is the nesting site for four varieties of turtles. (One of which is named the Tortuguero Turtle, surprisingly enough.) We did not go that far in, but during our hour long tour, we did get to see a lot of different wildlife and plants. (You won't see any pictures of Wolf until later on in this post, but while I remember this, pay attention to what he was wearing. I thought he was absolutely crazy.)

Here is a bird. (These subtitles probably help a lot.)

Another beautiful bird

Common basilisk

This is looking from the Tortuguero Canals to the Ocean. It was a beautiful day to be out on the water.

A real life common basilisk or Jesus Christ lizard. Why is it called the Jesus Christ lizard? He can run on water.

As we were just sailing along, one of the ladies in our group let out a gasp and pointed at a really long and skinny green snake cruising through the water. Our tour guide said we were really lucky to see one of those snakes in the water; they have been known to jump in the boat before.

See those beady eyes and that little nose? This was the cute little cayman we saw.

Monkey, just hanging out

This bird was showing off his wingspan. If I had a wingspan that wide, I would show it off, too.

Another monkey

Our second stop in this wonderful day was a Del Monte banana plantation. This plantation is huge; it is over a hundred acres. The plantation was rather different than I thought it would be.

This picture was taken on the road coming in. After getting off the main highway, the road we took was a dirt road and well worn. There were huge potholes and it was a rather bumpy ride.

These are what real, live Costa Rican banana plants look like. They were shorter than I thought they would be. Here are all the random facts you have wanted to know about bananas. Bananas do not technically grow on trees. They are banana plants. The large upright stems are called pseudostems. Each pseudostem can produce a single bunch of bananas. Only one bunch of bananas ripen at a time on a banana plant. One bunch contains between three and twenty tiers; each tier holds between three and ten fruits. It takes 54 weeks for a bunch of bananas to fully develop (that's a year and two weeks for those of you following along at home). Bananas grow pointing up, not hanging down.

And here is almost the same picture as the one above it.

The little hanging things right below our lovely tour guide's hand is a bunch of baby bananas that fell off their stem.

One thing that interested me the most in this whole banana process is that it seems really old fashioned. When bananas are ready to be harvested, a young man goes out on a pulley device to the section where the bananas are ripe and cuts the bunch down with a machete. He then carries them over his shoulder to the pulley system and attaches them to the line. After attaching several bunches, he uses the manual pulley system to take them to this part of the plantation.

The bananas are sprayed down by water. Some ladies take the bunches and cut them into the stereotypical bunches you see in a store and then the bunches are put in these pools. The bananas move down to the other end of the pool by the force of the spray of the water.

Here are the bananas after they are harvested, still on the pulley line.

The last stop on our tour was the Brisas De La Jungla Zip Line. If you are ever in that part of Costa Rica, I would highly recommend it. We had little baby bananas as a snack as we were put into harnesses, given a helmet, and handed a pair of heavy gloves. This is a nervous Wolf.

Somewhat excited Wolf

This is how excited we each were to go on the zip line.

Although we sadly did not get any pictures or video of the rest of the zip line, this is what the ladder to the first platform looked like. We climbed to the top and then hooked ourselves to a cable securely fastened to that huge tree. When it came our turn, the guide at that platform would connect you to the zip line going to the next platform and send you on your way. The first line was long and gorgeous; you got to see the rainforest on the right side and on the left, there was a break in the forest to let you look out over a river. There were 13 platforms and 12 cables total. The longest cable was 270 meters (885 ft) long and the highest we were above ground was 80 meters (262 ft).

I borrowed this picture from the Zip Line's website. We were connected to two cables going down. This made accidents or injury almost impossible.

And...the last picture we have from Costa Rica is my favorite animal when I was in 7th grade. A neon colored poison dart frog! We did not touch it or try to eat it.
The tour was supposed to stop at a Costa Rican grocery store so that some people on the bus could pick up some Costa Rican coffee (apparently really good) but I am glad we did not. We got back to the dock about fifteen minutes before we were supposed to be back on the ship. After a quick stop by the shops in which I bought some sweet leather navy butterfly earrings and Wolfie bought a metal lizard (that description does not do his lizard justice), we jumped back on the ship. Wolf and I were both exhausted after this action packed eight hour day.

How it all began part II

If you missed the first part of this story, you can read part I.

After the call we had that Monday, I realized that he had not asked me for my address. I was unsure if he was the type of guy that "forgot" to ask me my address on purpose so he could call me again later in the week, or if he was so nervous that he legit forgot.

A few days later, I received another call from him to confirm the plans and to get my address. I lived in a little brick house that year with five girls. The house was situated on a pretty busy street and the fact that it is a brick house made it easier to find. I had confidence in him that he would be able to find it with ease.

The day of our first date, I worked a rather long shift at work and got home with an hour to get ready. Normally, this would have been more than enough time for me to change and freshen up my look, but I had a small dilemma. I was unsure as to what to wear. Keep in mind, this was not one of those blue shirt or red shirt problems. I had no idea how much he was dressing up for the date and I did not want to wear jeans if he was in something nicer. The reason my mind was in a long thought process over this is because I had never seen him in jeans before. He is required to dress up a bit for work so I had only ever seen him in slacks or dress pants. I summoned the one roommate that was home that evening to explain to her. After discussing the situation, we came up with a clever solution. She would answer the door and then come to get me. I was already dressed in jeans, but if he was wearing something nicer, I would be the fastest changer in the west and quickly replace the jeans for a skirt.

As we waited for him to come, we giggled as we crouched in front of the closed blinds, trying to keep a small slit in the plastic so we could watch for his car. 7:00 came and went. I am very OCD about being on time, but I understand the fact that may people are a bit late for dates and this is because lots of girls say they will be ready at 7:00, but they mean they will actually be ready at 7:10. This makes no sense to me. It got later and later and I was a little surprised and starting to get disappointed. That's when he called me.

"Uh, I feel really stupid, but what's your address?"

I gave it to him again, and he gave a nervous laugh. He apologized, told me that he had switched up east and west, and told me he was on his way. My roommate and I now waited more anxiously than ever. Finally, a car pulled up to the house. I rushed back to my room (an action that probably shifted the blinds like no one's business).

Cue doorbell.

Cue the roommate answering the door after waiting a few seconds to not appear like she was waiting right next to the door.

Cue muffled voices.

Enter the roommate into my room.

"He's wearing jeans!"

I thanked her and walked out to greet him. (He looked good in jeans!)

We headed off to Bombay House, his favorite restaurant. After a very awkward time in the waiting area (I was sitting for most of it, he was standing, and that just makes for an awkward time) we were called to our table and things got much better. He got his usual vegetarian dish and I got my sweet curry. He had told me before our date that he is a vegetarian and I was interested to see exactly how committed to this. I am not the biggest carnivore out there, but I do enjoy my meat. He offered to let me try his dish, but since he got it the hottest they have it and since I have an allergy to onions, peppers, and garlic (you try spicing up a dish without one of those) I declined.

We filled ourselves to the brim at that place. I love their food.

It was rather late when we finished our dinner. He seemed eager to continue the date and suggested a movie. We decided on Unstoppable once reaching the theatre. I am a fan of Denzel Washington, so I was interested in the film. I liked it, but they used strong language more than I would have liked and this post is not to review movies.

By the time Wolf and I got back to my house, I was exhausted. I am not a night person. It was a cold November night, and I expected the doorstep scene to only last a few minutes. We continued to talk and he led the conversation, much to my surprise. Finally, after about an hour, we ended our night. At the end of this doorstep scene, he did something that no other guy had done on a first day. He gave me a side hug.

A side hug.

I was surprised. I thought the date had gone well, and I translate side hug to be something you give to your friend or someone you just aren't interested in.

I went to bed that night rather confused.

End of part II