Wednesday  Isla Coiba National Park and Granito De Oro, Panama

One of Panama’s newest and largest national park and the third largest marine park in the world.  There is no development on the islands other than an old prison which is now park headquarters.  This was our snorkeling day—Dibs to the beach on a teeny, tiny island or spit of sand.  Full of hermit crabs and surrounded by coral.  We enjoyed the warm waters and colorful marine life.  Nancy was excited to see a spotted eel.  It was just a great morning.  After lunch we were headed off to our next destination so sailed all afternoon and night, 190 miles of rocking and rolling on the pacific ocean.

Thursday we are in the Gulf of Panama.  We start making our way to the Panama Canal with a two stops today.  The first is Bona where we observed seabirds who take advantage of the upwells formed by trade winds.  The upwells are rich in nutrients.  We took DIB rides around Bona island and saw boobies, blue and brown, adults and babes, frigate birds in mating season so the males were performing by blowing out their red pouches and brown pelicans.  Off we went the 22 miles to the Panama Canal.  We stopped Taboga, the island of flowers, to visit one of the oldest churches in the Western Hemisphere, founded in 1550.  This area, including Taboga, was a great location for the pirates who attacked Spanish ships throughout the 1600’s.  Nancy went into town on DIB and enjoyed the church, climbing the spiral staircase to the bell tower and then walking around the colorful town.

We had to be at our buoy by mid afternoon to await our pilot and linesmen and our turn in line to begin the crossing.  The first sets of locks, Miraflores and Pedro Miguel lift us 85 feet above sea level into the Culebra Cut and on to Gatun Lake where we will spend the night.  This is very unusual at boats are expected to transit from ocean to ocean without stopping in the lake.  The lake is huge, the crossing is 50 miles in total.  Lindblad/Nat Geo have a special contract in order to stay overnight and visit Barro Colorado which is a Smithsonian Research facility.  Our turns and we begin.  It is a slow, slow yet amazing process.  We enter the lock behind another ship and are kept from hitting the walls by special rail cars that are tied to each side of the ship.  These are modern day versions of a mule.  The water pours in—some millions of gallons and we are raised to the level of the next lock, about 30 feet.  It is night time so the locks are lit up and sparkle in the night sky.  Two locks make up Miraflores and then we travel a short distance to Pedro Miguel.  Some stay up all night, but we turn in after a fun night of adventure.

We spent Friday morning on a DIB ride around the island housing the research center.  The current director came aboard to give us an intro to the history of the center and describe some of the research areas, mostly around animal interactions and flora.  We saw howler monkeys, two crocs, smallish in nature, white faced monkeys, spider monkeys, birds and some funky looking lizard.  It was hot, but we had good sightings and a good last look to the rain forest.  Back in line for the last of the locks exiting the canal into the Caribbean Sea.  Will describe the rest of the adventure with our last blog, but it late, we are packed to disembark in the morning to spend one day in Panama city before heading home.

Tuesday, we are pooped.  Last night we had an Argentinian couple come on board to sing for us.  They were quite delightful and their son occasionally sang along until his eyes shut mid song.  He stole most of the show.  However the singing was soothing.  Fausto, the 5 year old, was fascinated that there was a bathroom on such a big ship.  Most boats he sees do not have one, hose are smaller boats.

Up early today to go ashore at Finca Solidaro in Gulfo Dulce—one of the deepest gulfs of its size in the world.  At 6:45 the light is good for flowers and birds.  This is a photography expedition so there are 4 pros on board in additional to Kike the National Geographic photographer we mentioned earlier.  He decided to give us private lessons this morning so we never saw the flowers or birds except for one parrot.  He was using Nancy’s camera so she was experimenting and trying to absorb all of the information.  At the same time Sue played with a wide variety of settings on her camera.  Thus the black and white parrot with a touch of color. 

Back for breakfast and off for a DIB ride up Rio Esquinas one of eighteen emptying in the gulf.  It starts as a dense mangrove thicket yielding to a riverine forest.  Herons, boa constrictors and ibis.  Sun was hot but the ride was faster and we got a little breeze.  Here’s a surprise, Sue found a place to shop on board at the global market, some shirts, a basket and a straw woven bird.

After lunch the photographers worked with small groups but Kike’s was large and off track but interesting.  He gave Sue some great tips on one of her shots, which he liked.  We both practiced a bit this afternoon when we back to shore for a botanical garden walk.  The afternoon was hot.  Landing are always adventurous, depending on the surf, and always wet so we go ashore and dry off before setting out.  The flowers and plants at the garden where beautiful, they guides shared lots of information and picture taking was plentiful.  Two parrots squawked as they flew over in a circle and then landed in a nearby tree, all other stopped as we took pictures.  We came to the ship in a melted puddle.  Fortunately activities for today except for dinner.  The ship is repositioning first to a pier to clear customs and then sailing 120 nautical miles to our next destination in Panama.  Farewell to Costa Rica….

So the Quaker settlement in this area. 4 families from Alabama decided that they wanted to move from the US after 4 of them spent a year in jail and on probation for not registering for the draft.  They choose Costa Rica from many options when they learned they had abolished their military.  In 1951 they set out with 7 other families and arrived by plane or 3 month drive with lots of obstacles—including twelve miles in CR with no road that took a month to traverse.  Amazing.  They eventually found land in the highlands (for health reasons), on a plateau.  They took the same route here we did, through the brown lowlands to the lush green forest.  They bought 30,000 acres and set 1/3 aside for a watershed.  The balance was divided between all the families.  They since gave the watershed to the preserve, have started a school, farms, cheese factory and developed a growing community.  They named the area green mountain which translates to Monteverde and now the township and region carry that name.  He was a farmer, then cheese factory manager and eventually moved to San Jose to become the distributor for the business.  There he met an unwed mother with a young starving son.  She was not able to care for him and had little interest in the boy.  Marvin Rockwell, who gave the talk, adopted the boy.  Eventually he married a local woman and they two sons and adopted a daughter.  They recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.—How did he celebrate his ninetieth birthday!  Zip Line!! And he loved it.

On the 22nd we left Monteverde via a butterfly garden with captivating bug lecture

beforehand.  To quote the women who owned the place, “You thought you were coming to see butterflies but you really are going to learn about spiders, bugs and roaches.  The butterflies just lure you in.”  Kickoff was a big hairy tarantula, several beetles, small and large, some singing.  Ending with scorpions and a very large cockroach which she put in her mouth to prove it was not toxic or dangerous—yum.  Butterfly houses were lovely with a variety of Costa Rican species.  A new one for us was the glass winged butterfly, you can see right them like a stained glass. 

The brightest were the blue morpho which shimmered in the light as they flew.  When they sit with folded wings they are moth like and not very attractive.  Back on the bus to head down the mountain and the coast to ship.  On the way we stopped for a traditional CR lunch of rice with chicken, plantains, beans and veggies.  We also learned the history of the country and all about coffee.  We picked up a local variety at the tourist trap.  Coffee, bananas and donkeys were the early exports.  One last stop at the river to see the crocs.  Little fellas at 15 feet…..

We arrive a the ship, settle in and have dinner.  All is well.  Overnight we sailed from

Herradura past Quepos, an old banana export town and drop anchor at Manuel Antonio National Park.  We ventured out to take a two mile walk in sloth valley—guess what we found.  Iguanas.  Then we found one sloth way up in tree and we all took pictures.  Only to come across one later coming the down the tree with a baby and tow and swinging onto another tree.  First one was a two fingered and second a three figured.  We were all entertained for 1/2 hour.  Our attention was diverted when a large troupe of white faced monkeys appeared in the trees and made their way to the beach.  We learned that they sleep in like the tourists and come out in time to steal picnic lunches.  We witnessed it.  They are quick and can open plastic bags and tupperware to find their prize.  Again we were entertained for 1/2 hour.  Snap, snap, snap of cameras.  On the way back raccoons appeared but we had little interest as we see them at home.  Back to the beach where you could swim or lounge or head to the ship via the DIB or zodiac.

We spent the afternoon on board instead of more beach time. It is hot and sunny and Nancy burns and Sue wanted a massage.  We had a few lectures in the evening, history, info about sloths, and a photography lesson.

Today is Monday.  We are at the Osa Peninsula.  We spent the morning on a DIB cruise into the Agujitas river.  We saw vultures, herons, a baby crocodile, monkeys, and a very tiny kingfisher.  Back to the beach, we do that a lot, where the staff prepared and served a picnic lunch.  Fortunately, there were no monkeys invited.  Present in the area were yellow beaked herons, tiny hermit crabs and a flock of macaws, not to mention the random dog.  It was a beautiful place to rest and enjoy the view and warmth of the early afternoon.  Back to the ship for a nap for Sue and Nancy’s massage followed by her nap.  

 

February 20-21—Monteverde Preserve, Skywalk and Bats

Two days have flown by.  We drove 4 hours from San Jose to Monteverde with several stops on the way.  The countryside changed from dry, golden grasses and deciduous forest to mountain top greens of the tropical rain forest.  We looked off to see several volcanoes and mountains surrounding San Jose.  The are seven active volcanoes in Costa Rica, which is the size of West Virginia.  One of the largest active volcanoes is handicap accessible into the crate—how is that for tourist friendly?  It is warm and sunny, low 70’s which cool breezes.  As we climbed toward the cloud forest, it is unusually clear but the storm that hit NYC a few days ago will make it’s way down here soon to bring high winds, the clouds, and rain.  By that time we should be headed down the mountain to the pacific port where we catch the boat.

Lunch at the hotel and then off to the Preserve which was developed for research but is open to tourism.  We started at a hummingbird viewing area where they have feeders and the local birds come to show off.  It was fun standing there as they buzzed past your ears and hovered at the feeders.  The colors and variations were breathtaking.  It was hard to leave there for our planned walk.  Walked about 1 1/2 miles through the lush green forest to a waterfall.  On the way we saw a coati which looks like a scraggly raccoon, ficus trees in varying stages of overtaking and killing their host trees, eventually leaving a hollowed out core where the tree once was, an incredible number of orchids, following plants, ferns, air plants and one quetzal with beautiful colors and long tail feathers.  No bugs.  The rain forest in rich in diversity but has few individual members of any species—that was the explanation we got for the lack of bugs.  We love it.  Also surprising was the lack of visible birds on the walk.  We could hear them but very few were seen.  Back to the hotel for a beautiful sunset and dinner.

Some hardy souls, not us, got up at 5:15 to go track the quetzals—they saw 8 total, four males and four females.  We started our day later with breakfast before leaving for the skywalk on the back side of the preserve.  We choose the shorter hike of a 1 1/2 miles and 4 suspension skywalk crossing—did we mention Nancy was close to terrified.  Choosing the shorter trip put us a the longest and highest bridge first, what a way to start.  High above the canopy of the forest, it crosses a ravine where you look down on the gardens that live in the tree tops.  Nancy did not see these on this bridge—eyes straight ahead ignoring all but the sight of the middle tower and the other side. She made it.  The bridge sways and bounces but is really quite safe and modern compared to many of this style bridge.  The next two were easier and we both enjoyed the views from these, though lower and shorter.  Did we mention that we could have done a ten section zipline but opted for the more terrifying bridges.  

Lunch in town with a few minutes before hand to walk around, mostly tourist shops and restaurants.  Off to a bat farm/museum.  We were not expecting to enjoy it, but found the information and the bats to be fascinating.  Learned about different species all over the world and the importance of bats to the ecosystems in which they live.  We got to view fruit and nectar bats which can be held in captivity unlike other species who require tons of mosquitos or bugs to eat.  Nectar bat tongues are 1 1/2 times the length of their body—what if your tongue was that long!  They pollinate just like bees and many plants rely exclusively on the bats for pollination.  Bat pups are born at 1/3 the weight of the mother, think about that for humans as well.  Inside in the simulated night, the bats were active and fed while we were there so we saw them in flight, hovering by food, hanging, eating and sleeping.  We may buy or build a bat house for our woods when we get home.

Monteverde was founded by a group of American Quakers, more on that next time.  We met one of the founders and heard his story.  At age 92 he entertained us for about an hour.  We just finished dinner and are headed to bed.  Off in the morning to the ship—about 4 hours drive, and then we begin our adventure at sea.  Here is a little bit of information about the ship:

Our ship is the NG Sea Lion.  She takes 62 guests and is 152 feet long.  There is library, a little global market and a lounge with facilities for films and slideshows and daily recaps.  There is an observation deck and a sun deck.  We have been on her before in the Baja staying in a top, far forward cabin right behind the bridge.  We have moved down and back to accommodate Nancy’s tendency toward sea sickness.  What Sue does not understand is why Nancy can conquer traveling with sea sickness and be nervous about the skywalk.  There is a chance she can control her sea sickness, it is questionable about controlling fear. We have a NG photographer onboard, Kike Calvo—he has been in NG, Time etc. We look forward to the opportunity to hear about his experiences and to interact about trip photography at all skill levels.

Costa Rica and the Panama Canal

February 19, 2014

Arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica via a stop overnight in Miami.  The sun is shining with a gentle breeze and the skies are blue blue.  We missed doing our blog during our November India trip, we may reconstruct it someday, but here we are trying to keep up with this trip.  This is a National Geographic/Lindblad trip.  We went with them to the Baja with Scott and Debbie and to the Galapagos.  Small boats, great guides and naturalists, wonderful trips.  We are doing a pre-trip extension in Monteverde Cloud Forest which is an acclaimed private reserve.  To quote NG, “there is an aura about Monteverde’s Cloud Forest—the mist drifting past silhouettes of magic trees, the cool quiet and the haunting music of a bird called ‘solitaire’.”  We can’t wait to see it all.  It is also home to 300 species of orchids and the skywalk, which Nancy is working up all her courage to try and do.  Encouragement welcome.  Tonight we have a welcome dinner and tomorrow is a five hour drive to begin this part of the adventure.

The map does not show the extension to the cloud forest but puts you in the right territory.