End of a year

 

December 31^st, 2022 

The end of a year. What a way to finish out this year. As we sailed into the Gulf of Nicoya this morning, we had a beautiful sunrise. 

We elected an optional excursion for today. We will be going to the Natuwa Animal Sanctuary and rehabilitation center in the afternoon. So, we had a quiet morning. 

The tour began about 1:30 with a bus ride of a little over an hour. Once at the sanctuary, we met the co-founder and then continued on a walking tour of the exhibits. This is a rehabilitation center. I use the term “animal” as an all-inclusive term for the many different types of critters we saw. Any animal taken in is evaluated with the intent of releasing them back into the wild. Many cannot be released and are housed for educational purposes. 

Some of the photos will show animals in cages. These are large enclosures that give the animals as much space as possible. There are two jaguars in residence. As their needs require, the enclosures will be enlarged to provide them with more space. Example: There are two large aviaries for 2 different species of macaws. They are shaped like a very large “O”s so the birds can fly unimpeded around and around. There are other smaller aviaries for other species. 

We also saw macaws and monkeys that had been released but have chosen to hang around. We saw numerous two-toed sloth. They are in an enclosure, but their movements are not restricted. The sloth enclosures protect these animals from humans. We were there mid-afternoon and feeding time was to be shortly after we left, so the animals were fairly active. If we had been there in the morning, things would probably have been much quieter. 

One of the better tours we have been on, and not just this trip. Great guide, seeing the number of animals, variety of information, value for the dollar. 

After returning to the ship, we pretty much headed straight to dinner, then joined friends in the Explorer’s Lounge for an after-dinner toddy. Viking is putting on a party tonight to celebrate the New Year. There will be Dancing Under The Stars on the Pool Deck starting at 9:30. We’ll be asleep by then. 

Happy New Year everyone!

Several Two-toed sloth. They sack out in the crook between branch and trunk,

Two-toed Sloth

Another one hanging on tight. They blend in with the trees and are very hard to spot. And since they rarely move, you have to look very closely.

A beautiful Macaw up in the trees. Posing for us in a bit of sun. This is one that has been rehabilitated and released. But chooses to stay

A couple of howler monkeys. The second photo is quite grainy as I had to play with the lighting to see the face. The troupe kept track of us and were constantly chattering at us and also expressed their feelings by trying to piss on us.

Bananas

A spyder monkey (above) and another species I can't remember the name of. The second one was very small. The body was only about 9" long.

Parrots that had amazing coloring. Just about every color in the rainbow is represented in their feathers.

A macaw. The odd pile of dark material on the branch is a termite nest. You see these EVERYWHERE.

Brazilian Blue and Gold Macaws.

The largest of the Macaws. These are not native to Costa Rica. The beak looks dangerous.

A large rodent. The Agouti.

There were several Toucans.

Panama Canal

 

Friday, December 30, 2022

 

Yesterday, was the day we transited the Panama Canal. 

We were up early so started out by putting a load of laundry on. 

But first I want to talk for a moment about one of the things that will reoccur during this voyage. Refueling. When we got back from our excursion yesterday afternoon, we noticed a fairly loud noise coming from just outside our room. We were being re-fueled. Taking a look, it all seemed fairly simple. There was a hose running from a small tanker to the ship. The hose was about 12” in diameter. It continued to run for hours! Just something for us to be aware of.

 We were given an approximate schedule for the events of transiting the Canal. The 1^st locks (on the Caribbean side) around 6:45 a.m. We were very pleased that it would be daylight for our journey. 

Note all the lights on the horizon. Those are ships waiting their turn to enter the Canal. Daylight hours, all traffic flows from the Atlantic side to the Pacific side. That reverses at night for those ships bound for the Atlantic.

Before we made the first lock, a pilot boat pulled up and off-loaded about 20 men that would in some form be assisting with the transit today.

About 20 guys got off this little boat to jump aboard the Neptune. Later in the day, we saw them get off.

During the entire process we were sailing at a very sedate speed. Moving very slowly along the way. It was a delightful day. Beautiful scenery, good weather. Around 3:00 in the afternoon, we moved through the Miraflores locks on the Pacific side and headed for the Pacific Ocean. As we approached the Miraflores locks, we noticed a large contingency of people at one of the buildings along the locks. We later learned they were from the Viking Star which will transit the Canal today. A huge cheer went up from both the people on the shore as well as those of us on the ship. How fun!

In front of the closed lock doors, you can see whitewater gushing out of our lock.

Sailing into the sunset, we are on our way to Costa Rica. We’ll check back in, in a couple of days.

Cartagena, Columbia and Colon, Panama

 

Thursday, December 29, 2022

 

Cartagena, Columbia and Colon, Panama 

Tuesday morning, we arrived in Cartagena, Colombia. This is another continent for us. We will be walking on South America. So, this is the 2^nd Continent of this trip.  We are scheduled for the “included” tour this morning. Today that consists of a 2-hour drive around the city with one photo op stop and another stop for “shopping”. Shopping seems to be pretty much mandatory on these outings. 

Busses lining up for the tours and modern day Cartagena in the background.

Panoramic view of the busses and city in the distance.

The ship provides devices to all passengers that are a listening device for excursions. They refer to them as “QuietVox” (QV). They really work quite well. You are able to hear your guide without having to stand right next to them. 

This morning’s excursion indicated that our QV was not required. It should have been. We could hear very little of the guide’s dissertation. And what we could hear had such a heavy accent, you still couldn’t understand him. You never know from one excursion to the next what the quality of the guide will be. Some are great, some are pretty bad (today’s), and a lot are somewhere in between. 

The fort in old Cartagena. Think of "Romancing the Stone" with Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner.

Just a side street in old Cartagena.

Much of the old Cartagena is surrounded by a wall. This is just a small portion.

But, after the tour, we were dropped off at the entrance of the port. We would have to walk back to the ship. The local taxi unions would not let the busses drive back into the port. A big advantage to this was that we had to walk through a very nice little aviary and had the opportunity to see parrots, peacocks and peahens, flamingos, and some four-legged critters as well. 

And finally,

An early departure from Cartagena would get us into Colon around 8 am.

 

Wednesday morning. As we sailed into port this morning, we were amazed to the see the parking lot of ships all around us. We will be docking at the cruise port, but most ships transiting the Canal simply have to wait their turn by anchoring just off shore or in the harbor behind a breakwater which keeps the currents of the Caribbean from interfering with the Canal traffic. There were too many to count! 

This is a panoramic view.

Today we have signed up for an “optional excursion” which means we paid extra for it. We will be taking an excursion titled “Flora and Fauna of Panama”. We are hopeful to see some wildlife. The excursion left on time; our guide is Mariela. She seemed to be quite knowledgeable about her topic and quite enthusiastic. We took a bus for a bit over an hour. The drive through Colon was interesting as there are no signal lights in Colon. They tried to use them for a while, but the people didn’t like them, so they have reverted to no signals. Just stop signs. Mariela told us that accidents are rare. That may be the case, but we did see a few vehicles with evidence of having been in an accident. 

We drove through Parque Soberania. The largest National Park in Panama out of 7. The Park surrounds the Chagres River watershed. The Chagres River is what feeds the water to the Panama Canal. The River was dammed in 1913 and created Gatun Lake. Along the way to pick up our boat, the bus came to a quick halt. Our guide had spotted a 3-toed sloth in a tree right next to the road. His/her fur looked downright green. 

We stopped at a marina where our group divided into 2 boats. Off we went. As we reached the open water of the Lake, the pace increased so that we were pretty much flying across the surface. Then, we headed into the numerous islands to see what wildlife we could see. Capuchin monkeys were spotted almost immediately. The guides had brought along fruit to entice the monkeys to come down to boat level. They were happy to do this. Obviously, they see lots of tourists. Off again to look for more. All in all, we also saw howler monkeys, tamarind monkeys, another sloth, this one two-toed. A bit of trivia: sloths are related to armadillos and anteaters. 

After our tour on the water, we returned to the marina and spotted a crocodile on the opposite side of the marina. 

This photo is actually of a 2-toed sloth. How anyone spots these, I've no idea as they blend in so well.

Kind of a round blob right in the middle.          >>>>>

Of course, we had hoped to see a little more wildlife, but were entirely satisfied with our excursion. 

We decided to try a different venue for dinner. We had reservations at Manfredi’s. This is an Italian specialty restaurant. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal and look forward to going back. 

Signing off for another day. Tomorrow, we transit the Canal.