PANAMA & COSTA RICA

December 9, Saturday - Off to Panama and Costa Rica, but this time we didn't get out of town before the snow started. Our usual modus operandi is to leave town prior to a big snow storm! The neighbors by now are trained to stock up on bread and milk for the kids when they know we are headed on a vacation in the winter! This time, the snow was predicted to hit Silver Spring on Friday night and be icy on Saturday morning. We decided to take our carry on packs and stay in Crystal City for the night to catch our 7:15 AM airplane. The Entertainment coupon gave us a 50% discount on the room at the Holiday Inn. But, the snow was more slush than ice, and the roads could have been trouble driving from home at 5:30 AM. We flew to Miami (two and a half hours), an hour lay over, and three hours more to Panama City (same time zone). While changing planes in Miami, an announcement was made over the airport PA "Would all children who are going to the North Pole, please begin boarding at gate D11!!!". Nothing more was said, but we chuckled. We arrived in Panama about 2:30 PM to a hot and humid climate. No breezes.. We got a taxi for a 45 minute ride to our hotel. We pack very light and have all carry-on bags, thus eliminating the dread travel disease of "luggage anxiety". Driving along the streets of Panama City, we observed rather clean streets. From media reports we expected to see trash along the gutters or roadways. The road and sidewalks certainly need repair, however. You really have to watch where you are walking or you might fall into a hole, or a street grate may be broken, or a manhole cover missing, or broken curbs, sidewalks, etc which could ruin your day.

Our hotel, Hotel California, is right downtown within walking distance of many things. We seemed to be the only foreigners staying there. The 5th floor room was small, but adequate; small dresser, marble floor, small bath, phone and TV. We thought the room was $33 a night, but ended up as $23. The hotel has a guard with a carbine 24 hrs a day. There seemed to be plenty of guards and police around, usually in groups, and they were armed with machine pistols, carbines, etc. Either they want to ensure safety or they felt insecure without guns.... As soon as we settled into the hotel, we unpacked our maps and literature and headed out to explore. Two blocks away is the Pacific ocean. The entrance to the Panama Canal is about two miles away on the other side of town (we will visit the locks tomorrow).

Panama City is on the east side (Pacific Ocean) of the canal with the canal running northwest to southeast. We saw a lot of large ships out in the water either just coming through or waiting. We walked along the water front area seeing many people bustling about as if dressed for a party, so the area didn't seem hazardous. We felt safe. We walked down to the main shopping street (Central Ave); a pedestrian street loaded with stores and sidewalk tables with people selling shoes, clothes, and other stuff. Lots of people milling about. There were little tiny rolls of Christmas paper for sale, all the stores had Christmas decorations and Christmas trees were for sale on many street corners. Guys would walk along the street selling plastic bags to carry your purchases. We walked back to the hotel to rest before dinner. This walk was about five miles long and took over two hours. Tonight, we wanted to go to a famous restaurant, Lesseps, that we thought was two blocks from our hotel, but gave up after searching for 20 minutes. Without wanting to walk further in an unknown area after dark, we opted to stop at the only restaurant we saw, a Chinese one. Here we ended up with three entrees. The waiter spoke only Spanish or Chinese and Carolyn had inquired about a corvina dish, and he thought we wanted to order that type of fish. Well, we got corvina (sea bass) and our other two selections as well. Full tummies on day one!

December 10, Sunday - A small restaurant is attached to our hotel where we had breakfast - an omelet and patacones, which are plantain (bananas) slices in batter and fried. We arranged for a tour with an English speaking taxi fellow. At first we found difficulty getting our request understood by the hotel clerk, but finally she called the hotel up the street for their taxi "guide". Rueben took us all over starting with a trip to the Canal Zone to see the Miraflores Locks. A ship was just making its way through the lock giving us lots to see as the ship was raised up 57 feet. They have a newly built viewing stand and provide commentary in Spanish and English. There were no more scheduled ships until afternoon, so our timing was great. Electric "mules", which look like the old train cabooses, are positioned at each end and each side of the ship to keep the boat aligned in the lock. One mule at each end and each side for medium size ships.

The American bases are in a five mile corridor by the canal and are scheduled to be turned over to Panama in 1999. Some bases will be deactivated in 1997. The Panama Canal Commission is composed of US and Panamanian members with the Panamanians in the majority now. By 1999, the canal will be totally run by the Panamanians, however, there is doubt that they will be able to maintain the canal. The Panamanian politicians are having second thoughts about this... The Panama Canal is not a sea level canal but requires the ships to lock up and down 85 feet in order to traverse the canal. Over 30,000 people died when the French tried to build a sea level canal in the late 1890's. This was jungle and ripe with malaria, typhoid fever, and other diseases. The Pacific side has a 19 foot tide which the locks must accommodate. The largest boats to go thru the canal were 973 feet long and another one was 108 feet wide. The locks are 1000 x 110 feet. $141,344 was the highest toll paid by the Crown Princess in 1993. Cheapest was $0.36 for a man who swam through! Toll is $2.21/ton and is paid in CASH prior to entering the canal. No credit cards or checks, cash only. More about the canal when we actually travel through the canal on the Yorktown Clipper on December 14.

We drove around the Panama Canal administration building, setting up on a hill, enabling us to observe the canal area. We crossed the Bridge of the Americas, which is part of the Pan American Highway. Prior to the Carter treaty, US territory owned and controlled the ten mile wide swath through their country requiring different license plates and border controls. Panama is now a unified country and the Bridge of the Americas, built in 1992, makes an easy access to both sides of the canal. We drove through the old city, Panama Casco Viejo, which is decrepit, no trash, but the buildings are in poor shape. There are many large apartment houses built with US money after the Americans invaded and wiped out this area because Noriega's military had its headquarters here. Actually, the Noriega troops set fire to the area hoping that the local population would turn against the Americans, but they didn't. At that time, the immediate crisis was to provide housing for the poor. Well, the buildings we funded and they were built using available architectural plans, look like they were built 50 years ago. They are vertical slums and are referred to as the "Bush Buildings". Great legacy we have left! Many of the smaller buildings in this part of the older city have wrought iron railings and balconies on the second floor, reminding one of New Orleans.

We went into an old church whose altar was gold leaf. Back in the 1671, the priest painted the altar black to prevent Morgan the Pirate from taking the altar from the original church. The altar was later moved when the Spanish relocated the city. There is lots of poverty in this area and tourists are advised not to walk around in the old city. Our driver, Reuben, has 16 kids (this sounded like with a variety of women in addition to his present wife) but he certainly seemed well off indicating that he made over $400/week. We toured the richer parts of the city, saw the American Embassy, which we walked by yesterday and never recognized. We drove to the original city, Panama Viejo, founded in 1519 and also destroyed by Morgan. When we got back to the hotel, the heavens started to pour, good timing!

Spent a good 3.5 hours with Reuben seeing a lot we wouldn't have otherwise seen on our own. Also, we found the restaurant (Lesseps) we were looking for last night...only two blocks further. We returned to the hotel, dumped the camera, binoculars and stuff prior to going out for our afternoon walk. We figure the less we look like typical tourists, the safer we are. We went back to the walking street and decided lunch would be from street vendors. Choirozo (hot dogs spiraled and grilled), meat on a skewer, banana chips (yum), and soft ice cream. Didn't get the snow cones however. The ice guy has a large chunk of ice that he shaves into a cup and pours on the sweet juice. As we were walking along the street, a sales fellow beckoned Carolyn into the store, and motioned for her to remove her gold neck chains and put them in her pocket. We should have been more careful and thought about that beforehand. Anyone could have yanked them off her neck. We were able to see the archeological museum, which unfortunately for us was all in Spanish, but contained considerable pre-Colombian artifacts. The displays were weak on lighting with only one or two spotlights in the room to light up all the display cases. We caught a cab back to the hotel for a rest before dinner. The hotel had an accessible roof where we could view the town and enjoy "traffic watching". Knowing where the Lesseps restaurant was, we headed there for dinner only to find the place closed on Sunday. A taxi magically appeared to take us to our second choice, the Marbella restaurant, located next to the US Embassy. We both had a great fish soup, fried giant shrimp and paella. Excellent meal.

Impressions of Panama - poor, but bustling; activity all around; buses by the tons running up and down the main streets. Lots of guns were visible. Ever wonder what happened to the old yellow Blue Bird school buses we had in the US? Well, they all died and went to Panama where they were "restored". They are painted white with scenes, designs, and fancy writing all over them. You might call the effect as very neat graffiti. There is only about six inches of clear windshield for the driver to see where he is going.

December 11, Monday - This morning we stopped in a bank to get twenty $1 bills for buying things from the San Blas and Choco Indians. An armed guard was outside. Another armed guard unlocked the bank door from inside, we walked through a metal detector, another armed guard was standing with his hand on his pistol. The bank was 12 x 12 and only two customers, Carolyn and John! We found out why there were so many police around yesterday. The day was Christmas Festival Day and they had 500,000 people watch the parade and fireworks. We didn't know about the fireworks until we were in our room last night and heard "bang, bang" and finally figured out there wasn't a war, just fireworks!! We checked out of the hotel this morning and went to the Westin Caesar Park Hotel to meet our Clipper tour. This hotel is very upscale, but is located outside of the central city and not within walking distance of anything. Just before we left home on Friday, John found out that an old friend from his Navy and Paris days, Liz Bohlman, is the Economic and Political Officer at the US Embassy in Panama City. We contacted her and invited her to join us for lunch at the Caesar Park. We found out much more about Panama...economy is going down; crime is increasing especially violent crime; drug money is being laundered via the building of large buildings; the Panamanian Mafia controls the buses and only several rich families control the economy. Liz was starting to shut down her part of the Embassy for the upcoming government budget shutdown. Great lunch and a good time.

We left the Caesar Park Hotel at 1 PM with sixteen people who were assembled for the trip. We were bused across the 50 mile isthmus (about 90 minutes) to Colon where our ship, the Yorktown Clipper, was docked. Other passengers were bused from the airport until finally at 1 AM Tuesday morning, everybody was on board, and the ship left at 9 AM. Colon is a very dangerous city, so no one tours the town. The poverty is overwhelming. We had our first meal on board - escargot/soup/salad, then salmon or roast beef or pasta. For dessert we had a luscious fruit tart. We have a nice room with two porthole windows on the Main deck where the dining room is located. Plenty of room for us, two twin beds, lots of closet space, small efficient bathroom much like the RV. The deck above us is the Observation Deck, which has the lounge and more cabins. The next deck, the Promenade deck, is mostly cabins with the entrance to each from the outside perimeter of the ship. Seven times around the Promenade deck equals one mile! The top deck has four rooms, the Bridge, and a sun deck. The ship holds 130 passengers with a crew of 40. The Clipper Cruise Line, managed out of St. Louis, has two ships staffed by young Americans. This cruise only has 115 passengers composed of the Friends of the National Zoo (FONZ), the North Carolina Zoo, and the Audubon Society.

December 12, Tuesday - We left the Colon dock about 9:30 AM and headed to Portobelo, which means "beautiful port". No longer a thriving Spanish city, Portobelo was the second town settled by the Spanish on the mainland of the Americas. Actually, the town is the oldest continuously occupied town, since the first town was badly located on the coast and was eventually abandoned. Portobelo was highly defended, but was burned anyway by the Morgan the Pirate in 1671. Merchandise (mostly gold) that the Spanish acquired from the Peruvian Indians moved over the El Camino Real road between Panama City on the Pacific Ocean and Portobelo on the Atlantic Ocean to be shipped home to Spain.

All landings from our ship require us to take a small Zodiac or DIB over to the shore for a beach (wet) landing. Each DIB holds about eighteen people. Today is the only dry landing at a pier; all the rest will be wet landings in the surf. The ship has a very sturdy "dock" they attach to the side of the ship, which makes boarding very easy to climb in and out of the DIBs. The "dock" and DIBs are winched up and stored on the top of the sun deck when we are cruising. At each stop the crew offer several walks. At Portobelo, we had a choice of three historic walks with local guides, a nature walk with Carla Weston, one with John Harwood, or a bird walk with Patty Hostiuck. Carla, from Costa Rica, John, from Monas Brazil, Patty, from the USA, and Abilio, from Panama, are the naturalists on board the ship. We had a drizzle on this landing (the only time we wore our ponchos), but the rain ended shortly. Portobelo was used by Disney World as the model for the "Pirates of the Caribbean". The old Custom House, where the taxes were collected, is a huge building in this little town and is being rebuilt with money from the King of Spain. There are the remains of two old forts in town, Santiago and Gerinimo. Much of the original stone in these forts and several other nearby forts was unfortunately used in the Panama Canal breakwater as one civilization uses the remains of a previous civilization. The foundation of the old church stands beside the new church where the Black Christ is located. The statue was made of dark wood and is much venerated by the locals. Each year on Oct 21, a big festival is held here in honor of the Black Christ.

Tonight is the Captain's welcome cocktail party with a great dinner - stuffed lobster tail and mousse for dessert. We are heading for the San Blas islands. Think of Panama in the shape of an S with the beginning of the S as the archipelago of San Blas. The Indians live on a number of the islands and have access to the rain forest on the mainland which provides food and water. We will be visiting the Kuna (sometimes spelled Cuna) Indians who have hard facial structures, straight black hair, wear very colorful outfits with colorful beads wrapped around their short thin legs. The women are the artists of the family and the men are the farmers. The women sew "molas" or reverse applica. The society is matriarchal with the men making decisions in "congress", but the women rules the house. The diet is fish and plants. This society has a higher than normal number of albino men. They work with the women and young girls to sew molas and sell them to the tourists, communally distributing the profits. The Kuna's are very organized and have influence even in Columbia, South America. They are self governing and are the model community for other Indian communities in South America. The population is about 10,000.

December 13, Wednesday - During the night, the ship proceed to the San Blas islands. We sleep and the captain steers--great combination. The seas are a little rough and sleep is a little difficult. During breakfast, the dugout canoes surround the ship, filled with the kids and women showing us their molas and the kids yelling "money, money, money". The ship encouraged us not to throw money to cause the kids to dive, but instead to support their culture by buying their products. The island, Acuatupu, is the "shopping center" for all the Kunas, who come to sell their products to the tourists. Normally, 250 people live on this island in grass huts. They go to the other islands to get fruit, coconuts, and water. The women sit and sew the molas with ideas conceived in their heads. There is no pattern, yet they are symmetrical. Molas are three pieces of cloth (for example, black, orange, red) that are stitched together in patterns and other applicas are put on top if needed. The molas are usually 6" x 6" or 12" x 12" pieces, yokes on a T-shirt, coasters, glass cases, or little bags. The molas were from $8-25, T-shirts about $15. If you take their picture, they want $1. Charlie, one of the natives, knew English and very proudly showed everyone his new kitchen and his sleeping quarters – connected grass huts. He also showed us "Christmas dinner", a pig in a little enclosure behind his hut.

The afternoon stop at another island, Nia Tupu, allowed us time for excellent snorkeling. A good reef with lots of fish and a large shipwreck sunk in shallow water with lots of coral and little fish entertained us. Back on board by 4:30, the ship departed for the Panama Canal. John Harwood, a ship naturalists, presented a talk on "Corals, Shellfish, and Other Beautiful and Curious Marine Invertebrates We May See". Dinner tonight was a choice of blacken beef/dungeness crab soup/salad, entree was duckling/pasta/burritos. After dinner, we saw the movie "A Man, A Plan, A Canal, Panama" which told the whole history of the canal construction. The title is also a famous palindrome.

December 14, Thursday - Up at 6 AM. This is Canal Transit Day and everybody was up for the whole sightseeing trip. A bottle of wine was promised to the person who correctly guessed the time the ship would take to go through the canal. The time starts when the pilot steps on board and ends with him leaving the ship. John & I guessed 7 hrs, 15 min, 8 seconds and 7 hr 45 min 24 sec. We weren't even close! The winning time was 6 hours 34 min and 8 sec. Last week the trip took the ship 11 hours, because the ship sat in Gatun Lake waiting for their turn in the lock! Patty and Susan, the birding naturalists, were on the front deck with a group of Audubon people. The entrance to the canal from the Atlantic is narrow, thus we were close to the mangrove swamps providing great opportunities to spot birds and wild life. We saw four Toucans with lime green/yellow beaks. We didn't see all the birds the "birders" were pointing out. The word "birder" was redefined on this trip. "Birder" rhymes with fanatic! They are deeply involved in their hobby and many times will spend two hours walking only 200 yards. As all birders do, a log was kept of all the sightings with over 250 different birds identified on this cruise. The weather today was very overcast with a tiny bit of rain, but the weather was very pleasant to stand out on the deck and watch the entire passage without the beating sun.

Despite our reading about the Panama Canal over the past 40 years, neither of us understood the immensity of the task facing the French and American engineers at the turn of the century. The Frenchman Lesseps was the victim of his success at Suez and his mismanagement in Panama lead to large mistakes that squandered men and materials. The disease problems faced by the French and eventually solved by the Americans under Gorgas, took over 30,000 lives. The magnitude of the rock, dirt, shale and mud was enormous. When the Americans took over from the Frence, the logistics, initially managed by Stevens and completed by Goethals, required the creation of a large railroad system, the invention of large steam shovels and the importation of large amounts of dynamite, concrete and steel. A large amount of time and money (75,000 workers over 10 years and $400 million) completed the task. When large landslides buried the large train system and large steam shovels, they built larger machines to continue the digging and removal of the large amount of material for the canal and the locks. They built a large breakwater to protect the Atlantic and Pacific entrances to the canal. From the Atlantic side, they dug the canal for six and a half miles through a large mangrove swamp, but the eight and a half mile Gaillard Cut, through the Continental divide, redefines the word large in the construction business. They created the largest man-made lake built at that time. They built large (700 ton) lock gates that are run by small (40 horsepower) motors. A large amount of money is paid by a large amount of ships yearly. Over the past 10 years over $100 million has been spent per year refurbishing and maintaining the canal. We do not think the Panamanians can afford to own the canal and logistically the US cannot allow the canal to fall apart. A new treaty must be obtained because the Carter treaty was a major US policy mistake.

Leaving the largeness and politics aside, our ship was raised 85 feet in three chambers in the Gatun Locks to the Gatun Lake level. This lake supplies the water for all of the locks. Gatun Lake is, in turn, fed by Madden Lake, which is fed by the rainfall in the rainforest. In this manner, the canal is totally run by water with the aid of gravity. The canal has three sets of locks (Gatun, Pedro Miguel, and Milaflores) and the canal is 43 miles wide by air. We crossed the continental divide in the Gaillard Cut. This is where millions of tons of dirt and rock were moved to make the canal. The Pacific ocean has a higher land mass and deeper ocean which causes the Pacific to have higher tides. The tides were sixteen to twenty feet in the Pacific at the canal versus two feet on the Atlantic side. We moved through the canal quite quickly. As we reached the Miraflores lock, we had a champagne brunch. Champagne, spinakapita, followed with a the buffet of lamb, eggs benedict, turkey pot pie, omelets, salads, breads, ending with a dessert buffet. This feast was a special occasion to honor our transit thru the canal. Since we made the passage through in less than seven hours, we were ahead of schedule and stopped at Isla Taboga, a wildlife preserve and a small town on the Pacific coast of Panama.

This afternoon we had a lecture on tomorrow's venture to the Darien Jungle. In the center of the Darien Jungle, the Pan American Highway comes to a screeching halt. There is a ferry from Colon to Columbia to bypass the Darien Gap in the highway which runs from Alaska to the tip of South America. Man has not conquered the Darien. Each day we have several lectures on where we are going the next day, on the environment, or special nature topics. Today's talk by Abilio is on "Choco Indians of the Darien Jungle"; and tonight's is "Mysteries of the Mangrove" by Patty.

December 15, Friday - The trip to visit the Darien jungle and the Choco Indians has to occur on the rising tide. The Darien covers 1.5 million acres and is the second largest protected area in Central America and one of the most biodiverse ecosystems. We are awakened at 6 AM and see the cayucos (dugout canoes) have arrived to begin our trip. Our ship only draws eight feet but the Bahia Garachine is not very deep and the tides govern our access. We are anchored way out in the Darien Bay and will use dugout canoes (with motors) for 30 minutes to get to the Sambu River entrance and then motor another 60 minutes up the river to the Indian village. Each canoe holds 12 people. By the luck of the draw, the Main Deck passengers, where our cabin is, were the first to board the motorized dugouts.

The river, lined with mangroves, is quite wide and we saw lots of parrot pairs flying overhead. Carla was in our boat pointing out the birds and other nature sights. Parrots mate for life and travel in pairs. We saw lots of them, but the people in later cayucos didn't. We saw egrets (giant and snowy) and another specie from South America that travels as far north as Panama. We didn't see any crocodiles on the river, but were told later that piranha were in the Darien Bay. We were half way up the river when the motor died. Carla immediately says "we have the opportunity to hear the parrots sing!" We kidded that this was a photo stop, a bathroom break, etc. Finally, the gas line was switched to the second tank and we started up again. The Clipper's zodiacs were always around, carrying water for us, and were there in case of an emergency.

Once at the town site, we walked about one-half mile to the actual village. The people were out to welcome us and sell their baskets, beautiful mahogany walking sticks, ivory nut carvings, and wood carvings. The ivory nut carvings look like ivory, but the carvings are from the palm nut the size of an egg. The nut is related to the coconut, soft to carve, then hardens and resembles ivory. The Choco Indians have more delicate features and paint their bodies with a black ink. The dyes for the body painting (tattoos) and baskets are all natural. Several of our group got the "tattoos" painted on their arms, legs, or back. The tattoo gets darker as the time passes. We will see them in a week! The native dress is a sarong and lots of beads. The women are topless all the time and the men just wear a thong. The sarongs and thongs had been recently put on prior to our arrival. We could still see the fold marks in the clothing. Obviously, they do not need or use cloths back here in the jungle. The men are the artists working the silver, palm nuts, and wood products, while the women weave the baskets. They have an independent individual approach to life. Typical dwellings are on stilts, however, they are beginning to put up walls for privacy with the influence of "modern" civilization. The diet is rice, corn (they don't like beans), fish and stuff from the forest. The government is trying to make sure the Indians are separated by communities and want them to mark their territories to protect themselves from the outside world. The people are very friendly and the children want to lead you by the hand. The religion tends to be Catholic, but they do hold on to some of their pagan beliefs as related to the rain forest. Another inroad of civilization was a propane refrigerator in the village store that only had cold Coca Cola. We were treated to music and dancing. The Chocos have drums whereas the Kuna's didn't. The kids of the tribes must have 12 grades of education. Everyone in Panama must vote. When they vote, a hole is punched in their ID. There are three groups of indigenous people in Panama and we are seeing two of them, the Kunas and Chocos. We arrived back at the ship with our many purchases about 12:30 in time for lunch.

In the afternoon, the ship's Head Chef gave a talk. All food is ordered through St. Louis. There is no food budget for the food cost is in the noise relative to the entire operation. Meat comes from the US in ten day bulk with a 30 day supply of dry foods; vegetables and fruits are bought locally. The pastry chef works from midnight to 8 AM, then 4-10 PM, the other chefs are on from 5:30 AM - 10 PM with an afternoon break. They all have long hours - 14 hour days, 7 days a week. The menus are planned and change depending on the locality and the availability of produce. Cooking is via steam or electric, no open flames in the galley. 700-900 lbs of beef, 600 lbs of chicken, 200 lbs bacon and 240 dozen eggs will take care of a ten cruise! Dr. Susan Drenen, Vice President of the National Audubon Society, gave a presentation on "Magnificent Flying machines: The Mystery of Migration". The movie after dinner was "The Secret World of Bats".

December 16, Saturday - We can't find time to read or write since there is so much to do or interesting people with whom to talk. The group is well traveled and their adventures are interesting to hear about. A typical day starts at 6, 7 or 8 AM depending on the morning's activities. A wake up call, piped into each cabin, gives us the temperature and the breakfast menu followed by nice music. A cooked breakfast is offered in the dining room while fresh fruit, rolls, muffins, toast, cereal, or bacon is available in the lounge. We disembark onto the zodiacs, do our hiking, then return to the ship for lunch. Lunch in the lounge is soup and salad or in the dining room you have a choice of a hot dish or fancy salad along with dessert. The afternoon is filled with lectures, swimming, sitting on the sun deck, talking, or reading. Sometimes people will use this time to catch up on their sleep! Lectures are usually on a nature topic, where we are going the next day or where we have been. At 4:30 PM out come the Clipper chippers, yummy chocolate chip cookies which are quickly devoured. At 6 PM we have hors d'oeuvres in the Observation Lounge and dinner at 7. After dinner, there is another informative lecture or nature movie. About 10 PM, we are off on a trip around the deck and to bed or to see a movie. What a packed, fun-filled day!

Today, we stop at the island of Contadora, a Panamanian resort island in the Las Perlas Islands, to stroll, bird watch, and swim. Back on board for lunch and off to Costa Rica. The ship has a great reference library with books on birds, fish, tropical jungles, molas, Panama, Costa Rica, etc. This afternoon we sailed slowly by Isla Pachequilla, one of the Las Perlas Islands. This uninhabited island is home to thousands of nesting magnificent frigatebirds, pelicans, brown boobies, and an occassional blue footed booby. The island resembles a Christmas tree decorated with red balls because there are so many male frigatebirds puffing their red throats to attract the females. The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing. The chief engineer, Greg Ruyle, gave a lecture on the engine room, then Carla talked about tropical flowers. After dinner, John Harwood gave a lecture on tropical rain forests. Of course, all the talks are with great slides. Tonight, cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, served on the sun deck, were giant shrimp and "jungle juice". We were so full from the shrimp we didn't have much appetite for dinner, but did manage to save room for the Grand Mariner soufflé. The movie for the night was "While You Were Sleeping". We had to turn our clocks back one hour because Costa Rica is in the central time zone.

December 17, Sunday - As we arose, we were in sight of land, but still in Panamanian waters. We were making such good time we had an unscheduled beach stop from 9-12. We had two nature walks, bird walk or swimming to do. John snorkeled and Carolyn walked through the tropical forest with the final portion walking in the creek bed. Lots of land crabs and shells along the beach. The hike was interesting as John Harwood pointed out the shrubs, trees, flowers along the way. Many of the ferns and small trees have huge thorns to ward off predators, so you must be careful not to grab them to prevent a fall. Time for a cool down swim before returning to the boat. In the afternoon, we had a briefing on tomorrow's stop at Marenco Biological Station, located on the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica. Marcel Lichtenstein, a Costa Rican guide, will join us for the rest of the trip.

Costa Rica, the size of West Virginia, is 10 degrees north of the equator and in the central time zone. The country is mountainous and has several active volcanoes. From the top of the mountains, both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans are visible since the country is only 60 miles wide at the narrowest point. There are 54 microclimates in Costa Rica and, therefore, many different habitats. Two seasons - rainy and not so rainy! Rain forests thrive in the tropical temperatures with twelve hours of light per day and stable temperatures. Marenco had been a research station, but has been converted to an ecotourist resort. To reach the station, you fly to San Jose, fly to a town on the Pacific coast, bus to the shore to catch a boat to take you two hours up the coast to Marenco. No roads lead to this forest making the area very isolated and helping to preserve the rain forest. This afternoon Patty gave a slide show on "Monkey Tales: Natural History of New World Primates" and Susan Drennan talked about "Investing in the Future: Advertising and Courtship in Birds".

December 18, Monday - Fantastic day! We arrived at Marenco at 6 AM, set anchor, up and dressed for the hike. Sky was overcast and rainy, however, the rain stopped as we were ready to go. The first group left at 7 AM. Carolyn got a walking stick from a gardener at the preserve, who went to his house and got a very nice, sturdy stick for her. She kept the stick for the rest of the trip, then bequeathed the stick to one of the waitresses in the dining room. Marcel, an excellent guide, led the strenuous hike. He is known for his "vest" which carries everything from a small jar to capture frogs, microscope, net bag, hammock, knife, butterfly book, bird book and tons of other stuff to the tune of fifteen pounds.

We had twelve people with us and bringing up the rear was a another guide carrying a full pack with survival gear and first aid equipment. First, we climb 100 steps to the canopy and the resort restaurant and cabins. Here was the last bathroom and water. Marcel introduced us to four snakes, the major hazards of the tropical forest. The vine snake, setting on vines and leaves, isn't poisonous but his buddy, the bee, will sting you giving you a week of fever. Another snake is territorial and will attack. The eyelash viper, native to Costa Rica, sits on leaves, so when you walk in the forest you must chop away any leaves that protrude into your path. Every viper is different in color and scale pattern. The viper will change colors and will attack without provocation. Marcel is very careful not to brush against vines or leaves without checking them and he always goes first on the trail. We started through the forest slogging along in the mud, down and up muddy trails, but no one falls. We were cautioned about grabbing onto a thorny tree, better to fall than get stuck by these thorns. As we reached one stream, we spotting the egg mass of the tiny glass frog (centrolenella) on the leaf. Marcel was excited to find these eggs, because they are a rare sight. Lots of butterflies. The walking palm (socratea exorrhiza) can walk on stilt roots from beneath a fallen tree. As the top of the tree bends toward light, new roots are sent down to support the tree and thus the tree "walks" out from under obstructions and back into the light. We saw monkey ladders or lianas weave along the ground and loop and spiral into the air and around the trees. We stopped to smell, not see the Dracontium Pittieri or araceae, which is similar to the Rafflesia. This plant grows a very large flower, about 38 inches across, and mimics the pungent smell and color of rotting meat and attracts flies as pollinators and food. The plant was somewhere back in the forest and we were not tromping back to see the flower, but we did smell the odor. Many times we walked through mud over our shoe tops.

We made a lot of stops to pick up a lizard or a frog, look at butterflies pointed out to us with Marcel’s laser pointer, We saw the passion flowers and the long tailed hermit hummingbirds. We even saw the cow tree (when the bark is cut, milk flows from the bark); epiphytes which are plants growing on other plants but not parasitic; and cecropia trees (ants live inside the hollow limbs). Didn't see any heliconias which are similar to the bird-of-paradise only they are vertical. Heliconias are the new world representatives of the old world banana family. Water collects in the upturned bracts and provides watering holes for birds. The end of the hike, four hours later, was down the hill to the river and ocean. Once there, we plunged ourselves into the river to cool off and clean our muddy shoes. We walked 30 minutes along the beach to our barbecue picnic. As we were walking we saw a group of five or six capuchin monkeys cavorting in the trees. Then Carla spotted a green parrot snake with a frog in its mouth, finally swallowing the frog whole! We got back to the barbecue and had hamburgers, hot dogs, sauerkraut, beans, and all sorts of salads, beer and ice tea. Clipper chippers and brownies finished off a delightful day. We had walked from 7:30-12:30 earning our lunch. Returned to the ship about 3:30 after a swim in the surf. After dinner, Carla lectured on "Costa Rica: Its People and Traditions".

December 19, Tuesday - We arrived at Manuel Antonia National Park and disembarked at 7:15 AM. This morning is a rough, wet landing. The surf is up and can catch the DIB from behind, so we were prepared to get soaked. We were fortunate enough to have a calm landing and no water washed into the DIB, but other trips were not as lucky. This wasn't a dangerous landing, just a tricky one. The park is known for its "sloth trail" and we were all psyched up to see a sloth. Last night, Marcel gave a very humorous talk on sloths. The sloth, weighing about twenty to thirty pounds, is a slow moving creature. He belongs to the anteater family. His diet is very poor, eating only leaves. He rarely eats fruits because by the time he gets to the tree the fruit is gone! At the end of the rainy season, sloths have a green algae growth on their fur such that their predator, the crested eagle, can't see him because he looks like a big green leaf. The sloth has a whole ecosystem with him. They hang around the cecropia trees, imitating a dead leaf! When they sleep, their metabolism drops so much that the sleep is considered hibernation. Sight and hearing is bad, but smell is great. They defecate on the ground, so they come down once a week to take care of this task. Once ashore, we walked to the sloth trail, and discovered that Patty's birding group had spotted a sloth. Yes, he was hanging on a cecropia tree looking like a dead leaf! Actually, the sloth was a she with her baby hanging onto her stomach. We watched the sloth for about fifteen minutes moving her arms VERY slowly and repositioning herself. We were happy to see her and continued our hike. We returned about 90 minutes later to check out the sloth and she was gone! We kidded that this must be weekly trip to the bathroom! Our luck held out, only the first two groups from the boat were fortunate to see her. On our hike we saw a walking stick insect, a hermit hummingbird nest with two eggs, a group of white faced capuchin monkeys cavorting around, and iguanas. The ship stayed at Manuel Antonio the entire day. Instead of returning to the ship for lunch we took apples with us and walked to another overlook via a very muddy, hour long trail around Punta Catehral. A calm beach was just on the other side of the Punta Catehral where we did a little swimming before returning to the ship in the afternoon.

The ship's library had a great book "Tropical Rain Forests" (edited by Arnold Newman, 1990, ISBN 0-8160-1944-4) which Carolyn read from cover to cover. There are four major causes of tropical deforestation: logging, migrant cultivation, conversion to cattle pasture, and fuel wood demand. The soil in a rain forest is very poor and can't support crop growth for more than one to two years after deforestation. The global water cycle is driven by the sun. Of the water that is cycled through the atmosphere 84% evaporates from the ocean surface and the rest from land and inland waterways. Of this water 23% falls on land as rain, 7% falls on inland waterways and 70 % falls into the oceans. In the Amazon and other rain forests, 75% of the rain falling into the forest is recycled into the forest. This is virtually a closed cycle. If the rain forest is cut down, the moisture level would fall drastically (74%) and thus the forest would not regrow. Nitrogen is scarce in tropical forests and some plants absorb insects to get their nitrogen supply. Over twenty fungi are needed to break down a leaf. We took home an excellent specimen of a leaf where the skeleton is the only thing remaining. Bats are major pollinators of the vegetation in the rain forest. When you cut down the rain forest you loose entire ecosystems: fungi, ants, bats, birds, butterflies, mammals, etc. Exotic wood such as mahogany, teak, rosewood come from the rain forests. As we consume exotic woods (furniture, bowls, utensils, knickknacks, gifts, etc) and demand more of them, significant parts of the rain forest are cut to fulfill that market. The Indians who live in the rain forests are being encouraged to use only the fallen wood and to make products from renewable sources such as the palm nut, leaves, etc. In Peru alone, 10% of the rain forest has been destroyed in this century due solely to the growing of cocaine. In addition, the caustic chemicals from the cocaine is polluting the rivers. Farming, landing strips, camps, labs all require cleared rain forest land that will never regrow. Deforestation is growing at 10% a year. A large ten mile swath is already cut deep into the Amazon. The Japanese want to build a road from the Pacific coast to the Amazon for exportation of wood back to Japan.

This afternoon we had a tour of the bridge with first officer Dan Ahrens. Before dinner, Marcel presented a lecture and slide show on "Camouflage: A Form of Art". After dinner, Dr. Susan Drennan presented "A Review of the Birds of Panama and Costa Rica".

December 20, Wednesday - The ship anchored just off Punta Leona for our visit to the Carara Biological Reserve which is characterized as between "tropically dry" and "tropically wet". Carara is a very small nine acre park. We were up at 6 AM, with eggs ranchero for breakfast, ashore and starting the hike at 7:15 AM. We landed at a resort (the first we had seen with a connecting road) and were bused thirty minutes to the park. Again, we are with Marcel as our guide. This is not an accident. We were impressed with his knowledge and watched what bus he put his vest in and then got in that bus also. We were the first group into the park this morning and saw scarlet macaws, lizards, frogs, and lots of neat tropical vegetation. Marcel's favorite flower (Dracontium Pittieri or araceae) is here and he tells us about the flower, as he measured the stalk and flower for his log book. The stalk is three yards high and the leaf is six feet in diameter. This is a carnivorous flower that mimics rotten meat to attract its pollinators. We didn't see any monkeys or other mammals, however we heard something but couldn't find the source of the sound. Today's hike is a very dry walk on a well maintained trail. Unfortunately, the small park is situated right beside a main road, so for the first time in nine days we heard noisy trucks and cars! TRAFFIC NOISE!! Very disturbing after ten days of peace and quiet. We returned to the resort where we were free to use the pool or walk around the beach area. We found a great leaf cutter ant trail about ½ mile long. We returned to the ship, got our snorkel gear and found that the water was too stirred up to see anything. Back to the ship for lunch and we stayed on board, reading and resting (John had a talk with his pillow). 4:30 PM was the galley tour and, of course, the Clipper chippers. This was the last night we would be on the ship and the crew had a fun program for us. Heidi Turer, the cruise director, wrote a version of the "Twelve Days of Christmas" incorporating all the neat things we had seen as the twelve items. John Harwood composed a sea ditty about the sights on the trip. Marcel identified a small part of the "things" in his vest:

1) battery operated fan, elastic, rubber bands, dehydrated volcanic mud, field guidebook;

2) wet ones, nail clipper, compass, measuring tape, thermometer, calamine lotion, aloe lotion, chapstick, lens cleaner, coins, mosquito repellent, snake bite kit;

3) cutter knife, highlighter, marker, pen, shower cap for binoculars in the rain; business card stamp (name, address, phone #), flashlight, mosquito repellent, map, after bite, dental floss, sewing kit, little drills, replacement blades for cutter, sharpening steel;

4) laser pointer (great to point out things in the forest), bird call

5) hammock, three kinds of rope

6) tieups, more rope, ziplock bag, stuff to make dry wood, gloves;

7) on the hat - two types of rope, pins, needles;

8) in the fanny pack - bird, butterfly, and snake field guides and more ziplock bags.

The vest weighs 15 pounds and has 37 pockets.

This evening we had the Captain's farewell cocktail party and dinner.

December 21, Thursday - We docked at Porto Caldera at 6 AM, had breakfast and boarded the buses with our luggage for our trip to San Jose at 8. This was a "dry" landing, thank goodness. We were on a neat bus (made in Brazil) with Marcel who constantly kept up a dialog telling us things about Costa Rica and pointing out the sights. Four requirements form a Costa Rican town - a bar, a church, a school, and a soccer field! We stopped at Sarchi, a tourist shopping spot, where they paint and sell the famous ox carts. We then visited the Poas volcano, last active in 1953 with the summit at 9,000 feet. The forest surrounding the mountain is naturally polluted by acid rain. We walked up a nice gentle road to overlook the smoking, bubbling caldera. Most of the time the summit and caldera are shrouded in clouds, but today the caldera is clear! We proceeded by the bus down the road to a little native restaurant, Chubascos, that was waiting for us and could handle our 115 people. Excellent home cooked meal: pumpkin soup, beans & rice, chicken with mustard sauce, sweet plantains, and strawberry mousse. Our drink was soursop and passion fruit. Later, Marcel stopped the bus at a fruit stand and bought strawberries and passion fruit for everyone to taste.

We arrived at the Cariari Hotel just outside of San Jose, ten minutes from the airport, about 4 PM. Walked around the hotel grounds, snoozed, then joined Sylvia and Coleman Raphael for dinner. About 7 PM, we were sitting in our room and experienced a ten to fifteen second earthquake. We found out next morning that the quake was 4.5 on the scale and the epicenter was off the Pacific coast. Despite all our travels in California, this was the second earthquake we have ever felt. The first one was in the South island of New Zealand fourteen years ago on the Routeburn Trek.

December 22, Friday -Our last day in Costa Rica. We were up at 7 AM again and on the bus for the city tour. Some of our group went to the aerial tramway in the tropical forest close to San Jose, but since the tramway is like a cable car, Carolyn, fearful of cable cars, decided we would not take the optional tram trip. The cable car holds five people plus a guide and travels thirty minutes above the canopy and returns thirty minutes just under the canopy. Since today was clear and sunny, this group did not see many birds. Apparently, the rain forest birds don't show themselves on sunny days.

We, however, took the city tour, which started with a ninety minute stop at the coffee plantation. We thought, ugh, this was going to be boring, but the tour turned out to be quite different to what we expected and we had a wonderful time. A very clever skit was done using the tourists as part of the act, only initially we did not know we were in a skit. The skit started with a guide in a suit and tie who began pointing out the surrounding countryside and the fact that coffee "cherries" grow best between 3,000-5,000 feet. He then pointed to the volcanoes and named them, but misnamed the Poas Volcano, where we had been the day before. With that, a worker in the field with a huge machete, pipes up and says in broken English/Spanish "No, that is not right, the mountain is Poas. Are you new here?" The two banter back and forth with the worker swinging the machete like a pointer; then a young girl came around the building and tries to "shhh" the farm worker and told him not to interfere with the tour guide. The farm worker continued to argue with the guide about details of what he had just told us. He even got another person, who looked like Juan Valdez, who was back in the coffee bushes, to help him argue. We "tourists" started to feel embarrassed for our guide, but finally these people convinced the "tour guide" to leave us with them! Well, this was all part of the skit, but we did not realize yet that they had spoofed us! They continued to lead us around the coffee field and tell us about the plant, how the plant was first grown in Africa, why Costa Rica does a better job, and why Costa Rican coffee is the best in the world. The coffee trees are pruned and kept at about six feet in height and two or three bushes are planted in each hole. The tree blooms in May and "cherries" are ripe in the December-January (dry season) time frame. The cherries in Costa Rica are picked by hand instead of shaking the tree. Thus, only the ripe cherries are processed and the coffee is not bitter. The coffee beans are squeezed out and sun dried. If the weather happens to rain during the outdoor drying process, the beans are second quality. We also found out that macadamia nuts are grown in Costa Rica and exported to Hawaii to be sold to the tourist! The city tour, traveling down the Pan American Highway, ended at the National Theater in San Jose. The theater was built in 1890-97 when an opera star refused to stop in San Jose because there wasn't an adequate theater. The coffee growers urged a tax be placed on the exported coffee to raise the money to build a theater. This is a lovely old theater, the first structure in Latin America to have electric lights, which are still in use today.

At this point, we and six others left the tour to stay in the city rather than return to the hotel. We went to the gold museum only to discover we had to pay with Costa Rican currency; so we had to find a bank to convert about $30. No problem! The gold museum is fantastic. Many gold pieces were fashioned here in Costa Rica in 1,000 BC - 500 AD. Beautiful pieces with much detail. We walked across town to the jade museum which also had a considerable collection of pre-Colombian pottery and metates. We didn't realize a ticket was required for this museum for no one asked us for one. As we exited, we heard a guard telling another couple to go to the second floor and purchase a ticket. The museum is on the 9th floor and had great views of the city. We walked around the market area and shopping district. Many vendors have carts on the sidewalk eliminating a large part of the walking room on the sidewalk. Unlike Panama City, there are few food vendors along the sidewalk, only fruit vendors, jewelry, T-shirts, etc. The city was bustling and we had a difficult time getting a cab. Finally, we walked back to the theater where several were waiting. Back at the hotel, we jumped into the hot tub to soak our weary feet. We met Sylvia and Coleman again for another delightful dinner where we convinced Coleman not to buy the cruise ship. All during the cruise, Coleman was having fun investigating the cost to run the Yorktown and kept enticing John to join forces with him to buy the ship!

Impressions of Costa Rica: very nice and friendly country; the people are very proud of their country. Costa Rica is a democracy and has been one for a long time and unlike Panama, guns are not visible. This is a very stable country with no army. Roads have many potholes, or as Marcel jokingly says "inverted speed bumps"! In December every working citizen receives an extra month's salary, tax free.

December 23, Saturday - Departure day! Another early morning, but no wet landing. All the FONZ members were on the bus and at the airport by 7:30 AM (only ten minutes away) for a 9:50 AM departure back to DC via Miami. When we got to the waiting lounge, we found a member of the tour whose plane was delayed two hours due to a bomb scare. While waiting for the plane to leave and wandering around the airport, we kidded Elaine and Clint Fields about buying more stuff to fill the hole in their suitcases. Her comment was "when I show you this you'll have to get one too". I sure did- a fantastic butterfly T-shirt! Butterflies are going to be the 1996 ZooFari theme, so we are ready with a Costa Rican butterfly T-shirt. We arrived back in DC at 6 PM.