At Sea

Again we have a full day at sea and although it is really nice out, I did not take any pictures until the sun was setting.  While watching a movie outside on the top deck where the pool is, we were having a nice sunset.  You can see the full size of the sun through the clouds.

All I have for today’s pictures are from this sunset so this is all I have.  As the sun nears the horizon, the sun if can be seen in its full glory.  

The sun is nearly below the clouds and horizon and last of the sunsets we have had on this trip.  This is our last day on the cruise and today is all sea time.  

We will reach Fort Lauderdale early tomorrow morning.  I think we dock sometime around 6:30 am and we have a departure time of 7:00 am.  We elected to take our own bags off without help, so we are one of the first off the ship.  Our car is parked not very far away and we should be in our car and on our way by 8:30 - 9:00 in the morning.

We end the blog here and thank you for following us on our cruise to the Panama Canal.  Remember, this blog will always show the last entry first and the first entry last.  You can navigate the travel blog days using the archive on the left just under the photo gallery. 
If you find this blog interesting, you are welcome to look at our other travel blogs at: https://www.blogger.com/profile/02504216977029606085

Ocho Rios

As we approach Ocho Rios, Jamaica around 9:30 am, we can see the condo units build up along the hills just outside of the port.  While here in Jamaica we decided to not go on any shore excursions, mostly because neither of us wanted to do Dunn’s River Falls.  It’s not because we didn’t want to get wet, more we didn’t want to be in a long line going up the falls with every other person on an excursion.

As we approach the dock, we see the bow lines have just been picked up and in the process of being brought to the dock davits.

  

After leaving the ship, to walk around town, we passed several trees on our way to the main street.  There were a number of flowering trees and bushes in bloom while we were there.  Here is one of the flowers, an orchid.

In case I didn't know how far I was from anyplace, this sign post made sure I knew.  Although I'm heading back to Ft Lauderdale, I now know I am only 480 mile from Miami.  We haven't walked very far and I've already been asked if I want any smoke, if you know what I mean.

After the sign post I happened on more of the flowering bushes.  This one had a humming bird that I just happen to catch.  The bird was moving so fast it didn't get into focus.

Reggae Alley bar and grill, a place to be cool, mon!  Don't worry, be happy.

As usual in my blogs, if I can do it, I have a picture of the local lizards.  I just can't help myself.  We are in Jamaica and here is no exception.  Here is a lizard showing its colors.  

I finally saw another butterfly that sat long enough so I could take a picture.  The color of the butterfly was very dark.  

During our walk around town, we ventured through one of the bazaars.  This one was along the main street.  Many of the shops have the bright colored t-shirts, some with the Jamaica name and others with Bob Marley's picture.

We saw many carved birds and other sculptures.  Here are some of the carved colorful birds.

On our way back to the ship, we stopped next to one of the beaches.  It looks very inviting, palm tree, soft sand, blue waters and our ship in the background.    

Here's Carmen at that beach. 

Out this way just between us and the resort is where Dunn's River Falls runs into the Caribbean Sea.  This coastline and Dunn's River Falls is part of the location where the James Bond movie Dr. No was filmed.  

We are not in Ocho Rios for very long and by 3:30 pm we are back under way.  Our last look at Jamaica, where it is becoming cloudy and beginning to rain.

The view of the evening sky as we head away from north Jamaica.  Not as impressive as other sunsets on this trip, but still nice.  From here Cuba is to our north and not that far.  We will round the east end of Cuba tonight on our way back to Ft. Lauderdale.

At Sea

Well today we are back at sea on our way to Jamaica.  Since we had nowhere to go today, we decided to sleep in, or at least until 7:30 am.  I know we were being lazy, but where could we go?  It was nice today, mostly clear skies with a few clouds. 

Although it couldn't be seen, we passed an island around noon and we were told that it was the pirate Captain Morgan’s island.  Maybe this is where all of the birds came from that have been following us.

The sea here is really blue.  You might notice that this is the picture used for the heading of the blog.

There have been some really nice cloud formations along the horizon.  I can't seem to stop taking pictures of the sun behind the clouds.

Before the sun set, the sun behind the clouds were pretty nice.  You can clearly see the shadow one of the clouds makes across the sky.

Again, before the clouds completely obscure the sun and any chance of a visible sunset, I am compelled to take yet another picture of the sunset.  

Shortly after the sunset and with fewer clouds in the way, a sliver of the moon became visible.  Neat.

Limon, Costa Rica

We meet for our tour to leave the ship around 7:30 am.  Today we will visit a banana plantation and parts of the rain forest.  Unfortunately, it was raining as we headed to breakfast, just before we docked.  By the time we finished breakfast and met with our tour group and left the boat, the rain was done and the skies were sunny and clear.

We head through Puerto Limon on our way to the Banana Plantation.  We pass rainforests with wild banana trees, coconut trees, and other plants.  Also, livestock like these Brahma cattle and later some of the donkeys used to transport the bananas.

There are several rivers here in this part of Costa Rica.  Fed by the heavy rains in the area, which of course is why this is a rainforest.  

Driving around the countryside we have passed a number of the houses lived in by the local people.  Though they do not look modern, the government provides satellite TV and Internet at a low cost.  Almost all of the houses we have seen has a dish on the roof.

As we reach the plantation grounds we can see the banana trees with each banana bunch in plastic bags.  

At the banana processing plant were the sorting, cutting and packing of the bananas happen.  We see a couple of bunches of bananas hanging from a conveyor system.  Today is Sunday and therefore no one is working or else there would be many more banana bunches hanging.  So there are only these two.

Also in the processing area are bags of the protective foam padding that are used to protect the bananas.  A pad is placed between each smaller bunch so they do not get any bruising.  Bruising will cause brown spots which are frowned upon at the grocery store. We like our pretty fruit.

While the plant foreman told us about the background of the banana plantations and how the bananas are grown, I was looking around and took this picture of one of several birds that were constantly flying around.

After the manager finished his educational talk, I got a picture of Carmen next to a banana bunch before they were moved to show use how the banana are processed for our tables.  (Carmen didn't get too close to the bananas since they are still dripping at the ends and would stain her shirt - as per the manager.  The ends of each banana, or finger of the bunch, is still leaking from being picked.)

We moved along with the bunch of bananas where a couple of plant workers were.  They came in on their day off to show us how the processing is done.  Here this man is cutting each bunch and placing it into the water troth, to his left.  (Yes, we are at a Dole plant.)

As the bananas travel through the water, forced by water flow, they are cleaned.  At the end of the line, the next worker cuts the bunch into smaller saleable groups and trims the ends.  

Passing down another "bath" section of water the now smaller banana bunches are placed in a tray and moved down a conveyor to the next step in the process.

The next step, is where the label, in this case Dole and the banana's origin, Costa Rica, is placed on each bunch.

The last step is packing.  Here the large bunch of bananas from the tree is packed into a box for shipping.  From here the boxes are loaded into a container and shipped on a container ship.

Outside of the banana plant there was an orchid tree.  Would be nice to have one of these at home in Florida.

As we were leaving the plant, the bus driver, per the tour guide, stopped here to get the bottom of the banana bunch.  On our side of the bus was this conveyor system.  Bananas are hung on hooks with wheels and when a "train" of bunches is collected, a donkey pulls the group to the processing building.

The bottom of the banana bunch the driver collected looks like this.  As the tour guide pulls away one of the leaves, he shows us the inside.  These are bananas before they get bigger.  When the banana bunch has enough bananas to fill a box, this section is cut off so no more bananas will grow and strangle the other bananas.  Also, the flower at the end of each banana is removed when they get bigger to help stop dark spotting of the banana.

The bus driver stops at a bush to collect one of the pods growing on it.  Here the bush, named Bixa orellana or lipstick tree, has the pods closer to the ground then a bush he stopped at earlier.  

The pod has seeds that when crushed is is used to make red body paint or lipstick, hence the name Lipstick tree.  It is also known for annatto, when ground, a red condiment similar to that of paprika, used in Jamacian, Latin American, and Filipino cuisines.

On our return, we pass this beach on the Caribbean Sea.  Very nice and very secluded.  

On the main road back to the ship, the bus driver saw several howler monkeys in the trees.  He stopped the bus so everyone could get out and see the monkeys better.  Here are two of the Howler Monkeys that were in the trees.

Back at the ship, we found someone to take our picture in front of the Port of Limon sign.  I have on my fishing vest with my and Carmen's camera equipment.  Oh well, back on the boat.

Back on the boat we put our stuff in the room and headed back up to the top deck of the ship.  From here we can see that it is beginning to cloud in again.  Before the sun is completely obscured, I did get one picture of the sun rays coming through the clouds.

Interesting that while I was on this excursion, a friend of mine emailed me this video of the processing of bananas.  It relays what I told you and showed you in pictures above.  Hope you enjoy the video.

Panama City and Colon, Panama

When we finished passing through the locks, I quickly unloaded the pictures I took of the canal crossing.  While that was happening I got ready for our excursion to Panama City.  The ship is now anchored in the lake and after meeting with our excursion group; we take the tender to get to our bus at the dock.  Our tour will take us to old Panama City, ruins from the 1500 and 1600's. 

As we leave the docks, we get a glimpse of the new wider locks.  We actually drive on land that will not exist when the locks are finished.  You can see the new rolling gate that these locks will use.

We pass different parts of Gatun Lake on our way to Panama City.  This section, created when the valleys were flooded to create the very large Gatun Lake, still has tree trunks exposed above the water line. 

Just before we get to Panama, a building is pointed out high on a hill side.  The tour guide tells us that the building, which looks like a bee hive, is a Monastery. 

Driving through a part of the city, near the old ruins of the first Panama City, we come across power lines.  We have seen a number of the poles like this, just filed with a rat’s nest of wires.  Guess they do not have any rules or laws that limit this type of line clutter.  Wonder if they have many power outages?

Panama Viejo, or the old ruins of it, is our first stop on our tour.  Our guide tells us that the old city was first settled in 1519 and was the first permanent European settlement on the pacific coast, Spanish in this case.  Panama Viejo became a city in 1521. 

Walking through the ruins we find out that, after Panama Viejo was abandoned, the bricks were taken by neighboring residents.  They would collect the bricks to use for new buildings and residences.

More of the Panama Viejo ruins.

As we continued pass more ruins, we came upon this tree while walking along the walkway.  It looks like a Banyan tree or a similar type of tree, dropping branches that become part of the root system.  It is nicely symmetrical.   

Across the walkway from the banyan tree is an Almond tree, with a number of fruits on the tree.

The tower near the end of the group of ruins we have passed is four stories above the ground.  On the left side of the tower, you can see what looks like a modern circular stairway.  Not sure if it was made to show what it might have been, but it goes nowhere.  Inside the tower is a modern staircase, so we took the stairs to go up to the top floor, all 125 steps of them.  In either case is is pretty impressive for an early to mid 1500's building.

I call this; moth on flower.

Part of a wall from one of the old high rises, with a new high rise in the background.

We climbed to the top of the 4-story tower and from the upper level you can clearly see the grounds.  Modern stairs and platforms inside the tower allow entry to the different levels.

Looking the other way across the bay, from the top floor of the tower, you can see the high rises in Panama City.

More close ups of the ruins, these with an arch clearly visible.

Leaving the old ruins of Panama Viejo, we head into the new modern city of Panama.  As we begin to enter the city we pass an area not quite so modern.  Looks like fishing boats that didn’t go out today.  Clearly visible are the houses in the background in the not-so-new part of town, each with their satellite dish.

Check out this building we passed while driving to our next stop.  Sure would like to see what the inside of this building looks like.  Now those are corner offices.  Also, looks like a new building going up right next to it.

Check out this reflection on a glass building we were passing, thought it was interesting.

This is how the rest of the people live in Panama.  Or at least those that do not live in the condo buildings like the ones in the background.

More of the power and telephone wires jumbled on the poles.  I can’t get over the number and jumble of wires that they have on these telephone poles.  We past some poles that were so messed up it looked like a wire junk pile. 

We get to our next stop and begin the walking tour of the old walled city and turn down several narrow streets.  We travel several small streets and alleys stopping at a shop or two and eventually reach the Basilica Metropolitana de Santa Maria la Antigua, the Cathedral of Panama City.

We are inside looking at the front of the Basilica, very colorful.  As we were leaving there is a date on a floor tile indicating the year 1875.  Not sure what the date references, the date the basilica was built or something else.

One of the bell towers of the Basilica.  You can see that trees are growing up from the merlons on the roof.  One of those looks like it has been there for some time 3-4 years at least.

Next we arrive at one of the several “shopping” places on our tour.  These are small 8 by 15 foot booths sent in a large building like a flea market.  A number of the “shops” had masks, in one of the booths in the indoor market had these masks available. 

Again, as we travel down more of the narrow streets, we see more balconies on the buildings, these have large bunches of flowers and plants. 

As we are walking back to the bus to end both our walking tour and the tour of Panama, I see this building which I thought looked interesting.  With its tree growing out of the wall and the roots growing down the wall looks very medieval. 

Leaving Panama City in the bus, I get one last view of the high rises with the Pacific Ocean in the background and also fishing boats in the front.

Back on the Atlantic side we reach the Port of Colon where we meet the ship.  It is beginning the docking process here from the return from Gatun Lake and the trip back through the Gatun locks.  The shopping center where we wait to board the ship is as colorful as some of the houses we have seen here in Panama.

Tomorrow we will dock early in Limon, Costa Rica where our plan is to visit a banana plantation.