We had an early excursion this morning at 7:30 in Puerto Limon, thanks to Jen and Alex, who gave this excursion to us as a Christmas present. It was raining when we started, so we covered Bob's arm with saran wrap and a plastic bag so he wouldn't get it wet. We realized we have been so lucky that all the weather up until today has been completely dry. Our guide told us that the Caribbean side of Costa Rica has a rainy season, and a dry one, and we are in the dry season. However, he told us it rains all the time in the rainy season, and a little less in the dry season. Needless to say, the vegetation is very lush and jungle-like, this area is considered rain forest, which we think is the new term for jungle. This was so different from Aruba and Curacao, which are so dry they have areas that look like desert.

We started out taking a train ride in the rain through areas of Puerto Limon. We passed a lot of shacks where families were living. Most did not have electricity. The train was originally used to transport cargo, but part of the line was destroyed by an earthquake, and what is left is only used for tourist rides.




Next we went on a boat ride in one of the many rivers in the area to see the local flora and fauna. By now, the rain had stopped and it was just cloudy. We saw lots of birds and other animals.

If you look closely at this palm trunk, on the right side, you can see a vertical row of small bats. From farther away, they just looked like marks on the tree except when we got close to them, you could see they were shaking a little.

The most interesting part was last, we had a tour through a Dole banana plantation.

The bananas are cut off the trees, hung on cables with big hooks, and reeled in by men, not motors. We were surprised that nothing was automated.

Here the workers are washing the bananas as they come in hanging on the cable, and then separating out the bad ones, which go to local markets or to make baby food, and breaking up the good ones into smaller bunches.

Then the bananas are dumped in vats of water and rinsed off, and then picked out of the water and lined up to be packed in boxes.

And then they are ready to go into the refrigerated containers and loaded onto boats to bring them to the U.S.


These Dole containers were in another location that we passed by.


We had to put on hairnets to prevent any hair from getting into the bananas. All of the workers were wearing black hairnets. Bob looked so cute in his!


We returned to the ship around lunch time. We were shocked that we weren't dropped off to shop at local little shops. We have done that at every other place.A huge container ship was docked next to ours. On the left, a line of people is heading out to go on the same excursion we just returned from.

The next two days we will be at sea, relaxing and reading and doing activities on the ship.

We realized yesterday that we have gotten pretty close to the equator, which runs through the northern part of South America. Our guide in Panama told us we are 9 degrees latitude north of the equator. Panama is closer to the equator than Aruba and Curacao.

Speaking of latitude, the little coffee shop on board the ship where I get my latte evey morning is called Cafe Latte-tudes.

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