Thursday, March 5, 2020
We are approaching Costa Rica in Central America and it is partly cloudy.
This is our first visit to Costa Rica and the early morning coast view is not very impressive.
The ship bounces around the closer we get to shore and slowly turns and backs into dock.
Medium well egg for breakfast. Does this look medium well to you? Ugg ordering well done from now on.
We are parking next to the Holland American Zuiderdam at 8am
Weather is a little breezy and cool.
Busses are swarming in to transport people around
We are churning up a lot of muddy water as we slowly back into the dock.
You can’t get away from McDonalds. Can see the golden arches from the ship. First McDonalds out of the US was in Costa Rica.
Nice view of waves rolling in.
Plumes of smoke in different areas. What is burning?
Everyone scrambles off the ship and the pools are empty. Look at this beautiful clean solarium pool.
Walking around deck 13 and windows are very dirty. Think they will clean them today?
Sun broke through at 9am and it is rapidly getting very hot. See below for pictures of the deck 13 miniature golf, view of water slide, and the rock climbing wall which is so much smaller than Allure.
Off the ship around 10am and it is so hot. Unbelievable, how hot it got so quickly. Actually, thought about wearing a sweat shirt this morning. The sweat is now running down my face and neck and I do not sweat easy. The band is great as you depart the ship. See below for a video and you will hear their sound.
Walked through shops in pier. Very nice handmade items, but no air conditioning and a metal roof.
Walked into the city a little. It was so hot that I had to go back to the ship.
Walked back to the ship, cooled off, had lunch, and recorded the below video.
After lunch headed out to the Tortuguero Canals tour.
Tour guide had a wealth of information.
Puerto Limon means lemon city. Most people are descendants of Jamaica. There is a lot of poor in this city. Halloween and St Patrick’s day are not celebrated.
Mothers day is 8/15.
Costa Rica grows 350 different types of fruit. Tomatoes served with almost every meal.
Very clean production of electric. 100 % is solar or hydro.
The length of days in Costa Rica varies by only half an hour between seasons. Sunrise is like 5:45am and sunset is 5:45pm everyday due to being on the equator.
There are 40 different bananas some round like an orange.
Look at the Noni cross fruit in the picture. It is a cross between a potato and grapefruit. It smells like a skunk and they make a juice for health reasons.
Costa Rica has green foliage year round and lots of mountains like 14,000 feet.
People swim and fish in these canals with very large crocodiles. Costa Rica is home to one of the world’s biggest populations of American crocodiles. This brackish water is very good for fishing.
Costa Rica is home to one of the world’s biggest population of American crocodiles. A crocodile will have 60 to 90 babies and only 2% survive. There are many natural predators.
Only birds eat these bananas with seeds.
Tour was good, but not very exciting. It was a long hot educational day though.
To view more about Serenade of the Seas click here: https://deestimes.com/serenade-of-the-seas/