Regatta Cruise #4 in 2916

 Date: Mon, Oct 31, 2016

My Regatta Cruise #4 

 I'm back, On to Puntarenas, Costa Rica. A place we actually went for a change! I'd never been to Costa Rica and we had a tour planned that would take us from the small sea town all the way up to the Capitol of San Jose. It was a couple hour ride and the countryside looked a lot like Mexico with lots of agriculture. The tour guide was very proud of his country and bragged about how much of the world's bananas and many other items come from there. 

We visited a couple places in San Jose. The first was a Gold Museum. Costa Rica got it's name because of the seemingly huge amount of gold that was seen on the women back in the day. Turns out they didn't have as much as originally believed but were very good at making things out of the gold they did have. I was fascinated with the pieces on display and have only included a few of the many photos that I took. 

 We then visited the Opera House next door. What a beautitful place! We drove out of the city to a town that is famous for its Ox Carts. Who knew? But it was a big deal and they had the largest Ox Cart in the world there. The factory we visited where most of the carts are manufactured was very old and had very talented workers. There was a unique water wheel system that ran the machinery with the power from a stream that flows through the building. Very interesting and unique place. 

 On our way back to the ship, and when we were only about two miles from the pier, there was an explosion and fire in Puntarenas. This created a huge backup of cars as no one could get through, which included us. We sat there for a long time and arrived to the ship after the me that we were scheduled to depart. They waited, of course, but it made for a long day. Many told us they could see the fire and smoke from the ship. We never heard what happened and just hope that no one was injured. 

 Next stop, well not really a stop, was the Panama Canal transit. My first time through and I found it to be amazing. There is so much to say about this very unique and impressive place. I don't think I'll try to explain much since there is so much information that anyone can access anytime if interested. The things that impressed me were how old it is, 100 years, and how well it works. And fast considering the volumn of water that is pumped in and out of each lock. I'd been through the locks in Seattle and they were slow and leaky...lol. 

There are three locks on the Pacific side, a long canal and lake with lots of little islands in the middle and two locks at the Atlantic side. I think I remember correctly that it's about fifty miles long. We enjoyed the first three locks from our balcony and especially liked the "mules" that guide the ships through. They don't actually do anything but keep the ships centered in the lock and any propulsion is done by the ship's engines. There are little hills they go up and they clang a bell quite often...they were just fun. 

 There are now new larger locks parallel to the original ones that do not utilize mules and I don't see how tugs only can keep them from bumping into the sides of the locks. I guess it's a problem but one that they decided to deal with to save money. 

 While we transited Gatun Lake they served a fancy brunch in the main dining room. They don't do brunch normally and this was quite festive and the timing worked well with the lock schedule. For the last two locks and entrance into the Atlantic, we were invited to Don and Susan's stateroom right in the bow. They endured that rough night of Newton specifically because they wanted this particular view for the canal transit. And they shared it with us.....very cool. So we drank champagne for hours and Don and I stood out in the rain and got his money's worth!! I found the whole process to be amazing. I have too many photos to put in one email so I'm going to do an email of just canal photos in addition to this one. So....enjoy. Aloha, Gayle