Puntarenas, Costa Rica

30^th October 2014

Arrival at Puntarenas, Costa Rica was at 8 am, after a very straight forward  entry into a big harbor and a bit of a tricky tie up at a long wharf that extended well out from the shore and was exposed to strong tidal cross flows.  It was handled with ease, and a bit of patience, and we docked pretty much on time.

There is a small town at the end of the wharf, which we may get to explore later in the day, but our first priority is to join our tour up into the hills for an aerial gondola ride through the rainforest. Everyone has told us that at sea level, there is not much to see, so you need to get up into the mountains to see the rainforest and wildlife. As the original shore excursion we booked was cancelled, we hope this one lives up to expectations.

En route to the rainforest we pass Puerto Caldera, which was where the ship was originally going to berth. It is a container berth with no tourist infrastructure anywhere nearby, so it looks like HAL has made a good decision in moving us to Puntarenas.

Costa Rica is a very friendly place, (apparently voted the happiest country in the World 2 years in a row). Our guide is a young lady who is very open, and is happy to tell us anything we want to know about life in Costa Rica. They are proud of now having some technology industries, with Intel and Hewlett Packard building factories here, as well as a few other industries that are reasonably technical, but utilisation of cheap labour, a good level of education and competitive company tax rates may explain much of the investment. Costa Rica also has no army, thus they are able to channel funds that may have been spent on defense into health, education and social services. It is not a rich country, but the middle class is growing.

Our one hour plus bus ride is filled with information about how much progress they have made, obviously with some pride.

We arrived at the site of the aerial gondola ride, which also catered for zip liners (people whizzing through the forest connected to flying fox cables), and a small “zoo” highlighting of few of the local snakes, spiders, frogs etc.

                                                            Cocoa Tree

An hour tour through the “zoo” was informative, but more than enough, and it was then on to a Costa Rican lunch buffet. This consisted of chicken, rice, black beans, salad, steamed vegetables and fried plantains. It actually wasn’t too bad.

Next was the gondola ride through the forest, which was in open air cars holding 8 people each, which ascended about 700 feet up a hill into various stages of rainforest, including some old growth forest. We saw some wildlife, iguanas, a few toucans and some other birds, but getting a decent photo was difficult. The rainforest growth was lush, not unlike what we have at home.

Toucan in a distant tree

Overall it was a bit underwhelming, but interesting nevertheless. The guides throughout the day were fantastic, and all very enthusiastic about their Country. It was nice to see, and they know that tourism will play an important role in their future and are keen to contribute.

I think our original tour would have been a lot more interesting, as it took in an active volcano, a coffee plantation and an artisan village.

The Pacific side beaches seem to be great collectors of driftwood

Back at the pier we had about an hour to explore the local town, before all aboard at 5.30pm. There were market stalls set up along the shore to capture a few tourist dollars, and some shops and restaurants/bars. After a bit of bargain hunting, a cold beer at one of the restaurants brightened our spirits. The local beer, Imperial, was most acceptable.

The local beach is expansive, but the grey sand takes a bit of the attractiveness away.

At Sea on Passage to Puntarenas

29th October 2014

Today we are sailing to Puntarenas, Costa Rica, so it is another relaxing at sea day. We expect to dock at Puntarenas tomorrow morning.

It is a balmy day, with temperatures up around the 30 C mark, only a light breeze and flat seas. We sail reasonably close to the coast for a lot of the ways and sea dolphins, local fishing boats, and the odd container ship heading in either direction.

We are struggling to understand the time zones here and are told to wind our clocks back an hour tonight. That now leaves a discrepancy of 2 hours between ships time and the automatic time setting picked up by the i phone ?

From tomorrow onwards we have a number of one day short passages, and shore excursions , so are looking forward to a bit more sightseeing and activity on shore.

Passage through the Panama Canal

28th October 2014

It was a very early start this morning, as we entered Limon Bay, the Caribbean Sea entrance to the Panama Canal at around 5.30am. The ship was a hive of activity, with most passengers up and heading out to the bow deck, which will be specially opened up for the passage through the canal. It is barely light, and we can see the lights of many ships in the bay, waiting for their turn to traverse the canal.

We are moving very slowly and have a couple of ships ahead of us, but finally enter the Gatun Locks about 3 hours later, after a wait of about 1.5 hrs near the entrance to the locks. The Gatun locks lift the ships up into the man made Gatun Lake, a lift of 26m, done over three consecutive locks. There are two lanes of locks operating independently, and alongside in the adjacent lock, we have a large containership, the Hanjin Montevideo. Apparently they focus on getting the Panamax ships through in the morning and the smaller ships later in the day.

The Hanjin Montevideo moves into the lock adjacent to us

                       Note the clearance between the side of the ship and the lock wall

          You can see one of the locomotives on the left guiding us in to the first lock

                                      Once lifted, we exit the first lock into the next stage

Gatun locks control centre

Moving into stage 3 for the final lift to Gatun Lake

There is no doubt it is incredible piece of engineering, with ships held in position in the locks by a number of locomotive “mules” that run along tracks either side of the lock, and tension and release the cables securing the ship as levels rise or fall. In our case there were 6 locomotives involved.

We enter Gatun Lake

Once through the 3 locks, we enter the huge Gatun Lake, formed in 1913, by damming of the Chagres River. We traverse approx. 24 km of lake, before entering the Chagres River watercourse, enhanced by the damming of the river, and travel along the river for a further 8.5 km.

Top of the dam that created the lake

The next part of the canal was the most difficult to build and it is too narrow for large vessels to pass, so in that case it is one way. It is known as the Gaillard Cut, and slices 12.6 km, through the mountain ridge, crosses the continental divide and emerges under the Centennial Bridge, just prior to the next locks that will lower us down to the Pacific Ocean level.

                         A Catamaran passes us going in the opposite direction

                                                        The Centennial Bridge

The first lock we come to is the Pedro Miguel lock, a single stage lock, which is 1.4 km long, and has a lift of 9.5 m, lowering us into the Miraflores Lake (another artificial lake). The lake is 1.7km long and 16.5m above sea level.

                                                         The Pedro Miguel lock

After a short traverse of the lake, we came to the last set of locks, The Miraflores Locks. They are 2 stage locks, which lower us 16.5m down to the Pacific Ocean.

                                                  Vessels waiting in Miraflores Lake

                                                               Miraflores Locks

There is a large building alongside the locks, packed with spectators, waving madly and watching the ships go through the locks. In the background you see the outline of Panama City.

Not far from the locks is Balboa Harbour, and the exit channel takes us under the Bridge of the Americas and into the Pacific Ocean, a trip of about 13 km.

                                                                    Port of Balboa

On the Pacific side we get a much clear view of Panama City, and the many ships that are waiting for their turn to go through to the Atlantic Ocean.

                                           Passing Under the Bridge of the Americas

                                                            Panama City

It was a fantastic experience, and very, very hot, with little to no breeze. The whole process took us a bit over 11 hours from entering Limon Bay to exiting into the Pacific.

The decks we full of people all day taking in a very memorable experience.

We were later told that the reason for the delays at the beginning of our passage, was heavy storms on the Pacific side which caused temporary closure of the locks there due to poor visibility.

New locks are under construction on the Pacific Side of the canal, to increase the size of ships that will be able to pass through. The new locks will be 3 stage allowing the lift to take place in one set of locks, rather than having to use the current 2 sets. Several other initiatives are underway to increase the overall capacity of the canal. The new locks are expected to be operational next year.

                                                    New Locks under construction

They will operate in conjunction with the existing locks, taking the larger ships, with their own independent inlet and outlet channels, also under construction.

The new ship parameters “Post Panamax Ships” that will be able to pass will be up to 25% longer, 51% wider in beam, and have a 26% deeper draft.

Cartagena, Columbia

27th October  2014

Arrival at the narrow entrance to Cartagena Harbour was at 6am, but we were awake, and were able to watch the ship wind its way through the narrow channel, to eventually berth at the cruise terminal (greatly resembling a container wharf), in Cartagena about an hour later.

It is overcast and very humid. Our time in port is only half a day, with the ship due to sail at 1 pm, so we booked a 2.5 hr walking tour of the Old City which we are told is the main tourist attraction here.

Ready to get on our bus to take us to the old city, the heavens opened with vengeance. Everyone rushed back to their room for wet weather gear, and we were then on our way. So torrential was the rain, there was flash flooding everywhere and traffic ground to a standstill. Nevertheless, our fearless guide took it in his stride and gave us a good summary of recent history, focusing on the major steps that have been made to reduce corruption and disrupt the drug trade. Cartagena, is now apparently enjoying strong growth in Foreign investment as a result.

                                                           San Felipe Fortress

                           Water pouring down the fortress walls from the heavy rain

The bus trip first takes up to the Fortress of San Felipe, the largest of fortifications built in the city by the Spanish, to protect it from pirate attacks. The rain is bucketing down, so a few photos are taken from the bus before moving on to our next stop,  Las Bovedas (also known as the dungeons), a shopping opportunity, where we can buy Colombian Emeralds and other handicraft items etc. It was a pleasant relief from the rain, but not much commerce was conducted.

It was then off to the Old Walled City, and fortunately the rain was now down to a light sprinkle, but there was flooding everywhere. Our guide explained that in the previous corrupt era of Cartagenas’ development,  a few shortcuts had been taken on drainage. In a couple of spots we noticed, no-one also appeared to pay much attention to the sea level, and a few spots were obviously below sea level.

The Old City is well worth the visit. Beautiful old buildings, colourfully painted,  narrow streets with overhanging balconies, and lush tropical vegetation everywhere (obviously well watered).

We visit a number of old churches, plazas surrounded by old buildings, many now restaurants, and we spent some time at the Palacio de la Inquisicion ( Headquarters of the Spanish Inquisition in Columbia), complete with displays of instruments of torture, and worse. It also had a very good exhibition on the history of the development of the city of Cartagena, and models of the city at various stages of its development.

Palacio de la Inquisicion

The streets are filled with colourful old buildings

We also visited the outer city wall , which originally was located beside the harbor, but is now set back as a result of land reclamation into the harbor, where the main road outside the wall now runs along the waterfront.

The bus then took us off to see the new town, Boca Grande, where the rich people live. I was filled with bars, restaurants, new apartment buildings and beaches (not quite as appealing as at home). Flooding here was even worse, despite the rain having stopped and hour ago.  We arrived back at the ship about an hour later than expected after long traffic delays.

However, at least we got ashore this time, and despite the weather, it was worth seeing, although we won’t be rushing back for a holiday.

We left port at around 1.40pm, a bit later than scheduled, due to the late arrival back to the ship of many of the tours.

It was now nice and fine, so we had a good view of Cartagena from the sea, as we departed.