FROM COSTA RICA TO COLOMBIA

PUERTO LIMON, COSTA RICA:  We had a private tour with a couple from Vancouver and two couples from Spain who don't speak English.  Our guide did a great job of explaining everything in both English and Spanish.  He was born in Austria and apparently German is his first language.

Puerto Limon is a city of about 65,000 and appears to be very poor.  We drove through some middle class areas and then through an area where the "wealthy" live.  The main difference was that there was more barbed wire in the "wealthy" area.  We visited a banana plantation.  Here the workers harvest very large bunches, carry them to a "zip-line" and when they have 25 bunches on the line they pull them for long distances to the boxing area.  Looks like impossibly hard work.

The highlight of the day was a ride in the Tortuguero canals where we drifted in a small boat and saw wildlife (howler monkeys, iguana, cayman and many different birds).

In the evening we had dinner with a couple from Tel Aviv and a couple from California.  The American couple appeared to be in their late fifties.  When they told us they were 84 and 86 we were floorstruck.  Turns out we were the babies at the table.  That certainly doesn't happen very often.

PANAMA: As we were nearing the end of our cruise and had on-board non-refundable credits to spend we took a ship's tour.  Normally we only book private tours as they are less expensive and we get to travel with smaller groups.

We boarded our bus and drove through what can only be described as the ugly city of Colon on our way to a national park.  During the approximately one hour drive we basically looked out the windows at garbage strewn everywhere.  It makes one think that the national pastime of Panama must be littering.  Recycling appears to be throwing your garbage out the front door and if the wind comes up the garbage is recycled to your neighbour's yard.

At the sad little town of Portobelo we visited a modest church and the ruins of the San Lorenzo Fort which dates back to the days of the pirate Henry Morgan.  Portobelo, strangely enough, has a world heritage site designation, which is an attempt to save the ruins of the fort.

PANAMA CANAL:

The second part of our tour was a visit to the Gatun Locks.  Even though we travelled through the Panama canal a few years ago, this was an interesting view of both the old locks and the new Post-Panamax system.  The canal is a huge source of income for Panama.  Ships reserve passage up to one year in advance.  A large cruiseship can pay as much as $ 400,000. passage.  One of the new giant container ships can pay one million dollars.  And what seems bizarre is that payment is made 48 hours in advance and only in cash.  One wonders where the money goes, as it is certainly not visible on the streets or in the countryside.

CARTAGENA, COLOMBIA:  This is the second time we visited Cartagena, a truly beautiful city. Of course this time it was in stark contrast to Colon, Panama.  We didn't have a lot of time in the city center as there was a parade (Miss Colombia contest) about to start and many of the streets were closing.

Cartagena surrounds a spectacular harbour and is guarded by a giant fortress.  Once in the city the streets are clean, orderly and although the architecture is not stunning it is very eye-pleasing.

The social structure of the city is very rigid.  There are six social classes and each class lives in its own section(s) of the city.  These traditional divisions are based partly of race and partly on historical economic considerations such as different tax rates in different parts of the city.  We would have liked to have more time here and this is definitely a city to place on the list of where to return.