Docked beside another HAL ship, the huge Zuiderdam, in Puerto Limon early in the morning of Saturday, 9th January. Tropically hot and humid, no rain though.
Costa Rica, famous for its rich variety of plants and animals, has only one tenth of a percent of the world's landmass. However, it has five percent of all biodiversity.
Good reason to head for the rain forest, and a little excursion on the Tortuguera Canals.
We drove through the town of Puerto Limon, first to a banana plantation. Bananas are an important, but not the largest export of Puerto Rico, that distinction is reserved for technology. Intel alone employs more than 6000 Puerto Ricans. Literacy is 96 percent, much higher than either USA or Canada. and - there is no army at all, but a lot of educated people available for professional jobs.
That means, banana plantations have to hire Nicaraguans with lesser education, but an eagerness to work, and an opportunity to send their children to Costa Rican schools free of charge, and enjoy free healthcare. Not a bad deal.
We gawked at the harvesting (strictly time controlled so bananas are 'just right' for shipping), the washing, the sorting, the cutting, the bagging...and tried a couple of field fresh ones - delicious.
A man with a giant boa constrictor dangling from his neck, wandered along the road near the banana plantation. No photo stop - catching wildlife is strictly prohibited, and this guy did not get his monstruous reptile in a local pet store. So out of principle, we drove on without stopping.
But, then off to the rainforest. We boarded a low slung small river boat, shade provided, and puttered off into the wilderness.
A lush green Eden, where the Tortuguero Canals wind their way through mangrove trees, under a high canopy of treetops, and a forest full of animal sounds and fluttering butterflies. The surface of the water was dotted with floating islands of water hyacinths.
We spotted howler monkeys, almost got near enough to shake fingers with a three toed sloth, discovered myriads of birds either fishing or flitting through the thick foliage. I would have loved to glide through this tropical paradise on a silent canoe for days, and watch, discover and listen to the exotic sights and sounds of the rainforest.
