Our happy place.

Ahhh, Roatan.  If we had to pick one place in the world as a favorite, this would probably be it.  We were so happy when we found out this cruise would be in Mahogany Bay for the day, and we knew right away where we wanted to spend that day - at Sandra & Al's!   You may remember Sandra and Al as the owners of the VRBO that we rented back in February of 2104.  If not, go read about those amazing two weeks here.   I reached out to Sandra via email in the fall, asking her if we could pay them a day-fee to use their beautiful beach.  She graciously agreed and, even more graciously, refused any kind of payment for the use of their property.  We then officially started the countdown!

We sailed in to Roatan just as the sun was coming up.  Breathtaking!  As we watched the arrival from the balcony and we both said at the same time, "we have to come back here next year!"  

The Odyssey - a planned wreck that they use for diving 

Once we disembarked, we walked out of the port area and called the rental car company to come and pick us up.  "Five minutes!" we were told.  I know that, in many places, five minutes is a very precise measure of time that lasts 300 seconds.  In places like Roatan, however, they tend to run on what they refer to as "Island time".  This means that five minutes could be anywhere from 20 minutes (never less in my experience) up to an hour or even more (than less).  We settled in to wait at the side of the road.  While we waited a woman introducing herself as "Big Mama" took it upon herself to shoo all the local guides pedaling their tours away from us with a loud and curt "They got a car!" 

About 30 minutes later (not bad!) the rental car company arrived.  We tipped Big Mama and were on our way with surprisingly little (in other words, none) paperwork.  The only instruction from the rental car employee was to "bring it back with the same amount of gas".   Before heading to Sandra & Al's, we drove up to West End to have a quick look around, and then stopped for a coffee at Freshly Baked, a little bakery/coffee shop that we like.  We rolled in to Sandra & Al's driveway about 9:30 am - ahhh!   There are three cruise ships docked in Roatan today, which means as many as 10,000 tourists are here.  I cannot emphasize enough how happy we are to be at a private beach!   

We spent some time chatting with Al & Sandra, said hi to Mia & Zoe who were here on our last trip (and passed out the treats we brought, of course), and met their new puppy - Happy Jack.  Happy Jack is a 9 month old Rottweiler who is already gigantic but completely gangly and silly in the way that puppies are.  He would run up to us at full, floppy speed and grab our hand/shirt/bag/whatever in his big mouth.  After a quick tug/slurp he'd look up at you with a full grin.  Sandra & Al were so hospitable - they gave us a key to their dock, locked up our money & passports inside their house, and truly just made us feel so welcome.  By 10 am we were in the water and swimming out to the reef.  Heaven!

We spent a glorious 4 hours out on the dock and the reef.  There was a big storm this past Sunday, and some of the dock had been damaged so Al and several of the neighbors who share the dock rights were out repairing the damage.  They were all lovely and we enjoyed visiting with them.  We also got to meet the couple who are renting the VRBO from Sandra & Al right now -  they have had the good fortune of being there a month.  We're jealous! 

Too soon, it was 2 pm and time for us to head back to the ship.  We returned the rental car (again, with shockingly little formality) and were dropped off back at the port.  We were back on the ship by 3 pm, and already talking about dates to return next winter.

  

Al & Sandra's pier.  The lattice area has a door in it that they keep locked to ensure it stays private.
It's only about 25 yards to the reef from the end of the pier - you can see the water breaks where the reef is.

Looking back at Al & Sandra's from the dock.  Their house is on the right, the rental is the blue roof on the left.

Two of their three dogs:  Zoe & Happy Jack

Jack giving Zoe a chomp. 

Starfish in the turtle grass

Coral

Tube coral

Fish

Isn't that water the most beautiful thing you've ever seen? 

It can REALLY rain in the rain forest!

Today's port:  Limon, Costa Rica.  A new port for us.  We had hoped to go to the sloth sanctuary but we left that decision a little too late and it was full by the time we tried to book.  Second choice was Veragua Rainforest, which turned out to be a really great day.  

First thing to know about Veragua is what the name means.  Ver translates to "see" and agua is "water".  And we certainly did that.  Since the temperature fluctuates little, there are two seasons in most Central American countries:  wet and dry.  It's the dry season right now but we could tell right away that there had been some significant rain because there was standing water everywhere.  Oh, and it was raining when we arrived in port.  :)  Our guide (more about her later) told us that they were having some "unusual weather" and that it had been raining for 4 days.  Undaunted, we boarded the bus with about 40 other passengers from the ship (more about them coming up, too!) and headed off in to the jungle.  

Our first look at Costa Rica from our balcony.  The skies look promising! 

First things first, let me tell you about our guide.  Her name was Josh.  Actually, it was something much longer but she didn't tell us what it was because she said we wouldn't remember it anyway.  Without knowing what it was, I cannot accurately say if that would be true, or not.  Josh was enthusiastic about her job, but she was not the best tour guide we've ever had.  She seemed to be distracted easily, and would lose her train of thought.  As a result, she told us the same information over and over again during the 1-hour drive to the rainforest.  For example, I will never forget that the original currency of Costa Rica was cacao bean, and now is the colom, which was named so in honor of Christopher Columbus because she mentioned it about 6 different times.  She also used the phrase "more THAN less" a lot.  And incorrectly.  The drive is "more than less" one hour; a bus ride here in Costa Rica costs "more than less" one US dollar; the three toed sloth is larger "more than less" than a two toed sloth.  Andrew stated that I should cut her some slack on this, since she is speaking to us in her second language.  Fair enough, but it still stood out "more than less" to me.  

And, the other passengers...we noticed straight away that everyone on this tour was much older than we were.  To be fair, almost everyone here on the ship is much older than we are.  We know this from both personal observations, and from the fact that people constantly point out to us that we are the youngest people on the ship.  Technically, that is not true, because I've seen other people who are likely to be our age or even younger.  As well, I've seen at least 4 kids.  We don't have any issues with people older than us, but on cruise ships they do seem to come with a few common traits of which "giant complainers" tops the list.  I am not exaggerating about this one little bit.  If you were to judge the overall experience of many of the passengers on the ship solely by their most prevalent facial expression, you would think we were about to serve a 20 year sentence on a chain-gang.  Honestly, it's non stop.  Complaints heard on the bus included:  the seats are too small, the air conditioning is too cold, the air conditioning is not cold enough, the road is too rough, the drive is too long, someone took the seat I wanted...and so on.  As well, two women behind us were incensed that the guide said our tour, which started at 9 am ship's time, would be 6.5 hours (more than less) long, and that we would arrive back to the port at 2:30 pm.  Completely oblivious to the fact that ship time and local time may be different, they spent at least five minutes irately discussing how that just wasn't possible.  

So...the ride was rough, the bus seats were, in fact, quite uncomfortable and it did take more than (not less) an hour.  No complaints from me.  I am typically at work at 9 am on a Tuesday!  We also got to see some truly gorgeous countryside of Costa Rica, some local farming areas, and four sloths in various trees along the way.  

When we got off the bus at the Rainforest, we were divided in to two groups.  Those who wanted to hike to the waterfall, and those that wanted to walk along the easy, flat trail.  We chose waterfall - we thought with all the rain it would be quite lovely.  It was, by far, the less popular option and there were only 12 people total in our group.  Our guide was a lovely older gentleman named Orville.  He started us off with the rainforest exhibits that included snakes (warning one snake skin photo ahead), frogs, butterflies, and orchids).  I loved Orville immediately, and even more by the end of the day.  He had a dry sense of humor and a slow grin that would start in one corner of his mouth and gradually spread across his lips and up to his eyes.  He talked about the importance of choosing world leaders who understand that success of conservation efforts and the condition of the environment are as important a factor in a country's health as the economy.  He talked about how our need for "more of everything" has resulted in the loss of plants, animals, habitats and ecosystems that we will never be able to recover.  He is a wise man, and I am better for the time that I spent with him, to be certain.  

The tour with Orville lasted about 4 hours, and included a ride on a gondola (Andrew's favorite), a hike to the waterfall, a hike on the flat trail (bonus for us) and tons of expert information on the rainforest of Costa Rica.  A younger guide later told us that Orville was the first certified naturalist guide in the country.  Besides Andrew and I, only two other people in our group spoke English.  The others were a large family-group of Russians who did not seem to understand much of what Orville was saying.  Oh well, more Orville for us!   

One more thing to mention is that it rained almost the whole time we were there.  Not a nice, soft rain.  A hard rain.   Rainforest hard verging on torrential downpour.  I'd like to tell you that we were properly prepared for this, but we were not.  They were selling rain ponchos on the ship ($3!) as we departed, but we were foolishly naive and declined.  After the first 30 yard dash from the butterfly exhibit in to the gift shop area, we purchased some.  I'm not sure why, at that point, because were so wet we were actually wringing out our shirts.  The rest of the story is best told with the pictures we took...enjoy!

Spiders, though plentiful, were not part of the exhibits.  They didn't seem to know that, however, as
they were everywhere.  And big.  No scale here, but this one is about 2 inches from legs to legs.  

This one was even bigger.

Snake skin that was tossed out of one of the exhibits on to the foliage.  Luckily, this was
the closest we got to a snake that was uncaged. 

View of the mountains in back with low cloud cover.  So pretty.  

Leaf frog.  Likely also a leap frog.  

Lots of butterflies.  I didn't catch all of their names - too many!

Owl butterfly.

I didn't get the name of these, but the inside of the wings is a beautiful blue that you can only see when they are flying. 

The plants were also beautiful...

     

Orchid.

We were less beautiful after getting rained on.  

Looking snappy in our new rain ponchos!

The next group of photos were taken on the gondola ride down the side of the mountain, and then in the bottom of the riverbed in the thick of the rainforest.  

Gondolas coming up the hill

 View from the gondola car almost at the bottom

Banana plant

The waterfall was really swollen from all the rain

Bottom of the big waterfall and a small one

A weird, large tree.  If a person was standing in front of this tree, their arms would not quite reach to the part where it narrows.

River at the bottom of the gondola

Run off from all the rain

A sloth.  These things are adorable. 

Another sloth. 

Finally - this is Orville.  I didn't mention this before, but we found out near the end of our time with
him that he is almost 78 (!) years old.  I would have been shocked to hear that he was 60, to be honest.  P.S.  Note the nice post-rain hair!  

Ok, that was more interesting than I expected.

I really, really hate it when Andrew is right about something.  Not that it happens very often, but I still resent those rare occasions.   Today we made a partial transit through the Panama Canal.  The entire purpose of this trip is today.  It is, in fact, the Superbowl (is that one word or two?) of this vacation.  One of Andrew's bucket-list items can now be checked as complete.  

Having built it up like that, I now have to admit that I was less than enthusiastic about seeing the Canal.  When I would tell people about this holiday they would enthuse "The Panama Canal!  Wow, that will be amazing!"  Will it? I would think to myself.  Doesn't the water just get higher and lower in various places?  Is that really such an engineering masterpiece?  Turns out, it will, it does and it really, really is.   Seriously, it took ALL DAY for us to go through the first set of locks, turn around in Gatun Lake, and go back through those same locks (thus the partial-transit).   And I stood outside and watched every. single. minute.  

For those of you who know as little about the PC (Yep, we're on a nickname basis now that I've been through.  I even have a certificate to prove it.) as I did before last night (they showed us a documentary on the ship), here's the 411.

The PC, or "The Big Ditch" as it was called by many, was finished in 1914 after 32 years of construction.  The number of men who died building it is estimated to be over 22,000.  They died from accidents, the jungle (snakes!), and other terrible things associated with hard, physical labor.  Mostly, however, they died from mosquitoes in the form of yellow fever and malaria.   Mostly, too, they were black men from the West Indies who were promised good wages and were then subject to terrible conditions that included starvation, poor living conditions, and so on.  Surprise. 

The Canal was conceived, of course, to make travel between the east and west coasts of the US faster by not having to go all the way around South America.  A month faster, no less!  The original plan was to dig a sea-level passage through the land.  After about 5 years of trying to dig through the solid rock of Panama, however, the idea of a lock and dam system was introduced.  And the rest, as they say, is history.  

The Gatun Locks, which are the three locks that we went through (twice) today, are on the Caribbean Sea/Atlantic side of the Canal.  The "chute" is just over 106 feet wide (32.3 meters) and each lock is 965 feet long (294.1 meters).  Our ship is, luckily or through good planning, just under 106 feet wide (32 meters) and 963 feet long (294 meters).  Yep, we just fit!  They did add some new wider and longer locks that were finished just this past fall, but we didn't go through those.  I guess they save those for the big ships. 

As we approached the first lock our ship were boarded by a herd of expert "guides" who work at the Canal and assume driving and navigation privileges for the duration of the passage.  Next, two tugs, (one on each side) guided us carefully in to the entrance of the Canal.  Finally, we were tied up to four train-like machines - two on each side of the canal and two bow, two stern.  Once we were secured, the trains drove along a track very much like those of an amusement park ride and pulled our ship through the process.  It looks something like this:  trains drag the ship past the dam doors, dam doors shut, water rises or fall (accordingly), dam doors open, trains drag ship to next section.  Lather, rinse and repeat.  See why I thought that would be boring?  

Why it wasn't boring, is that the sheer orchestration of all of these moving pieces (and HUGE moving pieces, at that) was nothing short of brilliant to watch.  The mechanics are amazing for 2017.  Even more so when you consider that the were conceived and designed more than 100 years ago!   Hats off to those brilliant people, and to those who gave their lives to that I could ooh and ahh about it today.  What a legacy.  

So, as a punishment for loyally following this blog of our journey, you will now be subject to a million pictures that will have you asking "Will it be amazing?  Doesn't the water just getting higher or lower?  Is that really such an engineering masterpiece?"  Take my word for it, however - yes, it will, it does, and it really, really is. 

Big ship in the east-bound lane (we're in the west-bound lane at this point).  Note the water level on the wall, as indicated by the darker section.  Now go to the next picture...

About 1 minute later.  It really happens quite quickly!

See the ruler - it's at about 60+ feet in this pic.

Now at about 48 feet about one minute later.  

View of other ships waiting to enter the Canal.  There were literally dozens of ships waiting on each side.  I had no idea it was such a super-highway!

Train-thingy running along the track on the opposite side.  In this case, it's keeping that ship (you see the back tip in the pic) from going forward in to the dam walls while the water level changes.  

Just fits! 

Train tracks.  

One of our two rear trains, and another ship going out of the Canal.  

Gratuitous product placement

Finished in 1913, but not officially opened until 1914.  Tricky.

Not sure why they need a lighthouse in the middle of the lock/dams, but it was pretty.  

Pretty green jungle in the background.  Full of all kinds of nasty stuff that killed 22,000 people. 

Empty section of the Canal - you can see the difference in water height where a ship just left.  

The end of the Gatun Locks and the start of Gatun Lake.

Gatun Lake - it's freshwater, fed from a river.  It gets some salt water mixed in from ships coming in, but is still considered fresh.  

The view behind us just as we came out of the locks in to Gatun Lake. 

Look at this behemoth coming through.  Talk about a tight squeeze!  It was like a floating building. 

Seriously - look at it!

The train drivers got to go up and down some hills, but very slowly.  

Just when you thought your commute was bad - these people have to wait for ships to pass and then for the road to be extended across the Canal.  On the upside, they don't have snow! 

Rainbow on our way out.  True to the jungle, it would rain for a minute every hour or so.