Panama Canal
We arose early and went out in the rain for a couple of hours to see the ship cross through the Gatun Locks to enter the Panama Canal. We have learned a lot about the canal on this trip and about all the obstacles that the United States had to overcome to build the canal. It is pretty amazing. The passage fee for our ship to go through the canal is $350,000.00. That is a lot of money that Panama is making. The jungles of Panama are green and gorgeous and we are having a great day here. We are docking in Colon Panama this afternoon for a couple of hours where we can post these pictures and check our email. They warned us to not go outside of the cruise terminal because the crime is very high there and their idea of being kind to tourists is to let you keep your memory card when they mug you and take your camera. We will be keeping our day non-adventurous and will stay in the terminal. It is amazing to be sitting on the deck close to the equator and be surrounded by green and know that back home we have snow on the ground and walking outside feel s like walking into a freezer. It is nice to have all the seasons where we live but it is also nice to have the ability to borrow someone else’s season sometimes too.
Dave took some awesome pics of the Panama Canal. I will have to post them when we get home because the internet here Is way too slow. He is starting to get bored because he is also taking pictures of all the power scooters on our ship. We decided that if you lined them up they could reach from bow to stern of the ship. Did I mention that we are kind of young for this cruise bunch? My parents would be the spring chickens on the ship too.
Bon Voyage
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Puerto Limon Costa Rica
Puerto Limon, Costa Rica
We had a great day in Costa Rica. It was the first port after a couple of days at sea. We got off the ship and walked around town close to the port. There was a beautiful park close by and as we entered the park we met 2 young barefoot boys who were eager to show us a sloth in the tree and also an owl in the trees. We also saw an older homeless type man leaning up against a wall going # 2 in the park. That was kind of disgusting. We also saw several people laying around on the sidewalk kind of like the stray dogs did in Ukraine. Rain forest area here was so beautiful but the city area was similar to most of the Caribbean towns that we have been to. People living in dirty conditions and poverty but they don’t really mind while they are surrounded by some of the most beautiful creations on Earth.
We had booked a zip line tour that was a day line adrenaline course but there were not enough participants so we had to take another tour. Since the average age of the people on our ship is about 80 (I am not kidding) I can see why they didn’t have enough sign up for the big time zip line. As it turned out, it had quite enough adrenaline for me Dave said that he could have gone twice as long but I was happy with the tour.
As we got off the bus to get set up for the tour. I stepped up on a little hill to take a picture but it was really slippery mud and I fell flat on my side and seat and hopefully everyone saw me so that they didn’t think that I was so scared by the zip line that I had an accident. We met some really nice people on the tour and there was even a guy who did it who was 90 years old. I hope I am still up for adventures when I get to that age.
We saw some little red frogs that are poisonous. You can’t touch them and then touch your eye or mouth or get it into your blood stream or you could die. This island is also famous for hummingbirds that have teeth. Sorry I didn’t get any pictures of those.
We learned a lot about Bananas (their big export) and the yellow fruit that I am posting a picture of is the fruit that we get chocolate from. I didn’t know that cocoa beans come out of a fruit. I thought they were in a pod like beans but they are in this fruit and they dry them out and grind the seeds to make cocoa. This information strengthened my interest in making sure the rainforests stay safe, even more
Costa Rica is a very beautiful place. We were on the Caribbean side which from what we understand is more impoverished than the other side where it is mostly Europeans that live there. We feel blessed to get to see the beauty that is here.
Update on the Family
Update on the family
I haven’t been very good at blogging lately. Usually that is either a good sign or a bad sign. In this case it is a good sign. Everything is going well and we are gearing up for some big events. Here is an overview:
25th Anniversary; Dave and I are in the Caribbean celebrating our 25th. Today we went to Costa Rica and tomorrow we go through the Panama canal. We will also see Bonire, Aruba and stop at the Bahamas
on the way back. I will try to post about the ports as we go.
Bryan is coming home: We are very excited that in only 15 days our son Bryan will be coming home from Ukraine where he is serving a mission. We are anxious to see him after 2 years and also anxious to hear about all of his adventures.
Sealing the boys: After Bryan gets home we are going to all go to the temple and have the boys sealed to us. We are all excited to make them a forever part of our family. Vitaliy even put on his Christmas wish list that he wants to be sealed to us. Ahh.
Devin’s mission call: Devin can turn in his papers on Dec 30. We can’t wait to see where he is going to go. What a fun time of life this is.
Scott’s baptism: The last of our kids will soon be accountable and be baptized. We are excited to share that wonderful experience with him.
When I told my sister about all that we have coming up she said “Your life would be pretty boring if you weren’t Mormon.” So True. So many blessings and happy times to enjoy thanks to the Gospel.
PLUS…. We just got a text from Tyler and he said that he is ENGAGED!!!! We are so thrilled. We hope it is really true. We can’t talk to him by phone on the ship but we are trying to text him back. We don’t know the date etc. His fiancé’ is absolutely amazing and we could not have picked out a better spouse for him if we had looked for a million years. CONGRATS Ty and Janalee.
I haven’t been very good at blogging lately. Usually that is either a good sign or a bad sign. In this case it is a good sign. Everything is going well and we are gearing up for some big events. Here is an overview:
25th Anniversary; Dave and I are in the Caribbean celebrating our 25th. Today we went to Costa Rica and tomorrow we go through the Panama canal. We will also see Bonire, Aruba and stop at the Bahamas
on the way back. I will try to post about the ports as we go.
Bryan is coming home: We are very excited that in only 15 days our son Bryan will be coming home from Ukraine where he is serving a mission. We are anxious to see him after 2 years and also anxious to hear about all of his adventures.
Sealing the boys: After Bryan gets home we are going to all go to the temple and have the boys sealed to us. We are all excited to make them a forever part of our family. Vitaliy even put on his Christmas wish list that he wants to be sealed to us. Ahh.
Devin’s mission call: Devin can turn in his papers on Dec 30. We can’t wait to see where he is going to go. What a fun time of life this is.
Scott’s baptism: The last of our kids will soon be accountable and be baptized. We are excited to share that wonderful experience with him.
When I told my sister about all that we have coming up she said “Your life would be pretty boring if you weren’t Mormon.” So True. So many blessings and happy times to enjoy thanks to the Gospel.
PLUS…. We just got a text from Tyler and he said that he is ENGAGED!!!! We are so thrilled. We hope it is really true. We can’t talk to him by phone on the ship but we are trying to text him back. We don’t know the date etc. His fiancé’ is absolutely amazing and we could not have picked out a better spouse for him if we had looked for a million years. CONGRATS Ty and Janalee.
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