Traipsing Thru the Rain Forest in Costa Rica

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We got to sleep an hour later due to our later than planned departure from Colon, Panama. We’ve been experiencing extremely poor to horrid internet service for the past couple of days and our ability to do anything online has been almost completely stymied, especially posting the blog or uploading images. We went to the Lido for breakfast and my mother asked Sharon to get her some waffles. My mother added, “Waffles with syrup, and apples on the side with no syrup.” I got her oatmeal and banana, and sometimes wonder at the quantity of food my mother packs away in her petite frame. I got an omelette with jalapeños, onions, ham, bacon, cream and cheddar cheeses and added salsa to it. It was quite good with some white toast. Sharon also had a waffle.

Due to our late departure from the Canal Zone, waiting for that final tour group to pass through the locks and meet up with our ship, today’s tours started about an hour later. Everyone had gotten a revised schedule in their mail slots, but they did not reprint the tickets as they had earlier in the cruise when there were some time changes on a couple of tours. We signed up for the “Tropical Rainforest Adventure.” Sharon was worried that we’d gotten the wrong tour when she read the synopsis description of the tour which indicated a 2-person level of difficulty and mentioned an optional 350 step journey to see the waterfall (and nothing about an aerial tram ride through the canopy). We couldn’t find the full description printouts we’d made for reference and used when we booked our tours just after getting onboard (to use the promotional tour credits we got when we booked this cruise). Normally we plan and book our excursions prior to getting on the ship, but we had the promotion credit incentive to book some after embarkation. We never did find the printouts, and I probably threw them out thinking we didn’t need them anymore now that we had booked all of our tours; but, don’t tell Sharon. She’s probably already figured that out anyway. (In the interest of full disclosure, those missing papers were found falling out of her computer bag as we were getting things stowed and packed!) She checked on her laptop where she had saved the descriptions initially, and it elaborated about the optional easy walk you could do in making your way to the waterfall; and, it also mentioned the aerial tram ride through the canopy which was one of the main reasons to take this tour with my mother. Feeling a bit better about this tour we boarded our bus and the guides said that we would be split up into three groups… two with about 15 or 16 persons each and the final group with 8 to 10 people. There were 17 of us that chose to go to the waterfall; and, my mom and Sharon decided on the easier trail. When we made this decision, we didn’t know that this was a decision for the whole tour. Once you see how this private reserve is set up, it is clear why they do things the way they do them. Up at the entrance there is a five minute walk up and back to see the snake exhibit. Not really much to say about it, there are a series of outdoor viewing boxes where snakes live in an environment they would be found in the Rain Forest, and its enclosed by a glass pane that you observe them. Some snakes are quite poisonous and I believe that they number in the hundreds, the types that can be found in Costa Rica.

It should be noted that the purpose of this refuge is to understand the nature of the Rain Forest, its wildlife and plants, to study them and to learn from them. On the bus ride up, and on the walk through the Rain Forest our guides would remove a leaf from the tree or vine, crush it and offer it to us to smell. The natives have been using the Rain Forest to provide them with various remedies from sunburn to insect repellants, many of which work better than those produced by major pharmaceuticals. After they split us into groups Sharon and my mom went to visit the snakes. I thought they were on the “Easy Trail”, and that we were going to see the waterfall. Instead, we found ourselves outside a modernistic looking concrete structure that looked more like a bomb shelter than anything else. We spent some time looking at the flora about us before entering the building. The building was their amphibian research center, but mostly it was a frog-arium. What I remember most about entering this building is that the temperature seemed to go from 75 degrees to 100 degrees Fahrenheit; and, the humidity went from about 75% to 100%. It was brutally humid inside and for some reason our guide seemed to want to linger and talk about every DAM frog (I’m just saying, if you go on a DAM Cruise, then we must be seeing DAM frogs). Sharon and my mom thought that the “Frog Movie” that they showed was the most memorable thing of the day, and the guide accentuated the film by noting, “I guess you all know what these two are doing!” The highlight was the final footage where the guide confirmed, “…and here we have three males trying to get it on with one female at the same time!” The jist of the film was showing this as an example of natural selection at work in the Rain Forest. Fortunately for Sharon and my mom, their guide urged them to see what they wanted in the frog-arium and then to exit to the cooler environs of the lepidopt-arium, or butterfly garden. We walked among the butterflies, and our tour group briefly comingled as they were arriving to see the butterflies as we were leaving. I gave them a drink of water from the bottle I was carrying, and that we were supposed to share. We went next to the cafeteria center, rest center and aerial tramway station. Our guide checked in to see what our group was to do next, to keep different groups, and there were others besides our bus in the Rain Forest Reserve today. We headed to the aerial tram, and we boarded nine people in each car meant for 8. The tram ride went steeply downhill to a basin below. Our guide spotted a couple of sloths in the trees, but my position wasn’t right to see them. At the bottom we took the walk to the waterfall, and a sign warns that there are 350 steps round trip, and there are… about 85 up followed by 90 down to the viewing platform that overhangs the waterfall by its last cascade on the side of the mountain. The walking surface seems solid with good protection against slipping, even in a damp Rain Forest. The day we were in the Rain Forest the weather was sunny and clear the whole day; but, we’d been warned of the microclines that can hit and some people had protective rain gear. On the tram ride back up, I was fortunate enough to get a picture of a sloth in a tree. We were given a lunch of a sandwich, some fruit (mostly watermelon and pineapple) and a drink. Sharon said that she and my mother split a lunch and cherry picked the sandwich.

I went up to the Crow’s Nest and Sharon went to have something more for lunch before Team Trivia with Simon. One couple appeared to be finishing a drink seated at “our enclave”. I came over and asked if they were waiting for people… they motioned me to sit down… and I asked them if they were playing Team Trivia. I think I scared the couple away because the vacated their seats and moved to a tiny table for two just twenty feet away. Shortly after that another couple was looking for a place to play trivia and I invited them to join me, and told them my wife would be up soon. We saw the woman at breakfast who has played with us the previous two days, and she said that she would try to make it, but wasn’t sure if her tour would be back in time. I pointed to my “Alaska” hat, to show her I’d be wearing it… she had looked for me in it the other day but I was wearing the “Club-21” hat. She was a No-Show today. Sharon showed up and we are a team of four today. Simon promised new, never-before-heard questions. I’m pretty certain he failed, miserably! Although the wording may have been slightly different, they still had the same answers. “The FDA defines ‘caviar’ as coming from what fish only?” That would be sturgeon. And I don’t know what possessed me to go with “Erie” for what Great Lake do all of the others empty into? I knew it wasn’t “Superior” which is what Sharon wanted. It’s the only one that borders Canada, which I knew, so why couldn’t I come up with Lake Ontario… It even ‘sounds’ like it touches Canada. Sharon chimed in for “What Jewish Festival begins with dinner?” It is Passover. When he asked “In horse racing, what measurement do the use to measure the height of the horse?” I thought we might have trouble on our team when our new teammate said “furlongs”. I said, I don’t think so, and showed him what I’d written down: “Hands”. He’d obviously only listened to the first part of the question and filled in the second part. I wasn’t sure when Simon asked, “How many symphonies did Beethoven compose?” Previous question from a previous cruise, I was pretty sure it was an odd single digit number. When our partners came up with nine, I wrote down “9” and that was correct. Simon noted that he’d previously asked what element (in chemistry) was alphabetically last, today he wanted to know the Chemical Symbol of the element that is alphabetically first. Well, there is no chemical with the symbol “A”, so we can rule that out. I knew there was an “Ac” and was trying to decide if there was an “Ab”. Simon added that he’d accept the symbol or the name of the element, as they both started with the same two letters. That sealed it for me: Actinium. That was a new question. Four question later he asked the only other question that I’d never heard before: “Who was the actress who played the title role in the 1955 production on Broadway of “My Fair Lady”. Now Simon gave the clue that this was one of his favorite actresses and she’d already been mentioned by him three times during Team Trivia on this cruise. This gave Sharon the idea that it might be Julie Andrews. I wasn’t happy with that choice; although, she had been the answer to at least one question, the subject of another and associated certainly with the number of von Trapp children question. And she was the answer Simon was looking for! It was going to come down to the all-or-nothing 5-point bonus question, which is great if you know the answer; but, not so great if you don’t. “Provide the first names of the original 5 members of ‘The Jackson Five’.” Well, it’s not so great if you can’t remember the answers either! Simon helped us out by offering up “Michael” as one of the names. I’d written down Tito, Jermain, Michael and then I’d remembered Jackie… hmm that was the one I normally forget. I was about to meltdown when I remembered Marion in the nick of time. We got 19 points, second place got 13 points, and we won some “legitimate” Panama Canal pins.

Sharon and I had gotten some Sudoku sheets and we did our challenge. I easily won the Easy Game, and thought I was doing well enough in the Hard Game when Sharon beams, “Did I beat you… again?” As I suspected, Sharon is annotating less and less and winning more and more.

Sharon went to mass and I headed back to the cabin to let my mother know it was time to get ready for dinner. I worked on the blog a bit until Sharon returned. My mother and I both enjoyed the onion-shitake soup; and, we both got the special salad of the day. But when it comes to the entrée, she wasn’t ready to go the vegetarian route I chose, ordering the fettucine with gorgonzola. She went instead with the daily grilled chicken and Sharon got her chicken with a baked potato. Not all baked potatoes are the same and Sharon’s seemed like it needed another 30 minutes in the oven (or 5 minutes in the microwave). Sharon and I had the white and chocolate mousse cake and mother had some vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup. We’d been seated at a table in the center by ourselves and one of the dining room managers stopped by to make sure that we’d enjoyed our meal. We’d spoken to him a number of times before, and he’d been particularly interested when I’d ordered the Thai soup and then the curry dish as well; as, he’d lived for some time in Thailand and had acquired a taste for spicy food. He is obviously Dutch, and as shown a keen interest in ensuring that all guests are enjoying their meals.

Tonight we saw Jon Courtenay offer up his comedy shtick and piano-playing prowess. The show began with a quite funny video showing a stream of beautiful women leaving his dressing room leading up to show time. At the final 5-minute call and elderly grandmother type leaves his dressing room throwing him a kiss as she disappears. Jon Courtenay is mostly bald, and in the video they show him with a full head of hair, putting on a bald skull-cap. He played various types of music, including some of Jerry Lee Lewis (“Goodness, gracious, great balls of fire!”) It reminded me of the good time we had with Sharon’s mom when she visited us at our new home in Las Vegas and we took her to see “The Million Dollar Quartet”.

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