Around the World Again

Puerto Limon, Costa Rica - January 8, 2018

This is my second visit to Puerto Limon. Last time we went on one of the canals and then took a ride on one of the old trains. For this time I chose “Coastal Highlights and Banana Plantation”. We met in the Queens Lounge at 7:15 (what was I thinking!!!).

Before that I went out on “my deck” to watch the ship dock.

We were the first tour to be called and there were about 25 of us. Jose was the guide and Ronald the bus driver. We started off by driving through the city and then along the coast to the banana plantation. This is owned by the Dole company.

When we arrived we were met by Carlos who is in charge of PR for Dole. He explained the history of the banana industry in Costa Rica.

We learned about the cultivation of bananas and then walked through the facility. The bananas are brought by an overhead track that is pulled by a mule. The plastic bags are removed (and recycled), the bananas are washed down, then cut into bunches or singles and then boxed up. All of the bananas are cut green because Dole sends them all over the world and they take 10-12 days to ripen after they are cut.

After driving a few minutes we came to Bananito where we were able to sample banana liqueur. It was really strong.

Our last stop was at a roadside fruit stand (complete with sourvenir shop). There was coconut, pineapple, papaya, and a fruit I had never heard of, water apple.

When we returned to the port I walked through the crafts market on the pier. I was back on board by noon.

I had lunch in the Lido with two of my trivia partners, Tom and Jeannette. I worked on loading my pictures onto the computer, resizing them, and then uploading them onto the blog.

The first trivia of the day was at 3. We only had 8 out of 15.

1. How many hearts does an octopus have?

2. What is Frank Sinatra’s epitaph?

3. How many eyes in a standard deck of playing cards (not including jokers)?

4. What is Indonesia’s largest export?

Sail-away was at 4 pm. I watched from the Sea View pool deck.

Evening trivia was at 5. We had 15 correct out of 17 but three teams tied with 16.

1) Which iconic Japanese volcano last erupted in 1707?

2) What 2004 success had the longest title of any best picture Oscar nominee?

3) Which element has an atomic number of 26 and the symbol “Fe”?

4) How many colors were in the first box of Crayola crayons?

Worked on the blog after trivia and then sat and listened (and sipped on a frozen margarita) to the piano player, Jamm, who was playing music from motion pictures.

For dinner I had southern fried chicken and a pavlova with a scoop of watermelon sorbet.

The show tonight was called “Dance” featuring the singers and dancers. They were very good. We had another pillow gift tonight - a Panama hat.