Our approach to Limón was a bit rough and noisy - yes, it was lumpy after all the wind blowing the past two days - but we heard a few new sounds we hadn’t heard before. Its funny that once you settle into a rhythm, anything out of the ordinary seems different and mildly threatening. Our dock was essentially front and center in downtown Limon - a relatively small city spread equally along the shore and up the hills around us. Very tropical and green - the air temperature absolutely perfect and without the humidity you normally associate with such tropical greenery. Limon is 100 miles east of San Jose (the capitol), and 1.5 driving hours north of the border with Panama. It is also the main port for fruit shipments (Banana, Pineapple, Cantaloupe) to the USA, Germany, Holland, and China. We saw ships from both Dole and Del Monte being loaded in an interesting ballet between ship, crane, container, and truck…
As we typically do — we read through all of the cruise line provided excursions and then proceeded to do our own by walking out of the port, talking with a couple of local tour operators, and deciding whose offer we liked best and looked the most trustworthy. We went with Mr. Doctor, who introduced us in turn to our taxi driver and tour guide Danilo (Danilo Orlando Hall - 00506 - 85339489) who would drive, narrate, teach, and spot wildlife for us the next 6 hours. The tour we chose was the “Scenic Drive”, “Banana Plantation”, “Canal Cruise”, and Lunch for $60 for each of us. We much prefer private as opposed to bus tours - they give us a better chance to learn more about our guide and how people live where we are visiting. Additionally, we probably saved about 40% and had a lot more flexibility with what we saw and how long we spent seeing it.
So off we went in Danny’s cab to see some of the coast, foliage, flowers, and animals. Interesting that we felt a different vibe in Limon immediately - kind of a Jamaican - Latin fusion - honestly, we really liked it. Turns out that a large number of Jamaicans were brought to Limon years ago to work and stayed to make a new life in Central America. As noted, we liked the result…
To SW Florida residents, we felt right at home with the plants, flowers, and birds we saw along the way - except everything here seems to have grown bigger with stronger sunlight (closer to the equator) and no occasional winter cold snaps. Then there was the addition of animals we don’t see at home except in a zoo — Howler Monkeys 50-75’ above us in large trees moving slowly from branch to branch as they fed on berries or leaves. Continuing on the road to the banana plantation, we saw several schools and a lot of neighborhoods with small homes along the way. None of the homes were grand or grandiose, clearly homes where working people live and raise families, many with small garden or farm plots alongside to supplement table fare and income. Turns out that 4/11 is a national holiday — commemorating the day that a Costa Rican hero halted the advance of troops from the USA who had already conquered Honduras and Nicaragua to the north. So traffic was perhaps lighter, the schools empty, and folks were taking some time off visiting neighbors. Oh, and for people who’d paid for a tour of the banana plantation - bummer…
Along the way to the banana plantation, we could clearly see that road conditions leave a bit to be desired — the huge amount of truck traffic loading and distributing fruit to the shipping port exceeds the government’s ability or perhaps desire to repair and upgrade the roadways to meet current demand. Not the worst roads we’ve seen - Cambodia has that honor - but clearly in need of improvement.
We spent about ten minutes with Danny as he explained how bananas grow, the fruit is tended, and ultimately harvested. The workers who care for and harvest the fruit have a pretty tough job and based on what Danny said, are not well paid for their labor.
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| Danny explaining how things work on the plantation |
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| River of "No Return" |
From the plantation, we headed to the Tortuguero canal cruise - a one hour small boat ride to see wildlife (Monkeys, Iguanas, Eagles, Caiman, Herons, and Egrets) in the waters or in trees along the canal. If anything, it reminded me of childhood memories of the Jungle Boat ride at Disneyland - you leave civilization and head into the jungle in a small boat on a brown waterway no more than 75 yards wide as your guide points out animals along the way. The canal trip was included in our $60 fee and was well worth the time invested.
Next, we spent about 15 minutes on a hilltop watching trucks and ships load and unload fruit containers - empty and full. A truck pulls up with a full container - this is picked up and loaded onto the ship; the ship’s crane then brings out an empty container which is then put on the truck that takes it back to the container yard for reloading. Apparently it takes about 36 port hours to unload the empties and reload the ships - Dole has two ships arrive and depart each week like clockwork - Del Monte was docked just forward of Dole. Interestingly enough, we have seen the other end of the Dole pipeline in San Diego - having watched the full container ships arrive in San Diego and be off-loaded within that same 36 hour window. Since Costa Rica’s growing season is year round, the pipeline is always moving product from plantation to market.
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| San Diego end of Dole fruit pipeline - this fruit comes from Pacific coast sources |
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| Little did we know in June 2010 we'd be seeing the other end of this pipeline 6 years later... |
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| San Diego Dole Terminal |
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| Loading and Unloading operations in Limon - heading to Florida or Europe |
Now for lunch - on a hilltop above town from which we could see our ship with NCL Pearl alongside. We ordered a mushroom risotto, a half chicken cooked local style (grilled and then braised in a yummy coconut based sauce) with rice, beans, and a salad - accompanied by local beer and a pretty decent glass of red wine. The restaurant - Red Snapper - was really good - honestly this is a “Must Visit” recommendation - not dirt cheap but very reasonable. Three people (we treated Danny to lunch), four beers, one glass of wine and three entrees for $67 US (they take credit cards). The food quality was excellent - risotto was the best we’ve had outside of Italy and we’ve never had chicken prepared like this anywhere else in the Caribbean. Trip Advisor will be getting a review real soon….
After lunch we asked Danny to drop us off at a supermarket so we could shop for our traditional hot sauce purchase (every port in the Caribbean - we are addicted to the taste and variety offered in each country - guess this would be “Feeling the (real) Burn” LOL. We were really happy we bought our hot sauce in the supermarket - it was slightly less than $1 US per bottle — at the port tourist shopping facility, it was $3-4 US per bottle for the exact same bottle - score!!!
Saying our goodbyes to Danny we promised sending our friends and clients his way when they visit Limon - he is a great ambassador for his city and country, educated and educating… The 6 or so hours we spent with him taught us a lot and left us wanting to come back with more time to see and experience more of Costa Rica.
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| Panoramic view of Limon from Red Snapper Restaurant |
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| Eating lunch at Red Snapper |
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| This was truly good!! |
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| Restaurant Red Snapper - great view, great food |
Pulling away from the dock to the soft colors of sunset, we waved goodbye to Costa Rica and headed back into the Caribbean while getting ready for “Italian Night” in the Main Dining Room - what a treat we were in store for…
There are theme cuisine nights in the dining room every night - but why is it the food always tastes better on Italian night? As these pictures show, the food looks great and tasted equally good. A highlight was Penne Arabiata personally prepared by our head waiter, Eugenio.
As we spend time with our waiter Omar and his lovely assistant waiter Veronika, we are learning more of their life and work aboard the ship. It has always been apparent that our waiters and cabin attendants work very hard on our cruises - honestly, we had no idea. By comparison, when I used to do labor estimates for proposals on our software or lab work, we used 1960 labor hours to represent one labor year (52 weeks, two weeks of vacation, one week of sick leave, working 40 hours/day). Waiter contracts are typically for 9.5 months of work -- no scheduled days off and up to 13 hours per day - 91 hours per week for 38 weeks - 3458 labor hours. There is a little bit of time shifting and perhaps some swap arounds but I doubt they work less than 80 hours per week during their contract. At the end of each contract, they get 2.5 months off - this is a nice chunk of time - but they've already worked almost two years worth of hours to get it. I remember working like this when I was young and wearing a uniform - ambition, mission focus, and desire to get ahead give us an energy we'd be hard pressed to find in our later years. My hats off to our staff, they're bright, attentive, and cheery each night; making our cruise so very special.
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| Veal - Val loved it... |
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| Shrimp and Scallops Gratinata |
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| And a little Tiramisu |
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| Vangie, Omar, and Veronika in Gondolier garb |
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