In the previous instalment I talked about my first American experience in the USA, trying to spot the endangered North Atlantic right whale and seeing a space ship get launched into space.
Another stormy sea towards Central America
After departing Key West, we first had two sea days ahead of us in the Caribbean Sea. I had some expectations before embarking on this cruise. For the Caribbean I had hoped for lots of dolphins and birds. Unfortunately, the wind, once again, increased during the evening leaving the USA. The next morning it was just on the edge of being good enough to survey. We initially started out on deck 6, however, this very quickly became too windy, causing us to move to the shelter of deck 3 for an hour and a half of survey before the sea conditions really got too rough. In that time we did see hundreds of flying fish and a group of Pantropical spotted dolphins! A new species for me! They were right next to the ship having lots of fun breaching in the wake. After this excitement and with the beginning of the stormy weather, we settled ourselves in the Earth Room and had an office day. Where I worked on the final details on my lecture for tomorrow and made some crochet whales. When you can’t spot them, why not make them!
We did start seeing our first brown boobies through the windows, a bird species which is related to the gannets. They have the same way of flying like the northern gannets. And like the northern gannets I absolutely love seeing the boobies, it’s the way how they soar with the ship and stay with us for sometimes hours! I did go outside to photograph some of these brown boobies. Our second day in the Caribbean sea was even worse than the first one. The sea remained too rough to survey, we had strong winds, however, the sun was shining and it was around 27 degrees Celsius. At 15:00 I gave my first lecture of the cruise, on the migration of large whale. The rest of the day was very uneventful. It was a shame that we had a rough Caribbean Sea, when you think of the Caribbean you think of calm blue waters with lots of dolphins and flying fish. The flying fish were there, just like the blue water. Unfortunately, there were also loads of white caps, which really hindered our ability to spot dolphins. I had hoped to spot my first spinner dolphins in the Caribbean sea.
Crossing a country
After two stormy sea days, I woke up before my alarm, to very calm sea conditions. It almost seemed as if we had stopped moving! At least the rocking had stopped. I looked outside of my window and saw the green canopy of what could only be the rainforest. I quickly rushed into some clothes and ran outside with my camera in hand. We were just outside of the first lock of the Panama Canal. I got a bit giddy again, this would be my first rainforest experience and that on the Panama canal, crossing Panama from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean! I have always been vaguely intrigued by the Panama canal, but never dared to dream to actually go through it! It was an amazing experience! When I got outside a couple of things hit me immediately. First was the heat! It wasn’t even 07:00 in the morning, the sun was about to rise over the horizon, and it was already 27degrees Celsius and very humid! The other thing that hit me; were the sounds of nature, mostly many, many birds. When I looked around me, I could see birds everywhere; from Turkey vultures, ospreys, pelicans, frigate birds, parrakeets and many, many more. I started looking towards the rainforest, with my observing eyes, which are normally accustomed to the sea. Now I observed the trees and try and spot any animals within the trees. After some time I noticed something yellow jumping from branch to branch. No way, a Toucan?! In my haste to get outside I had forgotten my binoculars (stupid of me, I know), luckily my camera has a decent zoom, and indeed they were toucans! My first ever wild toucans, it was brilliant! I then of course quickly went inside to grab my binos to be ready for anything!
Going through the locks was an incredible experience. The locks really are narrow, and there are four mules (locomotives), which the ships ropes are attached to, to make sure the ship remains straight, and tows the ship into the locks, as the ship doesn't sail into the locks. We were slowly towed through the locks, up towards the level of the lake lake of Gatun. Gatun lake is located at 26 meters above sea level. In three steps (locks) we were at the level of the lake and started our journey through Panama. (Time-lapse of Borealis going into the last lock to get to the lake). Gatun lake is filled with many little islands filled with trees and little beaches. There was a chance that we could see alligators and crocodiles, either at the beaches of the islands or in the water. And so, the watch began. Not for cetaceans, as there are no whales and dolphins in the Panama canal, but for all the other potential wildlife! There could be monkeys, sloths many birds and reptiles too, how cool would that be?!
Unfortunately, we didn’t see any monkeys or sloths, however I was lucky enough to spot an Caiman Crocodile! I was looking at some of the beaches when I noticed something strange in the water just in front of a beach, was it a rock? Through my binoculars, I really had the feeling that what I was seeing was not a rock, but an animal in the water. I grabbed my camera and made some photos, I then zoomed in on the photo! I was correct it wasn’t a rock. It was a crocodile! I showed the photo to some guests who had been in the area before, and they confirmed that it was a caiman crocodile! (look for the elongated horizontal rock in the water(hopefully you can see it))
The rest of the day I mostly enjoyed the beautiful scenery, and remained on the shadow side of the ship, as the sun was definitely beating down on us, and was almost unbearable to be in for a long time (read more than a few minutes). In the end it took us around 7 hours to pass through Panama. Just after 16:00 we crossed the last lock. This last lock was quite fun experience, as there was a viewing point, which was filled to the brim with people who watched us pass through the lock. All waving and screaming. Naturally we waved and screamed back at them and the captain honked the ship horn. All in all, it was an absolute amazing experience. Which ended on a sour note. After the last lock we had around 2 hours of day light left and Nina and I were ready to start an observation in the hope to see some humpback whales and maybe even a blue whale! We knew that the central American coastline at the Pacific Ocean is an important breeding ground for humpback whales and blue whales, at this time of year. However, we did something strange, instead of sailing away through the many, many waiting vessels, we changed course to the port of Panama City. Panama City is a very large city with many, many sky scrapers which I didn’t expect to see. We turned into port and docked. Everyone was confused. Nina and I decided to go to our cabins and wash the sweat away and get ready for dinner as we were obviously not going out at sea with daylight. Then the announcement came; we were stopping in Panama City to refuel the ship. As this would be the only opportunity to refuel before crossing the Pacific ocean. The next port this is possible would be Auckland New Zealand! However, the refuelling was going to take longer than expected, and therefore our first port in Costa Rica got cancelled. Which is a shame as the port of Golfito was basically in the middle of the rainforest, and would have been a good chance to see sloths and toucans up close and maybe even some monkeys! However ,this did meant that we will have an entire sea day in, what could be, good humpback whale territory and maybe even blue whale territory!
Sailing towards Costa Rica
The next day we started early around sunrise, which was at 06:00. When we got outside on the observation deck we immediately noticed how warm and humid it was. Our sunglasses and binoculars were fogging up and it was already around 28 degrees Celsius. We did a survey for an hour and a half and took a break to eat some breakfast. Almost immediately after breakfast, we had just started another survey, we saw common dolphins! Not just normal (short-beaked) common dolphins. No, these were long beaked common dolphins! A group of 15 or so, attracted to the ship and swimming in our wake. Both of us were so excited as this was a new species for the both of us. Long-beaked common dolphins are a less common to see compared to their short-beaked counter parts. This sighting gave us plenty of hope for more sightings. The ocean was almost perfectly calm, Surely we would have more sightings!
Hours went by, with the sun beating down on us relentlessly. At times it was almost unbearable to be in the sun, we had a little bit of shelter of the sun on the side of deck 6, which we used thankfully, here we could feel a bit of a ‘’fresh’’ wind. On the Atlantic we had to put on loads of layers in order to stay warm. Here, on the Pacific we put lots of layers of suncream on, and drank plenty of water. We had plenty of water breaks to refill our water bottles. The only animals we saw for a long time were the brown boobies and the Nazca boobies, who were hunting for flying fish. As the ship moved, near constantly, through schools of flying fish, disturbing the flying fish. Which caused the fish to fly out of the sea and the boobies, happily, made use of this disturbance to feast. Time passed, lunch time came and took we an hour long break, to take a break from the relentless sun. After lunch we did see a turtle! It wasn’t until late afternoon, we started seeing some dolphins on the horizon, followed by some more. The were all too far away to identify. After the dolphins I saw some blows of what were probably small cetaceans/whales, but again unidentified. We were happy the boobies kept us company and were entertaining to watch, as otherwise, this would have been a disappointing day.
A day in Costa Rica
Once again we woke up before sunrise, to survey during our arrival, it was predicted that we would have an hour and a half before we arrived in Costa Rica. When we got up on deck 6, as per usual with cruise ships, we arrived early. The town of Puntarenas, was already in sight. We did enjoy an absolutely stunning sunrise over the Costa Rican mountains. We already felt the warm air, and knew it was going to be a hot humid day. We didn’t get to escort on a tour from the ship, so we decided that after breakfast we would walk into town and explore whilst the temperature was still bearable. We walked of the ship just after 08:00 and when we got outside, we saw some tour guides waiting outside and talking to guests. One of these guides (Jimmy) talked to us about doing a 4 hour tour to see monkeys, crocodiles and taste Costa Rican coffee and see some more of the country than just the town of Puntarenas. As it was just 30 dollars, we both immediately knew that this was something we wanted to do, as we were a bit disappointed that we didn’t get a tour from the ship.
Costa Rica is one of those countries with such a high biodiversity, nearly 6% of all known animal and plant species can be found here. That as any wildlife/nature lover, you would love to visit and explore as much as possible! And this chance to see Costa Rica seemed perfect opportunity and not too expensive. The tour would leave at 09:00 we immediately went back to the ship to change in more active clothes rather than the summer dresses we were wearing. At 09:00 we were back outside and the tour guide managed to fill his minivan with guests from the ship. Thus we set off, van filled with guest and the two of us, and drove out of town.
Our first stop was at a forest, where the white faced capuchin monkey lived. There was a small area where the monkeys have learned to grab food (fruit) from humans. However, you didn’t need the fruit to see the animals, especially if you walked a little bit further you could see them relaxing up in trees. These white faced capuchin monkey’s are my very first wild monkeys. We stayed in this small patch of forest for half an hour or so. And enjoyed the company of these small monkeys. I did really love seeing these cute fun monkeys. There was one mother with a teeny tiny baby monkey, but once it got too busy in the forest with humans she, understandably so, disappeared further into the forest, where we couldn’t follow. Some monkeys were still quite shy and wouldn't venture to close to us humans (luckily). Some other individuals on the other hand would jump on humans to either go somewhere else or just simply sit and eat their fruits. There is also a lot of strength in their tail, which they use to balance and this could be felt when they would hold on to your arm whilst walking around the trees and humans. This small population of wild Capuchin monkey, lives outside of a national park and with humans living so near, they have started to get accustomed and associate humans as a easy way to get food.
After the monkeys we drove further into Costa Rica along the coast, where we enjoyed the gorgeous scenery from the minivan with air conditioning. The air conditioning was really helpful. In the forest with the monkeys it was already way over 30 degrees Celsius. Pretty sure that later in the day we had temperatures of 36 to 38 degrees. I have never sweated this much in my life and at the end of the day, I felt absolutely drenched.
We arrived at a car park just before a bridge, the Tarcoles river bridge, also known as the crocodile bridge. The Tarcoles river spans 111 km and ends in the Pacific Ocean. This river has a large crocodile population, with around 2000 crocodiles living in this river. It's save to say that it might be better to not swim in this river. We walked over the small pedestrian path on the bridge, and very soon after walking on the bridge, we saw the first American crocodile sunbathing in the mud below us. We walked on and saw more sunbathing crocodiles in the river. What a sight! Some of these crocodiles can be over 3 to 4 meters in length.
It was amazing to see the crocodiles in the wild. On a small island in the middle of the river we also saw some iguanas. A white iguana and a black iguana. After seeing the reptiles, we got back on the bus and drove into farm grounds of a family where you can sometimes spot toucan and macaws. We drove slowly scanning all the trees, unfortunately we didn’t see anything besides lots of lizards and iguanas. By this time it was midday and then most animals hide away from the sun. I don’t blame them. This sun was beating down on us. We then drove on to a coffee factory where we tasted some delicious Costa Rican coffee. I am not really a coffee drinker, but absolutely loved this mild blend of coffee. It wasn’t bitter at all, and no sugar or milk was needed! We then had some time to walk through the souvenir shop which is set up and run by women/mothers, who don’t have a husband/partner, and their children to earn some money. After this it was time to return to Puntarenas where we got a tour through the town and our guide told us about the town. It is mainly a large fishing town, with not that much tourism. Most tourism comes from the cruise ships or through visitors on their way to some islands and a peninsula, as there is a ferry that leaves from Puntarenas. We were then dropped off at our ship. We quickly went into the ship to refresh ourselves and grab a quick lunch. By this time it was after 14:00. After lunch we both took a much needed shower to wash all the sweat away. We got back in our dresses and walked through the town for a bit. I sent some post cards and we had a special ice cream called Churchill which originated in Puntarenas. It had syrup, ice cream, shaved ice and condensed milk in it. It was quite nice, we were happy we shared one class as it was very big. We walked around some more and took photos and went back to the ship around sunset, to get changed again for the tropical themed BBQ party on the ship. It's a shame that our other day in Costa Rica got cancelled, this was great taster, and would love to return to Costa Rica to properly explore the country and its wonderful wildlife!
Later in the evening we set sail and left Costa Rica behind us, we sailed north to Mexico, it will take us 3 days at sea before we get to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. We just hope that the Pacific will finally give us plenty of sightings on these sea days.
The weather forecast looks good, so fingers crossed, for all the dolphins, turtles, sea lions and whales! But you’ll have to wait for Part IV to read about the adventures in Mexico and Hawaii!
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