Number one export: Micro Chips!
Number two source of income: Tourism
Number three source of income: Bananas [$600,000,000] Now that is a lot of bananas.
We went on a "Rain Forest Aerial Tram" ride today. We drove north for two hours to a rain forest preserve where they have built a gondola that travels through and then over the forest slowly and silently. It was very interesting, but a little slow paced for your action-packed searching friends here.
After a brief lunch we went on a walk through the forest with a guide who pointed out all sorts of trivia about what we were seeing. It was again, interesting but without any colour other than 10,000 shades of green. There is so little light that makes it down that low that it all seems to be the same colours of green and some browns.
It rains about 13 feet there so of course it is all damp and a bit drippy. This was our first encounter in such an environment so it was educational more than exciting. We had a perfect day as far as the weather: it was raining in the morning and got progressively better. We were with George and Ruth and another couple today, plus our guide, easy day. We were back on the ship at 4.30 for a five o'clock sailing.
You have never seen so many container yards stacked with full sized containers for shipping out bananas in your life. Every third person in Costa Rica must be a truck driver hauling bananas and pineapple around. By the way, I over-indulged in the super-sweet pineapple at lunch today. Also a real treat on a Caesar salad is 'Hearts of Palm' as croutons instead of bread! [The Hearts of Palm now are a variety developed so that a whole tree does not have to be cut down for the tasty morsels.]
Two ships loaded all day across from us, bananas!
Meanwhile, sister Moe had a very, very relaxing day. She received a surprise birthday gift from brother Graham, [who always seems to do the right thing], plus she wandered ashore and cruised the shops in the port. Moe discovered the library and it's very comfortable sofa chairs today. So much so that she nodded off there only to be awoken by the only person left in the library who was snoring... Her! [I think that she is finally relaxing.]
Full day Panama Canal transit tomorrow, starting at 6.00 AM. We anchor off of Fuerte Amador at 8.00 PM and spend the night and all day there.
Also it is the first Tai Chi class tomorrow.
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