Tuesday, April 18- from Panama to Costa Rica

The ship passed into Costa Rica during the night.  Before we could get off the boat we had to be processed by Customs & Immigration.  They’d collected our passports and forms before we left the hotel Saturday.  Eight people in uniform got on the boat and joined the Captain in the lounge.  The Captain had the staff bring everyone coffee and he chatted amiably in Spanish with the supervisors, discussing the weather and the trip thus far, while the officials scrutinized forms and stamped the passports stacked in two waterproof plastic containers.  I wanted to take a picture but sometimes government officials are sensitive about that and I wanted to stay out of trouble.  In about half an hour, everything had been signed, stamped and delivered.

At breakfast, I got into conversation with another passenger, a retired Navy man who had known Admiral Grace Hopper (the first female Admiral in the US Navy and a pioneer in computer technology) and could tell stories about her.   My fellow passengers on UnCruise are always interesting!  

As usual, I'd signed up for as many things as possible.  In the morning we took a skiff excursion through the mangroves, where I saw 3 out of the 7 known species in the world.  Mangroves, which have been destroyed in many places, are extremely important as barriers against flooding, shelters for newly-hatched fish and other vital purposes.    We saw monkeys and iguanas, as well as white and green herons.  

 I had a massage at noon, followed by lunch at 12:30, kayak/hike at 1:40.  Great massage, and it was included in the cost of the cruise.  The kayak paddle turned out to be 1.5 hours and I was a bit concerned about my shoulder, which was recovering form a labrum tear due to a fall while ice skating 2 months before (I refuse to act my age) but my partner, a travel agent from CA, and I, kept up.  

We visited the Saladera, an eco-resort and hiked through the rainforest.  Cameras have caught ocelot, coati, anteaters, jaguar.  We saw a toucan; someone else spotted a large egg on the ground. The guide radioed to the boat; the consensus was that it belonged to a curassow, which is endangered but so plentiful at Saladera they hadn’t known that.  Their eggs are typically laid on the ground but better-hidden.  It's possible that a predator was threatening the female so she laid her egg in a more vulnerable spot.  This is another example of why I love the crew on these ships!

I went to bed early, pleasantly exhausted.  The sunset was beautiful but I didn't take pictures- they never capture the real thing.  A