DAY 8 Jan 20 - Puerto Limon Costa Rica

We had an extra hour in bed last night as the clocks went back an hour. I needed the hour as I didn't manage my afternoon nap yesterday! I think it's called old age or something!

By 6.00 am the ship was slowly edging it's way, with the help of one of the ship's female crew members seen here commun-icating with the bridge from the pulpit, into the Port Lemon docks.

Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica or República de Costa Rica, is a country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the east and south, and straddles both the Pacific Ocean to the west and south and the Caribbean Sea to the east.

The first European to reach here was Christopher Columbus in 1502 who anchored just off where we were now moored. Today its population is over 4 million, half of whom have Afro-Caribbean ethnicity with origins mainly from Jamaica.

In 1821, Costa Rica became one of several Central American provinces that jointly declared their independence from Spain. Costa Rica which translates literally as "Rich Coast", constitutionally abolished its army permanently in 1949, but in fact still has a small military arm named Guardia Civil. It proudly claims to have more teachers than military personnel.

Although it still maintains a big agricultural sector where bananas are one of the county's major export crop along with coffee, and the backbone of the economy, Costa Rica has expanded its economy to include strong technology and tourism industries. The standard of living is relatively high. Land ownership is widespread. In January 2008, Costa Rica assumed a non permanent seat on the UN Security Council for the 2008-09 term.

We visited this lovely country, also by ship, in April last year and then enjoyed a day visiting a Del Monte Corporation run banana plantation (shown in the photo) and then an eco tour by boat along the Tortuguero Canal into the rain forest and jungle. Many of those that work on the plantations are impoverished Nicaraguans that come down from the north of the country with their families to find work here.

Puerto Limon is a port city that at one time was a vibrant shipping port for the banana trade.

Abandoned, for the most part for the port of Moin some 7 miles to the north of Puerto Limon, the city fell victim to a savage earthquake in 1991 from which it has never really recovered. The cities rough appearance leaves some visitors with the felling that it is unsafe, but Costa Ricans are known for their hospitality and friendliness. The real reason for visiting Puerto Limon lies in the surrounding areas, as there is much to see and do.

We don't intend doing too much today but maybe just lazing around after a walk into town. Not sure if we will find the Mayor's Office here quite so easily as we did at our last port of call!!

The Carnival Freedom docked at 9.30 and dominated the skyline next to our much more compact and cosier ship. This meant that the town and tours would be busy today.

A walk through the town shown it to be reasonably affluent by Central American standards. The shop keepers and stall holders where all out vying for the tourist dollar from the visiting hoards.

We tried to establish where the Town Hall might be but the Spanish for this location eluded us and we struggled for some time to be understood.

Eventually, not being ones to give up easily, we established that the Alcalde Municipal was what we were looking for and it was not far from the centre of town. Photo below of me outside the Town Hall.

Again, as with yesterday's visit to another Town Hall, we asked the building's recep-tionist if we could see the Mayor.

After she got over the amazement of the request she told us to wait and dis-appeared to return a few minutes later with Professor Jeffrey Beckford (how Spanish is that name?) in tow.

Maria and I were invited into his impressive office where we exchanged greeting and posed for the now obligatory photo.

We were also presented with 2010 Puerto Limon municipal calendars which also pictured the Mayor, as souvenirs of the occasion. We exchanged calling cards before departing to continue our walk round the town centre.

Mission was once again accomplished!

The temperatures were now hitting maybe 90 degrees so we slowly ambled our way back to the ship where the cooling a/c was a welcome change from the soaring heat of the city centre. A cold beer was the next order of the day before we retired to our cabin for refreshing showers.

It occurred to us that this phenomenon of mayors with non-Spanish names could have been accounted for, in the case of Mayor Jeanette Archibald who we met yesterday, by the fact that many people on the Island had British names as their forefathers had been pirates from the UK. Now that would explain it wouldn't it? Her great, great, grand daddy was from Scotland?

After a pleasant lunch up there on the Lido Deck with Henk and Lucia we retired to the cabin and sat on the balcony reading and sun bathing. While I took on the not unconsiderable task of updating the blog Maria had a nap.