Mar Pacifico
After coming through the Panama Canal, we started our way back north to Costa Rica on the Pacific side. We docked in Puntarenas and headed up into the mountains to a cloud/rain forest hike. After spending a little more time in Costa Rica, the ship continued north into Nicaragua and then Guatemala before heading along the entire coast of Mexico and ending up in Cabo San Lucas. After a really fun day in Cabo, the ship is now heading to Los Angeles.
We have covered a huge swath of the Pacific Ocean from the Panama Canal to Los Angeles. For the most part the ship has held pretty close to the coastline all the way up. However, we can only see land every once in a while. Magellan named it “Mar Pacifico”, which roughly translates as “peaceful” or “calm”. For the most part it has been much calmer than the Carribean and southern Atlantic. However, the first day out of Guatemala heading north, we crossed an area around El Salvador where the isthmus is the most narrow. The winds were up to 50 knots and we experienced 20 foot seas - all for about 10 hours. As soon as we got past that narrow area of the isthmus, the wind died down to nothing and we were in 2 foot seas - almost immediately! Since then, nothing but lake like seas!
Costa Rica - Pacific Side
Costa Rica is a beautiful place, but still has quite a dichotomy of wealthy people, ex pats and beautiful homes and abject poverty all within one photo frame. The country is basically divided in half from north to south by threee mountain ranges. The Pacific side is much drier and produces less agriculture than the Caribbean side. Both are quite tropical, but the Caribbean side grows more bananas, pineapple,etc. The Caribbean side seems much poorer. All the resorts and ex pats are on the Pacific side. We spent an entire day up in a rain forest, hiking and crossing 5 canopy rope bridges - that was pretty fun. The temperature from the coast at sea level to the rain forest at 3000 feet was a drop of about 25 degrees!
Nicaragua
We spent some time in the port city of Corinto and then headed to the largest city in the area, which is Leon. We never made it to the capital in Managua. But if Corinto and Leon are any indication, you would not learn much or see much in Managua. The poverty in Nicaragua matched that seen in Cuba. So many years of corrupt government and civil war have left the country in really bad shape. I don’t have much more to say about it except it is a place of huge potential, beautiful land, natural resources, friendly people but has a long way to go to realize that potential.
Guatemala
Guatemala was a very pleasant surprise. What a beautiful place, still steeped in many aspects of Mayan culture. It appears to me that it is more prosperous than Costa Rica. It was cleaner and had a lot more nice cars on the road, nice shopping centers, etc. We headed up into the mountains to the old Spanish colonial city of Antigua. Considering all the active volcanoes in Guatemala and all the earthquakes, the city is remarkably well preserved. It was obviously very wealthy. The large homes in the center of the city have been turned into shops and small boutique hotels. In every one we saw, the house goes around an outdoor central courtyard that was uniquely decorated with fountains, gardens, etc. The city sits at about 3500 feet above sea level, so very temperate climate - that coupled with water source is probably the reason the site for the city was chosen in the first place. All said and done, we will definitely be going back to Guatemala. I would highly recommend a visit to Antigua - what a gorgeous place.
We have covered a huge swath of the Pacific Ocean from the Panama Canal to Los Angeles. For the most part the ship has held pretty close to the coastline all the way up. However, we can only see land every once in a while. Magellan named it “Mar Pacifico”, which roughly translates as “peaceful” or “calm”. For the most part it has been much calmer than the Carribean and southern Atlantic. However, the first day out of Guatemala heading north, we crossed an area around El Salvador where the isthmus is the most narrow. The winds were up to 50 knots and we experienced 20 foot seas - all for about 10 hours. As soon as we got past that narrow area of the isthmus, the wind died down to nothing and we were in 2 foot seas - almost immediately! Since then, nothing but lake like seas!
Costa Rica - Pacific Side
Costa Rica is a beautiful place, but still has quite a dichotomy of wealthy people, ex pats and beautiful homes and abject poverty all within one photo frame. The country is basically divided in half from north to south by threee mountain ranges. The Pacific side is much drier and produces less agriculture than the Caribbean side. Both are quite tropical, but the Caribbean side grows more bananas, pineapple,etc. The Caribbean side seems much poorer. All the resorts and ex pats are on the Pacific side. We spent an entire day up in a rain forest, hiking and crossing 5 canopy rope bridges - that was pretty fun. The temperature from the coast at sea level to the rain forest at 3000 feet was a drop of about 25 degrees!
Nicaragua
We spent some time in the port city of Corinto and then headed to the largest city in the area, which is Leon. We never made it to the capital in Managua. But if Corinto and Leon are any indication, you would not learn much or see much in Managua. The poverty in Nicaragua matched that seen in Cuba. So many years of corrupt government and civil war have left the country in really bad shape. I don’t have much more to say about it except it is a place of huge potential, beautiful land, natural resources, friendly people but has a long way to go to realize that potential.
Guatemala
Guatemala was a very pleasant surprise. What a beautiful place, still steeped in many aspects of Mayan culture. It appears to me that it is more prosperous than Costa Rica. It was cleaner and had a lot more nice cars on the road, nice shopping centers, etc. We headed up into the mountains to the old Spanish colonial city of Antigua. Considering all the active volcanoes in Guatemala and all the earthquakes, the city is remarkably well preserved. It was obviously very wealthy. The large homes in the center of the city have been turned into shops and small boutique hotels. In every one we saw, the house goes around an outdoor central courtyard that was uniquely decorated with fountains, gardens, etc. The city sits at about 3500 feet above sea level, so very temperate climate - that coupled with water source is probably the reason the site for the city was chosen in the first place. All said and done, we will definitely be going back to Guatemala. I would highly recommend a visit to Antigua - what a gorgeous place.
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