Since the last entry, we have managed three ports of call.
Costa Rica came first, at Puerto Limon. This is a combined port, in that it has a small container quay, capable of taking one good sized or two smaller container ships, and a jetty which can handle two cruise boats. About five miles further up the coast is Puerto Moins, which is a container port with four berths.
Costa Rica's principal exports are still coffee and bananas, closely followed by pineapples. They also make quite a lot of high tec' goods. Costa Rica is not a very large country, sited at the southern end of Central America, north of Panama. It has two coast lines, on the west the Pacific, on the east the Caribbean.
We saw quite a bit of the Caribbean coast as our trip started by going south to a banana plantation and processing plant. We then changed to a train, and went north along the sea front. Most of this coast is empty, as there are no roads. Our coaches were restored originals, with bench seats and no windows. The trees between us and the beaches were mostly coconut palms, but the fruit is left to rot. There is no way to harvest the nuts, and get them to market. The balance of the coast is rain forest. What properties we did see were squatter shacks. After about an hour on the train came a transfer via the coaches to the natural waterways and canals to see what we could find in the way of wildlife. Mostly birds and iguanas, plus the occasional howler monkey ( and they are very noisy!). Towards the end of our trip, a terrible row broke out somewhere on shore. Our guides searched hard for the source, which turned out to be two packs of howler monkeys having a verbal go at each other from either side of the river. We were in the middle, and it was deafening. All too soon it came to an end, and, after an exhilarating high speed run down the river, it was onto the coaches and back to the ship. We had, in fact, done more than we should have, as we were over an hour late back. We had a great time.