Living in an Inside Cabin

Zip Lining in Costa Rica

The shore excursion office has been kind to us on the Zuiderdam.  We help them out a few days during the cruise and they allow us to escort the shore excursions.  I tend to be the tourist between the two of us so I have taken more than Michael.

Michael did do the zip lining canopy tour in Costa Rica and we had a blast.  The bad part is that is takes more time to get geared up and up to the site than it does to complete the lines.  There are only 8 lines and they go by fast.  On most of them there is no braking so the word “zip” really does apply.  One of the longest lines is 100 meters up in the air and is quite a thrill traversing the valley.

This time in Panama I went kayaking (photo in Crew Life post) with one of the crew from HRO, Ilona.  Now I can say I kayaked in Gatun Lake in the Canal Zone.  Seeing the lake from a kayak is much different than seeing it from the ship.  The water is clear blue and warm.  The artificial lake is quiet and peaceful covering a rainforest that was flooded when it was made.   There are odd tree trunks breaking the surface of the water that present a rather primitive and ethereal sight.  The lake is surrounded by what appear to be islands but are actually the tops of mountains covered in secondary rainforests.  We spotted several sloths, one of which was actually moving around and smiling at us.  Of course the sloths always look like they are smiling. We found a band of white- faced capuchin monkeys who were very active, jumping from tree to tree.