‘Yes, we have lots and lots of bananas!’

Wheel of old-time oxcart used to transport molded sugar to market

A number of you have been to Costa Rica, but this is my first time. Limón was not the ideal place to start since, with two ports and a third one in the works, its main industry is transportation. From my balcony when we docked this morning, I saw two container ships. Once on the bus, we saw many, many more off-loaded containers, many labeled Dole, Del Monte and Chiquita. Limón’s population is 85% Spanish descendants plus descendants of native tribes, Chinese who came here to work on the railroads, and Africans. The Chinese stopped coming when malaria killed off so many of them, but the Africans were more resistant to the disease and came here from Jamaica, Trinidad, Belize, Tobago. Today’s excursion was to a 4500-acre hacienda located 2800 feet above sea level. Very curvy ride up. Since the property belonged to the Ortuño family, whose patriarch founded the Bank of Costa Rica, I thought I would be going to see a lovely home high in the hills to see how well-to-do farm-owners lived. My mistake. A ‘hacienda’ is a farm. I spent the day watching demonstrations of macadamia nut harvesting, sugar cane processing, and coffee bean roasting. It was actually interesting, and I consumed far too many samples of sugar cane in various permutations. My cruise bible states ‘Coffee is responsible for helping Costa Rica to maintain social peace and harmony, as well as helping the country to avoid civil war and become the first democracy in Latin America.’ Oddly enough, I did not like the coffee served with dessert — which was plantains swimming in sugar cane syrup.

A walk around the hacienda...