120 Million!

Today we cruised into Limon, Costa Rica.  It was t really my plan to put together a tour because I know how much work it can be but a friend I met on the Grand Africa, Nancy Martyn, shared with me some of the tours they took on the Grand South America this past winter. She shared that Ricky Ricardo Tours was very good and that she highly recommended it so I contacted him and immediately he got back to me with an itinerary and price.  For $95 we would have a 7 hour tour including lunch.  He was very prompt to reply to all my questions.  We were to travel to the bustling fish market, monkeys living in their natural hábitat, local fruit stand samples, banana plantación, tortugero canal tour, local rest to have costarican authenc meal, Playa Bonita white sand beach, town of Limón stop local grocery store pickup Coffee beans and visit chocolate shop.   Ricky met us promptly outside the Cruise Port. Our buses were wonderful and cool!!  He turned out to be quite a character but all in all everyone showed up on time, was polite and had a great time.  Our driver was Henry and Ricky Ricardo was our guides real name!  He is 60 years old and has a young wife and two small children.  He does tours all over Costa Rica and also owns a restaurant in Punta Arenas where he lives. 

There were 23 on our tour.  My tour was free for for organizing.

As you might imagine Limon is named after the Lemon tree which the explorers found when first arriving and named the port in 1870. Limon is one of Costa Rica’s biggest ports. They grow and export bananas, chocolate, mangos and peaches.  In Limon Walmart has purchased a chain of stores called Pali.  He said the prices aren’t all that good but Walmart now owns them all.  There are about 400,000 people in Limon where Catholicism is the main religion but he told us the Mormons are there now and that we might see the missionaries on their bikes with the traditional white shirt and pants. People love football and soccer. There 5 million people total in Costa Rica where Punta Arenas is the biggest province. The main employment for the area is coffee, agriculture, tourism and now Microsoft has a chip plant here.  More farmers now grow pineapple and they are exporting this too. When they were building their railroad they imported the Africans and Chinese. Originally English was the official language but now it is Spanish. Costa Rica means rich coast and was given that name by Columbus.  They do still have a reservation here for the indigenous people.  It is a 6 hour drive across Costa Rica. 

They call one lane roads and bridges ox carts because that was about the size of what could pass. 

He took us to a local market where we learned about some of their traditional medicines still used. Noni is a medicinal plant they use for lots of physical issues.  They grow cashews too and have the red bananas. He told us most all people have these medicinal plants growing in their own yards along with herbs they use for seasoning. 

And now for the title!! 

120 million packs of bananas per year are exported from the port of Limon!!! The main producers are 

Chiquita, Del Monte, and Dole.  We used to be able to go to the processing area but not any more.  Now we can look at the acres of bananas but go no further.   They also grow yellow and green coconuts!  Didn’t know there was such a thing. 

Yellow and green coconuts. But they taste the same.  

Strings on bottom of banana bags tells the workers  where they are to be shipped.  Ones they don’t use they cut up for fertilizer for other plants.  Bananas use a lot of water and we see the canals holding water. 

Cantaloupe they plant in the dry season as they don’t tolerate the moisture and will rot. 

Rainy season is on now, May to November.  

Costa Rica now has what they call the Dry Canal in which they are transporting across Costa Rica by road and railroad to the other side rather than using the Panama Canal which is much cheaper but also a good source of revenue for them.  They are making their roads four lanes to accommodate this. 

All gas stations sell gas at the same price as set by the government so it doesn’t pay to shop around. 

Power for them is wind, hydro, and diesel along with some solar. 

Our bus…

And here is Ricky!!! Not what I expected but jovial and fun. 

Not a great photo but this building is the airport!!!!  Below is part of the run way which is very long 

Runway 

This is the spice paprika!!!

First stop where we sampled three types of bananas and coffee. 

This is his bible 

Coffee to purchase 

Pile of green coconuts 

Red bananas 

If you look closely or blow this up there are strings at the end of the blue bags. The string colors indicate where they will be shipped. The blue bags protect them from insects 

The workers have homes right on the plantation built by the companies.  This plantation was Del Monte 

The bags get hooked onto this contraption and then pulled to a train which takes them to the plant 

Now on to our canal tour on nice boats 



Ricky brought a cooler full of cold water and beer and I had the local !!

We sat in the back where we could go back and forth to see things. 


Lots of egrets 

And in trees!

This is the Jesus Lizard and we saw a few. 




Then!!!! Dogs!!!! Ricky said they are hunting lizards for food!!

My group. We are in the back!

And one more photo!!

Our lunch served to us of fish, chicken, rice and beans with some salad too. 

A nice area to eat. Very clean by a beautiful beach. 




The restaurant. 

After lunch we made our way back to town. Most folks were ready for the ship. The cacao shop was right by the port but it was hot and humid so most of us skipped it.  It was back to the shower to shower and get ready for dinner with our friends and maybe some cards!!

Oh and not to forget our watermelon drink for lunch!!