Day 8 (Saturday, Jan 10): The Bitter Taste of Freedom

Today is the day I am granted my freedom, as my 24 hour isolation draws to a close. Sadly, Robyn is locked up for another 24 hours, so I must explore Costa Rica on my own. The ship docks in a small resort village hours away from anything interesting (all of the available tours are 7 or 8 hours long). We've already decided not to take any tours here, so there isn't much disappointment that Robyn is unable to go ashore. Some, of course, but not much. I went ashore, purchased postcards and the obligatory fridge magnet, and took a bunch of photos. All the photos

We've got a rule about bad jokes: no more than once per day. Every time I see land, I yell (or say loudly) “Land ho!”, and Robyn replies “Who you calling a 'ho'”? It wasn't funny the first time we did it. It is getting less funny every day. Eventually, one of us is going to break. Either I'll say “Hey Robyn, the shore is visible now”, or she'll reply to my “Land Ho!” with “Oh good, we'll be docking soon.” But until that happens, the painful joke continues. Oh, and we are not allowed to mention icebergs or the Titanic. It's best that way. Beached whale references, particularly when I take off my shirt, are still OK.

Today's room service adventure: we ordered cold cereal, coffee, hot chocolate, and toasted brown bread. The bread was white bread, but lightly toasted so as to be vaguely brown. I appreciate the effort to fake it, but it was not brown bread. We did get the cereal, even Raisin Bran and Corn Flakes as we asked for. Although we didn't specify it, they were smart enough to include milk with it. Then we realized that they were not smart enough to provide bowls for the cereal, nor cups for the coffee and hot chocolate. I called room service to ask for two cups and two bowls. About 5 minutes after calling, I realized that we also didn't have spoons. I decided not to call them again, and see if they could extrapolate. Fortunately, the bowls came with soup spoons, and the cups came with teaspoons.

To prepare myself for the trip through the Panama Canal, I've been reading a book on the history of the building of the canal. It is a fascinating read, as there was a lot of political and entrepreneurial intrigue needed. At the turn of the century, they believed that any engineering feat was possible, as long as they could apply enough money and manpower to the problem. However, getting the money (billions of late 1800 and early 1900 dollars) and getting everyone on the same plan was the real challenge. I'm at the point in the book where they are serious about making it a lock canal (not a sea level one), and one of the engineering team is the same person who built the canal and locks at the Soo. Until the Panama canal, they were the biggest and most complex lock structure in the world, and the guy who built the Soo locks was the world expert in large lock systems. I didn't expect a home-town reference.

In case you're wondering, here is the story of the Panama Canal so far:

• The French guy who built the Suez Canal decides that he can do better, and tackles Panama.
• The engineers say he needs a lock canal, but he decides to build a sea-level one (because he feels those are better). He refuses to allow reality to spoil his dream.
• Vast sums of money are spent on the canal, and many people die of Yellow fever and malaria. Eventually the company runs out of money, and the investors lose everything. Many people lose their life savings. There's a huge scandal and businesspeople go to jail. Politicians manage to dodge serious repercussions.
• The American government (Roosevelt) decides they need a canal. They nearly decide to build it in Nicaragua, but eventually decide to buy the failed French effort and finish it.
• The country of Columbia (which the state of Panama is part of) gets greedy and wants too much money for a treaty allowing the USA to build the canal. The state of Panama, realizing the canal was more important to them than it was to the rest of Columbia, decides to secede from Columbia. The USA, in a blatantly illegal and sadly trend-setting move, encourages and enables the revolution. Roosevelt (foreshadowing future presidents) responds to criticism of the illegality of the move by saying the canal needed to be built, and the end justifies the means (and says it well before the end has been realized).
• It is really, really, hard. Claims of “mission complete” prove to be premature (OK, “mission complete” is from a different American fiasco, not Panama. But it turns into a quagmire, and public opinion goes against the effort.)
• They conclude that a sea-level canal would be impossible, and they are going to build one with locks, and flood half of the Panamanian isthmus.