Posted By Les Conklin on Dec 15, 2016

December 1, 2016

By Les Conklin

I’m sure you’ve considered tours to distant places and found that tour companies offer pre-and post-trip options.  Extending  a trip is tempting. It enables you to leverage your travel investment. You can see more at a lower cost than if you travel to the add-on destination (s) separately. The downside is that it adds to the overall cost of the trip and also means you will be away from home for a longer period time; Fido might not like that.

Because of the additional time away from home and the cost, my wife, Judy, and I have passed on numerous pre-trip and post-trip opportunities. We have taken advantage of some, for example adding visits to Alexandria and Jordan on a tour of Egypt.

Panama Canal. The scale of the canal is astounding. Our ship, the Island Princess, was built to the maximum size a cruise ship could be. It’s 964′ long, 204′ wide, and weighs 92,000 tons. This picture was taken from Deck 10. The recently completed canal expansion program will allow much larger ships. It is estimated the annual cargo capacity of the canal will double.

Now, as I begin writing this, we are on another trip, a 19-day cruise from Los Angeles to the Panama Canal, and back. In addition to Panama, the ship is visiting ports in Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and three ports in Mexico.  We’ve signed up for a land tour in every port. In addition, I thought I’d try a different type of pre-trip extension. I wanted to test an idea I’ve been holding in the cranial “vault” for months.

Pre-trip Idea: Six Countries for $20

My pre-trip took me 15 minutes from our home in north Scottsdale to the Musical Instrument Museum, MIM, in northeast Phoenix.  The MIM is about music, geography, cultures, history, and anthropology. Every country of the world that is recognized by the United Nations is represented by an exhibit.

Once I got a to the museum, my pre-trip truly started. I began visiting the exhibits for the countries where we would stop while on the cruise. At the exhibits for Mexico, Panama, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Guatemala, I watched short videos of festivals, parades, and local performances. I also looked at the instruments and read the brief cultural background descriptions.

My pre-trip lasted a 90-minutes and cost $20 for admission.  It’s taken me longer to write this article than it took to take the pre-trip.  Of course, for the admission fee, I could have spent eight-hours at the MIM.

Please understand, my wife and I enjoy music, and have some musical background, but are not musicians. Typically, when we travel we enjoy learning about new cultures, seeing wildlife, enjoying outdoor activities and taking in the local sites, museums, etc. Also, like many travelers, we read about our destinations before we go. In this case, I read The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 by David McCullough. Great book!

Post-trip Analysis

Were back home now. We had a terrific time, enjoying friends, food and very good onboard entertainment. We signed-up for tours at every port and enjoyed them all, some more than others. We saw wildlife, typical colonial Spanish squares, churches, fishing villages, jungle homesteads, and palaces. We took in Mayan ruins, a planetarium, presentations and lectures, and of course the Panama Canal, a truly amazing site and story. I managed to produce an edition of The Peak while at sea (an online adventure in its own right).

My  pre-trip experiment was an unqualified success, enriching our visit to every country. The major benefit was that I noticed things, like the marimbas that I photographed. The pre-trip made them more important. I also had a strengthened awareness of the cultural background of the residents of the countries we visited, which increased my personal comfort level.  Just seeing the people of different ethnic groups in the MIM videos contributed to my comfort level when I encountered folks of that ethnicity.

Now that I have actually seen the Panama Canal, I am going to read David McCullough’s book again. I was surprised to learn that the recently completed canal expansion program resulted in the movement of more earth, etc. than the creation of the original canal, which of course involved two countries,  two decades of work, and resulted in the deaths of more than 10,000 workers.

Bottom line. If your future includes international travel, then you might take note (pun intended) of my pre-trip idea. Actually, it will also work for domestic trips, especially to areas such Nashville, New Orleans, and Native American lands.

Snapshots: Cruise to the Panama Canal, Marimbas Abound

MIM Phoenix., Guatamala Exhibit. I watched a video of a man playing a marimba. The exhibit included the instrument and the description that stated that Mayan and Ladino musicians have been playing marimbas for so long that many have forgotten that African slaves first introduced them to Central America more than four centuries ago.

 

Huatulco, Mexico. This photo shows our cruise ship. the Island Princess, in the harbor.

Huatulco, Mexico. As we toured Huatulco, our guide pointed out two Guatemalan immigrants playing music for tips to “help them along their way.” I noticed they were playing a marimba.

Puerto Chiapas, Mexico. While in port we took a land tour to a Mayan ruin and later watched local Mayans performing an ancient ceremony. This “shaman” is holding a tube rattle, commonly used by Amerindian groups. At the MIM, I had watched a video that showed a similar ceremony.

Puerto Chiapas, Mexico. This Mayan girl is wearing strung rattles made of shells on her ankles. Rattles were among the first instruments used by humans and they are used by Native Americans in North America and Amerindians in Central and South America.

Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala. We journeyed by bus to Antiqua, Guatemala, a United Nations World Heritage site.

Antiqua, Guatemala. The tropical landscape in Central America is spectacular with many volcanoes, some active.

Antiqua, Guatemala. At the Jade Museum in Antique there was another marimba; this one with jade striking bars.

Panama Canal, Panama. This picture shows the Island Princess entering the Pedro Miguel Lock with Gatun Lake in the distance. Our ship anchored in Gatun Lake overnight and then returned to the Pacific via the Pedro Miguel and Mira Flores Locks the next day.

Granada, Nicaragua. While our ship was in port in San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua, we travelled by bus for 1 ½ hours to reach Lake Managua and then the beautiful city of Granada. In the central square, an ensemble was performing. Of course, in addition to traditional guitars and dancers, the ensemble included a marimba.

Granada, Nicaragua. The interior walls of one building’s courtyard showcase murals portraying the country’s history. This mural depicts men during the colonial period playing drums which reflect a strong Spanish influence. Similar drums are on display at the MIM.

Puntarenas, Costa Rica. After leaving Nicaragua, the Island Princess visited Puntarenas. We embarked on a land tour that included a one hour ride on the old rail line and a wildlife boating trip, and a brief stop at a shopping area. Sure enough, there were two musicians playing a different type of marimba.

What is a marimba anyway?

 

I found the following description in Wikipedia.

“Xylophones are widely used in music of west and central Africa. The name marimba stems from Bantu marimba or malimba, ‘xylophone’. …

“Diatonic xylophones were introduced to Central America in the 16th or 17th century. The first historical record of Mayan musicians using gourd resonator marimbas in Guatemala was made in 1680, by the historian Domingo Juarros. It became more widespread during the 18th and 19th centuries, as Mayan and Ladino ensembles started using it on festivals. In 1821, the marimba was proclaimed the national instrument of Guatemala in its independence proclamation.

“The gourd resonators were later replaced by harmonic wooden boxes, and the keyboard was expanded to about five diatonic octaves. Variants with slats made of steel, glass or bamboo instead of wood appeared during the 19th century.”

In my photos, you will see that I saw marimbas with gourd resonator, wooden box resonators, and tube resonators. We also have a photo of one with slats made of jade.