Costa Rica is a Central American country of 4.8 million Spanish-speaking citizens. The capital is San Jose, and the area is quite diverse with lakes, waterfalls, volcanoes, jungles, and many beaches. It is a tropical paradise where growing bananas (among other fruit) has put them on the map. Their slogan is "Pura Vida", which translated means pure or good life, and also reflects the standard of living which is high for this part of the world. Wildlife includes caimans, turtles, night herons, monkeys, and sloths, some of which we did see today.
Our port of call was Puerto Limon, located on the Caribbean side of the country. Hot and steamy, it is a working town, so most passengers leave the area and take tours. We arrived by 8am, and found that the Volendam had beat us here. They are on their way to circle South America on a grand voyage, and we do know many folks on that cruise. While we were eating breakfast, the Marella Discovery 2 pulled into the third slot. It looked familiar to us, and upon looking it up in the cruiseship book, we realized it was the former Legend of the Seas (RCI). It appears to belong to Tui Cruise Line now. Smaller than us, we sailed on that ship in 2000 from Auckland to Sydney crossing the Tasman Sea during some pretty rough and windy conditions. Wow, 23 years ago now. Anyway, she houses up to 1800 passengers, mostly family, friendly British folks.
Having taken most of the tours here already, we were in no hurry to go to shore. We like to watch the exodus from the promenade deck with the "sticky" people (tour groups with numbered stickers on their shirts) and others off for a stroll through town. We had gotten the currency conversion card, which showed 575 Costa Rican colons which equaled $1 USD. Good luck with that math. Our little cards help with the scale going up to the equivalent of $1000 USD. All of the vendors gladly accepted the USD for payment, and from the few things we priced, their quotes were correct. There is a very nice souvenir shop that we have to go through to get to the gate. We decided to check out their wares on the way back.
On our way to the gate, there were several locals hawking tours, most very reasonably priced. The vehicles used were the mini vans and you had to wait until the vans were filled before they left the parking lot. They had many takers between the three ships. Some of the ship's excursions included rides to the mountains and canals, or a town tour. We had not remembered to check these out on the TV earlier. So we missed the exact tours and prices because they had been removed from the site.
There is a small park near the port where some sloths hang out in the canopy. Today there were a pair…a mother with a baby. Locals like to pretend they own them, and will point them out for a tip. Most of us know this, and do it on our own. Unless the sloths move, they are hard to see. We did cross paths with Greg and Heo briefly as they looked for the lazy creatures too. Circling the park, we came out at the seawall, where locals will have picnics later on, especially today since it was Saturday. They add some music, and you have a big party. Pura vida!
Walking the seawall, we noticed there were no beaches here. Access to those might be private resorts out of town. What we saw were locals out and about, some of which were homeless people sleeping along the wall. Guess we wandered into the seedy part of town. Heading up one of the avenues, we made our way to the largest church here…..the Cathedral. It is old, but filled with beautiful stained glass windows and a vaulted wooden ceiling. Having one local coin in my pocket, I used it to light a "candle", which was battery-operated. It is an old Catholic tradition, which we still follow today (secretly wishing for a safe and uninterrupted trip).
Since we were not given a port map or guide on the ship, we had to depend on the town's directions and map. These days, it appears we are on our own due to the fact many people have cell phones with access to all that information. It has saved HAL a lot of paper for sure. As for us, we miss that info and a convenient local paper map helping us find our way.
One of the places we wanted to see was the produce and local market. It was rather crowded, so we did not linger too long. Most of the stalls were under cover and quite dark for taking good photos. And besides, the humidity was high today, and it was uncomfortably hot too. So we headed back to the ship, stopping in the souvenir shop. We did purchase an unusual wooden carved bowl to hold our pillow chocolates. We had completed a two hour hike. And it is worth mentioning here that one of us has developed a very sore shoulder and upper left arm. This could have occurred while stashing the luggage under the bed a few days ago. In the meantime, we hope the pain eases up and goes away.
Back to our cool room, we downed sodas right away, then spent the afternoon relaxing on the veranda, after down-loading all of the photos. A room service lunch was perfect. One of us tried the chicken noodle soup, which still has the spaghetti for noodles, but the soup was delicious. We shared a beef panini and cheese quesadilla.
We left around 5pm, with lots of horn-blowing from both HAL Captains. The Marella Discovery 2 remained behind. The Volendam followed us as we are both heading for the Panama Canal tomorrow, we assume. We had a very nice sunny day today, but tomorrow the Captain said we might hit some rain….something very common for the canal zone. We always welcome it, since it cools the air off somewhat.
Dinnertime had all of us show up to share stories of the day. Barb, Susie and Woody had stayed onboard, while Greg and Heo had taken a mini van tour after our walk in the park. They had a nice time, they said. The dinner entrees have remained varied and interesting. Because we are traveling in the Caribbean Sea, the dinner have been heavy on the spicy side, like jerk chicken or fish. Not too spicy, but hot to the lips. No complaints here. One of us had the mahi-mahi and it was really good. The everyday alternate strip sirloin steak was the best ever…tender and tasty with steak fries on the side. The quality of the food so far has been a step above what we had on the Tales of the South Pacific.
Of course at that time, we spent many nights dining in the Pinnacle Grill. We have yet to book a date there, but will do so soon.
The guys were on their way to the Rolling Stones Lounge to listen to Steven Scott, the comedian onboard. Greg admitted he was slightly disappointed with the Mainstage singers and dancers the previous evening. The dancing was great, but the singing? Just so-so. One good thing is that the shows are 9 or 9:30pm now, and are better attended than later performances.
The clocks were ahead tonight, taking back the hour they gave us a few nights ago. At dinner, Woody jokingly told our waiters he thought that was rude to give us something then take it back.
Tomorrow, we will be transiting the Panama Canal , a trip we have done well over 20 times. We still marvel over the history behind it and look forward to watching the transit from our veranda. One good thing is that the outdoor speakers in our area of the ship seem to be working better than they were.
Bill & Mary Ann
