Day 20 - Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Day 20 – Wednesday 29^th January 2014 – Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Alongside

When we awake at 07.00 we are alongside our berth in Puntarenas, Costa Rica on its Pacific side.

We have breakfast in the Lido before assembling in the theatre at 08.15, as we are going on an organised tour.  As advised, covered with sun block, mosquito repellent and wearing a hat and boarded the bus waiting at the bottom of the gangway.  We were introduced to our guide, Jose, along with his driver.  When the bus was fully load, off we went and into the town just like the other town on the Atlantic side, Limon.  It was just as dirty and not very well looked after.

Jose on the train

Our first stop to board a train, this narrow gauge railway on which sat a two carriage train with an engine and a goods vehicle at the rear.  Jose warned us not stick hands, arms or heads out the windows, nor fiddle with windows which were liable to take your fingers off.  After the safety brief, we were on our way, rocking and rolling along in this noisy environment looking out to the mountains to the east as were passed by melon fields in the flat areas near to the rivers.  We went through a very black, narrow tunnel and no one dared to put any of their extremities out of the windows.  Emerging into the bright light passing through forest, shacks built near to the  railway, as we travelled further the fields became more organised into farms and the buildings more substantial and looking like homes. We all managed to survive the train journey but were not saddened to leave after the half our journey. 

Mangrove

Back onto the familiar waiting bus and on our way again to the mangrove forest.  Jose did promise us all a free massage and the penny dropped, when we left the maintained tarmac road and started rolling and shaking along the dirt tracks.

The suspension may have been good on this new bus, but we were shook to pieces as we drove up a hill and down the other side before reaching a beach and eventually pulled into our stop.

 

his welcoming building next to the river offered us cooling drinks and delicious fruit and pineapple.  After a half an hour welcome break and taking some shade before boarding the boat for our river cruise.  We had to be very careful where you stood as the breeze had picked up,

River Boat

and you could hear the coconuts dropping around you, the only sound being as they thudded into the mud of the mangrove forest.

The river boat was more to my liking as you passed along, anything of interest, the boat would stop, and Jose would explain what we were looking at.  First up was the crocodile lying on the bank having a kip, while far away racoons and monkeys sprawled out on the trees having their siesta.  The smell of the mangrove and river was heavy in the air as we passed through this dense forest.  A beautifully coloured butterfly came almost into the boat, as it followed us about.  While Jose got really excited, when we came across a couple of macaws having it off in the trees, the noise and the colour were amazing.

Speeding

It was time to head back, and the driver really gunned the boat, full throttle, roaring engines with a big wash behind smacking over the banks and disturbing everything. This is not what I call being eco-friendly.   As we began slowing down, we hit something in the water and drove over it, I was mighty glad we were not going at full speed.

Back on the bus for our massage on the way to the ship and I was pleased to arrive back into the port after our six hour tour.  We were dropped off at the ship but headed straight back into town and were confronted on the beach by a line of ice cream parlours , not quite what we were looking for.  Turned right and a little further on found this honky-tonk bar, music blasting, locals on the drink supping beer out of ice cold bottles.  My, did we enjoy them, but we had to move on and try and find an internet connection.  This little place helped, but the signal was intermittent, so we returned to the ship for tea and sandwiches in the Lido.

From the Lido’s windows we watched the ship leave Puntarenas with the sun going down across the bay.

Our evening cocktail was coconut Mojito, a Malibu concoction.

Dinner was tuna salad, but not like you have at home.  The tuna was raw and not for me, but the beef and caramelised pear were excellent.

 

After dinner, it was a stroll round the deck and off to bed, it had been a long, unusual day, much was enjoyable but I am not sad leaving Costa Rica.