Costa Rica coming up

Another day ashore coming up …

Friday, Day 6.  Today is a sailing day as we wander down the coast toward Costa Rica.  It was another gym day as well.  And a laundry day.  We did find time to squeeze in some fun in the morning, first with me doing a little Zumba with the class, and then with bingo, which we did not win.  It’s kind of a lazy one with trying to work on blogs and prepare for our day ashore tomorrow.  It’s easy to fill up the time … the casino, of course (loser although I played on their money, too, for a while), a show with a singer/comedian/impressionist and balloon animal making.  What?  Fun, but I could have probably skipped that one as my dog looked pretty sad and my bunny?  Well, let’s just say no kid would want it and it will remain on board when I leave.

That's a pretty pathetic dog.

Disaster struck.  It had been a day with high winds, at times reaching 32 knots, and we had created a vacuum with the balcony door open and the door opening between the hallway and the room.  The bunny made a getaway.  It disappeared … Jaz had seen something fly by the window and the bunny came up missing so we assume it has become lost at sea or shark bait.  Oh well, except it was the better of my two balloon animals. 

Saturday, Day 7 … Costa Rica.  We made shore about 7 a.m. and had to be at our excursion meeting point by 7:40.  An early wake up was difficult.  No gym time today.

Neither of us had slept well but we were up and at ‘em and ready to go at the designated time.  We were greeted with another photo op with local ladies in fancy, colorful dress, peasant-style blouses and ruffled skirts in bright, rainbow colors.  Then we were off.

We were told Costa Rica is famous for its colorful oxcarts.  We only saw one on the lunch table.

Christopher Columbus named Costa Rica, which means rich coast.  There are 1,200 varieties of orchids, one of which is the national flower.  Costa Rica is also known for its colorful oxcarts (although we did not see any).   

The Norwegian Cruise Line ship is quite colorful.

Both ships together looked as though they were at the starting line of a race.

Our tour leader, Masiel, was a lovely young lady with a fountain of information.  There are five main exports.  They make Intel computer chips, microchips and other computer ware (1), tourism (2), pineapple (3), bananas (4) and coffee (5).  Coffee was once the Number 1 export due to the perfect growing climate, but now has dropped to Number 5.

There has been no army since 1944 and all of that money now goes toward funding education.  Children are required to go to school and the public education continues through college.  Wow.  You can kind of tell (at least where we were driven) that the education level is higher.  They teach conservation and recycling beginning at a young age and you don’t see the trash in the small towns or along the road that we saw in Guatemala.  Single mothers are paid by the government to collect trash.  (Wish we used our welfare system at home to have folks to do that for checks.  It would certainly clean up our state.) The average wage is $600 per month or more (compared to the $300-$350 per month in Guatemala), the crime rate is about 7 percent and taxes are 9 percent and are used to fund their social security system and healthcare.  After a day of staying here, if something were to happen, they would care for us at a medical facility.  But there was no need to find out.

The tram ride was fun although we didn't see many birds.

The excursion we had chosen had three parts to it, the first of which was an aerial tram through the rain forest.  The tram was built using a helicopter to transport the building materials, including towers and cables, so they did not damage the rain forest.  The rain forest, even in the dry season, is mostly lush, green and quite beautiful.  We flew above small creeks and near a waterfall.  You could hear the water flowing over the rocks and down to the pool below.  You could also hear the birds and occasionally spot one although they were quite elusive.  A small brightly-colored little bird and a toucan were spotted.  We saw the toucan’s big beak as he flew off through the foliage.  It was pleasant, especially since the tram was covered and it had become quite hot; with the humidity, by the time we dropped back down for lunch, I was getting quite warm.

The story goes that the owner cut down many trees to build this home and now there's a lot erosion eating away at the hill.

Beautiful plants were everywhere.  Green, green, green.

This was either a wasp's nest or a termite next.  I'm not sure.  To me it looks like an animal skull.

The next leg of our tour was to walk a nature trail with our next guide telling us of the plants, many of which had blossoms or the start of them and many of which are medicinal.  There was also an exhibit of snakes … yuk!!!

Not a lot of flowers were blooming, but these were beautiful.

A snake skeleton is really the only snake I enjoy seeing.

Spider webs like these catch hummingbirds.  Too bad.

We were taken back to a large covered patio type of area where we had lunch, local-style cuisine.  It was fajita-style meats, rice and beans, steamed vegetables and lots of fruit.  We’ve eaten a lot of fruit on this entire trip, mostly pineapple, because it’s been so wonderful, juicy and sweet, unlike anything we ever get at home.

After lunch we wandered through the gift shop.  I had another sample of coffee, and bought more.  I will have a wealth of coffee when I return home.  It’s the main souvenir I’ve been collecting.  When I paid for it I also received a few local coins in return.  I wish I’d thought to get some of them in Guatemala.  We also learned that $500 colones equal $1 American.  A useful fact.  I spent thousands of colones on coffee.  It will be worth every penny, too, when I enjoy this coffee at home.  (I’ll share with you, Hobbs.)

The last leg of the excursion was a river boat ride on the Tarcoles River.  We learned that the Amazon River ends in Costa Rica and that there are 109 species of bats living here, roughly 12 percent of the world’s population.  This was the best part of our day as we saw Cayman crocodiles and more than 30 species of birds out of the 58 that live here.  A photographer’s dream was right before our very eyes.  Too bad I’m not a photographer as many are blurred from the boat movement and the rocking action on the river.  But I did get a few and the eye is close to being in focus. 

My crocodile shots weren't the best, but you can sure get the idea you don't want to mess with them.

Another crocodile.

A snowy egret.

It was exciting to also see a Peregrine falcon in the wild since we have one at Bird TLC.  They are even more beautiful to see where they are flying free.  The other bird that was really exciting to see was a crested caracara.  Jaz and I had seen one in a rare sighting in California a year or so ago that a birder had spotted and pointed out to us.  This was way better as we were closer and could see more how they look. 

Another egret.

A little blue heron.  They're this beautiful dusky blue and are spectacular.

A yellow headed caracara.

A tropical kingbird.

We saw herons, egrets, a wood stork and so much more.  Everywhere we looked there were birds, including one rarely seen … a yellow warbler with its distinctive red marking.  It was a birder’s paradise, and Jaz and I aren’t even birders although we certainly like to chase after and photograph them.

Probably my best photo ... little blue heron.

A snowy egret.

A wood stork.

Another caracara.

Then it was time to get off our riverboat and get back to the fruit buffet they had set up for us, complete with marimba players.  Marimba music is quite cheerful and it makes you want to dance. 

Our marimba players.

We reboarded our bus and headed back to the ship.  We had been told there might be a delay as there was a festival going on along the beach where we would be joining our ship again.  But I didn’t notice any delay.

We noticed a little graffiti, but not so much.

Had to throw in a license plate.

 

The two ships ... a pretty cool shot, I think.

Before we get on board, there's always a cool face cloth to wipe our wearied and sweaty brows.

As we watched the sun going down and the last of our fellow ship mates board, we spotted what appeared to be a charter fishing boat coming alongside the Island Princess.  Would you believe some guy mooned us?  What?  The boat came around and passed by in the other direction.  This time we were treated to three guys and their little white butts hanging over the side.  It was quite disconcerting … one moon, three moons?  The brilliant white shine was almost enough to blind you.  And I thought my legs were bad enough.  Haha.

It was a great day.  Some of the road we had traveled was part of the Pan American Highway, a road that my now-deceased friend David Brown had wanted to travel.  It was his dream, and while it didn’t happen for him, I was hoping maybe he was looking down, watching as I was able to travel on it, and thinking of him for a few moments.  RIP, David, my friend.

A sailing ship in the distance as we said our good byes to Costa Rica.

Back on the ship we noticed that there was now more than the ordinary effort being put into cleanliness in the Horizon Court, the main area where we’ve been having our meals.  We were now being served rather than serving ourselves, and the servers were wearing the plastic saran-wrap-looking gloves.  There were also no salt or pepper shakers on the tables and you really had no opportunity to touch anything in the way of food.  Chairs and tables both are being wiped down and there are a lot more servers and oversight .  We wondered to ourselves if someone had gotten ill.

And then, just as we were leaving the dining area, our Captain came on the loud speaker.  He regretted to inform us that there had been an outbreak of the Norovirus, and that is why they were were using more precautions.  We were advised to wash our hands frequently and to call 911 immediately if certain symptoms made an appearance. 

What an adventure we are having.  That announcement has not dampened our enthusiasm for sailing and certainly not for Princess Cruises.  We’ve having fun, we’re experiencing all types of things we’d not be doing at home, visiting a variety of countries I never thought – nor really wanted to visit – and are having an excellent time.  It’s been a pretty constant high-70s-80 degree weather with calm or slight seas … and the warmth and soothing sound of the waves is relaxing beyond words.