Sun, 01/12/25 Costa Rica

Day 8 - Sunday, January 12, 2025 – Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Upfront, Jim messed up. (I'm allowed one mistake a decade. There goes the 2020’s mistake 😊 ) We got up early, really really because I thought the tour started at 8:00. So we were up and ready for breakfast, which was delivered at 7:30. We wolved breakfast and we're out the door. We were down on the dock by 8:00. We went all the way to the end of the pier where all of the tours’ people were. We called our guy and found out that we really didn't need to be down there until 10:00. Apparently when I set it up, I said 10:00. So, yes, I made a mistake. We'll see how long my punishment is.

When we were getting off the ship and walking towards the pier, I managed to tear my hand open. It wasn't bad but it was bad enough that I needed a Band-Aid. As it happens, there was an ambulance at the end of the pier It was one of those situations where we don't speak Spanish and they didn't speak English, but we managed to get a Band-Aid, actually several band aids.

From there we walked to the souvenir area across the street. Even they were not necessarily open yet, Mary was on her hunt for T-shirts. We looked at several, but she didn't like any of them. I ended up buying one. Mary did buy refrigerator magnets. I believe she bought her postcards there too. Now it was about 8:30 and we had another 90 minutes or so to wait so we found a little cafe at the corner. It wasn't a dive, but it was close. We found a little table near the front. Mary picked out the Diet Coke in a glass bottle and I bought a bottle of water. We were sitting there working on the puzzles when my phone rang. There was a lady who said that they were outside looking for us. They arrived an hour early. We finished the soda, and we packed up. A young lady approached our table. She said her name was Augustina the van was outside. We followed her to the van. There we met Juvenal (Try to say that. I still couldn't after prompting. That's my bad, not his.) Nonetheless, he was very friendly. He had a large van with an actual lift. He loaded me on the lift, and I rolled onto the spacious van. Laying on the floor we're actual straps to tie the chair down. This is what I expected. He tied me down and we were on our way.

Augustina was along for the ride as a photographer. Sage Travel is trying to improve its social media presence so we agreed that she would take pictures and use them in their social media campaign.

The first leg of our trip was about a 90 minute drive South East down the coast to Jungle Crocodile Safari. I wanted to give you an idea of where it was so I looked for the address. The only thing I could find for an address was there 2 kilometers north of the Tarcoles Police Station. I hope that helps, if you're interested in going. Actual addresses must not be a big thing in Costa Rica.

No surprise, there was a shopping area that we could wander through before getting on the boat. We were there for about 30 minutes, I brought my 2 little turtles. I think that's all we got there before the boat was ready. The path to the boat was pretty straightforward. When we got to the actual entrance to the boat there was a ramp that had to be I'm guessing 10°. Put differently, it was steep. It was about 20 feet long and it took two guys to get me down, but it was successful. The boat itself was accessible, which was great too. We loaded up with two or three other families. For the next 90 minutes or so we went up and down the Tarcoles River. I've never been a bird watcher, but I might take it up. The guide gave us a guide sheet on birds we might see. I didn't count exactly, but I bet we saw 20 different birds. We saw blue herons, Gray herons, kingfishers, and several others. If I think of it, I will update this log later with more actual names. It goes without saying that this was really cool. Along the way, we ran into 5 or 6 crocodiles that were laying on the shore at the water line. Mary took several nice pictures. We took the river all the way to the Pacific Ocean. The guide did a great job in pointing different things out. The weather was warm, but we were covered and the wind from the movement of the boat helped keep it cool. Earlier, our driver said that Costa Rica is all about nature. This cruise proved that point. The boat ended back at the pier. Two guys lifted me up the incredibly steep ramp. Made her way back to the van. We loaded up and drove back down the road we came up on. This was a great experience.

It was a short ride until we ran into the Carara National Park. It was a very large park, but we were interested in the one mile universal loop. Universal meant that it was available for anybody. It was a paved path that went in a one mile loop through the rainforest. The path was paved. Our driver pushed me through the whole thing. Right away we saw an animal. I will have to remember its name. We went a little further then we saw a toucan. We actually saw toucan in the wild, not in a zoo or on TV. How cool was that? There were two other animals that we saw but they were too quick to get pictures of. Augustina pointed out a small brown loop at the edge of the walkway. We had already walked past it, but it turned out to be a very venomous snake. If it was to bite you, you would be dead in two hours. After we finish the loop, our driver said that you were lucky to see so many animals. It's gonna sound crazy, but I was interested in the trees. Some of these trees look like they've been there for 1000 years, but because everything grows so quickly in a rainforest, they were probably only 100 years old. He showed us trees where the bark wiped off when a parasite landed on it. We saw trees that were huge that had the majority of their root system outside the tree. He called them mother trees, but they had a different name. They were called mother trees because they supplied nutrients to all trees in the area. I don't know how this worked, but it sounded cool. We stopped and talked about two or three other kinds of trees. I learned more about trees in 30 minutes than I had known in the previous 59 years. It's the little things that make me happy, I guess.

We worked our way back to the van. You took pictures of a couple of iguanas. We loaded back into the van. We then headed back to where we came. Along the way we stopped at the shopping center. I don't know that it had a name, but it was fairly sizable. We found three cans of Monster, so we bought them. Mary bought some potato chips because we were getting hungry. We also bought a bottle opener. Mary bought a bottle of Diet Coke at the very place we were right before we got on the van. We did not have a bottle opener. Now we had a bottle opener. Mary also found the T-shirts she wanted. Lastly, before we got on the van Mary filled out the postcards she had. She gave them to Augustina who then found a mailbox of some sort. It took about 45 minutes to get back to the ship.

I would not say we saw a lot of Costa Rica. I would say what we saw was mostly rural so I have no impression of its cities. It was a Sunday so things seemed to be quieter than would likely be during the week. The traffic was nowhere as crazy as Cartagena. I would have to say that I'm feel positive about what we saw In Costa Rica., I can't make a statement for the country, but the sliver we saw was pretty cool. Most of what we saw was nature, which is always a good thing. We saw wildlife in the river setting. We saw wildlife in a rainforest setting. Obviously, these were not deep dives but it gives us an idea. Juvenal and Augustina made the trip very nice. I have to say they earned their money. It will be interesting to see where our pictures end up. We will probably cut me out of most of them and shine the light on Mary, you think?

We took our goodbye pictures. They went their way and we went back towards the ship. I pushed the quarter mile or so from the shore to the ship. I get a little exercise in. We made it back to the ship then we went upstairs. I've been working on this log for the last hour or so. Mary's been watching the football game from a partial with her eyes closed.

Your Mary woke up, we headed to dinner. We were seated right away. From my glass of wine I had a red blend. I had a pineapple thing that was pretty good. I also had spaghetti and meatball which was pretty good. For my main meal I had Jamaican pepper shrimp. I thought this was pretty good too. Mary had salad and her chicken dish. For dessert, I had my gouda and Brie. I also had a glass of port. We also shared a apple strudel. We were both still pretty tired from the day so we decided to call it a night. We headed back upstairs and watch the Packers lose. They had a decent season. I don't think our heads were on the pillow but a minute before we were snoring at each other.