Day 11 - Sat 30th Mar 2024
Participants: Tam & Kev
I'm up several times in the night, but manage to go back to sleep. I eventually get up at 6.00 am as our tour starts at 8.00 am. Tam is already up and has taken a photo of the sunrise.
We are docked in the port of Puntarenas in Costa Rica. It's relatively unspoilt with no high rise buildings around.
Once we're ready we get breakfast in the food court (toast and cereal for me) before leaving the ship at 7.45 am. We are met by the guide from Gio Tours whose name is Pablo. We wait for a while for some latecomers, although it's not their fault as we are told a rope broke on the ship and they shut the gangway for a short time.
It's going to be a long tour today as there are several stops and our first is at the Monkey Forest. This is just an area in the countryside with a few houses and huts where the monkeys get fed, so there are lots of them around. The guide has some fruit and he calls to the monkeys to tempt them close. They must have become so used to human contact over the years as they are not shy in taking food from your hand and one takes a particular liking to Tam and her hat.
They are not enclosed in any way and are free to wander off if they want. I guess if I was a monkey I'd hang around anywhere prepared to give me free food. It was a part of the tour that we weren't particularly looking forward to, but it ends up being good fun.
Back on the nicely air conditioned coach (definitely something needed in the heat) we drive to the Tarcoles River where we load into boats for a tour to see the crocodiles. We see lots of different birds including ospreys and egrets, but it's mostly about the crocodiles.
We see a few baby and young crocs before stopping by the bank where a larger beast is lying mostly submerged in the water. The guide slaps a towel in the water, which certainly gets its attention and he slides to the side of the boat. Crikey he's a big lad. I'm not much good at estimating length (insert schoolboy giggle), but he must be at least 12 foot and one look at his teeth tells me I don't want to get a tape measure out to check.
We both enjoyed this element of the tour. There are lots of boats going up and down the river, but it still manages to feel like you are out in the wild.
There are still supposed to be 2 parts of the tour left - a stop at a viewing point and a meal for a traditional Costa Rican meal. Well, things don't go too well from here. As we head to the view point there is an accident on the other side of the road and we are held up for quite a while. The guide says hopefully it will be clear by the time we return. We eventually arrive at the viewpoint overlooking Jaco Beach. It's pleasant enough, but hardly worth the drive. There is a nice looking fruit stall there, but we decide against trying it as we are going to a restaurant next.
As
we drive back it becomes obvious that the guide was somewhat
optimistic in his view that the traffic would have eased. There
is still a huge slow moving queue around the accident site. Now I
know that there is nothing anyone can do about an accident, but
we hear the guide saying that he rang his boss to recommend that
we don't go to the viewpoint because of the accident, but he is
told that we must go. I presume they are worried that people
would ask for some money back if they missed out an element of
the tour.
There is not much communication with the tour group and people
are getting a bit restless. At 2.10 pm we are told that the
restaurant is about 25 minutes away. At 3.00 pm someone asks
what's going on and we are told that we can stop for the meal or
go straight back to the ship if we're worried. Well, there's
plenty of time as we're not due to sail away until 7.00 pm, so we
vote for the meal. This proves to be a mistake. Around 3.15 pm we
pull into the 'restaurant'. It's quite a new facility, but looks
like what it is - a place for coach trips to stop. The drive to
the viewpoint and back has taken 3 hours 15 minutes. We pile into
the restaurant and line up to be served at a counter with ladies
slopping food onto your plate as you pass. Hardly authentic Costa
Rican quisine. It feels like a cross between a motorway services
and a prison canteen. There's also a large shop attached, which I
suspect is the main reason for stopping here. We do actually buy
something as we've been missing snacks on our balcony, so we
decide on some crisps. Tam grabs the Lays and quickly puts them
back when I point out that they are the eqivalent of £8! We buy
the local variety instead for £2. On nearly all previous tours
we've done 'authentic local food' has meant a stop somewhere
smaller and with at least some charm.
Back
on the bus we eventually arrive back at the port at 5.00 pm. The
vast majority of the second half of the tour was spent in the bus
and nobody is particularly happy. Even without the accident the
time taken to reach the viewpoint would not have been worth it
and the restaurant was a real disappointment.
We have a brief look around the port area, which is quite nice
with some stalls and restaurants and there are many locals still
enjoying the beach. Tam buys some earrings for $3, so she's
happy. With hindsight I wish we'd stayed around the port, but we
really wanted to see what Costa Rica is all about. Not sure we
found out with our tour.
Not sure who this bloke is. We couldn't be bothered to wait until the sign was clear to take a photo.
I'm still not feeling 100% so we go up to Movies Under The Stars where Dirty Dancing is playing. We watch the end and stay for Back To The Future. I haven't watched this in years, so it's fun. Tam has a margarita and crisps, but I can only face a Coke. It's lovely and warm lying in the dark, so Tam has a dip in the pool before going to get a rather large ice cream sundae, which she enjoys immensely.
We are back in the room and in bed by 10.00 pm. I'm not sure I've ever had a holiday when we've been to bed so early. Feeling unwell certainly hasn't helped, but I also think that you need to have some quieter nights when you are a long cruise. Full on eating and drinking will catch up with you otherwise.