Day 9-Island Princess-Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Pura Vida a Costa Rican saying. Good life, I believe. Today we have an all day tour for a river trip, tram ride in the rain forest, lunch, and nature walk. Tawny and George are on the same excursion so we plan to meet up on the pier and go together. Eventually that worked out, though they got off one bus and went to another to be with us, sweet of them. Our guide Maisiel was a delight and very informative. It was pretty warm and humid but not as bad as I anticipated. It was about an hour drive to the Tarcoles River. Before getting to our boarding place along the river we drove over a bridge where we could see crocodiles down in the water.  The tour was very well organized and after a brief bathroom stop we headed down the path and got on the boat. We saw several crocodiles and over 20 species of birds pointed out by our guide Maisiel and the captain of the boat. We were given a small pamphlet with many birds listed on it so we could keep track of the number we did see. It was an excellent tour. We also went into brackish water toward the sea and saw waves breaking along the coast. The was a brief time up a tributary to see the mangroves as well. After the river tour we were served refreshments of water, juices, tea, coffee, and fruit before boarding the bus to travel along to the Rain Forest. This route included part of the Pan American Highway along the way. Soon enough we made it to the Rain Forest and the tram, again it was very well organized. We did see lovely foliage but we only only saw a couple birds (a Toucan and a buzzard). We did have some nice views out toward the Pacific Ocean along the way. We came back and barely got through the buffet line for lunch when the sky seemed to break open and pour out a torrential rain! We certainly had perfect timing! We ate as the thunder roared. We were all excited to try out the complementary Internet. I did reach Mom after several tries on my phone but she couldn’t really hear me. It was determined that we would not take the little nature walk, it was very wet and none of us cared anyway. Thankfully they are well prepared for these outbursts of rain as the bus can pull up under a covered area and we didn’t get wet at all. The trip back to the ship was uneventful. No reservations were available today, only open seating. We really didn’t feel hungry for dinner after the late lunch so we had a cocktail and appetizers in the Explorer lounge instead. Sail away was to be 7p but it is after 11p now and we are still in port. They say it is a technical difficulty. I hope the ship doesn’t break down completely! They have assured us we will not miss the line up for the Panama Canal since we have a day at sea tomorrow. It is very expensive to transit the canal, and even more for a daylight transit. I think the arrangements for this must be made well in advance so hopefully they can pull it off!