Saturday, March 17, 2018- Cruise Day 53; Puntarenas, Costa Rica. St. Paddy’s Day

Saturday, March 17, 2018- Cruise Day 53; Puntarenas, Costa Rica. St. Paddy’s Day

We awoke to see the coastline of Costa Rica gliding past our balcony.  There were boils of baitfish erupting around the ship as it approached the harbor.  It was 82 degrees and sunny at 7:30AM.  

We had breakfast in the dining room and watched as we tied up next to the Holland America Cruise ship Masendam, which appeared to be about the same size or slighltly larger than the Island Princess.  After finishing breakfast, we returned to our cabin. There were suites midship across from our balcony that had an outdoor private hot tub and outdoor furniture including sofas and a dining set.  That must be an expensive suite.  We got ready for our rafting trip.  We sat in the Princess theatre until nearly an hour after our originally scheduled departure time.  Once we got on the bus, the guide apologized and said they had been sitting on the pier since 7:30AM, so it is hard to figure out why it took so long for us to get going.  Once we did get going, we drove along the coastline for a bit and saw some mangrove forests just outside the town.  We drove through the countryside 90 minutes to get to the Corobichi river.  There were many plantations along the way including a large but experimental pineapple plantation, skinny pencil like Teak trees, and banana plantations.  Traffic was pretty heavy on the 2 lane road, particularly about half way to the river where some construction was taking place.

The river rafting concessionaire operates a restaurant in addition to the river rafting operation.  They had a nice dining room with bathrooms.  After signing waiver forms, we boarded rafts with 6 per raft x 4 rafts and 8 per raft in 2 rafts.  There was very limited instruction and practice before we shoved off into what was the biggest bit of whitewater of the whole trip just in front of the restaurant.  There was a photographer taking pictures that they sold for $20 after the trip.  We got a bit wet in that first bit of whitewater, but it wasn’t at all unpleasant because the air temperature was probably close to 90 degrees and the water felt like it was at least 75 degrees.  Mostly, we got splashed across our laps, wetting our swim suits and aquashoes.  

We went through several riffles and around 3-4 mild rapids.  We did have to do some paddling, but didn’t have to work too hard.  We did get to see several trees with howler monkeys including some very vocal monkeys in the first tree we encountered.  There was apparently an alpha male in that tree.  We could also see some baby monkeys with their mothers in the trees.  We also saw quite a few iguanas on the banks of the river and even saw a couple of basilisks, or Jesus Christ lizards, for their ability to run across the water.  We actually saw one running across the water from it’s perch on a stump to the beach.  We also saw a tree full of white faced Kapuchin Monkeys, which were quite a bit smaller than the Howler monkeys.  

At one point, we nestled the raft against an undercut in the bank and our guide pointed out a colony of long nosed bats that looked like giant spiders against the rock face.  We wouldn’t have even noticed them until he pointed them out just 2-3ft in front of us.  

There was some playful splashing of oars between the boats of the tour, which did help to cool us off, but Janet was a bit concerned because of her hearing aids.  We came out of the river after 90 minutes and the bus took us back to the restaurant, where we got changed, and had a decent lunch of rice, beans, plantain, fish or chicken and mixed vegetables, which was supposedly a typical field worker’s lunch, or main meal of the day.  We also had lemonade and some ice cream.  

We mostly slept on the bus ride back to the ship.  After dropping off our wet clothes and putting on dry shoes and socks, we walked out on the dock and rode a mini train shuttle to the head of the dock, where we took some pictures of the sunset and met fellow passengers who reported that everything in the small marketplace was closed up, and even the locals were leaving the beach as darkness was approaching.  

We headed back to our ship, just as the huge Holland America cruise ship tied up next to us cast off its lines and thrustered off the dock with several loud and long horn blasts.  

We had dinner in the dining room and met a nice couple from Illinois who were also started the cruise in Fort Lauderdale.  We have met a lot of interesting and pleasant people on this cruise during our dinners.  We sit at a two top, but two tops are usually set up in 2’s or 3’s in a row, so it is possible and easy to strike up a conversation between the tables.  We find this much preferable to sitting at the large 8 and 10 top tables where people carry out conversations across the table, which is loud and hard to follow.  

We went to the library and round the 4th Progressive Trivia scores posted, and while we did as poorly as we thought, scoring 6/11, our nemesis The Motley Crew scored just 5/11, so we are now tied with them for first place.  There are also a few teams that are still nipping at our heels, just 2 points behind.  

We attended the evening music trivia which was “Best of Britiain”.  We did only so-so, missing most of the newest contemporary music by the Brits, scoring 16/22.  The winners tied with 19/22 and had to answer a tie breaker of what chart position did “Brown Sugar” by the Rolling Stones, peak at in New Zealand?  It peaked at #11.  

We stayed in the Explorer’s Lounge for “Pub Night” which was a fun song and dance program put on by the Island Princess, band, singers and dancer, and the cruise director staff.  There were some silly sing-along songs, and some tavern games involved.  Santa had to do a shuttle race transferring cotton balls with his vaseline coated nose, and won a Princess string bag and aluminum water bottle.  

Kathy and John had waited for the Effy Store to open as soon as our ship shoved off from the dock and won door prizes of red stoned pendants.  They were kind enough to give one to Janet, so we scored more booty in our treasure drawer.  

We then rushed to the Princess Theatre to watch the juggling and comedy act by Jeff Taveggia.  We sat at the back of the theatre, which was not very full, and watched a decent but not particularly inspired show of juggling and slightly worn jokes.  We were sorry to hear that we had missed a really good production show yesterday called On the Bayou.  I guess we were focused on the Escape Room, and forgot entirely to check the show schedule.  Oh, well.  We’ll probably catch that show on one of our future Princess cruises on another ship.  

We have another at sea day tomorrow as the ship turns around and heads for the Panama Canal.  That means another installment of Progressive Trivia awaits us in the morning.  We do have to set our clocks forward an hour tonight, so less sleep.