DAY 7-PUNTARENAS, COSTA RICA

CLICKING ON THE PHOTOS WILL ENLARGE THEM

 We arrived here in Puntaranas bright and early at 6:30.  So far it is a sunny day.

WHAT WE DID LAST NIGHT:

                 The is the pianist playing in the Stars Lounge for cocktail hour.

        We dined up in Sette Mari, which is an Italian restaurant in the evenings.

                                      This is the bread basket.

                                          I had cioppino, a seafood stew.
       After dinner we went to the theater to see the headline entertainer, Dale Gonyea, perform.  He is a hilarious guy and great pianist.  We thoroughly enjoyed both his shows.

BACKGROUND/HISTORY INFO:
       Puntarenas means “sandy point” in Spanish.  Although Christopher Columbus discovered Costa Rica in 1502, it was Ponce de Leon in 1519 who laid claim to it.  It was not developed until 1840 when coffee production in the inland highlands reached exportable volumes.  Initially the coffee beans were transported to the port on oxcarts but later a railroad was built from here to San Jose.
       Puntarenas is the cruise ship port for tourists wanting to visit the capital of Costa Rica, San Jose.  It is a 2 hour bus ride from the port to San Jose.  Back in the 80’s and 90’s I flew into San Jose from Miami as a check pilot on the Boeing 727 so have no desire to visit it now.  Just another big city with lots of cathedrals, monuments, and plazas!  Believe me we have seen our share of those over our years of cruising the world.
       We docked next to the part of Puntarenas out on a kind of peninsula at 6:30 this morning.  Most of the passengers went on one of several 5 to 6 hours tours.  I opted to do a 5 ½ hour tour, “Tropical Train Ride & Exotic Mangrove Glide”.  Rebecca is not leaving the ship again today.
WHAT WE DID TODAY:

 The Island Princess ship was docked next to us today.  It is at least 7 times larger than our ship.

                This is Pablo, my guide for today.  He was excellent and a funny guy.

 My tour for today which left the ship at 8:00 this morning and did not return until 1:30 pm.

                                  We had a nice, comfortable Mercedes bus.

                                         Car accident on our way to the train.

 This is a field of cantaloupes.  They are covered for irrigation purposes as this is the dry season here.

                                     Inside the train.  It was a VERY old train.

      Some scenery along the train ride.  Not really much to see but was a nice ride.

                                             Horses along the train track.

                                              Hay baler heading to the field.

                                 Train consisted of only two passenger cars.

                                      Some locals to greet us.

                          There is a big lizard on top of the tall tree trunk.

                   Next we headed to a mangrove waterway for ride on this boat.

 First we had some fresh fruit and a local beer.  The grounds had some beautiful flowers and plants.

                        This is a mangrove tree with its weird root system.

                          David and Melody Hermann were with my group.

 Mangroves all along the canal.  The water was from the ocean and the level varied with the tides.  The mangroves have adapted to living in salt water.

 There is a small crocodile in the center of this photo.  They are hard to see as blend in with color of muddy bank.  We saw several crocodiles but most were small and hard to get good photograph of them.

There are two scarlet macaws in the tree.  Click on photo to enlarge it so you can see them.

            A large crocodile swam by me but didn't get camera around in time.

                       The beaches are volcanic sand so grey in color.

Beach area just of pier where our ship was docked.  Beach has lots of washed up logs.

       I started downloading photos at 2:00pm.  Then I put them on the blog and wrote captions.  It is now 3:30 and I am about to publish it.  So I will have some time to relax and enjoy some balcony time.  This evening is the Seven Seas Society cocktail party prior to dinner.  The Seven Seas Society is similar to an airline frequent flyer program.  Rebecca and I have over 400 nights now on Regent so are "Titanium" members.  They just added one more tier above Titanium but doubt we will ever attain it.  Best part of this evening is they have miso sea bass on the Compass Rose menu.  YUMMY!!!!
       We are sailing at 4:00 pm and our next port will be Corinto, Nicaragua.  We are to arrive there at 10:00 am tomorrow.