Day 7 – April 15, 2023 – Saturday – Puntarenas, Costa Rica

I woke up about 0530 and spied the coast of Costa Rica in the distance on our starboard side. That’s the kind of stuff we see out our windows because we’re on the starboard side. Did I say that before? Probably not. Now you know. Just to make sure you understand, since we’re on the starboard side, when we sit on our porch looking longingly out to sea, the ships’ pointy end is to our left.

We fiddled around a while, waiting for the Lido foodery to get active so we could go get our morning coffee and some breakfast. Coffee, first.

Diane had her traditional yogurt and I had two poached eggs that were boiled as I waited, one sausage patty that was hard like a harness (but good), two sausage links, and two pieces of wheat bread. I ingested all this while looking out the window at Costa Rica. Kinda cool.

Back in our cabin I dialed up my messenger and sent big brother Jim a Happy Birthday wish because today is his birthday. He’s 80-something today. He’s 86 I think. I sent him a Happy Birthday text, but it wouldn’t send.

Then they opened the bow for people to go watch the docking process at Puntarenas Costa Rica. Arrival time was scheduled for 1100 and I think they made it pretty close. Departure time is 2230 this evening.

During this in port time, Diane booked us a tour. We were scheduled to leave on our bus tour first thing so we joined half the ship at the mainstage. We were issued number stickers that related to the bus we would ride. There were four of them, and we got #3.

Angie was our tour guide, and she’s a talker for sure. A native Tikas, she has an environmental engineer degree but didn’t like being cooped up in an office so branched out. She said she’s almost 5 feet tall and I’d say that’s pretty accurate. She talked almost non-stop on our trip to the botanical orchid gardens. We spent at least an hour there as Angie guided us through the flowers and displays explaining everything to us. She’s full of information is really good at sharing it.

I probably took a thousand photos of orchids but I’m not going to show you all of them. The most interesting ones we saw were those that were living free of pots, just absorbing moisture from the humid air.

This is Angie, our guide.

This is a shiny hollow log.

The electric wiring in some of the villages we went through was interesting.

Our next stop was the Doka Coffee Plantation in the mountains. It’s a one-and-a-half-hour drive from the orchids. Again, she talked all the way, educating us about Costa Rica’s history. She looks like she’s about 12 but admitted she’s about to turn 30. An amazing girl.

On the way we passed Kmart but we didn’t stop.

At the plantation we ate lunch before touring the facility. It was a wonderful meal and I didn’t take a picture. After that Angie took us on a tour of this facility, also, explaining the coffee growing process, the bean processing process, and the export process. She knows it all, which isn’t a surprise, because she said she’s been doing it for 9 years.

Angie strapped on this basket and told us that pickers get paid about $2 for each full basket. It takes a lot of coffee beans to fill it so it makes us appreciate that cup of coffee a little more.

After Doka, it started getting dark and we headed for another brief stop; an old church that was built of eggs. I need to research that a little because I really didn’t understand how that happened when Angie explained it.

On the trip home everyone was totally ready for a shower. The trip seemed to take forever and we arrived back on the pier at 2030. It was a very long day for us old people.

We rushed aboard to see if the Lido deck had any food left (they did) so we could eat something and go take a shower (we did).

Now we’re ready to tuck ourselves into bed as the crew takes the ship out and heads north to El Salvador. I took a peek out the door before laying down and discovered that we were already miles from the party beach. All they had to do was push us away from the pier and go straight ahead into the night. Never felt a thing.