Wednesday, Day 130 - May 16 - 8 to 5, Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Puntarenas, which means "Sandy Point" in Spanish, is the capital and main city in the province Puntarenas, Costa Rica, at the Pacific coast. The oddly-shaped province has its largest section in the South, far from the capital. A mountainous country, Costa Rica ranges from sea level to peaks as high as 13,000 feet and a succession of white, sandy beaches follow one another along the Pacific Coast. The country was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1502. The country is now a favorite watering spot for vacationing Americans. We have been here before on two of our five Canal cruises, but have never done a tour. Instead we have just walked around the port and visited the beach front market.

Today we do the free all day ships tour, San Jose City Tour. Meeting time is at 8:15 and it last 8 ½ hours. The early start means room service breakfast for Carolyn and something from the Coffee Connection  for Dick. He does not like eating in the room. We get to the theater a few minutes after 8 and they make Dick wait about 5 minutes or so before they will start handing out tickets. This is so infuriating because it makes for a pushing and shoving match when they do finally start passing out tickets. Before Singapore (think that was when they made the change) they just exchanged the ticket when you arrived. The ticket exchange ran much more smoothly then.

We do get our tickets about about 8:15 and are called 10 minutes later. We are on out way to San Jose before 9AM. It is a 90 minute drive through scenic countryside, passing several small villages in route. The colorful agricultural landscape and extreme geography of the  volcanic highlands and large mountain valley make for an enchanting journey.

Once in San José we see a large modern city with several interesting sites that illustrate European architectural influences finished with a Latin flair. First off we drive by La Sabana Park, the National Stadium and the Metropolitan Cathedral. Our first stop is at the famed Opera House for a tour of this beautiful old building built in 1897 and nicely maintained. Many events are still held here. It still has its original ornate folding seats.  Next we walk across a open park like area that is actually the top of the National Gold Museum for an up-close look at Costa Rica's past. We have an hour to enjoy this three story underground museum. For the first time we are allowed to explore on our own and have enough time to enjoy all the exhibits. There are some wonderful exhibits of the gold decorations  and other funeral pieces that they felt the dead might need in the afterlife. Many of the household items were intricately carved from solid stone including jugs and grinding stools.

Then we drive past some of the lovely old government buildings and churches on the way to Lunch. We enjoy a luncheon buffet of Costa Rican dishes at Valle del Sol, surrounded by beautiful gardens, a relaxing waterfall, flowers, refreshing air and the sounds of Costa Rican music. The food is good and plentiful!

After lunch, we rejoin the highway and retrace the drive through the foothills and coffee plantations and down through  the lowland sugar cane country to a craft co-operative to look for a memory of the day and back to the ship. The new NCL Bliss is in the commercial port today also. She on her maiden voyage to LA from the ship yard in Germany where she will start her cruising life.

It is a nice tour with out too much walking. The inland of Costa Rica is very nice especially compared to the port town of Puntarenas. Though the guide does tell us that when he was a child, Puntarenas was a popular beach vacation area for the wealthy of Costa Rico. Driving though, if one looks closely at the beach front homes. there is evidence of a former glory. But once the highways improved on both coasts other areas with white sand took over the beach vacation hot spots.

It wasn’t a hard tour, but was on the long side with the long drive so we get cleaned up go to Galileo’s for a cocktail and then on to Sette Mari for Italian. After a light dinner we go back to the suite and read in bed for awhile.