Day 14: Puerto Limon, Costa Rica

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Back for our third and final visit to Costa Rica - this time on the Caribbean coast. We were anchored in Puerto Limon, a very poor looking city, in a very beautiful location. It was pouring rain again this morning - lots of rubber yellow duck people out on the docks. We weren’t sure it was going to be worth venturing out, after our day of viewing Panama City through the rain obscured windows of the touring bus. However, off we went with the ‘A’ group tour (the 7:15 a.m. group - lucky us!) for our trip along the coast travelling south towards the Jaguar Rescue Centre.

Rain, rain, rain! The rivers were all overflowing their banks, and moving into the forests, lawns and homes of people along the way. And the water beneath the single lane bridges was awfully close to the roadway as we drove across! However, it did stop raining part-way along, and then we caught tantalizing glimpses of the beaches through the palm trees. We wondered why many of the palm trees near the beach were painted various colours around the base (up to about 5 feet). Apparently, that’s how the home owners let people know that the beach by their house is people friendly - anyone may come to enjoy the sea and surf!

We saw many fields of bananas, with blue insecticide coverings over the bunches of bananas to resist bugs, moulds, etc. - anything which might damage the crop. There are independent organic banana farmers here too - small farms usually - and the bananas are a different variety - smaller in size. No blue insecticide coverings for those bananas!

The Rescue Centre was educational and entertaining. Educational? I had no idea there were so many different types of poisonous viper snakes here - the small yellow ones look rather like garter snakes (except for the shape of the head), but they aren’t nearly so harmless! Entertaining? Try spending time in the cage with baby howler monkeys. They are so curious! Something sticking out of a pocket? Glasses? Hats? Jewelry? It was all fair game for these little guys. We had to clean our hands with disinfectant before we entered, as they knew the monkeys were all healthy, but they didn’t know about us. Guess how big howler monkeys can become Liam . . . The size of an eight year old boy! The eventual hope for most of the animals is that they can be released back into the wild, although for some, this will not be possible. We also saw owls, hawks, tree frogs, sloths, and some caymans.
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We were then taken for a snack and beach time at a hotel along the coast. Lots of marvellous fruit, hammocks, a Tofino like beach (but much more humid), fresh watermelon and pineapple juice - just the epitome of a tropical beach. We soaked up all the ambience, to be recalled on some wet, grey Victoria day! Then back to the ship for lunch and some down time. We did go off the ship on our own later in the afternoon, for a little time spent browsing around the shops. After dinner, we enjoyed a game of bridge and then a listen to our favourite jazz group. Just another day in Paradise!

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