Hey yall! Thanks for joining in on this fun look back on this amazing cruise! Today I’m talking about our 9th day on our cruise, which we were in Punterenas, Costa Rica.
Having a balcony is so awesome when you’re coming into port. I enjoy watching whatever we can see depending on if we’re on the port side or not. On this day we were not, but still enjoyable to watch the boats and birds and could see the beautiful mountains in the distance.
After disembarking, we got on the bus for our excursion; Tarcoles River Safari & Butterfly Gardens. It was the rainy season so we didn’t see musch sunshine but dodged the rain for the most part.
I love taking in the view as we drive toward our destination.
We arrived, got off the bus, and boarded a boat after walking along a boardwalk out to the river.
We rode a long stretch of the river while the guide pointed out crocodiles of every size. The biggest one we saw was said to be about 16 feet long and likely weighed over 1,000 pounds.
We saw so many incredible birds along the river, including herons, egrets, spoonbills, kingfishers, brown pelicans, and swallows.
Our guide lit up when he spotted a Panamanian White‑faced Capuchin Monkey, and the boat operator eased us over toward the mangroves where it was tucked away. I managed to get a pretty good shot of him as he wanted to check us out too.
Next we stopped at Restaurante & Souvenirs El Jardín, where we hunted for a Puntarenas shot glass and went to the back to see the “butterfly area,” which turned out to be pretty underwhelming.
After we left El Jardín, the bus took us back to the port. Lucky for us, before we got off the ship that morning, our cruise director had announced that instead of needing to be back onboard by 5 p.m., we now had until 7 p.m. We’d never had that happen before, but it was such a nice surprise to have the extra time and not feel rushed getting back on the ship.
We were pretty hungry, so when we saw this chicken for sell we each got one and walked along Av. 4 shopping. They had some really unique art and knick-knacks, which we enjoyed looking at and even purchased several things.
The sun was quickly setting, but we still had time. We ended up at Kiosko Acapulco, Rob got shrimp and fish ceviche and plantain chips. I had the Fried full snapper. We had a couple Imperial beers.
The kitty wandered over and started begging for food. I wanted so badly to pet it or at least slip it a little something to eat, but Rob talked me out of it, so the kitty eventually moved along.
With our bellies full, we headed back to the ship and went out to our balcony as we pulled away from port. Since we’d already eaten in town and skipped dinner onboard, it gave us the luxury of a slow, easy evening instead of rushing to the dining room.
