Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Hello from Costa Rica! 

Thanks to me leaving my curtains open at night and an early sunrise today I was up long before my typical 6 AM. 

4:46 AM

While I wish I could have gone back to sleep, I chose to sit on the balcony and watch our approach. Good thing I sleep in a nightgown and not my birthday suit or the tugboat captain who pulled right alongside me would have gotten an eyeful.

Puntarenas is on the west coast of Costa Rica and unfortunately is not in the area where you’ll find their white sand beaches. Here they are brown and can be dirty and have trash on them.

I did see quite a bit of garbage in the water as we got closer to port and even by the ship when we were docked.

Some people do, but I’d pass
on swimming near the port area.

The cruise port here has a very long pier. Thankfully for guests on Princess tours the coaches drive down towards the ship. But not just drive - they back up the entire way! It’s quite an interesting process to watch. When the bus is ready it then pulls on out of line.

Such skillful drivers

If you don’t have a tour you’ll need to take the long hot walk along the left side of the pier to get to town.

You know it’s hot when the Captain puts up
the window shades to keep his car ship dashboard cool!

Otherwise you can wait until the pier is clear of the tours and then a little train is available to give you a ride.

No room for Scooter on the train
so we rolled ourselves down the pier

I had one big task today. Last time we were here coffee-lover Ed took a coffee plantation tour and rated it as one of his all-time top tours, up there with Normandy. While I don’t drink coffee, I can shop coffee so that’s what I did. He had a list of brands and types of roasts but no matter where I went I struck out again and again. I called an audible (how’s that for a sports term?!) and bought a whole variety of brands and roasts from a variety of vendors. I had brought a shipping box from home and it’s now filled to the gills and ready to send off at the post office when we get to Fort Lauderdale.

After my must-do for the day, I wheeled down the waterfront to get a photo of the Puntarenas sign and of the ship.

Not a bus in sight now

By then I was steamy hot and needed a refreshment. The granizados looked like something I wanted to try. A shave ice/snow cone with ice cream? Yes, please. But the Spanish I used so confidently and competently in Huatulco didn’t help me today. The popular “Churchill” I ordered had sweetened condensed milk on the side, ice cream on top, and shave ice. But all the white inside the glass was leche pinito. And there was my misstep.

Leche pinito? Powdered milk.

I really tried to like it, but the texture and the flavor of the powdered milk just wasn’t doing it for me. I could only get so far before I had to call it quits.

I’m not as adventurous as I’d hoped.

But I did navigate the vendors and haggle over prices and cross the streets while dodging the crazy Puntarenas drivers in hot, steamy weather. By myself. On a scooter. So maybe I was a little adventurous after all. 

But not adventurous enough to get anywhere near these end-of-the-day masked performers. 

They kind of creeped me out

Early sunset, too. 5:48 PM

Up tomorrow is a sea day and then Panama City on Sunday. 

A Couple More Sea Days on the Island Princess

I think I'm finally getting into a sea day routine. 

• Up at 6 AM to sit on the balcony in my nightgown and watch for dolphins. I've seen dolphins, a sea turtle, and lots of birds.
• At breakfast by 7 AM
• In the indoor pool by 8 AM. It’s the same pool I swam in on this ship during an Alaska cruise in 2014.

Today

2014

• Out of the indoor pool by 9:30 AM
• In a lounger outside and ready for the 10 AM Movies Under the Stars. Today was Ocean’s 8.
• Back in the room by noon to shower. And nap.
• Back out to the balcony and watch for more dolphins. Yesterday I spotted a whole pod of them jumping and spinning and splashing.

• Maybe a late lunch or early dinner before I go back out for the night time Movies Under the Stars.

Even though today is a sea day and I was in my groove with my own little schedule, I had to make a bit of an adjustment for the Most Traveled Passenger Luncheon. It's held for the top 40 individuals (or 20 couples) with the most number of days sailing on Princess Cruises. I made the cut this week and as usual the food was outstanding. I somehow got in over my head in the appetizer department but was trying to be a bit adventurous. (Yes, Ed - I ate lobster, a little octopus, and even a bit of the salad!) It was a nice table of passengers with all of us being "normal" and not the snooty passengers you sometimes get stuck with.

Octopus and Lobster Carpaccio. Umm…yuck

Pancetta Wrapped Tenderloin
One of the most tender pieces of beef I’ve eaten 

A most filling meal in the middle of the day. Now I think a nap is calling my name and dinner is not. Sunset is calling me, though!

Up tomorrow, Puntarenas, Costa Rica!

Huatulco, Mexico

Hello from Huatulco, Mexico! 

I woke up at my normal time again today, 6 AM. Go me! As usual, I rolled out of bed and sat on my balcony in my nightgown. Lucky me not only saw the sunrise but also watched dolphins frolicking in the ship’s wake this morning.

Pretty day ahead

I was most excited about this port. Originally we had Nicaragua on the itinerary which was my most excited port to visit but once it was removed (political reasons?, Covid reasons? I don’t know.) Huatulco moved to the top of the list.

So beautiful

Ages ago I had written down the name of a recommended Huatulco restaurant in the hopes we would eventually get here someday. The Ve El Mar is oh-so-close to the ship.

Amazing views

It was a good thing it was close. The area is covered with pavers. Bumpy, uneven, and sometimes busted up pavers. Here’s to Scooter getting me there and back despite the bump-bump-bump on my bum bum.

Ouchie

It was a very warm day…

so a couple drinks were required. One as a flashback to our visit to Curaçao.

Another as a cheers to Ed who likes his tequila and mescal tastings. A strawberry mescalita - like a margarita but made with mescal instead of tequila.

Chicken nachos for lunch, with flavorful chicken and tasty black beans. It may not look like much but it was good. Couldn’t finish but about a quarter of it.

There was a little kitty visitor. Not too interested in people, though.

A pic for you, Jenn

Here’s most of the menu, just in case we come back again. I skipped the pages I knew we wouldn’t order from.

We were the last cruise ship of the season today. Their rainy season begins and will be turning those brown hills green by fall. 

Hopefully I’ll get to see them again someday when they are green.

We’ve got a couple sea days until we arrive in Puntarenas, Costa Rica on Friday but I’ll be back on Thursday to recap the sea days and share pictures of the Most Traveled Passenger luncheon. Until then…

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Welcome to Puerto Vallarta! 

My breakfast view. Almost there!

I really had only one task today and it wouldn’t need to happen right away so I hung out on the Promenade Deck watching all the happenings. I listened to the Mariachi band play and waved to the painters at they used the boom to touch up the ship. I saw the food dog sniffing - and catching - people who were trying to take fruit off the ship  (Big no-no.) I saw the paramedics come onboard and take a gentleman off on a stretcher. He was propped up, so hopefully it wasn’t too too serious. Crew members wheeled the ill passenger’s four suitcases and five boxes behind them, making me think they may have been part of the world cruise. Bad way to end their travels. I saw about a dozen new crew members boarding. Four new passengers boarding tells me they probably had flight issues in Los Angeles. 

After all the throngs of tour groups headed off, so did I. I was on a reconnaissance mission today. Ed and I will be spending the winter on the Discovery Princess as she goes up and down the Mexican Riviera. Puerto Vallarta will be a stop again and again so I was tasked with finding a go-to lunch spot. I had planned on taking a taxi down to the Malecon but the more I watched the taxi cars and vans, the less sure I was of the plan. My scooter complicates things and so does Ed’s mobility. Anything low (like a car) is out, and anything too high (like a van) is out. 

But I found something super simple. Super close with no taxi required. We never go to the flea market so we’ve missed it in all our visits to Puerto Vallarta. Before you even go into the terminal building you can see the flea market building to the right.

Bingo!

Taken from my table. You betcha it’s close. 

Strawberry margarita before 10:30 AM? Yup.

The restaurant is called El Bucanero. They do have more drinks besides what’s on the menu. Prices are in pesos but they do take US dollars.

 

I went with the beef tacos. Tasty, albeit a little gristly but I won’t hold it against them because I’ll definitely be back to try them again.

Inside the flea market.

After I ate I went into the new terminal building. They’ve added colorful umbrellas since the last time we were here in February.

I also picked up my first piece of bling for the scooter today. Can you guess what he’s making for me?

Back to the ship by early afternoon and with temperatures in the 80s there was only one place for me to be.

We have another sea day tomorrow as we make our way to Huatulco, Mexico. I may just not move from this spot.

Tonight’s sunset