Costa Rica

On Monday we visited the small town of Puntarenas, Costa Rica. It was New Year’s day so nothing was open but we took a bus ride to another town — where nothing was open either. But of course that didn’t matter to us because we are not shoppers and because the planned entertainment happened anyway. In the town square/ park across from the old church a small group of children performed their native dances for us and a few vendors with handmade crafts displayed their wares; the most interesting of which was their coffee “machine”, a foldable wooden frame which held a bag made of teeshirt material in which you put the coffee before you poured the hot water over it. Guaranteed the best coffee! I don’t know why Dale didn’t buy one.

The streets were empty everywhere and it appeared that absolutely everyone was at the beach. (Ginny, do you remember our swim at that beach?)

Our guide was excellent and confirmed what our resident historian here on the ship had said in his lecture, that Costa Rica, of all the Central American countries, has taken the advice of Simon Bolivar and risen above the others to be a relatively safe and economically viable country with a literacy rate of 96%.

So it was a lazy day for us and the prelude to four sea days before another stop in Mexico.