There could hardly be a bigger contrast between two cruise days than between yesterday and today.
We are currently moored at a small town called Puntarenas which is confusingly part of the state of Puntarenas. I've started typing this at about 6pm, and we have been back from our shore excursion for about an hour. And, neither of us is really in a fit state to move.
We started the day by almost missing the excursion. My fault; I thought the meeting time was 8:45 but it was actually 8:30.
Anyway, we caught up with them just as they left the ship, and I'm still not sure if it was a good thing or not.
The group was divided into three as we were travelling in small buses that hold about 16 people. They were air-conditioned (thank heaven!), quite new and fairly comfortable.
Our tour guide was a young guy called Chris and he was a mine of information about Costa Rica in general, and about the specific areas we visited.
The problem with the tour though was the physical 'level' needed. Princess rate this as needing 'medium' fitness, but the description of the tour would lead you to believe that it was a pretty gentle medium. In fact - and particularly given the average age of people who cruise with Princess (ie, Paul and I are youngsters on this cruise!!!) - this tour should never have been rated only medium, particularly given the heat.
Anyway, the tour started with a 45 minute drive. On the way, someone spotted some monkeys in trees close to the road - apparently this is quite unusual:
First stop was a small resort which we really used just as a toilet stop. Then, we were driven for a number of miles up and down some quite steep and narrow and gravel - mountain roads to the first physical part of the tour which was a Skywalk.
They make a lot in the description of the three hanging bridges you go over on the Skywalk.
And, I have to admit, it was a beautiful place (if you like tropical forests) and the guide did a really good job of explaining what we were seeing. He also has a personal interest in traditional medicines and so told us a lot of uses for some of the trees and plants.
What they fail to mention is that there is at least a kilometre of other walking on rough, slippery, steep tracks. There was a lady in our group who would definitely admit that she was pushing it to make 'medium' fitness, and it was disappointing for her to discover that it was really well beyond her. She made it through some of the walk - fortunately one part of it was a bit of a loop and so she (and some others!!) skipped that bit.
Once we finished there, they took us over some more scary roads to the Pura Vida Gardens.
Again, this sounded like a really nice walk through a tropical garden - what no-one mentioned is the fact that again you're walking up and down some really steep paths - no mud this time, but quite hot. By the time we got through the first apart of this one, around half of the group (including Paul) declined the opportunity to come on the next part. The gardens we saw in the first part of the walk were quite beautiful, as was the view of the waterfall in the second part, but it really was a strenuous, difficult day. Here's a few pictures to make up for all my complaining!
We finally got back a little before 5pm, and we were so tired that we didn't go to the dining room for dinner. We'll have to go tomorrow night as we've now missed two nights in a row.
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