Puerto Limón, Costa Rica (01/07/23)
We'd been to Puerto Limón on the 2018
World Cruise, and as usual, we found new things to do and see.
This small island just outside of the dock area is surprisingly wild.
We docked next to the Volendam, which we most recently sailed on the
last leg of the 2020
Grand South America.
Passengers on the back deck looking out over to the park across the
street.
These two women in their fancy outfits spent all day on the dock between
the ships working for tips.
 
In the square across from the dock.
 
The park next to the square. There were lots of locals who were busy
pointing out the sloths hanging out in the area to cruise passengers
and then expecting a dollar in return. Most of the sloths were in the
crotch of palm fronds and not easy to photograph. We did take photos
of sloths last time we were here. This time we did take photos of a
pair of Spectacled Owls. There is spotty, but free wi-fi in the park,
so we caught up on our email a bit in the morning and again later in
the afternoon.
 
We walked a few blocks to the bus station and on the way, we found a
woman working on separating out her ackee harvest--the reddish outer
parts were thrown away as well as the seeds.
 
We found Santa Baby at the bus station and then we took the bus to a
beach.
Playa Bonita...the Beautiful Beach. The Queen's restaurant was at the
beach with all these flags.
We headed to the left toward the forested area.
A Brown Pelican watched the kids play in the narrow beach areas between
the rock outcroppings.
We continued in this direction.
 
We walked along a trail paved with cemented coral stones.
A number of trees that had fallen years ago had grown numerous vertical
trucks.
The rocky tidal area was quite extensive here.
Tough plants grew in the rocky cervices along the shore.
Lovely snails with geometric patterning were plentiful on these rocks.
A jungle was growing on top of this wavy chunk of rock.
We continued walking away from the beach out to the big rock that was
catching the waves.
 
The vines covered many of the trees. We stopped for a quick lunch.
The tide rolled in.
And soon that whole rocky area was covered with water.
 
This split leaf philodendron (Monstera sp.) had wound its roots
around and around this palm trunk and it was fruiting.
 
As we were heading back to the bus stop, we found a trail (Sendero)
into a national park, which we had wanted to see, but the main entrance
was closed. Had we known about this trail into the park we would have
skipped the beachy part and done some serious hiking. Maybe next time...
.
 
We did hike in about a mile, but it was getting late so we went back
to the bus stop, and since it was a Sunday, the buses were not as plentiful
as on a weekday. This sign for the beach translates to: "The best
thing about Limón is its people."
Our sail-away party on the back pool deck with the Volendam smokestack
in the background.
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