Day 9
Staying in the lower deck rooms, whilst completely logical in terms of expenses, is not always the best idea particularly if you're at the back of the boat where I was. On port days, I was usually awoken an hour before docking to the engine roaring as the mechanisms whirred and the bed shaking up a storm due to the vibrations. Not the best way to start what was set to be a long day.
We had breakfast at 6:30 before rushing down to the gangway to catch our tour group which threatened to leave without us if we didn't hurry up. Safely ensconced on the coach, about 40 of us headed from the port town of Costa Rica into the heart of the country, or at least as far as we could get within an hour or so's drive.
If you've read my blog before, you may know that I have visited Costa Rica before, and not only that, but just last year (you can read that trip here). What could possibly have brought me back with such urgency? Well, the need to see a sloth, which we had spectacularly failed to do on our previous adventure. Failure was not an option this time around, so the big pull of today's tour was that it was taking us to a Sloth Sanctuary. Guaranteed sloths? I'm in.
One of the great things about Costa Rica is that zoos are not allowed, and so the only kind of 'animal enclosures' allowed are sanctuaries like this one, which rescue animals from road accidents or the pet trade, with the aim of releasing most of them back into the wild. We split our huge group in two with our half heading off to see the sloths first.
You need a keen eye for sloth spotting as they're quite excellent at camouflage, move little, and often chill up in the top of the trees. Each section of trees we visited housed about three sloths, separated from the outside world with just a low wall which we could enter through to stare directly up at them. However, this was sufficient to keep the sloths in their place and not mix with each other (the aim is rehabilitation, not reproduction) and meant if you looked closely, they were easy enough to spot.
Lucky for us, a few of the sloths were active and so amused us by wandering around the trees, or just seeming to pose so we could see their cute little faces. I was enraptured - don't be surprised if you hear I've gone off to spend some time volunteering at a sloth sanctuary - and we had finally seen sloths! Bucket list item complete.
Also in the sanctuary were a few capuchin and howler monkeys; and scarlet macaws and parrots whom I fell in love with. I practically had to be dragged out of the aviary. Given we were in the land of delicious fruit, they'd laid out a spread for us of bananas, melons and juicy pineapple. My plate was filled to the brim with pineapple, better than any you'd find after it's been imported all the way back home - this was the best of the best.
Back on the bus, we continued up into the highlands. Our guide explained that the Spanish influence was more prevalent here, and it was evident as whilst the townspeople in Puntarenas had looked more Latino; these blonde haired and blue eyes locals looked positively European. She explained that this is how she expects the future of Costa Rica to look as the mixing continues, leaving Costa Ricans with an ethnicity quite unlike those in the rest of Central America.
Our next destination was the Orchid Botanical Gardens, where a trail brought us through various greenhouses and natural areas housing stunning colourful orchids. Fun fact: it is illegal to take orchids from their natural habitat, so what we were seeing were actually hybrid orchids, the same kind that Costa Rica is able to export to the rest of the world and that you might find in your local garden centre. They were truly beautiful, and it was obvious why they were the country's national flower.
We continued on our merry way to the town of Sarchi, which is famous for its oxcart production. We stopped at a factory where they make the oxcarts and paint them in the most beautiful and stunning patterns - deep reds and blues as the base topped with intricate hand painted designs unique to each artist. There's clearly a lot of artistry that goes into these creations, and it's great to see that such a tradition has not died out.
The gift shop too was quite impressive, filled with handmade crafts and even your own little oxcarts to take home if you wanted to. Upstairs was a restaurant, and we queued up to be served with a delicious meal of rice, beans, plantains, potatoes, and taquitos, topped with a glass of thick passionfruit juice. Whoever says Costa Rica doesn't have wonderful food needs to eat there - what a way to fill yourself up.
We had plenty of time to fill our boots with both food and gifts before jumping back on the bus for the two hour journey back to the port, just in time for the boat to rumble up again and roll its way along the coast. Until next time, Costa Rica.
We managed to wangle our way onto a shared table for dinner that evening with a couple of Australians and the most Texan Texan's you'll ever meet - great conversation and a pleasant break from our own company. The food was delicious as usual, sweet tomato and buffalo mozzarella to start and eggplant parmigiana for the main. I didn't even have time for desert as I was rushing off for another of the EXC Encounters where they regale legends of Central America.
This time was the legend of Isla de Ometepe, with standing room only - obviously word had got around about how fun these could be! We were told about a young girl called Ometepe who had fallen in love with the son of the neighbouring tribes chief. Knowing that the star-crossed lovers could not be together, they killed themselves a la Romeo and Juliet, with their blood mixing with the tears of the Gods to form the lake and her body forming the island within it.
That night's entertainment was quite different and took advantage of another of Holland America's partners, BBC Planet Earth II. We were treated to a live orchestral concert against the backdrop of scenes from the series. I'm not sure how much of the soundtrack was pre-recorded and how much was live as obviously the ships band did not have all the instruments necessary for a full orchestra, but it was pleasant to watch and listen, particularly as we are in one of the most bio-diverse regions of the world. However, I still think that Planet Earth should be renamed 'Nature is scary' - Google the marine iguana / razor snake sequence if you need more proof!
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