(A personal aside concerning the appearance of this blog - my amateur status is evident as I can't seem to discover why some parts post in grey and other in black. One day when I have enough time, I'll have to work on that problem.)
Another early day - breakfast at 6:20 AM so we can get down to Mainstage for our tour departure at 7:30.
Our tour began in a brand, new bus (heaven after a couple of the ones we’ve ridden in), a short tour of the city of Puerto Limon (named for lemon trees that used to be plentiful here) and a gorgeous walk through a forested area to board our pontoon boat. on the walk, I stopped short when I spied a plat I knew - the Pagoda! Just like the ones that grow along my patio!!!!
The trees are called sangritas or bleeding trees because the sap is red like blood. No one offered to take a machete to one, so we took the guide’s (Geraldo, call me “Boa.”) word.
We’re off to see the Tortuguero Canals, the Amazon of Costa Rica. At first I was disappointed as all the pontoon boat did was stop for passengers to take pictures of herons, egrets and a caiman (cousin to a gator) that was asleep on a dock. I thought, “Crap! I expected a rain forest and really cool birds and wildlife. I could have stayed home!” Then I remembered most of my fellow passengers were not from Florida and were tripping over each other to take pictures of these exotic beasts. I calmed my inner rant, the boat turned around and began to move through the canal, a brief rain splattered, the air cooled and my mood improved immensely.
I learned wild bananas are inedible but have gorgeous flowers. Each plant has only one flower and it hangs from the plant by a kind of umbilical cord. The flower is NOT the banana. When I spied on hanging over the canal, the helmsman get up close, then Boa snapped the cord and passed around the flower! Light odor, gelatinous surface on the inner lower part, much cooler temperature on the outer covering.
The guide was witty and informative which made the cruise interesting. His spotters were astounding. It took three times before I finally spotted a sloth hanging from a tree but was too late to get a picture. B managed to capture a great snap of a sleeping one’s backside! We saw three-toed (grayish brown) and two-toed (blackish brown) sloths and even a mama carrying her baby (like 3 inches long!) on her back.
We did see a Kingfisher grab a meal and perch on a limb to munch out and digest. Geraldo, couldn’t believe the bird sat still long enough for every one of the boat to photo him.
We never saw the turtles the canals are named after, but we saw a lot of howler monkeys, which were noticeably smaller with much less howling than the ones we experienced in Carracol, Brazil.
We stopped in a Delmonte banana plantation and discovered how labor intensive that work is. Everything is done by hand, even encasing the banana bunches in blue bags to help repel insects and lizards. Also, banana trees only give one harvest, then they are cut down and the remaining stem becomes a reservoir for the “son” plant growing near it. Botany is amazing!!
My favorite sight today was an Emerald Basilisk, known hereabouts as Jesus Lizard because it can walk on water. Disappointingly, this one walked on a tree limb, but I did get a pretty good picture of him. Look for him a bit right of center.
I LOVE fan palms, I can’t wait to ask Jean if they’ll grow in my back yard!
Turns out Zuiderdam is docked at the pier in such a place that Barbara and I look at Isla Uvita (Little Grape) which is actually the first land mass Christopher Columbus touched upon in this area. Now it’s a public park with walking trails and picnic areas about a 20 minute boat ride from the harbor of Puerto Limon.
The tour began as a C-, but ended a solid B/B+. The day went quickly and we even managed to visit the souvenir shop a bit at the end. We missed all the icky weather occurred up in the mountains where several of the tours went, ones we again passed over as they required hours' long bus rides.
Returning to 8082, I was so glad to wash off the Cutter’s that I’d liberally sprayed on before the tour (a Zika horror avoidance) only to discover that this is not the season for mosquitos, so I was redolent with eau d’ insect repellant for hours for no reason.
Barbara napped on the Lido deck by the pool that's covered with a sliding dome for cold weather, not an issue on this cruise!
As evening fell and Zuiderdam exited this port, Boa and our pontoon boat appeared alongside to bid us farewell. Not really, it turns out ours in the last ship of the season to visit this port. No more cruise ships until October, so the pontoon boat is being stored for the season and they had to pass by us to reach docking.
I tried to get a good image of the mountains of Costa Rica, but cloudy mists kind of hampered me. Look closely.
Little touches like fresh orchids on each table in the Lido Market really brightened every dining experience. 
We stopped by a trivia contest but all the questions were science or space based; though I did guess correctly that the most perfect spherical object in the universe is a black hole and Hamilton was one point of the Bermuda Triangle. Barbara knew another was Miami, neither of us knew San Juan, Puerto Rico was the third.
We came back to 8082 feeling kind of inept and soothed ourselves with this fabulous rum Barbara bought in Colon - Abuelo...if you ever find it, try it!! One of my post-cruise tasks is to find if it's imported to the USA.
Bonus: a pair of small dolphins played around beneath our balcony as the ship left port.
Second Bonus: mostly clear skies, gentle breezes, mild seas and a full moon made this night magical!
I couldn’t sleep, so went out on balcony and conked out in the lounge chair, waking up hours later refreshed and amazed. Inadvertently enjoying the quiet, balmy calm of a Caribbean night at sea. (I really like this photo from my iPhone!!!)
Random thought for this day: There are many places in the world I want to see, but I don’t want to suffer to see them. Yes, I am self-indulgent!
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