Puerto Limon, Costa Rica

Sunday, January 9, 2011     83 degrees                                               6:00 AM – 5:00 PM

Limon is Costa Rica’s  (shore of riches) busiest Caribbean port and serves as the Caribbean commercial center.  Costa Ricans are affectionately known as tico(a)s for the charming national habit of ending words with the diminutive “tico”.  The national character is best summed up in the favorite local expression – Pura vida! – implying a (temporary) state of utter perfection.

Columbus discovered Costa Rica on his 4^th voyage.  The country is full of volcanic mountains, lush valleys, and virginal tropical rainforests supporting a diverse mixture of plant and animal life.  Some of the interesting shore excursions revolve around these national parks or the Costa Rican countryside.

We took a shore excursion to Braulio Carrillo National Park, a preserved tropical virgin rain forest, full of fascinating creatures and plant life, to ride on an aerial tram across the canopy of the rain forest.  The tram is a specially customized ski lift that allows visitors to see the forest from “the top”, where more than half the species live.  We boarded the 7 passenger rain forest aerial tram for a 90 minute ride through the rainforest.  We started on the lower level outbound and were introduced to the sub canopy.  The return journey took us through and above the canopy.  Enjoyed a tasty Costa Rica lunch.  It was a 2 hour bus ride each way from the ship.  On the return journey we saw 2 and 3-toed sloths hanging from the trees.

We began our visit by trekking along their rainforest paths for 45 min.  We saw leaf carrying ants, carrying pieces of leaves larger than themselves.  We saw fish-tail plants that bats use for protection, elephant ear plants, orchids, big lip flowers and monkey ladder said to be more effective for treating diabetes than insulin.