Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Our next stop after the Panama Canal transit was Puntarenas, Costa, Rica.

Again, we were unable to take any excursions because none of the tour operators had a bus capable of taking a wheelchair. So, we walked into town on a pier that never seemed to stop. It wasn’t as long as Progresso, but it sure did seem like it. I took this shot from the ship. It was a little hazy.

The first thing we noticed once we got to land was the beach. It was big, beautiful… Stop cross beautiful out as it was full of litter. One couple told us they went to the beach and could not find any spot to put their towels that did not have litter on it.

This port gets 4-5 ships a month. You would think they would clean it up a little for the tourists. But what do I know.

As we wander along the shore, there are numerous booths set up to sell us things. The majority of the items were locally made clothes and wood items. We found one vendor who made these wood items himself by hand. They were beautiful and we bought a couple of items. Otherwise, the products were what you could find in any other port.

We went as far as we could and fund ourselves out on a street. This picture doesn’t really show it, but the streets were as dirty as the beaches.

One of the interesting things we found on the street was this pizza Hut operating out of a semi-trailer. The outside café with the plastic chairs fit right in.

We have traveled far enough and as we head back we find this police bus. We speculated why they needed a bus at the beach, but could not come up with a perfect answer. Compared to everything else, this was the newest item we had seen.

I took this picture on the beach. While I didn’t intend it to come out lie this, but it appears the cannon is lined up on the Carnival Miracle and ready to fire.

At the base of the pier, we saw this guy making sand figures. He had a sign saying that this was his "job, please tip."

 On that note, we headed back to the ship. It was a long walk on the pier and the heat had to be near 100 degrees. I think we all got a little sunburned from our excursion.

I must be off!