By 7:00am on January 21st, we were anchored off the coast of Puerto Quepos, Costa Rica. This was the first time that a Princess Cruises ship has visited this port. On a tropical inlet midway down Costa Rica’s Pacific coast Puerto Quepos; a quaint little town is situated where the rainforest meets the sea. It was named for the fierce Quepoa Indians who once inhabited the land.
We departed on the ship’s tenders before 7:30am headed for a fun filled day in the rainforest and on the Tarcoles River. We boarded our bus for the 1 ½ hour ride to the Pacific Rainforest Aerial Tram. This gave us the opportunity to see lots of the countryside along the way. Once at the aerial tram we broke into groups of seven people and one tour guide. On board the tram, our tour guide pointed out monkeys, birds, various trees, exotic plants and all the unique features of this very unusual ecosystem. We were literally flying through the dense jungle canopy in our open-air gondola suspended from steel cables. The gondola went up many hundreds of feet on the densely wooded mountain. Then, it was back down the mountain and prepare for a guided nature walk through the jungle.
The jungle walk gave us the opportunity to get up close to many of the animals and plants. In fact, we were surprised to see that bats spend the day on the underside of palm fronds. Everywhere we looked we could see bromeliads growing in the trees. The jungle walk was well worth it and we were please to see so many new things.
We then proceeded to the main building in the rainforest and had a wonderful lunch of vegetables, beans, rice, and chicken. The best part of lunch was the very sweet pineapple that is grown locally.
After lunch, we were off again on our bus for a short 30 minute drive to the Tarcoles River. At the river we met our guide at the Jungle Crocodile Safari who would narrate our trip along the river. We boarded our flat-bottom boat and headed out past lush jungle and mangroves. We saw many more birds than we had expected. During this safari we saw up close about 32 species of birds and many crocodiles. This river has one of the largest crocodile populations in the America’s. One very large croc actually swam out and was ready to attack our boat. After more than 2 hours out viewing all the animals, we returned to the main building at the Jungle Crocodile Safari and enjoyed pineapple, bananas, papaya, juices, water, and excellent Costa Rican coffee. Then it was off again for our return trip to the ship. By 5:30pm we were back on board and heading out to sea for our next stop, San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua.
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| Black-Necked Stilt |
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| Little Blue Heron |
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| Boat-Billed Heron |
