Puerto Caldera, Costa Rica

It was only 34 degrees today and breezy yet this felt like the hottest day. Our ship was docked a 20 minute drive from the closest coastal town, Puntarenas, so we had free shuttle buses that would transport us to town. The buses were modern, air conditioned, 72 passenger buses. Our first stop was the wifi restaurant where one beer, one Coke and unlimited, high speed internet cost $5, which seems to be the standard price. JS lost interest after this and wanted to go back to the ship. I was able to convince him to sit in the shade at the beach while I explored. I found a small market with more trinkets that I didn’t want to buy and several beach front, open-air restaurants/bars. I walked 5 km and then we headed to the bus and back to the ship. I was so hot, red-faced and starting to feel like heat stroke was around the corner.

We only spent 2 hours on land and it was very disappointing. We have such wonderful memories of our trip to Costa Rica 5 years ago with Alyssa. This area definitely didn’t do it justice. Again there were several, expensive tours we could have taken but they were going to areas we had already been to and most left before 8 am because there was considerable driving involved. Not our idea of a fun day.

There have been 3 ambulance events so far on our cruise. The first was the seemingly stable patient taken off the ship by stretcher in Puerto Vallarta; the 2nd was in Puerto Chiapas where they just dropped off a wheelchair; and today a passenger was brought back to the ship by ambulance. The ship’s doctor got into the ambulance to assess the passenger and a short while later accompanied him back on board walking independently. I’m guessing that the passenger collapsed from heat stroke and recovered quickly enough to not require hospitalization. It’s an older crowd so things are going to happen.Read more