Yesterday, we were in dock all day visiting Puntarenas, Costa Rica. I took a tour of an organic coffee plantation - an hour and a half drive from the docks to the farm. Costa Rica was much like I imagined it - poor like Mexico or Turkey, and very lush and green. The poverty line is about $450/year, but they say if you have rice and beans and something to wear, you're not poor. Overall, it's a place I'd like to come back to and spend some more time (Panama too). It would be really neat to drive down the Highway of the Americas from Alaska to Chile. As luck would have it, there was a BBC program on the ship's TV about such a drive with an electric car.
Once we got back on board (the tour was 8:15am to 3:30pm), and had left the docks by about 5pm, we had a medical emergency on board. They stopped the ship, lowered a lifeboat/tender, and evacuated the person back to Puntarenas. Once we get back underway, I saw how quickly we were moving. I went to my cabin to check he ship's speed - 23 knots. Should only take about 3 hours to make up the lost time.
Today is a sea day, and it's cloudy with showers outside. A nice day to sit and read...
--
Doug's Blog