Puerto Quepos, Costa Rica

The population of Puerto Quepos is about 14,000.  The town is relatively undeveloped but includes the standard soccer field and church of all Spanish communities.  The town was built around an International Fruit Company banana plantation, but the company left the area in the 1990’s.  Now the economy of the town is based on the production of African palm oil and, of course, tourism.  It has one of the most popular surfing beaches in the world.  The official language is Spanish, but English is relatively common in the tourist areas.  The US dollar is the preferred tourist currency.  There are many expatriate Americans living in Costa Rica. 

We took a tour to Manuel Antonio National Park which, with it being a Saturday, was packed with locals.  The humidity was near 100% and the temperature 32 degrees Celsius.  Andrew, our tour guide, carried a spotting scope to help us see some of the fauna that are found in the park.  Most of the animals have superb camouflage and I doubt we would have spotted any of them without the aid of our guide.  Animals we saw included red-eyed tree frogs, lizards, white-faced capuchin monkeys, a three toed sloth, a woodpecker and a toucan (the bird depicted on the Fruit Loops cereal box).  One of the highlights was seeing an amazing iridescent lavender colored butterfly with wings as large as a human hand.  The hike through the park is 1.8 km long.  At about the midway point, the path descends to a lovely beach.  The terrain is uneven and good walking shoes are recommended, although at one point you need to ford a small tidal stream so be prepared to get your footwear wet.  If you are willing to take a public bus, you can get to the park for about 50 cents (MUCH cheaper than the ship tour).  The entrance fee to the park is $10. 

An alternate tour at this port that was highly recommended by all of the passengers who chose it, was the Pacific Forest Arial Tram that brings you to a series of about 10 ziplines over the forest canopy. 

For those of you who believe the new drunk driving laws being proposed in Alberta are overly severe, consider that in Costa Rica, the first DUI offence will cost you about $3000 in fines, the loss of your license for three months and three months in jail.  The second offence will land you in jail for three years, and you will lose your driver’s license for life.

CRUISE TIP: If you decide to do a zipline tour independently, be sure to find out how you get to the starting point, by tram or by foot.  If the latter, be prepared to be too exhausted to enjoy the zip experience.