Shore Ex Questions for Puntarenas - today on Zaandam

[2LoveBikes]

HAL Zaandam arrived in Puntarenas today.  

1. Which tour did you take today?

2.  How was your tour?

3.  Would you recommend to others?

Thanks

[OlsSalt]

We loved visiting the private museum in town with the mock-ups of Magellen's ship and Charles Dawin's Beagle.  Now also including Shackleton's small rescue craft and others.

 

Getting the true feel of size and scale of those early exploration ships ...that did change the world ..... is humbling. Particularly when we return to our own cozy HAL abode and reflect what life was like during those early ages of exploration. 

 

Seeing these fragile ships before one "rounds the horn" today on a passenger vessel, with bars and swimming pools,  is even more humbling. 

[crystalspin]

9 minutes ago, 2LoveBikes said:

HAL Zaandam arrived in Puntarenas today.  

1. Which tour did you take today?

We took the Zaandam Santiago to Buenos Aires in 2014. At Punta Arenas, we took the ship's tour to Otway Sound's penal colony and on to lunch at a sheep ranch (with show of shearing a sheep and a walk-around of a sort of museum of vehicles (I liked the sheep and my husband liked the vehicles!). It was a great sunny day! (Our cruise was November-December -- the penguins are seasonal...)

 

When it came to return to the ship -- the line for the ferry was very long! Turned out, a storm had come up on the Strait of Magellan. We were very happy we were on a ship's tour as we caught the last tender (and water was coming over the doors!).

[Sir PMP]

So you're in Puntarenas today in Costa Rica, the best tour would be the train and boat tour on the

Tocarles river to look at the giant crocodiles in the wild. Or walk around the local craft market right off the ship and have a beer in the German restaurant which sits on a corner one block away.

[Sir PMP]

Puntarenas:

[OlsSalt]

Ooops, wrong Puntarenas ..... I was in Chile, not Costa Rica. 

 

We liked the coffee plantation and  Poas Volcano tour.  Long drives into the countryside. Lovely alpine scenery and cool climate in this mountainous area of tropical  Costa Rica

[2LoveBikes]

My mistake.  I meant Puntarenas in Costa Rica.

[crystalspin]

49 minutes ago, 2LoveBikes said:

My mistake.  I meant Puntarenas in Costa Rica.

No, MY mistake! You spelled it right and I went off wrong! (hinged on the Zaandam)

 

We visited Puntarenas on the NCL Star in 2013. We did in fact do the train and boat tour (I think there may have been a third stop, somewhere with tropical fruit juice gratis and shell necklaces for sale?). The train was not spectacular, looking mostly at houses' backyards, but the boat ride was fun and worth doing.

[PalmSprings]

Last spring, we took the Sloth Sanctuary excursion.  I truly loved it - the animals were amazing!