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Puerto Caldera, Costa Rica

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Day 102

I made it through finals. Yesssssss. Now I get my tropical vacation in sunny Costa Rica. Some sneaky cruise ship took our spot on the dock in Puntarenas, so now we have to tender in Puerto Caldera until this evening when they leave.

This morning I went zip-lining through the rainforest with Kelly and Kelsey. It was so amazing. I'm not sure we had the most optimal location because we didn't see much wildlife, but it was gorgeous all the same. There was a huge group going. I think they should have split us up. They suited us all up and we walked up to the first platform. Watching people fly over the trees to the next platform was really funny. Some people went really fast, and others couldn't quite make it. I learned how to go really fast by tucking up into a ball. It was thrilling. The views were spectacular.
However, I am frustrated with Lauren. I was afraid we would miss each other trying to meet up because of the new docking situation. And communication on the ship is lacking, to say the least. I emailed her last night to meet me in Puerto Caldera at 0900 so she could go zip-lining with me. The backup plan was to meet there at 1300 if she didn't make it in time. She wasn't there at 0900 or at 1300. I didn't know what to do. Kelly and Kelsey were going to their condo somewhere, and I had no way of contacting Lauren or anyone else unless I got back on the ship. But that's what I ended up having to do. Lauren had sent me an email saying something had come up, and she would try to make a day trip to meet me. When? Where? That was not said.

By this point I was pretty much stuck on the ship. Everyone who was going to do something had already left. I couldn't call anyone to meet up because I didn't have phone numbers. I kind of gave in to the idea of sailing with the ship from Puerto Caldera to Puntarenas. That was sucky. After sitting in my room for an hour or so, though, I was fed up. I took the last tender to the pier and a taxi to Puntarenas all alone. If I was in Costa Rica, I was going to see Costa Rica. I figured I'd run into some SAS people anyway. 


The taxi dropped me off on the pasaje de los touristos, and I wandered around looking for some delicious food. I found it and a group, including Mandi, at a restaurant across the street from the pier. We got some latin food and bought a bottle of wine to enjoy on the beach. It was cheap, not very good. We tried a local dessert, which looked like a cookie, but was some kind of brown sugar, dulce de leche thing. I wasn't a big fan of that either; it was too sweet.

We wandered back to the restaurant after finishing the wine. We found Josie there. After she finished her dinner, we walked across the street and got some ice cream. Puntarenas is a boring place. We waited there with a bunch of other SAS kids until the ship showed up. Then it was bed time, nothing else was happening. Josie and I had a sleep-over in her cabin. We felt like little kids again. We sat there gossiping/talking about Vietnam and watching Black Hawk Down until we fell asleep.

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