Today we were up at 5:45 am. After a quick breakfast at 6:30 we assembled in the Princess Theatre at 7:15. As our tour to San Jose was scheduled to leave Limon at 7:30, we departed the ship and boarded the bus by 7:35. This tour was to last 9 ½ hours so we're in for a long day.

    
    
    
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From the pier we hit the highway for our three hour drive to the capital of Costa Rico, San Jose.  Our guide Mario was a very entertaining Costa Rican native. Enroute we passed from the coastal lowlands with its endless banana plantations, through the mountains of Braulio Carrillo National Park, over the continental divide and down into the central valley of San Jose. The mountain passes were amazing. The terrain was dense rain forest, straight up and straight down, more rugged than could be imagined.

      
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Our first stop in the capital was at the National Theatre, built and in continuous use since 1897. All of the original mahogany seats are still in use and the seating capacity is 1,200. While touring this national treasure, we were treated to a short musical interlude by some members of the national philharmonic symphony who happened to be practicing in the second floor foyer. Very enjoyable.

    
  
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From there we again boarded our bus for the short ride over to the National Museum. This former military fortress now houses a butterfly gallery and a vast collection of archaeological and historic artifacts.

      
      
      
      
    
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For lunch we had a buffet of Costa Rican dishes at the Le Chandelier Restaurant in downtown San Jose. The buffet consisted of casado (rice, black beans), roast chicken and olla de carne (beef broth with chunks of beef). Very tasty and quite a nice lunch all the way around. However, as soon as lunch was done it was back on to the bus for the long ride home.

    
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I have to give our bus driver a lot of credit. The main highway between the coast and the capital is a narrow, heavily travelled, winding road that he navigated with apparent ease. Any break in the traffic, he would floor it and barely squeak around slower moving vehicles of which there was a never ending supply.

And to add to the excitement of the drive, as we were traversing the continental divide through the most treacherous part of the route, we were slowed down by an accident that occurred in the opposite lane. A car was over on its side and some people had a man stretched out on the road beside it. It looked like he had either missed the turn and hit what looked like a totally inadequate guardrail (the drop off the road would have been at least a thousand feet if he'd have gone over) or he had been forced over by another vehicle. A bit of a sobering scene.

  
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When we were about a ½ hour from the ship, our guide thought we'd have time for a brief stop at a pineapple plantation along the way. It was a welcome stop as the bus ride was fast becoming very tiring. There was a gift shop and we were also treated to some complimentary pineapple slices they put out for us. Our guide Mario wasn't kidding when he said Costa Rican pineapple was the best in the world.

    
    
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Back on the bus, we inched through traffic for our final leg and finally arrived back at the pier at 5:35. We were an hour overdue and final boarding was supposed to be at 5:30. We were the last group on and the gangplank was hoisted aboard right behind us. It had been a long but good day and we were quite happy to be aboard.

  
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We went right down to dinner at 5:45 and the ship left port at 6:00 sharp. We all ended up ordering the Gamberi Scampi Diovolo.  However, Shel was torn between having the Scampi or the fish of the day which was Turbot. No problem though as our waiter Soto brought the spoiled brat an order of each. The Turbot was excellent and would have been an excellent choice as well.

The night before our first formal night, Jackie our assistant waiter told us she liked formal night because Soto would have to take a bath for the occasion. As tomorrow evening was formal night again, we reminded Soto he would have to take a bath before dinner. He agreed and mentioned under his breath that he might even change his underwear too. To his dismay, Shelly heard him and we had a red-faced Soto for the rest of the meal. In all seriousness though, from what we could tell Soto's hygiene was impeccable every night and it was all in good fun.

After dinner, we ended up in the casino for about an hour, where Lee hit a $62.50 payout on a $0.15 bet. She wisely cashed out shortly thereafter with most of her winnings intact. Then it was back to our veranda for a nightcap where I caught up on my notes.  We were in bed by midnight.