Along the Pacific Coast
Trips
8. March 2021
Manfred Goschler
The following notes are from my diary from the last section of our voyage along the Pacific coast.
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After another day at sea, we met at 8:15 a.m. in the port of Puntarenas. It was a warm and humid day in Costa Rica but according to a local it was very pleasant for local conditions to do a canoping tour in the rainforest. We drove about an hour to this nature park, where the green and diverse vegetation caught our eye on the drive. When we arrived at the park, we were immediately prepared for our little adventure by a briefing and given harness, helmet and gloves. Now it went with a small train through the dense vegetation up the mountain to the first platform. We saw the widely stretched ropes between the giant trees and the tension increased.
Then the canopying adventure (also called zipline) began, in which you can slide over different platforms over ropes that are attached between scaffoldings and trees, rolls in lofty heights through the jungle. The first “glide” on the rope required some overcoming, because of the height and the slope in front of it. But the magnificent view, the high speed and the longer ropes that followed later, which also bridged smaller valleys, made these uncertainties disappear and soon provided a thrill that was associated with a special nature experience. After this tour with about ten stations, where a guide was on site at each station and helped with the exit, we saw a lot of the jungle. On the way back to our bus, we were informed in detail about the various types of plants and snakes. Then, on the way back to the ship, we made a few stops to watch animals. Two colorful Macao birds that we saw in their bright colors on the roadside. Or a herd of monkeys cavorting in tree tops. Not least when crossing a small bridge over a river, where countless crocodiles lay on the bank like I had never seen before.
It’s 3 p.m. on deck and it’s pretty windy. We have heard that there will be a hurricane off the Mexican coast in two days and the captain is trying to drive around it in a north-easterly direction. Will that work?
Our ship anchored in a bay in front of Huatulco, where we bathed in the warm Pacific at noon. That morning we walked about 4 km to downtown Santa Cruz and were amazed at the cleanliness of this place. Although there are many traders here at the port and in the local market, they were not intrusive, so you could stroll undisturbed. Yesterday we went on a tour in Puerto Chiapas with two couples from Darmstadt and Tübingen. The taxi first took us to a Mayan ruin and then to the next larger city, where we visited a church and took a tour to a large Mexican market.
After another day at sea, we arrived in Puerto Vallarta. After we were at the pier around 8:30 in the morning and had negotiated an almost full-day tour in the area with a taxi driver, we first went to see the city..
Later the driver took us to a nice place in the nearby tropical rainforest and to a tequila tasting. After a detailed explanation of this drink, which is distilled from agave plants, the different varieties were then sampled. We would have loved to have had some of this great tasting schnapps, but when the owner offered us a bottle from $ 60 each, we withdrew and returned to our ship via a very beautiful road along the Pacific Ocean.
We arrived in Cabo San Luca early in the morning and experienced one of the most beautiful days of excursions ashore. We met again in the morning as a group of six at 7:30 a.m. to be taken to Cabo San Luca in a tender boat. There we had negotiated a taxi and boat tour with a bathing stay with a local provider and started the excursion by driving through the city.
There was little special here. But the drive along the Pacific coast was remarkable because of the houses there, the dark blue sea with beautiful waves, great vegetation with especially cacti in different shapes. The climate was now much more pleasant and not as humid as the day before in Puerto Vallarta. After the taxi tour we took a glass bottom boat to the cape, where we could see many pelicans, seals and fishes, which were immediately there when the boat driver threw some food into the sea. After an hour of swimming in a beautiful bay, we went back to the ship
We spent the last evening on board of this ship over dinner with two couples whom we had met on the voyage and with whom we had made some excursions. We have learned from them how you can organize day trips in a smaller group optimally and inexpensively on your own, while experiencing a lot and having a lot of fun.
