{"id":26235,"date":"2015-11-23T01:00:52","date_gmt":"2015-11-23T09:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cruisingdoneright.com\/?p=26235"},"modified":"2015-11-23T01:00:52","modified_gmt":"2015-11-23T09:00:52","slug":"monday-122","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/?p=26235","title":{"rendered":"Cruise Prompts Costa Rica Re-visit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Playa<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the nice things about cruising is that when you stop in a country for the first time, it gives you a sense of whether you might like to go back. A taster, as it were.<\/p>\n

\"Graven&Teagan\"<\/a>It happened to us with Costa Rica<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While cruising on the Norwegian Sun<\/a>, we first visited Costa Rica when the ship made a port stop at Puntarenas<\/a>, on the Gulf of Nicola and about 60 miles due west of San Jose<\/a> (the capital). While our visit was typically short \u2014 cruise stops seldom exceed eight hours \u2014 we made a mental note that this was a country we\u2019d like to see again.<\/p>\n

Last week, we did\u2026.but we\u2019d be lying if we didn\u2019t admit a little coaxing from a cute 4-year-old granddaughter had something to do with it, too.<\/p>\n

We went to a part of the <\/span>country (Playa Potrero<\/span><\/a><\/span>,<\/span> whose residents include our two new best friends, Walter and Graven<\/span>), to a place unlikely<\/span> to ever see a cruise ship, unless it\u2019s with high-powered binoculars as one passes in the waters of the Pacific. It\u2019s beach country, in the north-west area known as Guanacaste. If you\u2019ve never heard of Playa Tamarindo<\/a> and Playa Coco<\/a> and Playa Grande<\/a>, get ready to\u2026judging by the number of expats who have already discovered it.<\/p>\n

While Costa Rica typically has \u2014 like most tropical countries \u2014 a rainy season, this part of the country does not. Well, okay, it gets \"Version<\/a>less rain. In the winter (December to May), it gets almost no rain. In fact, the green landscape turns brown and locals call it a desert, and not because of its sandy beaches.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a long drive from San Jose or Puntarenas. Mind you, sometimes it\u2019s a long drive from village to village in this welcoming tourist destination. You get there by flying to Liberia (not that one!) and driving for roughly an hour. A growing number of airlines now include Liberia on flight schedules.<\/p>\n

However, with our passion for boating, we needed more than beaches.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where Walter and Graven come into the picture. They were co-captains of our \u201cship\u201d \u2014 probably an 18-foot skiff that took us (our family of five) snorkeling. Since we\u2019d never gone snorkeling from a cruise ship, it was a welcome alternative as experiences go, but not nearly as welcoming as Walter (the pineapple man), Graven (sharing a thumbs-up) and assorted full-time residents who reap the benefits of the tourist industry.<\/p>\n

Without the Norwegian<\/a> Sun, we may never have met.<\/p>\n

\"Version<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/u><\/p>\n

In the news…<\/strong><\/em><\/u><\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Tiffany’s boutique opens in Central Park on Oasis of the Seas
\n\u2022\u00a0Crystal Symphony makes maiden call at Santo Domingo
\n\u2022\u00a0TV’s Jeff Corwin on Panama Canal cruise with Windstar<\/p>\n

Today at\u00a0<\/span>portsandbows.com<\/span><\/a>:\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/em>Arles, Avignon get A’s in France<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
\nRoyal Caribbean Vision of the Seas
\n<\/a>9 nights
\nDecember 10, 2015
\nTampa<\/a> (return): Key West<\/a>, St. Maarten<\/a>, San Juan<\/a>, Labadee
\n<\/a>Oceanview: $739
\nCost per day: $82<\/strong><\/span>
\nwww.royalcaribbean.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the nice things about cruising is that when you stop in a country for the first time, it gives you a sense of whether you might like to go back. A taster, as it were. It happened to us with Costa Rica. While cruising on the Norwegian Sun, we first visited Costa Rica… Continue reading Cruise Prompts Costa Rica Re-visit<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,32,25,36,15],"tags":[1931,137,89,912,72,819,35,2141,26,2142,2143,27,33,810,2144],"class_list":["post-26235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cruise-industry-news","category-deals","category-people","category-reviews","category-stories","tag-beaches","tag-caribbean-cruises","tag-costa-rica","tag-cruise-bargains","tag-cruise-deals","tag-cruise-news","tag-cruises","tag-liberia","tag-phil-reimer","tag-playa","tag-playa-potrero","tag-ports-and-bows","tag-royal-caribbean","tag-royal-caribbean-vision-of-the-seas","tag-travel","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26235\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}