Puntarenas, Costa Rica

April 9, 2023

We docked on the starboard side today! Woohoo! I love it when my balcony faces the action on the pier, and there was definitely some action!

The pier was LONG and too narrow for motor coaches to u-turn. Instead, they backed down that long pier in order to pick up all the folks who had booked an excursion through the cruise line.

We signed up online several months in advance for the ship’s excursion: Coffee, Chocolate and Sarchi Experience 9:30-3:15. The ticket was waiting for us in the cruise cabin on embarkation day.

I had my hat, water, and sunscreen, but I did not pack any insect repellent. This was one of two excursions that warned of a need for insect repellent. Since we got the ticket on day 1, we were able to pick up insect repellent at our first port stop in preparation for today’s tour. (By the way, we never needed it. But we will be prepared for later in the week.)

We found our motor coach. Seating was first-come, first-served, but all the seats had good window views.

We settled in for our 1.5 hour bus ride in that Mercedes motor coach. It turned out to be a very comfortable ride, and we enjoyed the views from the bus as we traveled.

Arriving at Espiritu Santo Coffee Farm in the community of Naranjo.

Received a friendly welcome and our full motor coach group was split into two smaller groups for the tour.

Our guide, Laura, explained the process for making chocolate. The cacao is actually grown elsewhere in Costa Rica. But they did offer the chocolate bars in their gift shop.

Laura demonstrated how they pick only the red coffee beans. The same plant will be picked many times throughout the season as the beans do not all ripen at the same time on a plant. The season is usually from October to February.

It’s April, so these coffee plants are definitely too green to start picking yet.

We walked over to the old coffee mill and Laura explained the way they process the coffee beans from old mills like this one. They use a sorter to separate the beans from the husks. The abacus in the foreground is used to keep track of how many bags of coffee are milled.

Sometimes the beans are dried by machine, but they can also use this tool that looks like a utility broom without the bristles to rotate the beans as they dry in the sun. Of course I had to try out my bean rotating skills!

Next we went to the building where they roast and package the coffee. (No photos allowed there. I guess they want to protect that “secret bean footage!”)

The final part of the tour took us to a literal coffee house.

A worker was using a wood fire to heat water for our coffee.

Laura prepared the coffee to give us samples. My hubby does not like coffee, but Laura assured my hubby that once he tasted her coffee, he would change his mind.

While I thought the coffee was good, he was still not a coffee convert.

After the demonstration, I had a chance to pretend to grind a little coffee outside the little coffee house.

A few minutes were left to enjoy the property and the gift shop before getting back on our bus.

Our next stop was at an Oxcart Factory in the town of Sarchi. We entered through a gift shop and into a courtyard where a guide explained how and why oxcarts were and still are made here.

We were supposed to see the largest oxcart ever built and on display in the main square of the town of Sarchi, however, it was damaged about 30 days prior to our trip and was being repaired. They had one wheel on display to give us an indication of how large this cart is.

Artists demonstrated their painting techniques.

The gift shop carried everything from t-shirts, to stickers, to miniature oxcarts to the real thing. The only thing that tempted me to spend money though was some dark, mint chocolate.

The bus ride seemed shorter on the return to the ship. (I might have napped a bit.) But as we got closer to the port, we could see the river and the mangroves.

Before we arrived back at the port, our guide required that we list our names and cabin numbers on a paper that she would turn in at the port. The security guard came down the bus aisles and did a quick visual inspection of the passengers, and we each had to show our ship medallions.

Once we were back at the ship, I really wanted to take a walk to the end of the pier and get a few photos of the “Welcome to Puntarenas” canopy and to see what was on the other side.

Monuments and a sea walk to the right. Beach canopies to the left.

But I took the trolley back to the ship!

The last time we were in Puntaraneas was in 2015. We had a very different tour that time – including close encounters with crocodiles! You can read about that adventure here.