Costa Rica and Panama on Uncruise Aboard the Safari Voyager

We started our adventure by visiting our expat friends, Chris and Floyd, for three days at their beautiful property in Atenas, on a hillside overlooking San José, Costa Rica. We toured the area with them, ate gallo pinto (beans and rice) at the local market, and visited El Toledo, a seven acre permaculture coffee farm in the hills above Atenas.

On the first day of our excursion, we transferred with our 44 fellow Uncruisers to Puntarenas (Sand Point), on the Pacific Coast. There, we all boarded Zodiacs for the short jaunt to the Safari Voyager, and our cruise with Uncruise began. The staff explained housekeeping items about safety, meals, and excursions, all in the beautiful bridge deck lounge where we would assemble daily for cocktails, lectures, and relaxation.

Uncruise attracts people who want to travel aboard a smaller vessel that can access places bigger ships can’t go. We appreciated this feature of our trip, along with the outstanding meals and beverages, comfortable accommodations, and daily hands-on experiences with the knowledgeable guides. All of the staff, including the guides, truly enriched our experience. Here are some highlights from our sailing week in this beautiful part of the world: we saw groups of white-faced Capuchin monkeys swinging gracefully through the upper story of the forest in Curu National Wildlife Refuge; we watched two toucans glide to the branch of a tree where they ate the red berries in the Osa Conservation Area; we kayaked through a mangrove forest in Golfo Dulce; one day, while underway, we found ourselves amid a group of dolphins so large that, for a great distance in front of us, the sea seemed to be boiling; we snorkeled off the beach on Granito do Oro (Speck of Gold) with multitudes of colorful fish, and some very big turtles.

Our final night sailing, we transited the Panama Canal. After we disembarked, we visited the Agua Clara Locks Visitor Center. We watched the lock system at work in the third and newest canal, opened in 2016 and built to accommodate the Super Max class of ships. We continued on in Panama City for a few more days. We took in the charm of the Casco Viejo, the Colonial old section of town, as well as the vibrancy of the sleek modern city.

#CostaRica #Panama #Cruise #Ecotour