Amsterdam | Captain, who's driving?

Approaching our berth

The port is located on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast, 200 miles to the west of the Panama Canal and therefore makes for a convenient call, prior to the transit of the Canal itself. It has 3 usable berths, a finger pier providing 2 of them and the 3^rd being a cargo berth. ‘Swell’ is always a factor here; it can be quite high when any sea is coming from the south, which results in little protection inside the harbour.

We were fortunate, the seas were coming from the north-east and as a consequence, the harbour was relatively calm. I ‘backed’ in to the berth, being bow-out also reduced the ‘slapping’ which would have affected our broad, flat stern.

Puerto Limon exports a great deal of Costa Rica’s Fruit produce. Well known household names such as Chiquita, Del Monte and Dole have large logistic bases nearby, bananas, pineapples and exotic fruit being the main exports.

Karen and I took the opportunity to go on tour, the Veranague Rain forest, a National park area, is an hour’s ride away, (across ‘questionable’ roads, which made our ride quite ‘bouncy’).

Once there, we were guided by a Naturalist through the area, spotting 2 and 2-toed sloths, monkeys and glorious fauna and flora. The heat was stifling at times and the 350 steps down and up from the waterfall made for a good work-out.