We arrived at Punteranas, Costa Rica a few minutes after 8:00 am. We were all ready to go for a full day of touring, beginning with a bus ride for roughly 90 minutes on all kinds of roads. Some paved, some not. We lucked out and got to sit right in the front of the bus even though we were last on, because no one had claimed the handicap seats. Score! :)) We arrived at the tram and our guide, Armando, loaded up our group of 8 and away we went. It was an aerial ride right through the rain forest. We saw all types of different vegetation and spotted a beautiful toucan just hanging out in a tree. The air was warm and humid at the bottom of the mountain, but became a lot cooler once we were at a higher elevation. After our tram ride, we were served a traditional Costa Rican lunch, which included rice and black beans, chicken with a red sauce, fruit, and plantains that tasted like candied sweet potatoes. Yummy! After lunch, we were taken on a guided walk through the jungle where we saw all kinds of snakes and venomous frogs, as well as trees and plants. They (the snakes and frogs) were all behind glass, thank goodness, cause some of them were scary. The rattlesnake was the most aggressive, he didn't like us looking at him at all. We had a few minutes to shop and use the bathrooms, then it was back on the bus to get to our next stop, which was a boat ride on the Tarcoles River.. Armando joined us for this and he, along with the boat driver, Juan Carlos, pointed out all kinds of wildlife along the way. There were LOTS of crocodiles, so many we lost count. All of them were just sunning themselves on the banks of the river. They were a lot grayer in color than I had imagined. We had a small booklet of the different types of birds that we could potentially spot, and we actually saw quite a few of them, including a pair of scarlet Macaws, and a Roseate Spoonbill, which is a brilliant pink bird, and very rare! This was all exciting, but the best was spotting a troupe of monkeys playing in the jungle!! There were at least 8-10 of them, so cute!! They were the kind that Ross had on Friends. The guide told us their breed name, but I can't think of it right now, but they were black with a white face. We spent quite a bit of time watching the monkeys, especially since Armando told us it's extremely rare to spot them and he hasn't seen them in a very long time. He said our group was very lucky. We also got to see a dead crocodile that was being feasted on by a huge flock of vultures. I'll post pictures once I can. Not a sight you see every day! Another interesting sight was this enormous crocodile that the guide said was at least 75 years old. He let us get quite close and never budged an inch. I guess he's used to humans in boats at this point. The boat company served us a snack of fresh fruit and juice after our river tour, and the pineapple was so good! By this time, it was about 4:30, and we boarded the bus to head for our ship. It was well after dark by the time we got back and we were all pooped. The guys ran upstairs to put on long pants so we could be seated in the main dining room, couldn't miss out on lobster, doncha know? :)) We couldn't get our regular table and got seated in the other dining room, and our waiter was a stick in the mud! Made us appreciate Bernard all the more. After dinner, we went back to the room and were watching the election results. Pam and I sat outside for a while, it was so nice! We were supposed to leave at 6:30 pm, but an ambulance pulled up and it delayed us quite a while. We eventually saw an older man strapped to a gurney being loaded into the ambulance. A young looking woman was with him, and their suitcases were brought off the ship, guess their trip is over and done. :(( Later on, we heard he had a broken leg. I'm finished taking my antibiotics for my tooth, so I had a glass of wine. The tooth isn't much better, just hoping it doesn't get worse during the rest of our trip!