January 12, 2017

I had a lovely birthday celebration last evening. First, Vishant, our butler, arrived with canapes. Then, we had dinner in Toscana, the Italian restaurant on board, with two other couples, one from Stowe, VT  and one from Germany, both great dinner companions. We first celebrated with a bottle of Veuve Clicquot champagne, a gift from Victor, the general manager. 

At the end of the dinner, the staff arrived with a cake and sang the birthday song, I blew out the candles, but really what do I have to wish for that I don’t already have??

When we came back to the room before the show, we found that Maria, our storeroom attendant, had decorated with balloons and towel swans!

Wish I could say I did well in the casino, but they just don’t respect birthdays in there.

Today we arrived in Golfito at 1 PM.  We turned the clocks back an hour last night so we were up early! 

Golfito is a port town on the southern Pacific coast of Costa Rica. It is known for its beaches and rainforests and also for sport fishing, none of which we experienced.  We have visited Costa Rica before and hiked in the tropical rainforests and explored by boat, so today we chose to walk into the”town” and I use that term very loosely! 

When you arrive into the port, the landscape is lush and very beautiful. The dock is small and it looks like they do not get a lot of cruise visitors.  We watched dolphins frolicking as we arrived but they were too quick for me to get a picture.

After lunch we walked into town and really there was nothing much to see.  A very few shops and what apparently passes for a casino.  It was a hot but energizing walk and we then came back to the ship to relax and read.

Tomorrow we will visit another Costa Rican port, Puntarenas.