We pulled into Puerto Limón with a band on the dock playing an eclectic mix of music including reggae, salsa, hapa Houle Hawaiian music, and the Never on Sunday Cha Cha Cha.  That was just to whet our musical appetite. 

After a leisurely breakfast, our scheduled tour was canceled due to lack of registration, (probably the only problem with sailing on a 1400 capacity ship with only about 750 passengers) we headed on foot to town.  Because of high winds the ship used the commercial pier rather than the passenger pier, so we had to walk a couple of hundred extra yards through the gauntlet of touts trying to sell everything from custom tours to chocolate and ginger covered coffee beans, to the terminal with its shop stalls and wi-fi. 

We’ve been to hot and humid Puerto Limon twice before.  We walked through downtown toward a pharmacy.  We needed to get an ace bandage.  We had loaned the one we had to a friend and my knee was bothering me.  We had packed a knee brace but it’s in our little red suitcase somewhere, somewhere, but not here. (St. Anthony, St. Anthony…)

What struck me on this visit was Puerto Limon’s soundscape.  In the background there is the crashing sound of surf as you walk through different sonic zones of influence depending on the closest shopkeepers’ taste.  We drift from reggae, to Mexican girl group pop, to big band mambo with lots of brass, to ska, to salsa and to a haranguing speaker with lots of reverb.  I had no idea what he was saying until his pitch went up and shouted Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah!

This is a working town and not a tourist town.  Although there are tourist shops, most of the downtown is down to business on a Saturday morning.  One striking feature of the downtown is the surprising number of shoe stores (Zapaterias).

Our ace bandage in hand we walked toward the public square.  We plunked our sweaty selves into a sidewalk seat facing the park at the Columbus bar. We each ordered the local beer (Imperial).  You can tell how hot it was by the fact that Suzi got a beer.  We were joined by Eloise and Elaine our next door neighbors on the ship and watched the lively Saturday scene at the park.

Then we took our own stroll through the park.  The other times we have been here we have always seen sloths in the trees.  We did not this time.  I am not good at spotting them but I am good at seeing groups of people staring up into a tree.  We did see an iguana in a tree. 

We headed back to the ship for a late, well-balanced lunch, of cheese cubes, one can of Coke between us, salty potato chips, ice cream and lots of water with ice.   

Later, in the aft pool one of the dancers from the ship’s rep company said she saw three sloths in the park.  Given the speed that they move I can’t imagine that they were not there when we were, but we missed it.  Another person swore she saw a koala bear.  A trio of dolphins accompanied us out of the harbor.