ADVENTURE CRUISING
“The cruise focuses on NATURE AND WATERSPORTS rather than swanky shops and dressy dinners”
For the first of our daily excursions, we landed
on a castaway’s spit of sand known as Isla Gomez. It’s the perfect island paradise, populated only by palm trees and white sand beaches. The translucent water was bath-warm as I snor- kelled off the beach, with shoals of tiny iridescent fish flitting around me. Others chose to kayak around the bay but we all returned to a BBQ of fresh fish and other goodies, made even more deli- cious by the idyllic setting.
H
eading north back to Costa Rica, our next port of call was one of remotest areas in the country. We anchored at Golfito, a
town that the United Fruit Company built from scratch in 1938, where it became the south’s major port until the company abandoned it in 1985. Now tourism has overtaken bananas.
While some passengers opted to visit peaceful
Playa Zancudo, with its gentle surf, and others an equally tranquil orchid farm, I jumped into a four- wheel drive vehicle and bumped up the mountain- side until we were almost in the clouds. Costa Rica is the birthplace of zip-lining and
there’s no more thrilling way to get a monkey’s eye- view of the rainforest and its inhabitants. As I ten- tatively stepped off the first platform cradled in my harness, a toucan flew past to check out the strange bird in its territory and my speedy descent over the treetops was accompanied by the low roar of howler monkeys as well as a huge rush of adrenaline. That night we set sail for the Oso Peninsula, one of the country’s wildest and most isolated areas. The pristine rainforests and rugged natural beauty make this region among the most beautiful
62 WORLD OF CRUISING I Summer 2011
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