Costa Rica cruise was full of adventures

[SailorJM]

Our Jan. 9 Wind Star cruise in Costa Rica was fabulous, even though we all were kept on our toes due to the frigid weather that came out of Canada and froze the southern US and sent high winds into parts of Central America. Our plane tried but couldn't land in Costa Rica due to those winds, and it was late night, so AA put us all up in two gorgeous hotels in Managua, Nicaragua. That was our first adventure. Attempted landing in CR was so scary, I was more than glad pilot didn't try it again!

 

Next day, smooth flight to CR and to our hotel in Costa Rica, where our hotel didn't charge us for the night we missed while in Nicaragua (Hotel Dunn Inn....very nice hotel in historic building in downtown San Jose, with excellent restaurant, but beware: a casino is being built next door=lotsa noise during the day).

 

The day we were to board the Wind Star, we booked a tour with Coach Costa Rica. Highly recommend!! We made our arrangements with Patricia, and per recommendation on this board, asked for Roiner to be our driver. Patricia had a free day, so she decided to join us, and the four of us had a marvelous day: visiting a coffee plantation and a butterfly farm, enjoying a traditional CR lunch with Patricia and Roiner, and learning so much about the country, its flora, fauna and animal life (four-legged and two!). These folks are so proud of their country, and it shows. We have never hired a driver for a day, but this was so worth it. They got us to the ship and had made arrangements in advance to make sure we could drive right up to it, rather than getting offloaded about a mile outside, as most drivers must do.

 

Onboard the Wind Star, which we had last sailed in 2002, we were pleased to find everything spruced up even more, lots of fantastic fellow sailors and a fabulous crew led by a young-in-age-only captain (Alan), who promised us all that he really DID have a driver's license.

 

He proved it the second night out when, while trying to sail into Nicaragua late that night, the ship got buffeted by 95 knot (109mph) hurricane-force winds. A photo was taken of the weather gauge showing "95" and posted it in our daily newsletter. My husband and I slept through it (!) and in the am, found Capt. Alan had changed itinerary at midnite, making wide turn and heading back south, dropping Nicaragua from the trip. He added another port in Costa Rica, Playa Flamingo, which just added to the adventures.

 

We thought we were anchored in a calm bay, but then the winds picked up and a rogue 8-foot wave tossed one of the Zodiacs up and about, prompting Capt. Alan to pick up anchor and head for a second Playa Flamingo another cove, which turned out to be the answer to that problem. Arrangements were made for a day at a resort hotel for those who wanted to go ashore.

 

Loved all the ports, the barbecue on deck was just way too much fun with all the fabulous food and the dancing: conga lines, Macarena, line dancing and more. The beach day, well...it was a super way to wrap up a week of fun and adventure. Fellow passengers seemed to feel the same way. The captain literally rolled with the punches, and took care of his ship, passengers and crew with good cheer and good sense.

 

We took the river raft trip and the Mangrove boat trip and thoroughly enjoyed both!

 

Wanna go back!!

[SailorJM]

OK, replying to my own post: but I forgot to mention that fellow Cruise Critic member OSU Grad (Mary Jane) and her husband were on board with us. Fun to get to know them....and the six other San Diegans we discovered on the cruise. Hard to believe that on a cruise with some 105 passengers, 8 of us hailed from San Diego and only discovered each other on board.

[cherdon]

We are leaving next month. Your post makes us even more anxious to be on Windstar. Do you know anything about the wine program Windstar started?