Puerto Limón – also known simply as Limón – is a port city located on the East Coast
of Costa Rica.
Named after the Spanish word for lemon, Limón was founded in 1854 and is currently the country’s
7th largest city.
According to climate data from Limón International Airport, the city experiences an average of
186 rainy days per year.
In this video, we’ll provide an overview of our December 2021 visit to Puerto Limón,
when our ship – the Emerald Princess – docked at the port on Christmas Day and we enjoyed
the ship-sponsored “Rainforest Walk, Canal Cruise, and Countryside” excursion.
Just a quick note that if you enjoy this video, please give us a thumbs up or leave a comment.
It really helps our channel!
And consider subscribing so you get alerted when we add new videos!
After our ship docked in Puerto Limón, we walked a short distance to the parking lot
to board the bus for our excursion.
The parking lot had a few photo ops available, including an “Essential” Costa Rica sign,
which is the country’s official slogan,
a port administration “Welcome to Port Limón” sign,
and a “Welcome to Puerto Limón, Costa Rica” sign.
Like many photo ops, the signs were far less crowded later in the day compared to when
we first arrived in port.
We boarded our bus and were soon traveling through the city, then the countryside toward
the waterway for our canal cruise aboard a pontoon boat.
The drive took about 30 minutes, with a few stops along the way for our very friendly
and informative guide, Marvin, and driver, Victor, to point out sloths relaxing high
above in the roadside trees.
When we arrived at the canal cruise location, we had a short walk along a paved and gravel
path to the pontoon boat.
Along the way, we saw many interesting plants and trees,
a couple of large spiders,
and a few sloths.
After boarding the boat, we started our roughly hour-long, relaxing journey along the canal
and back.
Our guide, Marvin, pointed out and described the flora and fauna we were seeing along the
way, including several birds,
a couple of iguanas,
a crocodile that was lounging behind someone’s house,
several monkeys high up in the trees,
a couple of ducks,
and several sloths hanging around in the trees.
A few of the sloths were close enough to the waterway that our boat was able to approach
for a closer look.
Our canal cruise ended with a return to the dock, where complimentary fresh fruit was available.
Nearby, a small gift shop had other local foods and drinks – as well as some souvenirs
– available for purchase.
After finishing our refreshments and taking a quick bathroom break at the provided restrooms,
our group boarded the bus again and we headed back to Cariari Park, which was supposed to
be the “Rainforest Walk” part of our excursion.
Unfortunately, the park was not much more than what the local website describes as a
“family destination recreational park” with paths that were not easy to navigate,
especially in the intermittent rain.
After roughly half an hour of walking, a significant portion of our group simply turned around
and headed back when we came to a large section of path that was rain-soaked mud along an
extremely steep hillside.
For those that continued by balancing along the small rocks in the path, the amphitheater
at the end was not much of a reward.
Despite the “less-than-a-rainforest” experience at the park, we were still able to see some
more interesting flora and fauna, including some heliconia,
star fruit,
soursop,
large clusters of bamboo,
a poison frog,
a howler monkey,
an extremely intimidating-looking – but apparently relatively harmless – large golden
silk spider,
and – of course – more sloths.
We were also able to enjoy a spectacular view of the Caribbean Sea with a small island in
the distance before we reached the more difficult portions of the park’s paths.
Finally, after finishing our walk in the park, the bus returned us to the cruise port approximately
four hours after we started the excursion.
We then spent some time shopping in the nearby market before heading back to the ship.