May 3, 2008 It's been ten l o n g days at sea since Honolulu, and the ship has been a whirlwind of term papers, projects, study sessions and final exams. The weather has been getting warmer, and 700 girls have been sunning themselves out on deck in little bikinis so their tans will look really good when they get home!
The school semester is now officially over, and we docked this morning in Puntarenas, for our last shore excursion. Like many of our other ports, Puntarenas is not in one of the nicer parts of the country. In fact, the travel guide we consulted called it "the armpit of Costa Rica", and advised that turistas should spend as little time there as possible! 
The town is very poor, the beach is polluted, with dark dirt instead of sand that sticks to your feet, and the main street is a long row of bars with rusty corrugated metal roofs. Prostitution is legal here too – the perfect place for a shipload of college students to have their last hurrah!
Most of the kids took off immediately to the sandy beaches of Jaco or beyond – we'll see them in two days, about a half hour before the ship to due to sail.
We took a trip to Poas Volcano National Park, to see one of the several active volcanos in Costa Rica; a bus trip about 2.5 hours away from the port. The mountains were green, lush and beautiful, and as we gained elevation the weather went from tropical to chilly. By the time we reached the rim of the volcano, we were shivering in our shorts and had all donned our raingear. 
We were up in the cloud forest, surrounded by mist. We walked to the edge of the volcanic crater and peered down through the fog, but there was nothing to see but gray. However, we could hear the roar of the fumaroles below, and smell sulfur, so I'm sure there really was a volcano down there.
The cloud forest, always misty, is a great place for the growth of ferns and other shade loving plants. There is one plant called "poor man's umbrella" that has big leathery leaves up to 6 feet across, and could keep you dry in a storm. We ate lunch at a very nice "Tico" restaurant, with the obligatory rice and beans, accompanied by hummingbirds all around. One of the professors who is an avid birder says he saw twenty species today that he has never seen before.
May 4
For our last day on shore, we decided to take it easy and experience the little town of Puntarenas with some of the other professors. Pura Vida! We took a walk early (it was still hot, even then) and found a little "soda" (small restaurant) where we ordered café con leche (coffee is VERY good here). Then at 10 o'clock, it being Sunday, we went to church.
The Cathedral de Puntarenas is a tan and white stone building with stained glass windows, open and comparatively cool. We got there a little early, and were sitting waiting for the service to begin when the deacon (or whatever you call the layperson who helps out the priest) spotted my yellow hair and walked back to give us a missal in English, opened to the proper page for Ascension Sunday. There were no other missals, hymnals or books in sight – everyone knew the prayers and songs by heart. The service was easy to follow, and I was even able to sing one of the hymns (Seek ye first the kingdom of God – came before the reading of the Gospel). Instead of organ and choir, there was synthesizer and drums, a totally contemporary service!
We had lunch at a nice restaurante (rice and beans of course with choice of seafood – I had shrimp and Jim had squid), found la Groceria for some coffee and Salsa Lizano to bring home, then shopped at the souvenir stalls set up for tourists along the beach. The last of our lovely days in port – I'm getting very nostalgic already for all the things I will miss once the ship docks in Miami on Friday…
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