Puntarenas, Costa Rica – The Ultimate “Birding From A Cruise Ship” Port

Costa Rica is one of the world’s great birding & eco-tourism destinations and really deserves a full land-based trip such as we did in 2013.  But if you happen to find yourself on a Panama Canal cruise, make sure Puntarenas (or nearby Caldera) is included!  Most ships will offer a good choice of eco-tourism options if you want to book with the cruise line.  Here are a few from Princess to give you an idea.

Scarlet Macaw Sanctuary, Boat Tour & Country Drive

Carara National Park, Pura Vida Gardens & Lunch

Rainforest Aerial Tram, Tarcoles River & Lunch

There is also a new Scarlet Macaw Sanctuary (not sure if this is where Princess is going now, they used to go to El Manantial) called the Ara Project.  They used to be based in Alajuela but recently relocated here.  I have pretty extensive posts on Carara & the Tarcoles River Cruise when we were there on a land trip so in this post I will give my advice for a shore excursion when you have limited time.

Puntarenas is one port where you are better off organizing a private trip.  You can sometimes recruit others to share the cost if you join your cruise’s Roll Call on Cruise Critic.  We ended up on our own but the price was reasonable even if we did pay it ourselves.  After much online research, I chose Odyssey Tours and Travel and it was an excellent choice!  The guide knew the local birds well and he took us to a great local place for lunch that had no other cruise people so it was really authentic.  They also have a tour sharing service.

In the map you can see our customized itinerary.  We started from the port (Puntarenas Excursions on the Google map), drove to Carara, spent the morning there, had lunch at that little restaurant on the beach (black line), went back towards the port stopping at the Molas souvenir shop and finishing at the El Manantial Sancturay (roughly “unnamed road”), then back to the ship.

Puntarenas

 

Warning, there is a ridiculous number of photos to follow!  I probably should have split this over 2 posts but I am trying to show you what you can do in just ONE day in this port!

Pre-dawn arrival and we were first off the ship.  Our guide picked us up and we hit the road to Carara to get to the Scarlet Macaws asap.

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We caught the Scarlet Macaws in time for breakfast.  This was a young family, we could tell by the way the young macaw kept going back and forth between his parents.  Since we had such a good view, we hung out here for over an hour.

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Reluctantly leaving the macaw family, we walked through the park looking for any kind of wildlife.

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We had lunch a bit early to make sure we had time for the afternoon program.  The food was delicious an it was only us and one other private tour group of 10 people here.  After lunch, we wandered down to the beach to watch sea birds.

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We had a quick drive through the town of Tarcoles then a quick stop where the crocodiles hang out under the bridge.  Some tour groups feed them.  Being Aussies, we weren’t all that fussed about seeing crocodiles.

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The Molas Souvenir Shop was about halfway back to Puntarenas.  They take all credit cards so I went a bit nuts here!  I would have been even worse if we hadn’t been limited for room!

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I really wanted those tables but didn’t know how to get them back to Australia.

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Enroute to the sanctuary, we lucked upon this beautiful motmot and trogon.

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Final stop was El Manantial Sanctuary.  The birds were rescued from smugglers or in some cases donated by pet owners who couldn’t keep them anymore.  You can see where the Great Green Macaws, Scarlet Macaws and Orange-fronted Parakeets have been set free but still hang around the facility to steal food from their still captive friends.  Only the species that are native to Costa Rica are set free here, others such as the Cockatoos and Hyacinth Macaws will stay in the aviaries.

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Here’s the end of the tour, a quick drive through Puntarenas and we were dropped at the end of the small market that pops up to serve cruise ships.  We did end up buying still more bird themed souvenirs!

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The ship docks at the end of a very long pier so they have a cute little train to get us back to the ship.  My poor husband was exhausted!

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I was more exhilirated after such a successful trip!

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How I Planned A Birding Cruise

The cruise I will be blogging about in this series took place in 2011 on the beautiful Coral Princess by Princess Cruises.  It remains to this day as the best cruise we have ever taken out of about 6 so far.  It was the perfect itinerary – birding at almost every port and not too many sea days.  Unfortunately Princess no longer does this itinerary, probably due to American passengers being afraid to travel to Acapulco and the cruise was only just over half full.  Good for us, not so good for Princess!

GETTING THERE

This cruise was done during what I call the Golden Age of Miles & Points – when there were lucrative promos and fewer people who had the expertise to exploit them.  I did the US Airways Grand Slam promo on both mine and my husband’s accounts to get over 120k miles in each our accounts.  The whole itinerary was in business class!

SINGAPORE AIRLINES:  BNE-SIN

ASIANA:  SIN-ICN-LAX

US AIRWAYS:  LAX-PHX-MEX

Open jaw for cruise, then drive to Orlando to see friend.  Fly to LAX and drive to see family using separate ticket on AA.

ASIANA:  LAX-ICN-SIN

SINGAPORE AIRLINES:  SIN-BNE

As I stated in the previous post, we arrived in Mexico 3 days prior to the cruise and spent 1 day in Mexico City at the Hampton Inn Centro Historico, saw the pyramids, took a bus to Acapulco and spent 2 nights at the Crowne Plaza on points and were upgraded to a corner suite.  We had a great view and even saw our ship the Coral Princess come in!

THE CRUISE ITINERARY

This map shows the ground transport (red) and cruise (blue).

Cruise & Flights

Here we have the cruise itinerary with timings.  Timings are always important as you see way more birds in the early morning.  We were really good about being downstairs ready to dis-embark the minute they started allowing people off.

Cruise ItineraryOUR SPECIFIC PLANS FOR EACH PORT

Huatulco – Princess actually had a bird-watching shore excursion so we did that.

San Juan del Sur – I couldn’t find anything for birding at the time so we did a Masaya Volcano/Granada shore excursion hoping to see birds incidentally.

Puntarenas – I booked a private day trip to visit Carara National Park and a bird sanctuary

Panama Canal – The ship provided commentary throughout the transit of the canal.  When we reached Colon, they only gave us a few hours to see the shopping centre at the port.

Ocho Rios – I booked a private birding tour.

FUN FACT:  I got to watch the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton on the big screen at the swimming pool during the cruise even though I had to get up at 4am to do it!

El Manantial Sanctuary, Puntarenas, Costa Rica

El Manantial is a project dedicated to the conservation of macaws native to Costa Rica. The main focus of the project is the Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao) and the Great Green Macaw (Ara Ambigua), who once flew freely in many areas of Costa Rica. In 1994, individuals concerned with the status of these endangered species decided to create a project for their conservation; with the sole purpose of the project being the reintroducing of Macaws back into the wild, striving to increase their population numbers.

It’s very easy to organize a visit here whether you are on a cruise ship or land based.  Information on how to get to Puntarenas/Tarcoles is covered in my post on Carara National Park.

A guide will take you around the sanctuary.  You will see birds in aviaries and some wild birds who were either former aviary residents who were set free and decided to stick around or local wild birds who know a great place to find free food!

PHOTOS

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