Two things on our bucket list were to take a windstar cruise and to do a transit of the Panama. So we booked a Windstar cruise through the Panama and up the coast of Costa Rica. Alas, it is not to be. Our ship, the Star Pride, caught a case of rock rash on a reef off the Coast of Costa Rica and all sailings are cancelled until April. 

Our travel agent was able to pull together another trip for us using the same flights so now we are going to the Panama and Costa Rica, but not on a cruise. We leave tomorrow, January 21 and leave Costa Rica on February 1 when we will go to visit our good friends Nancie and Ross Parker in Palm Dessert for a couple of weeks before coming home for a few days.

Here is our itinerary – hope you enjoy the trip as much as we will:

Jan. 21 – fly to Panama City

Jan 22 – tour of Portobelo with trip back to Panama on the Trans-Isthmian train

Jan 23 – partial transit of the canal

Jan 24 – to Monteverde via car and plane

Jan 25 – Tree top walkways hanging bridge tour (yikes, sounds high and scarey!) + butterfly & humingbird gardens

Jan. 26 – El Trapiche Tour (local plantation with coffee, sugar cane etc.)

Jan. 27 – boat and bus trip to Arenal

Jan. 28 – wildlife refuge boat tour in the Cano Negro Wildlife refuge

Jan. 29 – day at Arenal Kioro – the spa we are staying at in Arenal

Jan. 30 – transfer to San Jose

Jan. 31 – Rainforest Aerial Tram tour 

Feb. 1 – leave hotel at 4:30 am!!!! For flights to Houston and after a 6 hour layover on to Palm Dessert