There had been rain this morning and many of the sidewalks were flooded.  It was just as well that it rained when it did.  We couldn’t dock the ship anyway.  The longshoremen went on strike with the ship ahead of us tied only at the stern.  The dock authorities had everything ironed out one way or another in about one half hour.

There are many beautiful towns in Costa Rica.   Sadly, the only ones of which I am aware are on the Pacific side.  Puerto Limon has a dodgy feel to it only a few blocks from the pier.  A ten year old gangster followed us along jabbering at us.  When my patience wore thin, I finally told him to leave us alone.  His reply?  “I leave alone.  One dollar.”

The little market was pleasant.  The people were friendly for the most part.  Like most tourist places I’ve visited most of the items were not even locally made.  We did buy a few small items.  We’re suckers for art created by the person selling the art and we bought more painted tiles.  They were well done, sold by the artist, and we liked the artist.

By the time we walked through Vargas Park to the seawall and then over to the cathedral (pathetically modern after seeing San Pedro Claver in Cartagena) we were over heated.  So we packed it in and headed back to the ship where we found a spot to read by the Solarium pool.  Like Cartagena, if I’m on a cruise stopping here I won’t bother getting off.