Woke up at 3
Made up my laundry bag
Watched the movie I feel pretty. wandered around the ship taking photos of the different levels at the stairs.
Wrote up some more of the trip
Margie woke up and we went for breakfast at O’Sheehan’s. it was a little crazy with pretty much the whole ship having to be ready to leave on their tours by 730. We got a table and then waited for the waiter to come and take our order. I held up our menu and one of them came over and asked what time our tour left . Ours left at 740 so he asked us if we would mind waiting for a bit as they were trying to get the breakfasts for the folks leaving at 710 first. No Problem. He brought us tea and coffee and we waited watching the action of all the waiters and waitresses.
Our turn came and we had a lovely breakfast as usual. Porridge for me and eggs for Margie and toast for both. As we were finishing our breakfast a passenger across the aisle from us started to complain to one of the waitresses that he was given terrible service , that he was ignored, that he was not happy with the lack of service. The waitress was very professional and tried to explain that she was sorry that he was not happy with that morning’s service but it was not her fault , that there were three other waiters in that seating area. I felt bad for her. The unreasonable passenger would not be placated and even though she was holding a tray full of other peoples breakfasts he kept her there for at least 5 minutes complaining. After he left and she had come over to our table to see if we needed anything, we asked her how she was and hoped that her day would get better now that everyone would be going off the ship. Her family were coming to see her in the port in Nicaragua and she was looking forward to that.
We went to the stardust theatre in case our tour had different directions, which floor , aft or bow exit doors, but it was the same as always, so off we went to find our tour bus. We exited the ship and headed in the wrong direction along the dock looking at all the tour buses lined up and ended up having to walk back to our starting point to find ours only a few buses in the other direction. 
Today our tour was a long one 7 hours roundtrip to San Jose National Theatre and Sarchi artists town with the lovely oxcarts. We had Juan? and Jeffrey, our driver, although Juan did not tell us this when we got on, I had to ask him and he never told us the drivers name I asked the driver myself.
The drive there was uneventful with only a little information being given to us about what we were seeing and when he did tell us he directed our attention to the front of the bus. Well, the problem with that was that we were seated at the back so we had to wait for the road to change direction for us to see what he was talking about. Later on in the tour he started to direct our attention to the left or right side but not until later.
We saw a volcano which was active but not dangerous as of yet. We saw lovely orange trees that I asked him about and he said they were African orange tulip trees. There were bright yellow trees he said were called yellow Cortez because Cortez died under one.
We arrived at San Jose, the capital of the country via the main highway which winds its way up ward through sugar cane fields and coffee plantations. They plant coffee in the shade of other trees, mangoes or banana or nut trees, as coffee grows better in the shade.
On the way we passed a river with some smaller, poorer homes on one side and larger homes on the other with rour guide telling us about how the rich people lived on one side of the river and the poor lived on the other. He sounded disgruntled.
The National theatre in San Jose is really lovely. Reminded me of a smaller version of the Paris opera house. The history of it is quite interesting. at the beginning there were so few rich people and the the president came from a poorer background that he made it so t hat everyone could go to the opera house. They did not need to wear shoes if they did not have them and would never be turned away because of that.
We spent a lovely time there with all the statues in the foyer and the marble in the hallways and stairs. We went upstairs into the theater to learn about its history.
We went into the reception rooms decorated with more statues and paintings . One painting on the ceiling was of a lovely lady and her eyes followed you around the room. she was lovely although at the same time creepy.
There was lots of gold leaf making it look quite opulent. We spent some time taking photos and using the washrooms. It was really lovely.
We made our way back to the bus via the square with the largest gold museum in latin America underneath it. It was very hot out and we kept trying to get into the shade of any tree we could find. back to the bus and we were off again.
A short but nerve wracking, winding, steep ups and downs drive later we were in Sarchi. Costa Rica is a lot of mountains with some active volcanoes and lots of steep hills with small roads winding up, down and around, back and forth on tight corners. The main highway is wide enough but we were not on the main highway to Sarchi.
Sarchi is a smallish community of artists making beautifully painted carved wooden crafts, beaded handworks and ceramics. the town has a lovely green church which is a landmark of sorts.
the town also lays claim to the largest painted ox cart in the world. it is really stunning displayed on a large covered patio in the park across the street form the green church
The shop where we stopped acts as the seller of all the different items and has a workshop where they make oxcarts of all sizes from the largest to ones still in use to day in the coffee plantations to souvenir ones for tourists to take home.
The designs and bright colours of the painted ox carts were stunning. These designs were all over the place, on chairs, walls and souvenirs. I fell in love with the vibrant designs and have decide to, somehow, incorporate them into my garden back home.
We had a bite to eat at the restaurant, an included lunch with our tour. I had beans and rice and plantain which was very good. Margie and I came in last and were at the back of the line until the tour guide came in and told us we had lined up backward so then we were at the front of the line. Worked out well for us as we had more time to shop for souvenirs.
I bought a lovely little beaded hummingbird and some post cards and coffee of course for my son and daughter-in-law, they like their coffee. then we wandered around and looked at all the pretty designs on everything. we watched a live demonstration of them painting a piece by hand, free hand, and it was amazing to see how quickly they could do this intricate patterns. made it look so easy so you know that it is actually really hard.
There was a coffee display with a live coffee plant with coffee berries on it. I never knew how complicated coffee was. I am a tea drinker so never really paid much attention to coffee before. It was all very interesting.
Margie and I both just loved Sarchi and I am sure that both my mother and father would have loved it too so I sprinkled them there in the flower garden when no one was looking
The drive back was just as harrowing as the drive there, but we took a different route and made a few stops. One to take photos of the volcano and one to get a banana plant flower and one to get one of the passengers some sand from the beach. We were back in the port just in time. We were the last tour group back. With 10 minutes to spare for our deadline of 430. The ship departed at 5.
We had a lovely dinner at the garden cafe that night and went to the show of the broadway singer who was alright but rather loud. She definitely knew all the words.
Towel animal - Dino the dinosaur,
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