Full Day Tour with Charlie Soto
Horace Plotkin

We had arranged online for a full day tour and were looking forward to it and Charlie Soto was dockside waiting for us at the pre-arranged time 7.45am. We boarded our bus along with about 16 others and took off for the first stop, Brisas de la Jungla zipline adventure. After getting kitted out and a short training talk, we headed to the first platform, an easy 3 minute walk followed by 6 or 7 steps up to the platform. The zipping was great fun, especially numbers 4 & 5 which were extremely fast, number 5 was over 800 feet long so you had lots of time to build up speed…. and most people did, I’d have slammed into the tree if the guide hadn’t caught me.. and I wasn’t alone, one woman came in so fast, even with the guides help she still smashed into the water cooler, knocking everything about.

From the zipline we headed for Tortuga canals for a pleasant trip through the jungle, spotting many birds, sloths and one crocodile. The trip out was slow and meandering but the return was at top speed and if you’re toward the back of the boat at either side, you will get wet, I did. Back at the boat dock there was a few minutes for washroom break, remember to give something to the little kid outside the washroom who mops the floors, he must be all of 6 or 7 years old.

After the canals, we headed for the animal sanctuary, quite interesting with close up views of all the animals, including the opportunity to hold the parrots and monkeys (but not the sloths). By the time we left the animal sanctuary it was after one oclock and I was starving but somehow I missed the vote where it was decided to bypass our lunch/beach stop and head straight for the banana plantation.

The banana operation was very interesting and carlos explained the lifecycle of the bananas and process within the plantation.

Next stop was downtown Puerto Limon to visit a supermarket, we had a twenty minute stop and since we were not buying anything, we took the opportunity to wander into a local market and have a look around. About 4pm we were back at the port, paid Carlos with thanks and headed for the buffet on board, it had been so long since we had eaten that I’d almost forgotten how, but it came back to me.

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