In the middle of a two week cruise from San Diego to Ft Lauderdale through the Panama Canal we stopped at Puntarenas, Costa Rica. We ( my wife and I, in our sixties) were met by Dietmar Maier, at the end of the pier, just as had been planned and paid for by e-mail two months earlier. He had us driven up the mountain to his hotel where we met his wife Barbara. Dietmar and Barbara own and run the the Hotel Vista Golfo in the mountains above the town of Miramar, about a forty-five minute scenic drive from the Pier. I had originally planned to go horse back riding and then to do 25 zip lines over the canopy and water falls but had recently had a minor injury to a knee and Barbara suggested a slight change in itinerary. She "customized" our trip to favor my injury on the spot and sent the two of us off with three guides. We started out with a little zip line training and then did 11 zip lines with the last one about half a mile long. It was unbelievable. At the end of the last zip line we were met by one of the guides with horses to ride back up to the hotel. Once back at the hotel, Barbara arranged for a fourth guide to take us through an ATV training course. He then took us on a couple of hours tour through the forests and further up the mountain until we could see our ship, off in the mist, miles away. After getting back to the hotel, lunch and cold beer was waiting for us and then after time in the pool, we were driven back down the mountain to the pier and our waiting ship. It was a perfect day and much more fun than the so called zip lines that the cruise line arranged in enclosed gondola cars.
