Bit of a swell last night when we departed from Puntarenas could feel it while having dinner in the Bordeaux Dining Room. Lovely looking across the water at the lights of Puntarenas, as we retraced our steps out of the Golfo de Nicoya sailing parallel courses to the coast of Costa Rica making our way towards San Juan del Sur.

Light is shining between the curtains and it is only 5am, as we make our final approaches to our anchorage in ‘Bahia San Juan del Sur’ where we will drop anchor and prepare the Tender vessels to commence tender services after 7am. In the distance you can see the outline of Nicaragua through the haze, very mountainous, sparse and high cliffs to the sea.

Coral Princess is anchored in an area of 20 metres water depth, approximately one mile from the tender pier and on the port side (left) from the Horizon Court windows while having breakfast we can see the crescent shaped bay speckled with local fishing boats, thatched roof bars and restaurants line the black sandy beach, streets lined with homes and store fronts built of wood, painted in vibrant colours. Built into the mountainside are beautiful Mediterranean homes, this is Nicaragua’s most visited beach town on the Pacific coast.

Part of Nicaragua’s beauty and tourism is Masaya Volcano National Park, the volcano is still active, Apoyo Crater (formed 23,000 years ago) an enormous lagoon formed when hot springs filled the crater of a dormant volcano. At the crater’s edge marvel at the amazing vistas of the towering Mombacho Volcano, the steeples and rooftops of the picturesque 500 year old city of Granada and the massive Lake Nicaragua (99 miles long and 45 miles wide) a gorgeous blue lake home to many rare species of animals including the freshwater shark, which cannot be found anywhere else in the world.

While waiting for our Tender ticket to be announced in the Bordeaux Dining Room we were so looking forward to getting a local tour to these sights till we overheard an Australian lady say they had been there by land before and it is a two or so hour drive each way from where we are (San Juan del Sur) to Granada. That put an end to that, as it reminded us of going to Miami from Fort Lauderdale on a humid day like today 29⁰C and rising.

We looked at each other and decided to explore San Juan del Sur instead, the picture of ornate Spanish architectural buildings in the town square on front of the Princess Excursion Guide looked like what we would have seen in Granada. The tender ride was refreshing with the wind and sea spray, not a bad swell. Disappointment set in at landing to a building site of the new Cruise Terminal, gravel road to an old colourful seaside town lined with souvenir stalls and to find out from a Travel Agent (didn’t know I could read Spanish) that the picture on the Princess Guide is of Granada.

Walked along the shoreline past the many bars and restaurants, in and out of narrow streets of vibrant coloured wooden buildings, lots of backpackers and surfers here for the surf, there was a beautiful church and square. Too hot and humid for comfort plus Richard has caught some dogs disease from a passenger on board (found a pharmacy near the square) so we took the tender back to the ship.

Nice to be back in a cool environment and the comfort of ones suite, after a rest had lunch at The Grill then fresh fruit in the Horizon Court when we caught up with Tony and Deidre who joined us. They virtually did the same as us when they found out the travelling time to Granada.

Richard is not well, we had an earlier dinner no problems with getting a table for two and Constantine thought we were going to the Princess Theatre at 7.45pm, as he was going to have the waiter rush our courses through quicker. This he did when he knew Richard was unwell, met a Queensland couple next to us and she also had dietary requirements like me so we compared notes on the Menus.