imabarbiegirl

I believe they picked us up at 8:00 am on the dock and had us back at the ship by 4:30 pm

We made arrangements and hired GioTours for our day trip in Costa Rica off of the cruise ship. Giancarlos was waiting for us on the pier the morning our ship arrived in Puntarenas and got us settled into our (air conditioned) 8 passenger van with a guide – Jesus and driver – Eduardo.

We started out with a trip to an area where we were able to feed the monkeys as they climbed up and over us. Totally amazing experience! Then we drove on to a stop at a fruit stand/roadside store. The smoothies and fruit were incredible. Then we continued down the road for a Crocodile Tour with Jose’s Crocodile River Tour. This was another fantastic 1 ½ hour tour. Jose was an amazing tour guide and did his best to ensure that we saw lots of birds, crocodiles of various sizes from babies, to teenagers and then an encounter with an enormous crocodile, and mangrove crabs.

After this tour, we were driven out to lunch at a restaurant along the roadside. Wonderful food and view and as we were a private tour, no rushing! After lunch we drove out to a beautiful condominium area in a hilly area with beautiful views and grounds – as it was now raining in the area, the views were limited; however the area was quite lovely.

We opted at this time to return to Puntarenas for a tour of the town and a chance to do some geocaching. The driver and guide were very informative and knowledgeable and very helpful in driving us around to locate and log our geocaches.

A wonderful tour and our group of 8 were all pleased and thrilled with this tour. We have no hesitation in recommending GioTours.

We (four people) hired My Friend Mario for our day off of our cruise ship - Oct 11/14 - in Panama City. We made arrangements to be picked up at a bus stop near the cruise terminal at 9:00 a.m.

My Friend Mario picked us up and provided an excellent day tour of Panama City. He was extremely knowledgeable about Panama and Panama City. Our day started with a trip to the Miraflores Locks with some time on the viewing deck as a cargo ship was manoeuvred through the locks and then some time in the museum.

We then went on to do some geocaching in nearby areas. My Friend Mario was very helpful in this regard as we directed him to various places on our map. He then took us up Cerro Ancon before taking us to a Panamanian restaurant for lunch (with wifi).

After lunch he took us on a tour of Old Panama, Colonial Panama and the new City. We ended with a drive on the causeway on the way back to our cruise ship and a drop off at 5:00 p.m.

We were very impressed with the quality of the tour provided and pleased with the ability to enjoy a tour, and the chance to incorporate the geocaching experience we wanted.

We would highly recommend contacting My Friend Mario when you are in Panama. We made contact with him through Facebook and then via email.