We usually read in internet about tours in Costa Rica from the passenger’s point of view. My intention writing this article is to present a different point of view; the guide’s point of view, I pretend with this a different insight that may be of interest for tour guides and for tourists as well.

Its 4:45 am I’ve been trying to sleep in the luxurious bus in the 3:00 hours ride from San Jose to Puerto Limon, Costa Rica and we have just arrived. Still sleepy I stand up, other colleagues are inside the bus in same conditions, we get of the bus and walk one block to the cafeteria, a good coffee, a good breakfast, I’m now waking up, feels great the coffee, once through, we return to the bus, pick up our light luggage and go to the parking lot where instructions are given by our supervisors from the tour operator; AsuAire Travel, a very well organized operation that serves cruise ship lines like Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Holland America, Princess Cruises, Celebrity Cruises, NCL and others.

Today I was assigned to the Train, Boat and Banana tour in Puerto Limon; I grab the information sheet and walk to my assigned bus. The driver is Juan, a well known experienced driver, a friend with whom I have worked many times in different tours, we friendly say hello and each one of us start to do what is need to have a good tour, he is cleaning some parts of the bus, I’m putting on my uniform and brushing my teeth, I check that microphone works well and find out everything is ready.

Next I go to another bus that is getting into the pier first and carries all the guides, once in front of pier of Limon’s harbor; we will have to wait some time until passengers start to show up.

Now the passengers flow in tenths out of Limon’s pier, then hundreds, they all come out of the ship expecting, wondering, and trying to find their tour.  As guides, we all carry a sign with the name of the tour; I’m standing next to the bus door showing my sign on top, some of the passenger quickly identify my sign and get into the bus.

We start the tour, first seconds are crucial to catch your audience’s attention, some of the persons are talking to each other, some are laughing, and some are really paying attention to me -even though I haven’t started to talk yet- I grab the microphone, and firmly but gently I say:
-Buenos Dias!! … Welcome to the Spanish course in a horse back ride!
I see faces changing instantaneously; half of the group is shocked, the other is laughing kind of loudly, then the other half start to understand this is  a joke, immediately I make a shocked face like wondering – trying-to-understand and say:
-Why are you laughing? Isn’t this… then I turn to see the sign pretending to discover I’m confused and apologize saying -I’m so sorry… that’s tomorrow’s tour... and so… this is the Boat, Train and Banana tour… good, welcome any way…

By now everyone is paying attention carefully because they are expecting more fun, I keep on…
- Let me introduce to you our driver –the most important person on this tour- his name is Juan, Juan is the second best driver in Costa Rica… (More laughing)… someone dares to ask: -Who is the first one? My answer: -the first one had a car crash yesterday… That’s it, we are now all good friends… next I mention my name, my expertise in natural history, and I start right there with a profound yet easy to understand, 15 minutes lecture that explains why we find one of the world’s highest biodiversity in Costa Rica.

Logistics and itinerary comes next, followed by a historical lecture that explains the idiosyncrasy of people from Costa Rica, their political maturity and more, as facts to consider in order to understand, the remarkable social and political situation of Costa Rica in the Latin American context.

During the rest of the tour we observe bananas, crocodiles, monkeys, shore birds, rain forest and more, and the whole group enjoys plentifully.

If done with expertise, guiding can be a very pleasant job to do, people react wonderfully towards your direction, they literally put in my hands every aspect, every minute of the tour, somehow, becoming a guided person in a strange environment (the visited place) seems to be the best as long as you fulfill the peoples expectations, in this matter, the guides goal is to be able to quickly read the persons needs while interacting.

Some small mistakes were done by operators during this tour, some logistics were slightly broken by other guides running the same tour at the same time but in reverse order, this affected a little bit our tour, but the passengers didn’t notice it, they were all enchanted by the beauty, and by the continues lectures that explained what was going on, only in the deepest part of my mind problems were being solved while the tour was running.