Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Best Ocean Tour
OCEAN KING
JOSE LUIS SEGNINI CASTRO
The ocean stirs the heart, inspires the imagination and brings eternal joy to the soul.
Wyland
Jose Luis Segnini Castro's family has ten years of experience in Costa Rica tourism, so you
would think when his father came home and announced they were investing in a giant cata-
maran as a new venture, people would be excited. “Everybody was like, 'Are you crazy?'”
Joselaughsasherecallsthatday.“Theyweresaying,'Whatareyoudoing?Weareinvesting
everything here!'” Despite that rocky beginning, the plan stuck and today the Ocean King is
a result of that vision.
“My father was on a catamaran tour,” Jose explains, “and he just fell in love with it. He
saw how popular it was, how much people enjoyed it, and he also saw a business opportun-
ity.” Where they had previously been involved in a hotel and small tour operations, this was
a chance to do something on a different scale. “That was the beginning,” Jose says. “Then
came the three years of hell — the construction!” Building a boat on that scale is no small
task, and what began as a 60 or 70 foot vessel soon became a 100 foot challenge. They faced
a number of difficulties, not the least of which was getting to the boat, which was being built
away from the town due to some of the processes required in its construction. Jose typically
waded out to the shipyard until the day he spotted several crocodiles in the water nearby.
From then on, he and his family took the long way around the beach, eventually using a mo-
torbike for the journey, although it was a hair-raising challenge when the weather was bad.
