heimburg.org

N and I got back from our trip to Costa Rica on Sunday evening, and we are still (slowly) adjusting to the daily grind after two weeks of vacation. I thought I would write a little bit about how we spent our time in Costa Rica.

Day 1: Sunday

We wake up at 4:00 a.m. in our honeymoon suite to drive to Orlando for our flight to CR. All goes well and we arrive in San Jose around noon. Immediately upon walking out of the airport we receive numerous offers for (quite expensive) rides to La Fortuna, where we are headed for the evening. We had heard that CR has a good public transportation system that is dirt cheap – so we decide to find the public buses. So we hop in a cab and get dropped off at the main bus station in San Jose.

Luckily, we ran into the Costa Rican version of Glen Goulia at the bus terminal. He spoke great English and helped us get on a bus headed in the right direction, and also helped us transfer to another bus at our first stop. The bus ride was long, about 4 hours total, but only cost us $6 to go about 160 kilometers. Incredible. Along the way we rode through small towns in the mountains, lots of cows in pasture and such beautiful scenery.

We arrived in La Fortuna a little after dark, and found a cheap ($27) hotel room for the night. It was small, clean, and even had cable! For dinner we walked down the street to a bar that was playing the final game in the world series so we could catch some of the game.

Day 2: Monday

We woke up early and found our way to Rainforest Cafe for breakfast. Nick had a typical Costa Rican breakfast of black beans and rice, eggs, toast, etc – while I had a giant fruit platter. They served us some of the most delicious coffee I’ve ever had – muy fuerte!

After breakfast we bought a Spanish/English dictionary and hailed a cab to the Arenal Observatory Lodge. Our cab driver was fantastic, and made an agreement with us that he would speak only in English if we spoke only in Spanish. It worked out great, and he gave us a brief history lesson on the area.

The Arenal Observatory Lodge has the best view of the lava flow from Arenal Volcano. We immediately explored the grounds, took a dip in the hot tub, and enjoyed the relative isolation of the hotel.

That evening we took a night hike to a spot two miles from the base of the volcano (as close as anyone is allowed to get) to watch the lava and rocks tumble down the side of Arenal. Along the way the guide pointed out to us a plant whose leaves close up when you touch them (video), a giant termite nest, and the spot where a village used to lie before the volcano exploded for the first time in 1968. The best part about our tour was how our guide kept imitating a howler monkey.

On the hike we met a few nice couples, and two guys from Europe. We wound up having dinner and drinks with the Europeans that evening, and arranged to take a few tours with them the next day.

Day 3: Tuesday

We woke up early (for vacation) and enjoyed what turned out to be the catch-all breakfast buffet for all CR hotels: fruit (pineapple, papaya, bananas, watermelon, etc), eggs, black beans and rice, bread, strong coffee and orange juice. After breakfast we jumped on the 8:30 a.m. hike to a waterfall. The same guide from the previous tour escorted us through the rain forest, and showed us a citronella bush that we could use to keep the mosquitoes at bay.

The waterfall was beautiful, however, the heavy rains had washed away the end of the trail, so we couldn’t get too close.

After the hike we met up with our European friends, and a father and his son from Bermuda and we all carpooled down to our canopy tour. We stopped and had lunch at this tiny outdoor restaurant – very authentic and delicious, but slim pickings for a vegetarian.

Our canopy tour began on horseback – my horse’s name was Gato and he loved to follow any other horse. He got a little mixed up on the way there, and decided to jump over a little ditch to get back on track. We all arrived safely at the start of the zip line tour, got harnessed up and listened to a little speech on what not to do.

The zip lines were absolutely terrifying for me, as I am so scared of heights. Most of the platforms were just metal grates attached to the middle of the tree trunk with no way up or down besides the next zip line, and the platforms went up to 150 feet in the air. It was so much fun though, and I would probably do it again. Check out some of the videos we took on the tour: Nick’s 1st person perspective, and my takeoff and landing.

After the zip line tour was complete, we got back on our horses and rode into the sunset, and back to the stables. We spent that evening with our new friends at Baldi Hot Springs. They pipe in geothermal water that has been heated by the volcano into a bunch of different pools, ranging from warm up to something like 150 degrees celcius. One of our friends jumped into the hottest pool without testing the temperature first, and came running at full speed back out – ouch!

We were a bit turned off by Baldi though, because, while the photos look like the place is very peaceful and natural, while we were there at night, they were blaring techno music and disco lights. Also, they have a very sketch slide, which after the second bump, launches you up into the air, and then you come crashing back down onto the slide before being dropped into the water. Luckily, Baldi was a lot less expensive than Tabacon, which I’ve heard is equally cheesy.

After the springs we had dinner at a restaurant that served mostly Mexican-type dishes – I had a delicious giant burrito! We pretty much passed out immediately after dinner from such a long and exciting day.

Day 4: Wednesday

We woke up and promptly caught a 7:00 a.m. shuttle bus to Manuel Antonio National Park on the Central Pacific coast. This was mostly a travel day, but there were a few highlights: Seeing a bunch of enormous crocodiles sunbathing on the bank of a muddy river. Getting stuck at a bridge for over an hour while workers repaired it with first a hammer, then a blow torch.

We did not have a hotel picked out for Manuel Antonio, so we just got off the shuttle bus at another passenger’s hotel and stayed there. The hotel turned out to be pretty decent, had a good restaurant, and was very close to the beach. We ate dinner at the hotel, and watched a family of raccoons slide up and down a bamboo stalk to try and steal fruit from the bar.

Days 5-6: Thursday and Friday

We explored Playa Espadilla, just outside of Manuel Antonio park on Thursday. There were hermit crabs and iguanas everywhere! We wandered down the beach and found some trees where a bunch of white faced monkeys were hanging out. We were trying to get a picture of a smallish monkey, when all of a sudden, one of it’s parents spotted us – jumped down on a limb right in front of us and started screeching and pretending like it was going to jump at us. I went flying back towards the beach, while N defended both our honors and scared the monkey away.

Later that day we decided we could both use an upgrade in sleeping accommodations, so we booked two nights at Si Como No, a green resort just outside of MA. Our room had a view of the ocean from the balcony, and the restaurant was really good. Later that afternoon we went down to the beach and N rented a surf board to catch some Pacific Ocean waves.

I am a wuss, so I downgraded to a boogie board. However, I did paddle out to catch the big waves, which was really fun. N had to tell me to stop flailing around in the water because I could be attracting fish and other creatures of the deep – I had a mini panic attack and promptly stopped kicking my legs. It was fun to try and catch waves, get pummeled by the surf, etc – now I can say I “surfed” the Pacific coast of CR!

Thursday night we had dinner at the hotel restaurant. The best parts of dinner were the delicious burrito wrap I ordered, the Chilean white wine we drank, and the amazing Latin guitarist who played intricate acoustic songs, and Dust in the Wind.

Friday we explored Manuel Antonio NP and saw way too many iguanas, howler monkeys, herds of hermit crabs, and jesus lizards. The beaches of MA were so beautiful with bright blue water, white sand, and lots of rocks and islands sticking up everywhere.

We spent the rest of the day lounging around the hotel and pool. Dinner was eaten down the street at El Gato Negro, which also had a guitarist who sung 80s rock ballads in Spanish – Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door – amazing! We forgot our umbrella, and ran back to our hotel in the rain.

Day 7: Saturday

Another day of leisure in Costa Rica. We woke up and enjoyed another wonderful breakfast buffet – with omelet bar and everything! Each day we sat at the same table with a great view of the ocean, as the hotel seemed to be pretty empty. More lounging after breakfast, until lunch, where we sat at the same table again! Nick and I also did some bird finding with the telescope at our hotel, and took photos and video through the eyepiece. Then we caught a 12:30 shuttle to San Jose, where we spent our last night in the tropics.

We stayed at a place called Adventure Inn. It was a little bit strange – there were three full-sized beds in our room – but it was comfortable, clean, and very affordable. By this point I was feeing pretty under the weather, so we spent the evening watching the Food Network…mmmm….cable.

Day 8: Sunday

We packed our bag, washed out the last bit of Costa Rican jungle from our hair and caught our 2:15 p.m. flight back to the States! We landed in Orlando around 9:00 p.m. local time and were greeted at the airport by the smiling faces of my sister and her dogie Vinyl! Back at my sister’s apartment my mom brought over grilled pineapple for dessert, and we got the first glimpse into a few of our wedding presents. (Who got us the belgian waffle maker? There was no card attached by the time it made it’s way to us, so we have no idea!) We spent the good part of an hour reading through cards – so many people had such kind words for us.

Day 9: Monday

We had breakfast with my sister and our friend K and her bay boy at a local park – red organic grapes, tangerine juice and Einstein Bros. bagels with vegan cream cheese – yum! At the park we saw baby ducks and a turtle laying eggs. Our flight was out at 2 p.m. so we had to head to the airport pretty much right after breakfast.

Back in Boston our kitty Bella was waiting impatiently! We’re home, but our apartment felt so strange after two weeks away from it. However, it was so nice to come home to a clean apartment and cook a delicious pot of chili for ourselves.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 7th, 2007 at 6:57 pm and is filed under travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.