Costa Rica is in south Central America between Nicaragua & Panama. The Costa Rican people are known as 'Ticos' and have many interesting sayings that you pick up while visiting. Literally 'Pura Vida' means 'Pure Life', but in Costa Rica, the meaning is closer to "plenty of life", "full of life", "this is living!" That is exactly how I feel now about Costa Rica and the recent trip we took here.
The people in this country are so appreciative of what they have, but they are also extremely appreciative of their surroundings: the ocean, plants, animals, and overall the natural balance of life. They truly respect the bountifulness of the earth, and most live their lives to share with and educate visitors. Costa Rica country is amazingly beautiful, no words or pictures can truly describe all that you will see here...but I am certainly going to give it a try!!
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| Costa Rica - the regions we visited are circled |
Day 1- Saturday - February 4th, 2011
We head to Miami on Friday to meet up with friends and eat at Joes Stone Crab http://www.joesstonecrab.com/. Really good restaurant - get the crab, hash browns, creamed spinach, and key lime pie. Great way to kick off the trip!
Day 2- Saturday - February 5th, 2011
We land in San Jose approximately 2pm and our driver from the hotel 'Si Como No' (meaning: 'Sure, Why Not') is there to greet us at the airport. Oscar is a very friendly man who prefers to speak in Spanish. I am loving the opportunity to practice my Spanish skills, but Will has absolutely no idea what we are talking about, so I spend some time translating as well. Oscar starts our 3 hour drive to Quepos on the central Pacific coast which is where we will stay for 3 nights.
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| In the van... VAMOS! |
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| Jaco Beach |
Oscar stops a few times to let us get out and explore a bit. We stopped on a bridge and apparently there are huge crocodiles living in the river below. Yes, this is NOT a zoo, these huge 10 foot crocodiles are just swimming around under the bridge. Yikes!! We also stop at Jaco beach which is a popular surf spot. We see some wild macaws and then head into Quepos.
When we arrived at Si Como No http://www.sicomono.com/ , the hotel looked small, clean, and very cute. Dark wood, lots of stained glass, and everyone we met was very nice. We could only see the front of the hotel, and wondered where the hell is the ocean?!? That all changed once we walked inside. The entrance was stunning with an open-air lobby that overlooked the beach. The hotel is set into a very steep mountainside that spans 10 acres with multiple buildings and rooms tucked away all over the grounds. It was breathtaking and I would highly recommend this hotel to anyone. The hotel isn't in the rain forest, but its only a 5 minute ride to Manuel Antonio park and the beach. The hotel had 2 bars, 2 restaurants, a pretty sweet gift shop, and amazing views. We checking that night, planned our next couple of days and ate fresh tuna and prawns at the restaurant. We enjoyed our first sunset and called it a night.
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| View from balcony in room |
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| Split Level room |
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| Lookout from lobby at Si Como No |
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| Stained glass window in our room |
Day 3 - Sunday - February 6th, 2011
Today is BEACH DAY...or what will now be referred to as 'SUNBURN DAY'!!! :) After breakfast at 'Rico Tico Bar & Grille' at the hotel which consisted of fruit, pancakes, bacon and typical rice/black beans along with fried plantains, we jumped in a shuttle to the beach which is about 5 minutes drive down the hillside. The beach backs up to Manuel Antonio National Park which I mentioned earlier. It's a public beach so there were plenty of people, places to para-sail, rent jet skis, and all that jazz - but it wasn't too crowded and its a beach right?! After the foot of snow in KC, I'll take it! We scouted out the perfect spot and negotiated a good price on two chairs and an umbrella. I love the haggling you can do in foreign countries. :) We spent the day laying in the sun, playing in the water, drinking fruity alcoholic beverages, reading, Will did some exploring at the park end of the beach, and all-in-all it was a great day and VERY relaxing.
After the beach day, we went back to the hotel to realize a few things: 1. I forgot sun-block on my feet and my hands, BIG mistake. 2. Holy CRAP we were both pretty sun burnt. 3. Tonight was the SuperBowl, but do we really care? :) We showered, then lathered up in after-sun lotion, then went to the bar to surprisingly see the game was being show in Spanish and it was the best SuperBowl experience ever. Full bar, great seafood, and a lot of fun fellow-Americans who 99.9% were rooting for the Packers. It was a good game, good day in all, and now we head to bed (but first, need more aloe vera).
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| Quepos Beach! |
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| Will is relaxin' |
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| Us on the beach! |
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| Will bought me a coconut! |
Day 4 - Monday - February 7th, 2011
Sooooo today I wake up to realize the full extent of the burn. It was pretty bad on my feet, so instead of attempting to put on shoes and hike around in the jungle with Will and our personal tour guides, I chose to stay at the hotel. I was located near the pool, in the shade, armed with a book and tropical drinks. As much as it was stupid to get so burnt, it did force me to 'stop' and enjoy the art of doing NOTHING, in the end, it was a fabulous day. So Will ventured out that day on our excursion to zipline in the cloud forest, horseback ride, and do some waterfall swimming. That night we ventured outside the hotel to have the best meal of our trip. Kapi Kapi restaurant. A completely unreal food experience. http://restaurantekapikapi.com/. This is our last night in Quepos, tomorrow we head out to La Paloma Lodge in Drake Bay.
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| Will is ready to zipline! |
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| Will in action |
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| Rain forest |
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| Flowers in jungle |
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| Exotic flower on Will's tour |
Day 5 - Tuesday - February 8th, 2011
Today we leave Si Como No and head to La Paloma Lodge http://lapalomalodge.com/ which is situated off of Drake Bay and overlooks the Pacific ocean - but is in South Costa Rica. Our hotel arranges a ride for us to the Quepos airport, which is the tiniest airport I had seen to date. Just wait...I get to see a smaller one later in the trip. No lines, no security, NADA. It was sweet. We take a flight 25 minutes to a town called Palmar Sur. Our cab driver 'Reineir' is there to greet us along with another guide, and I have a fabulous time chatting it up with these two guys - and really enjoying getting to practice my Spanish!
We arrive at a boat dock on the Sierpe River where we meet 4 other travelers that are staying at our lodge in Drake Bay, and our captain 'Eduardo'. We board a small boat that will take us up the river, through the Mangroves, out into the ocean, where we will then land at Drake Bay. It was SOOOOO much fun and a 'must do' if you plan on going out this way. You can only access La Paloma Lodge by boat, so if you don't like boats, then this trip is not for you.
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| Quepos Airport |
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| Nature Air - our plane |
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| Boat on Sierpe River |
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| Our bay inlet and boat dock |
After arriving at the dock at La Paloma we hiked up a path to the entrance to the lodge. From here there are very narrow paths through thick plants, trees, and flowers - but all landscaped beautifully. We arrive at the main lodge where we meet Nicole and our lunch! We have a casual lunch AMAZING food and talk about the lodge, the plans for the next few days, the grounds, and are given our sarongs (they don't use towels for our excursions in order to save on laundry costs - this place is VERY eco friendly). Our luggage was taken to our rooms, so after lunch we go to our home for the next few days and then do some exploring on the beach. The rooms here are just beautiful. We had reserved a 2 story villa that slept 5, 2 open air bathrooms, a patio with hammock, seats, and an upstairs with a spectacular view of the Pacific ocean. It was breathtaking.
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| The Path up to the lodge |
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| View from the lodge |
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| Room from our front door |
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| Front room and staircase |
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| From 1st floor patio |
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| First floor - view from patio |
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| Master room |
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| Our house! |
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| View from the ocean onto La Paloma |
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| Our bed w/ mosquito net |
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| Porch swing at the point overlooking the Pacific |
After arriving and having our 'OMG this place is awesome' freak out session, we decided to head down to the beach. Will found a friend (a stray beach dog that wouldn't leave him alone) and I found lots of shade and then did a little napping. On our way back to clean up for dinner, we ran across a few white-faced monkeys fighting over some trash they dug out of the can near the beach. Dinner that night was the catch of the day (Mahi Mahi) or your choice of eggplan parm or chicken parm. While we had cocktail hour and appetizers, Will taught me how to black backgammon. The food was amazing, and then we called it an early night so we could put up our mosquito net on the bed and get ready for snorkeling the next morning!
Day 6 - Wednesday - February 9th
Today we head out to Cano island to do some snorkeling. Cano island is a biological reserve and is considered part of the Corcovado National Park so the wildlife is very well protected, and for this reason is abundant and flourishing. You can't even remove a seashell from the beach! Although normal whale watching time is in the September/October timeframe, we are LUCKY to happen upon a family of humpback whales. Our guide for the day, Randall is so excited that we divert from our original plan and do some whalewatching. Randall has degrees in both tropical botany and marine biology so he is very much in the 'know' and gives us the full scoop on all the wildlife we see. We also were lucky enough to have a scientist on board that specialized in whales!
We also ran across some dolphins...the spotted dolphins would swim in front of the boat, and at one point, one jumped about 5 feet out of the water. It was insane!! I mean, this isn't SeaWorld - this is out in the real deal...'wild kingdom'. Apparently there are many scientific and logical reasons for putting on a show like that. Either way - we enjoyed it!
Once we were done freaking out at the dolphins and whales, we continued over to the island to snorkel and check out the life under the sea up close. We saw schools of big eye jacks, sea bass, a white tipped shark, lots of other tropical fish, and of course I managed to get stung by tiny jellyfish. It wasn't too painful. As an FYI, vinegar on the sting helps take out the burn. We then went back to the island, had lunch, and enjoyed some napping/swimming time.
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| Snorkeling |
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| Cano Island |
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| LUNCH! Mmmmm. |
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| Nap time |
After we returned to the lodge we decided to hike to town (the town = about 200 people that mostly work or are families of those who work for lodges in the area). During the 20 minute hike to the little village, we encountered many locals, and saw ALL sorts of awesome stuff!
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| Me among some BIG palm trees |
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| Beautiful purple something |
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| Tropical Flower |
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| Will and the overlook to Drake Bay |
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| More pretty flowers |
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| The bridge to town |
Dinner tonight was tuna or BBQ chicken. I mean if they caught tuna THAT day, why on earth would you order anything else?!? We ate dinner at the lodge with all our other travel friends and called it an early night. We have to get up early tomorrow for our hike in Corcovado National Park.
Day 7 - Thursday - February 10th
It rained overnight, which was AWESOME! I slept so well. Which was important since we had to be up early to catch the 45 minute boat ride to the first ranger station at Corcovado National Park. It rained a bit in the morning, just enough to make our boat ride really wet, but hey - its the RAINforrest. When we landed on the beach, we dried out and split into groups. Our guide for the day was excellent. We took a hike down the beach and saw lots of monkeys, spiders, a sloth, a river otter, and tracks of other animals. Once we took back into the rain forest, we saw more birds, monkeys, frogs, and other fun creatures. We went back to the ranger station for another amazing lunch with fresh ingredients like avocado, cucumber, melon, pineapple, and tons of cookies!
We hiked to a nearby waterfall and Will climbed up behind it and came back soaked from head to toe. We got back on the boat and headed back to the lodge where we saw a sea turtle.
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| Before our hike into the park |
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| Crocodile! |
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| White-faced monkeys trying to scare us off |
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| In front of the waterfall |
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| more monkeys |
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| ant eater |
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| Will climbing back to k behind the waterfall |
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| Our guide teaching survival skills on how to open a coconut |
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| a cicada is napping in this BIG leaf |
After we arrive back at the lodge, we went down to the beach one last time and collected some sea shells for a decoration I plan to make, and then got ready for massages on our patio! After that, then dinner, it was a perfect last night at La Paloma!
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| Will getting his massage |
Day 8 - Friday - February 11th
So today we leave La Paloma Lodge, so sad. :( We take a boat ride to the small town in Drake Bay, land on the beach , and a taxi takes us to the nearby airport that is smaller than the one in Quepos. I mean really...these airports are slabs of concrete with a roof next to a landing strip. Love it! We land in San Jose, are drug searched by police dogs, and then secure our ride to our hotel: Grano de Oro http://hotelgranodeoro.com/ which is also well known for their award-winning Grando de Oro restaurant.
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| Drake Bay airport - so tiny! |
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| Runway of Drake Bay restaurant |
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| View from airplane - Costa Rica mountains |
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| Hotel Grano de Oro |
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| Hotel Grano de Oro |
We drop off our luggage and head into San Jose. Unfortunately the city is quite disappointing. Its crowded, noisy, polluted, and such a contrast to where we had just been - in paradise. I wouldn't spend any time in San Jose unless your travel arrangements require you to. If you do, get to a good hotel, and then get out! We decide that we must make the best of it, so we buy some souvenirs for friends/family and then head back to our hotel to nap and get pretty for dinner at the restaurant Grano de Oro which truly was excellent http://hotelgranodeoro.com/restaurant_intro.html.
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| Restaurant view |
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| Amuse bouche |
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| Us at dinner |
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| Salmon tartar |
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| Prawns in curry sauce |
Day 9 - Saturday- February 12th
Our flight leaves San Jose at 7pm, so we have a full day to play - but in a city that is truly no fun. So, we get creative and schedule a day trip to a nearby volcano - Poas which is a national park and closest cloud forest to San Jose http://costa-rica-guide.com/parks/poas.htm. Poas is 1 of 221 volcanoes on the island, and only 5 are active. This is the #3 volcano in terms of activity.
Our guide picks us up and we head out! On the way to the top of the volcano, we learn about all the uses for the land on the actual mountain. In the lower lands there are coffee plantations where we stop at Three Generations coffee fields and taste, buy, and learn the coffee process, which is MUCH more difficult than I thought! http://academiadelcaffe.com/php/coffee_three_generations.php
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| Coffee plantation |
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| Angela and her latte |
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| Will & Angela at Three Generations |
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| Top of Poas Volcano |
On the way down the volcano, we learn that the middle altitudes are perfect for many things such as growing flowers for export to other countries, dairy farms, and strawberry farms! We stop at Freddos Fresas (fresa = strawberry) and we eat a typical Costa Rican lunch consisting of salad, rice, beans, vegetables, and a choice of protein. The dessert counter at this place is unreal. Nearby there is a flower garden filled with BIG flowers and lots of hummingbirds. We spend some time there walking off lunch, and then pack up in the van to head to the airport in San Jose.
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| Ohhhh the strawberries! |
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| Fredo Fresas Restaurant |
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| The leaves of this plant are HUGE! |
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| Dessert counter at Fredo's |
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| Lilies! |
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| Hydrangeas! |
We arrive at the San Jose airport only to hear that our flight is delayed. As there is not much to do in the city...we are pretty much trapped, but take the time to read, play games, and do some napping before we get out of the country.
We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale around 2:30am and made it to the Sheraton for a few hours sleep before we arrived back in KC at 2pm on Sunday February 13th! Just in time for Valentine's Day. :)
