My Trip to Costa Rica - July 2006
(Here are Oscar's Costa Rica Pictures)
Day 1
July 22
Lots of thunderstorms in Philadelphia so we sat on the airplane for a good two hours before leaving. Arriving in Costa Rica there were also thunderstorms around the San Jose airport, so we had to hold a while before landing. Once we got down, it was a quick trip through customs and into a cab to San Jose. The cab ran about $13, which, as it turns out, was a little on the high side - we used the "Official Airport Taxi" - so it may be smarter to just go out onto the curb and ask one of the non-official cabbies what their rate is. We arrived at the Hotel Grano de Oro, which is quite nice. It's almost like a B & B. The exterior was definitely not what I expected based on what I'd seen on their website. Apparently they're doing some sort of reconstruction of the entire front of the property including the facade, so it was rather ugly. Once inside, it was much nicer. The restaurant has an indoor section that looks out over an open patio section. The patio is filled with lots of tropical plants and is very pleasant. My room was great, one of the mid-range priced rooms but just fine. It had a large window that overlooked another open patio area with a running fountain. Very nice to sleep to the sound of the water fountain - what a change from the Mass Pike!
Oscar and Eric, meanwhile, were off checking into their cab-driver-recommended hotel, Meson de Angel. It was $39 for the both of them, located about a 6 minute walk from my hotel. I did not bother to check it out. They told me it is right next to the "Red Zone". That's all I need to know.
We all went to dinner at the Grano de Oro restaurant. I had an excellent spinach, gorgonzola and avocado salad followed by a delicious Corvino with red pepper and red cream sauce. Very good.
We met Tim, who rented us our cell phones, at the restaurant. He gave us lots of good tips. Oscar and Eric were especailly interested in the information about the Casinos, which is where they headed that night. I went to my room and fell asleep very shortly thereafter.
Here are some pictures of the Hotel Grano de Oro.
Day 2
July 23 2006
San Jose to Poas Volcano, then on to La Fortuna (near the Arenal Volcano)
Here are my pictures - the Poas crater is really amazing.
The way from San Jose to Poas is strikingly beautiful. Once you get off the Interamerican Highway, the scenery gets nice very quickly as you climb up the mountain road. After leaving the Poas national park area we drove through the mountainous countryside towards La Fortuna. Before arriving in La Fortuna the landscape really flattened out and turned into farmlands. When we finally made it to La Fortuna it was dark, but according to our guidebook the Hotel San Bosco would be a great deal - so we found it and got ourselves a couple of rooms. My room had 3 small twin beds, for some odd reason. It seemed like a room from Goldilocks and the 3 bears - well not really, since all the beds were small...interesting concept. We went out drinking at a couple places in La Fortuna. The first was boring and full of Gringos. The second was much better - Las Cascadas I think it was, and it was full of locals having fun with Karaoke. Oscar and Eric were easily convinced to sing some 3rd Eye Blind for the amused locals. It was crowded and a very good time. The drinks were dirt-cheap!
Day 3
July 24 2006
We spent Day 3 in La Fortuna. We checked out of our lower end hotel in the center of La Fortuna in order to find something more upscale, and we found Los Lagos several km up the road. It's located on the slopes of the Arenal volcano, and has extensive tropical grounds including crocodiles, plants, birds, pools, waterfalls and horses.
The next part of this day was the interesting part. We rented dirt bikes - here are the pictures. We found out that Eric had never ridden one. He had a collision with a barbed-wire fence. The bike was damaged, and I thought he was going to need stiches. I thought we would discontinue this crazy idea. I bought some hydrogen peroxide and gauze and cleaned it out in a vacant lot and we got back on our way! Eric managed to burn the clutch out on his brand new bike. It was worth it, though. We had a great time riding up the slopes of the volcano behind the Los Lagos resort. There are a bunch of dirt trails that go way up there, and we made it to the edge of the "danger zone"!
Day 4
July 25 2006
First, we went on the Zip line Canopy Tour "Los Canones" at Los Lagos resort outside of La Fortuna (on the slopes of the Arenal Volcano)
Here are more pictures of the Zip line tour - these were taken by the tour's photographer.
After that excitement, we traveled from the Arenal area to Puntarenas to catch the ferry to Paquera, and from there we drove across the potholed road to Montezuma and the beach! We arrived at around 7:30 PM. We stayed at a very inexpensive place our first night in Montezuma - Las Cascadas, right next to the river that flows down from the big waterfall and just across the street from the beach. Very bare bones accomodations. Oscar woke up talking about tarantulas in odd places, and I had dreams of spiders all night.
Day 5
July 26 2006
We decided to go luxe and we checked into the Ylang Ylang resort down the beach in Montezuma.
Day 6
July 27 2006
We moved from the Jungle King rooms at Ylang Ylang because someone else had them reserved. We took up residence at Coco Joe's, a bungalow that's very private overlooking the beach.
Here are some pictures of the beach at Ylang Ylang in Montezuma and the Catarata (waterfall) in Montezuma
Day 7
July 28 2006
We made our exodus from Montezuma over the incredibly pothole-filled road (about 25k) over to Paquera. The ferry leaves every 2 hours from Paquera back to the mainland at Puntarenas. We arrived early for the 2:30 ferry so we hung out and got some traditional Costa Rican food at the "soda" by the docks. We also ate some Mango slices sold to us by a local. Dipped in lime-soaked salt, they are delicious. Oscar knew about this from Colombia. The ferry ride was fun. Eric fell asleep next to the trash barrel on the upper deck. Once arriving back at Puntarenas we began the 3 hour drive to Heredia, where we had reservations at the Hotel Bouganvillea, a beautiful place overlooking the lights of San Jose.