Costa Rica Here I Come!

I woke up this morning at 3:30 to catch our 6 AM flight out of Missoula, Montana. My dad was kind enough to stay the night in Missoula and wake up around 4:30 to take my friend Shawn and me to the airport. We got to the airport just before 5 AM for a long day of flying. We had a quick turnaround in Salt Lake and about a five-hour layover in Atlanta. I couldn't wait to get to Costa Rica again. It has been six years since I spent a month there for school, and I was eager to see if I felt the same love for the country that I had that first time. After three airplanes and the long layover in Atlanta, we finally arrived to San Jose around 10 PM. We waited in line to go through immigration and then got our luggage and sped right through customs. Walking through the first set of doors we didn't see our driver right away. After a couple minutes we finally just went outside. (It was so warm!!) A taxi driver wanted to give us a ride, but I knew that our driver was there somewhere. He was kind enough to help us find our driver, who was in the middle of the huge crowd of drivers and families waiting to pick up fellow travelers. We waited for a couple other passengers before heading off to the city. Once we got into the heart of San Jose, I started recognizing the landmarks I was so familiar with six years ago. We dropped off the other passengers at their hotel, and then headed for Hotel Le Bergerac. It turns out that Le Bergerac was just a few blocks from the school I attended when I was in San Jose before, so the neighborhood was familiar to me. We got checked into our hotel, met the wonderful reception staff, practiced a bit of my Spanish, and were taken to our beautiful room upstairs. The room was large, had hardwood floors, and our own private garden (small, but beautiful). There was a bottle of wine in the room, which, after a long day of traveling, was a welcomed sight. We sat in our garden and enjoyed a couple glasses of wine. The hotel was very quiet, especially considering we were in the middle of San Jose!

We woke around 6:30 AM today to get ready and have a delicious breakfast in the hotel before heading off to Arenal for the next couple days. We were on a transfer with another couple and two women who had all just arrived the night before as well. After a couple hours of driving, we arrived in La Fortuna, dropped the others off at their hotels, and then headed around the volcano to the Arenal Observatory Lodge. We were lucky enough to have clear skies, and even were able to see the top of the volcano that afternoon! We drove up the long bumpy road through the forest, and arrived to our lodge around noon. Our room wasn't ready yet, but they took our bags, and we had lunch with incredible views of the volcano. After lunch, we went for a walk around the lodge to check things out, and then went on a short 30-minute hike to a waterfall near the lodge. It was beautiful, and no one was around! After feeling the mist from the waterfall and taking some pictures, we headed back to the lodge. Our room was still not quite ready, so we took a quick rest near the pool, listening to the sounds of the surrounding forest. We got checked into our room - which had a spectacular view of the volcano - and pretty quickly crashed out. I am not normally a napper, but after two nights in a row of less than four hours of sleep, I just couldn't stay awake. I awoke a couple hours later to pelting rains, like I have never seen or heard before. I got up and listened to the rain for a bit, and then we decided we better have dinner. We ate at the lodge, listening to the rain, and went to bed pretty early, as we had another full day ahead of us tomorrow. Unfortunately, it was cloudy all night, so we didn't get a chance to see any lava coming out of the volcano. Perhaps the next night ...

We woke this morning, and had a wonderful breakfast of eggs, gallo pinto (beans and rice), bacon, fruit, coffee, and juice. We went to the reception to arrange an afternoon canopy tour at the Arenal Paraiso Lodge, and then set off with about twenty other travelers to do a guided hike to the lava flows. We rode down the hill to the entrance of the park, in a trailer behind a tractor, and then set off through the forest. After a couple stops to discuss the history of the volcano and to see some of the birds and different plants and flowers, someone spotted a howler monkey. There were four or five way up in the trees, and they even allowed us to take some pictures and watch them for a bit. After a little more walking, we came across a couple wild turkeys, and then eventually we came out into the lava flows. I had never realized before, but apparently Arenal does not have liquid lava. The lava that comes out of the volcano is actually red rocks, some the size of cars! It was pretty cloudy today, so we could only see the bottom half of the volcano, but we did get some great views of Arenal Lake and the surrounding area. After lunch, we got a transfer out of the park and headed back towards La Fortuna to Arenal Paraiso lodge where we were going to do a zip-line canopy tour. The canopy tour here has over a mile and a half of cable, with twelve platforms throughout the rainforest. It was incredibly beautiful, but unfortunately, it is too hard to capture that beauty in a picture. It is truly something you have to experience for yourself! We were with a group of about 20, and at one point, we had almost all of us on one platform. Other than at that moment, I had a great time. The guides were fun, the zip line was amazing, and so fast, and we even were able to do the last zip line hanging upside down! What a fun experience this was, and a must-do in Costa Rica. Our driver was waiting for us when we got back to the hotel, and we headed back to our lodge. After dinner, we sat out on our patio for a bit, listening to the sounds of the bugs, birds and who knows what else! We couldn't see the volcano again this evening, but we could hear it rumbling through the clouds.

We had to get up extremely early again today, for our 5:30 pickup and transfer to Selva Bananito Lodge in the south-east part of Costa Rica. (The group transfers were a great way to go, but unfortunately we cannot control the pickup times!) The drive was amazing, beautiful sights and incredibly windy roads. (Thank goodness for Dramamine!) As we neared Limon and the Caribbean coast, the houses became smaller, poorer, and the roadways a bit rougher and dirtier. There were miles and miles of banana plantations, each tree with a blue plastic bag over the bananas to protect them from the sun and bugs. The houses, people and landscape all reminded me of Belize, and probably were similar to many of the Caribbean islands. This was my first visit to the Caribbean side of Costa Rica, and I was amazed at the difference from the rest of the country. It was poorer, more litter along the roads, and the houses were quite a bit different from the other parts that I had visited. We arrived at Salon Delia in Bananito town around 11 AM and waited for a few minutes for Tomas, the manager of Selva Bananito, to show up. Our driver arrived a few minutes later, and all four of us set off up the seven-mile bumpy trail to the lodge. We drove along the Bananito River for a couple miles, when our driver stopped and Tomas explained that our car was overheating. A very nice farmer from a nearby house came out with some water and helped us out. After about thirty minutes or so, we set off again. Then the road got really rough. We crossed the river a couple times -- driving right through the river -- and made it to the lodge. After that ride, I could see why the vehicles can feel a bit overworked! Selva Bananito was absolutely beautiful. There are eleven cabins, each with open doors out to the porch. They are truly open to the elements, and I was kind of anxious to see what sort of visitors we might have in the evenings. We were the only guests there this first night, and after a delicious lunch with Tomas, he took us for a horseback ride through the farm. We stopped to visit the Heliconia garden, and learned a lot about the history of the lodge. We were completely surrounded on all sides by lush rainforest. That evening we were joined for dinner by Sofia, the owner of the lodge, and her father, Rudy, the owner of the entire farm and preserve. On our way back to our bungalow a giant toad crossed our path. That night, we fell asleep listening to the toads, crickets, bats, and all the other night creatures of the rainforest. (No visitors tonight that we were aware of!)

This morning, we woke up and had breakfast in the main lodge, and set out with Justo, our guide, and Jonathan, his assistant. We walked along the Bananito River, crossing it repeatedly, sometimes just walking right through the river. We stopped after a bit to swim and drink some fresh juice, and then continued up the river. After a couple hours of hiking, we took a trail straight up the steep hill and away from the river to learn a bit about the preserve. We then hiked back to the river and ended up at the waterfall that we were going to rappel down. Justo said that the water was a bit high, but since we were young and strong, we could do it. Shawn has climbed a lot, but this was my first experience rappelling, and I was a bit nervous! I went first, and other than a little slip in the middle, I made it down. The rappelling was incredible! I couldn't believe that I had made it down. Shawn came down with no problems, and Jonathan was waiting for us at the bottom with a hot lunch. After we ate, we continued to hike back down the river. We were surrounded by waterfalls, and we even got a second chance to rappel. This time we didn't have to deal with the waterfall, and I did quite a lot better my second time. We got back around three this afternoon, and it started raining, so we just relaxed and read in the hammocks. Two other couples arrived that afternoon, and we had a very nice evening with them. They were excited to do the waterfall hike and rappel the next day. We planned to climb the 100-foot tree with Justo the next morning before he took them out for the day. It was fun to sit and have dinner with all of them, to hear about their travels and experiences both in Costa Rica and other parts of the world. That night, we decided to sleep with all the windows and the porch door open. We had a bat in our room, and we could hear others squeaking in the roof, but luckily, we were tired enough from our day to sleep anyway.

We woke up to the rain, still falling from the night before, so we relaxed, had breakfast, and decided to just go for a walk after the rain stopped. We walked away from Puerto Viejo, towards Panama, along the road. After about half a mile or so, we found a trail down to the beach and kept walking south along the beach. The beach was empty, other than a few people we passed along the way, and even though it rained a bit, it was the perfect walk. We were starting to get a little hungry and finally found a trail back out to the road. We immediately found a little open-air restaurant that looked like it would have great food. I grabbed a menu from the counter, and realized that it was Selvin's, a wonderful little place that a friend had recommended. We both ordered a red snapper plate and a beer. It was the best meal we have had on our trip so far, and it was only $6 each! We walked back along the beach, and got back to Cariblue late in the afternoon. I had spotted an Argentine restaurant the night before, called Patagonia, which was owned by a couple from Argentina. We decided to head back into town and eat there. It was this little place with a traditional open Argentine grill, and it was spectacular! After dinner we walked around town a bit, ended up watching this horrible band playing Bob Marley covers. After 20 minutes, we ended up moving and hanging out at a little bar that was right on the beach. We were surrounded by tourists, but it was a fun place to spend the evening, listening to more Bob Marley (the real thing this time) and watching the tourists hang out on the beach.

Today, we decided we were going to rent bikes so we could get around a bit easier, and not have to pay for taxis each time we went to town. It was the prettiest morning since we have gotten to the beach, and I was excited to get some sun! We rented bikes from a hotel down the road from us, for $5 each for the day, and headed into town. We wandered the town, went to the store to buy some souvenir coffee, sat on the beach for a bit, and eventually had some lunch at one of the local restaurants in town. After relaxing a bit out of the sun, we headed back to Cariblue. Bikes are definitely the way to get around! Although it was a bit hotter than in a car, it was a much more pleasant way to deal with the horribly bumpy road. We relaxed by the pool, read a bit, and then went down to the beach to sit and watch the surfers as the sun went down. We decided to eat tonight at a little Italian place we had seen the day before on our walk, but biking in the dark was a bit more difficult than we had anticipated - you can't see the potholes at night! I realized that if you follow a local on a bike, you are much better off. They seem to know where those potholes are! After dinner, we returned our bikes and headed back to our hotel to get packed up for our early pickup the next morning.

We had a pickup today around 6:00 AM for our transfer to the rafting station. We picked up a bunch of others around Puerto Viejo, and headed off towards the river. After a quick breakfast of eggs, fruit, toast, coffee and juice, we got back in the vans and headed up to the put-in place, 18 miles up the river. We walked for about 10 minutes down a steep hill, and went through training with our guide, Taz (as in Tasmanian Devil). There were only four of us in our raft, although we were with a group of about 45 - 50 in 10 rafts. Fortunately, it was hardly noticeable that there were so many other people in our group. Taz was great at keeping us safe, making sure we had fun, and pointing out things along the way. The rafting was truly incredible! I was a bit nervous in the beginning, but I realized that it was very safe, and our raft did quite well through all the rapids. The Pacuare is really a beautiful river, completely surrounded by rainforest. We went through two canyons, the first nine miles long! There were waterfalls, great rapids every few minutes, and lots of birds along the way. It rained on us a bit, and I got kind of cold when we stopped for lunch, but the day was truly amazing! After we got out at the rafting station, we changed and waited for the drivers to take us to the next destination. Since there were only three of us going to the Turrialba area, they just called a taxi, and had one of the guides came with us. The drive to Turrialba was one of the most spectacular drives we had done. It was so beautiful, on extremely windy roads, climbing mountains and dropping down into valleys and back up mountains again! We got to the Guayabo Lodge in the late afternoon, and were shown to our room on the top floor, looking out onto the volcano. Unfortunately, it was cloudy, so we were only able to see about a half a mile away before the volcano was engulfed in clouds. We wandered around the lodge, met the two friendly dogs, saw the great views of the valley below us, and just enjoyed the peacefulness of the area. We had a great dinner with the rest of the guests, mostly from France, and went to bed early. What a day we had!

We were able to sleep in a bit today, and had a late breakfast at the lodge. The rest of the guests had checked out or headed out for the day, so we had the whole place to ourselves. We didn't have any activities planned, and even though the lodge did offer many services, we were ready for a day of relaxation. We read a bit, wandered around the lodge, played with the dogs, and just enjoyed a quiet morning. After our busy week, today was a welcome break. In the afternoon, Marco, one of our local drivers, and Cynthia from our office in San Jose, came to pick us up in the afternoon to drive us back to San Jose. We stopped at a restaurant for lunch along the way, and got back to San Jose around five. We decided to go straight to the office to pick up everyone else, and we all headed out for ice cream. It was really fun to finally meet our local staff, and to see their office. Fabio, the president of the local company, took us to a grocery store to buy some souvenirs before heading back to Le Bergerac for the night. We said our goodbyes and settled into our hotel. Even though we didn't have a lot planned today, it was a perfect and relaxing day to end our busy vacation.

We had a 5:15 AM pickup today to get us to the airport three hours before our flight. It seemed a bit extreme to be at the airport three hours before our flight, but after we were in line for about 20 minutes, the line to check in for the flight was out the door. We had another long day of travel, and got back to Missoula around 11 PM. It was a fun-packed trip, I only wished we had a few more days to see more of the country. There is always next time!