Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Costa Rica

Well…cannot believe our trip has come and gone so fast. Thank you to all (especially Shillmac, Lisa and Faithie) for your great advice – I used much of it! My wife and I are 50 years old (ok, I'm 51!)and have historically visited the Hawaiian Islands for sun and fun. This was our first trip to Costa Rica.
I will give a little info on our trip, but want to say first that we had two major disappointments. The first is that we hadn’t learned near enough Spanish (it would have been SO neat to converse a little more with those wonderful people) and second…..why oh why hadn’t we visited this beautiful country sooner!!!

We departed February 21st. By the way, we flew Continental there and back and, if anything, this was the worst part of our trip. Our itinerary (both depart and arrive) was changed twice – the second time without us even being notified! It has been a long time since I encountered such rude, unhappy employees. I may have been spoiled with West Jet Air, but would it hurt to smile once in a while and say “thank you”?!!
Anyhow…We arrived in San Jose at 10:10 PM (had departed Calgary at 7:00 AM!) and purchased our cab fare from the booth in the airport. We tried to buy our departure tax but their office closed at 10PM. Cab to Villa Bonita (in Alajuela) where we were met by owner Humberto. He got us settled (nice clean rooms) and then showed us to the “Cerveza” fridge (buck a beer, honor system). Enjoyed the warm patio for a bit and then to bed. Up the next morning to Hot Coffee and Breakfast (fresh fruit, eggs and the BEST Gallo Pinto in ALL of Costa Rica)! Humberto got us a cab to the Green Turtle Souvenir Shop where we boarded an Interbus Van bound for Arenal.
Checked into Arenal Paraiso. To be fair here, from comments I had read, I had thought the Paraiso would be an OK place….WRONG….this was a GREAT place. The “Cabin” was wonderful…clean and not “rustic” as I had feared. I will not hesitate to return here…we loved it. Their grounds are well maintained – full of beautiful birds and flowers. We stayed here two nights, and did the Paraiso Canopy Tour (too much fun) and the Hanging Bridges (with guide). Excellent. Ate in Fortuna (Soda El Rio) which was (yes, you guessed it)…excellent!!! The Paraiso had a “Mexican” Buffet set for the 23rd and we made reservations. Greeted with a “Planter’s Punch”, followed by a shot of “tequila” and some of the best food I’ve had (including spicy BBQ’d sea bass in banana leaves, whole BBQ Pig, chicken, beef, salads, desserts etc etc…yum). Oh yes, the price - $20. each!!!! Unbelievable. Any the staff….amazing. I may repeat this, but the people (and I am including the hospitality personnel) were the nicest we have ever encountered anywhere we have traveled. Their generosity is not fake – most are kind and helpful not because you are a “tourist” – but because they are just very nice people. We were VERY impressed and touched by many acts of kindness.
At 4AM (Feb 24th) we are awakened to what sounds like weird dogs – yes, the howlers have arrived. This…is fun. They kept it up until just after 6! By the way, we never saw the volcano, but that would only have been the icing. Not disappointed…just another reason to go back! And it rained! It was great.
Coffee and breakfast and then we got picked up by Interbus, bound for Samara. Interbus is a great way to travel – no need to worry about roads and laws and Police and scams etc etc. Oh yes, we met many great people traveling this way and had many, many laughs! Van Driver stopped on route to let us take some pics of a troop of howlers in a roadside tree…finally arrived at Villas Kalimba at 2PM (five hour trip!).
Owner Roberto was not around, but daughter Lara did meet us. It was like we had arrived home…what a great place to stay. During our stay (3 nights) we interacted with guests from the other five villas, and regularly with Lara, her husband Romano, their little bambino Julia, and of course owners Roberto and Mara. I cannot say enough about their kindness, as well as the professional mini resort they have hidden here. Clean, comfortable and TOTALLY relaxing location. I LOVED it and we WILL return…. While here, we enjoyed the ocean (across the road), some great food (Mahi Mahi in Lemon or Garlic Sauce a great seafood soup and fresh mussels in hot sauce at the Casa Paraiso, whole fried snapper with palm salad at the El Rio Sherrif (beachfront) and wonderful cerviche with a surf and turf (fish and filet mignon) at El Ancla). We rented a scooter for a 24 hour period, and visited Playa Carillo (10 minutes away) – very nice beach…probably the nicest we saw! Star gazing while walking along the beach at night, millions and millions of birds (it sounded like!), great food, great friends, cold cervezas…..if this doesn’t interest you, forget about Samara!!! We’re going back.
We left at 9:30 AM on Feb 27th… Interbus to Manuel Antonio. Driver was kind enough to stop at El Rio Tarcoles, where we saw a “swack” of crocs…..including a couple that were very close to a cow sipping on some water… we left before anything got nasty! Into Manuel Antonio at 3PM (5 ½ long hours!!!). Our first 2 nights had been scheduled at La Posada Jungle – where we learned the owner unfortunately, had his reservation book stolen. “No rooms at the inn”!!!! Too bad, it would have been an interesting place to stay. Since our last three nights there were booked at Villa Nicolas, we headed up there and booked into their last room – a junior suite. Very pleased with these accommodations and the grounds. Manuel Antonio is, I admit, somewhat touristy, but I enjoyed it. Saw tons of monkeys, some huge iguanas, tons of hummingbirds etc. Food was OK – we really enjoyed our meal (ok, so maybe that was helped by a pitcher of fabulous Sangria) at Ronnie’s Place – and the sunset was to die for! Ate at both Agua Azul and Karola’s….not bad, but nothing outstanding. I found both to lack much of the authenticity and local feeling I had come to enjoy so much. We did make it down to Biesanz Beach (that walk felt like about 10 miles!) and once there, were not overly impressed…maybe it had to do with our “greeter”, who informed us that the three dudes sitting on a log were going to be our personal security team!!!! No monies were asked for and they were all very nice…just not our “cup of tea”!! We walked along the shore (over 5-6 large mountains of lava rock) until we reached the beach of a resort there…..relaxed the afternoon away before finding a bar overlooking the cove, consuming a couple of thirst quenching cerveza’s. We also visited Café Milagro (great Espresso Shakes!). We spent one day at the Park – too much fun taking the boat across!! Glad we did it (including the Cathedral Hike), but wouldn’t be in a great hurry to go back. Did see both kinds of sloths (in trees), a troop of capuchin monkeys stealing someone’s bag, a couple of mammal type animals (!?) and lots of birds. The public beach outside the park was really just fine. There are vendors there but they are quick to leave if you tell them you’re not interested. Never felt any pressure or “hassle”. Also took the Finca Vilmy horse tour one day. “Valentine” picked us up and then guided us through a 2 ½ hour trip along a wonderful trail. One of the highlights of our trips. It is followed up by a fantastic lunch at the Main house. After that, a dip in their pool. It can’t get much better than this! We had so much fun with the other guests – still laughing. Valentine is a true cowboy – a man who loves horses and is very generous and patient – even with the inexperienced gringos! For our last night, we took in a Sunset Dinner Sailboat Cruise. Unfortunately, no dolphins on this trip, and the snorkeling was fair, at best. But, oh what fun. That Minor and his “happy juice”!!!! Oh yes, his dad fed us a great meal of fried snapper, potatoes, rice, vegetables and great salsa. Caramel ice cream for dessert….how fine! The next afternoon, we took off from the Quepos International Airport (jokes), bound for a rocky ride to San Jose ( it was a little windy!) We grabbed another cab and returned to where it all began – Villa Bonita. Umberto and Carmine were there to greet us but didn’t really recognize us (yes, we were a little darker than when they had seen us last). We headed out to do some last minute souvenir shopping, and stopped in at a great tico restaurant next door to the Iguana Souvenir Shop. Excellent smoked and grilled chicken. We were up at 4:30 the next morning (along with Umberto who insisted on getting up with us (but could not be convinced to make me one more small batch of gallo pinto!). He got us a cab and we made it to the airport in quick time ($2.00 fare!) and, after a stop at the duty free shop, we were airbound back to Calgary. Of course, we had to have the mandatory 7 hour layover in Houston (what’s with THAT????!!!). And of course, Continental oversold their flight (again) and we spent an hour trying to find people to accept their $500.00 vouchers to stay there overnight and then find a runway to take off! Also, finally found a Continental attendant (Rebecca) who smiled, joked around a bit, yet maintained her professionalism. She was the only one (well, that is except for EVERY attendant who worked first class…boy they can sure laugh and smile when they want!!!)

Now, I know this is long, but I didn’t even scratch the surface. This was a great trip, with so much of the trip even better than anticipated, or hoped for. I read many times before about how kind the people are there...you really have to experience it yourself to truly understand. I love Costa Rica. Pura Vida.