This is pretty long ... sorry:

My son, his girlfriend and my friend from work (who luckily is fluent in Spanish) booked our vacation to Costa Rica back in September 2007. We got an excellent fare direct from LAX to San Jose for $380 R/T. We did have to connect through Dallas/Ft. Worth on the return since they only had 3 of the cheap fares direct on the return. But we figured we would go through customs in Texas and be ready to hit the road for home when we landed in L.A.

We left L.A. Feb. 3rd at 10:30 pm on American Airlines. The flight was uneventful but rather uncomfortable. I downed two Tylenol PM’s and slept most of the way.

Feb 4th - Arrived right on time at San Jose Airport at 6:30 a.m. We picked up our bags and went through customs quickly…hardly any lines. Proceeded out and looked for our transport to TriColor. There he was, right outside the glass doors with a TriColor sign and my name on it. Took us about 10 minutes to get to the office. I filled out the paperwork and was given a free upgrade since they did not have my reserved car in. I also opted to get a GPS for $11/day just in case. I declined the CDW since my Mastercard covered it. So we were out of there by 7:50 a.m. and on our way to Cano Negro.

My son did the driving (although I luckily added me as a driver) and we had no problem with the directions due to the map and GPS. The road was fine and there was not much traffic at all. I don’t know why I was kind of surprised that it was so mountainous. We made it up to the turn for the Cano Negro Lodge yay!) around 11:15 am. The sign was on the road and we made the turn. For 22 km we drove on the most bumpy road! I was expecting a bad road to Monteverde and we kept saying if this road is this bad, Monteverde must be really bad!!! We were laughing the whole way. We saw JC lizards and egrets and cows and men working their cattle on horseback. Finally turned into the lodge at noon. We checked in and found out we were the only ones there! Our room was nothing fancy but very clean and we liked it a lot. It had air conditioning and a safe and a nice little patio area. The surroundings were beautiful and parklike. Very well maintained and a nice pool with a swim up bar. http://www.canonegrolodge.com/index.php

We settled in and went to have lunch (all meals were included in the price). We could order off the menu, which had tilapia, sea bass, steak, chicken. Two of us had the tilapia and two had the sea bass. It came with the obligatory rice and beans and it all was very tasty. We had flan for dessert (which was more like a sherbet than flan but also tasty).

Then we went on the 2:00 wetlands tour. As I said, we were the only ones there so we got a private tour all to ourselves. The guide was very good and we saw a ton of birds, caimen, and JC lizards. We only saw a couple howler monkeys way up in the trees and a couple 3 toed sloths up in the trees. We got splashed by a huge gar fish!!! A very relaxing and beautiful tour! After the tour we cleaned up and had dinner. It was a buffet style with two entrees (beef stew or some kind of pork sausages) with the rice beans salad etc. We all had the stew which was very good! We had a few drinks at the bar. At that point, there were a few more people. An Elderhostel birding tour had come but there were only about 16 people on it. We then retired to our room as we were totally exhausted.

Feb. 5th – We got up and had the buffet style breakfast (scrambled eggs, pancakes, bacon, toast, coffee, juice). Then we walked over to the little local store to get bottled water and proceeded to the little butterfly farm. It was small but the family that owns it was so nice and informative. Luckily, my friend B speaks fluent Spanish, so we got a lot of information on the work it takes to farm butterflies. We spent quite a while in the compound and saw all the beautiful butterflies. Then they took us to the little barn where they grow the eggs and pupae for each species. They had homemade items for sale on their porch so we had to buy some souvenirs. After getting back to the lodge, we went for a swim for the rest of the afternoon and packed up to leave. Reluctantly we checked out about 1:30 and started our drive to La Fortuna. Back over the bad road and onto the highway, it took us about two hours to get to La Fortuna. We had booked private rooms at Jardines Arenal http://www.hostelarenal.com/index.htm. The rooms were very nice actually! The windows opened up to a beautiful view of the volcano (and yes, we had a clear view every day we were in the area). We put our things away and drove to our reservation at Eco Termales. We pulled up opposite Baldi Hot Springs to big, dark wooden gates and gave our voucher number over the microphone. It was kind of neat….like the old speakeasy’s would have been. At the entrance we were greeted by the staff who gave us towels and asked what time we would like dinner. They had lockers and changing rooms. It is so beautiful and peaceful there! They only allow 100 people in and there were far less there on that night. It was so natural with the rocks and lighting and hot pools. We could go to the bar and get our drinks (on the honor system…they ask you how many drinks you had when you leave and you pay then) and take them into the pools. Then we had our dinner (a choice of chicken in orange sauce or steak flambé in wine sauce) along with rice, beans, salad. Three of us had the chicken and my son had the steak (the chicken was better!). It was very good! We left at closing (9:30) and stopped in La Fortuna but most of the stores were closed by then so we went back to the hotel and went to sleep. As I said, the hotel was nice except for one thing….it is close to the main road into town so about 4 am I woke up to the sounds of big trucks going by. Now I live in a rural area and am not used to any noise at night so maybe I was extra sensitive because my son who lives in L.A. wasn’t bothered but then he was in the room farther from the road. So, if you are interested in staying there, you might want earplugs or request the room at the back. It was really reasonable ($22 including tax and breakfast).

Feb. 6th – Up early to another gorgeous day with the volcano in full view. Had an excellent breakfast at the hotel before starting out for the La Fortuna Waterfall. We hiked down, took pictures of the beautiful views, swam in the waters and hiked up again. Boy, the hike up wasn’t too bad but my thighs and calves hurt for 2 days after! I am out of shape. We went in the little gift shop that is at the top and bought a few more souvenirs. I thought they might be more expensive than in town but actually were cheaper. Went then drove into town for lunch at Soda Parada based on recommendations of this board. It was good and cheap and the coconut flan was very excellent! We walked around town for a bit and had to go back to the hotel to meet up with our Volcano Tour bus. The owner of the hotel arranged it for us with Canoa Adventures. They took us on a tour of the rainforest (El Silencio) where we saw some birds but not much else. Our tour guide, Pedro, was not very good on this one (I see that pgshorty got Pedro also!). We were listening to the other guides who were giving much more information. But the rainforest was beautiful! And B and my sons girlfriend swear they heard a growl so we just said we “almost” saw a jaguar. LOL When we got back to the staging area of the tour, people were running over to a field. Someone had spotted an anteater, but I’m sure with a few dozen people charging he was scared to death and ran into the brush! We then loaded up on the van and went to the volcano viewing area by a little river. As one of the other posters said, we thought we would be going on an actual lava hike. We only went to the observation area and waited to see the lava. The top of the volcano was then clouded over and we waited and waited. We did a little dance to the volcano gods and when it got dark, we finally saw the “lava” flow. It was very cool! Everybody ooh’d and ahh’d like with fireworks. We were walking back in the dark to the van and a snake slithered across the trail. When we looked the snake up on the guide’s “Animals of Costa Rica” he found it was a velvet snake which is the most venomous, unpredictable snake in the country. Lovely! Someone could have stepped on it if they didn’t have a flashlight! Okay, no more walking around the rainforest at night! We did make it back to La Fortuna safely and had the tour bus drop us girls off in town so we could get the special $25 massage and mud mask at the little spa. That felt so good after all the hiking and climbing that day! Revitalized, we went for dinner at La Choza de Laurel. http://www.lachozadelaurel.com/ The food was very good and the prices were decent. Most dinners were around $10 - $15. However, when ordering the specials, be sure to ask how much. B and I had the shrimp special in the carbed out coconut (which was beautiful and delicious!) but when the bill came, we found out it cost $30 each! Oh well…we’re on vacation! I noticed that shrimp was rather expensive in all of the restaurants we went to. Back to the hotel and some well earned sleep.

Feb 7th - We had our breakfast Americano and loaded up for our dreaded drive to Monteverde. We left around 8 a.m. and enjoyed the drive around Lake Arenal and up into the mountains with the beautiful views. We stopped at the German Bakery for a bathroom break and to buy some bread and candy and chips. I was not impressed with the bakery. Not much of a selection and the souvenirs were way overpriced. The road turned into dirt but we drove for a long way and it was not too bad. Our grove roads here in Valley Center are worse but then we are not driving on them for hours. We did miss the turn that Keith had warned us about and sent me the map on … duh ... but the guy flagged us over and directed us correctly. We did not buy his map because we already had it (thank you Keith!). Seems he just sits on the porch all day and waits for tourists to come the wrong way! As we get closer to Santa Elena the road gets worse. But it is only bumpier so we just take it easy and finally arrive at our lodging at 12:15. We are met by the owner, Rolf, who is surrounded by a band of coatimundi’s! Okay, we get all excited and feed them bananas and then the monkeys come for their share too. The cabins are great! He only has the one building which has a unit upstairs with a double bed and a little enclosed porch overlooking the cloud forest and it has a microwave and little fridge. This was our absolute favorite place. It is just a little past town but you are so secluded surrounded by the cloud forest. And only $40/$30 per night per room! The lower unit sleeps 3 with a double bed and a single bed. We settled in and then headed to the Monteverde Cheese Factory for our 2:00 cheese tour. http://www.monteverdeinfo.com/montev...heese-factory/ It is $10 per person and definitely not worth it. The guide acted like she was totally bored and was very uninformed. She could not answer a lot of the questions, which my son’s girlfriend answered since she has been researching making cheese. And you don’t actually go into the area they make the cheese. You will get as good a view of it by just going into their little shop and walking over to the viewing area enclosed by windows. We did like tasting the cheese and did purchase some of it for later. We went to dinner at the Tree House in Santa Elena which was very good and so cute with the tree growing through the middle! We had an early reservation for the Monteverde Park hike the next morning so we called it a night.

Feb. 8th – We drove to the park to meet up with our guide at 7:30. Our guide was Raphael and he was excellent. He had so much information about the flora and history. We didn’t see a whole lot of animals on the hike, which was kind of disappointing. Just as we were leaving the hike, Raphael spotted a Quetzal! At first we could only see his tail and a bit of his chest. But obligingly, he jumped down to a branch and we got a full on view of him. As I said in another post, Raphael was very excited at the sighting. He has been doing this for 10 years and still gets a thrill. So we got a bunch of photos of the Quetzal and were very satisfied with our hike. A quick lunch in town at Tico Taco and back to meet up with the van from Aventura Canopy Tour. What a thrill! The zipline was definitely an E Ticket ride! They didn’t tell me that I would have to rappel down at one point but that was really fun too! And then at the end was the Tarzan swing which is optional. I thought what the heck and went for it! As an additional bonus, my son proposed to his girlfriend on the last platform! After returning to our lodge, I told my son that I would pay for a nice dinner for him and his fiancé. So B and I dropped them off at Sofia’s in Santa Elena (they took a taxi back) and picked up a pizza for us to eat back at the room. What a great day!

Feb 9th – Sadly, we had to leave today…so we went into town for water and munchies and then back to pack up and say goodbye to the coatimundis and monkeys that arrived again. We opted to wait to eat on the way so we took the bad road and once it became paved found a nice open air restaurant and had lunch. I forget the name but it was very nice and reasonable. My son and his fiancé had a cheeseburger and fries and it was $2.50 ea. They even had entertainment with two guys playing a xylophone type of instrument. They also had a guard in the parking area which was right in front so you can see your car. It took us about 4 ½ hours to drive to Manuel Antonio. We drove through Quepos up the hill to our hotel, Hotel Arboleda. We had a cabin on the beach. The rooms were not all that great…a bit older and musty but clean and the location more than made up for it! We walked down the beach to a little restaurant right on the beach for drinks and nachos. That night we went to a nice restaurant for dinner. It was very good. We ate there a couple of times. I had the Arroz con Pollo and it was great ($12)! They didn’t have the name on the sign outside but they have a big barbeque fire and the restaurant is built around a train car. I think they are owned by the same people as El Avion because it appeared the menu was the same. And they were only about 500 yards from our hotel.

Feb 10th – Today we went to Manuel Antonio Park since it was Sunday and they are closed on Mondays. We opted not to hire a guide and kind of did the hike on our own. We did stop when the other guides were showing their groups sightings so don’t feel like we missed a whole lot. We still did not see a whole lot of animals here either. All kinds of Capuchin monkeys, a prehensile-tailed porcupine (which I understand is rarely seen) and a huge morpho butterfly that flew in front of me! We swam at the second beach which was recommended on this board. My son’s fiancé got a sting, we think by a jellyfish, so we headed back in search of vinegar. It wasn’t a bad sting luckily. We bought some souvenirs at the little stands lining the street and went back to our hotel beach to relax the rest of the day. That night we ate at the El Avion which also was excellent and had live entertainment.

Feb 11th – Today we went into Quepos for breakfast and shopping. We had breakfast at a little place on the north side of town and it was excellent! I will have to look up the name or maybe someone here knows of it. It is part of the little coffee place next door and is on the main road along the beach. They have mango crepes and banana glazed crepes to die for!!! And very reasonable! And the best coffee! We bought more souvenirs in Quepos and headed back to our hotel to relax our last day on the beach. My son started to feel sick so he lay down in the room. We thought it might have been because he drank the water so we went to the Farmacia and got some medicine for him. By the time I got back, he had a high fever and his joints ached. We checked the guidebook and it listed that as symptoms for malaria or Dengue fever. So back we went to the farmacia and, luckily B spoke fluent Spanish, we were told it didn’t sound like the water. It could be Dengue. If his fever didn’t go down by the next morning, she suggested we take him to the hospital. Okay, now I am panicking so we left for the hospital Now! Down a little winding country road 6 km east of Quepos was the hospital. It was 9 pm and dark and scary. But after two hours of tests and waiting, they diagnosed him with just a virus. They gave him a shot and some prescriptions. By the time we got back to the hotel, his fever was down and he was feeling much better. WHEW. They couldn’t give me a detailed receipt at the hospital (it only cost $230!) for my insurance. Told us we had to come back after 7 a.m. the next morning.

Feb 12th – Got up early and checked on my son who was doing much better. B and I drove back to the hospital to get my bill. We needed gas and passed a little country gas station on the turn to the hospital. I opted to stop on the way back. We parked and went in to pick up our bill which was ready and waiting for us. I pulled into the gas station and, as the girl was pumping the gas, she pointed out that we had a flat tire. Now I know it couldn’t have been that flat on the drive to the hospital. Luckily the gas station also was a repair garage so we had the young man take off the tire, fill it with air and check it for leaks. None! He didn’t want to charge us but we gave him $5 for his trouble. Now that was rather strange so I thought maybe when we were in the hospital, someone might have seen the two gringo ladies parking the car and let the air our with the idea that we had to drive that windy, empty country road back. Who can say…thank goodness I waited until we were on our way back to get gas! We got back to the hotel with no further incidents and loaded up for our drive to the airport. It was quite a long drive through the mountains since they were working on the roads a lot but we made it in about 3 hours. As I said before, lucky I had signed up as a driver also. We dropped off our car at TriColor with no problem and they took us to the airport. We forgot to buy our departure tax when we arrived but there was absolutely no line. Our flight was delayed about an hour which was no big deal. We arrived at Dallas/Ft. Worth to a text message from my son that his twins were being taken by cesarean section at that very moment! B had brought her cell phone which didn’t work but we could send and receive text messages. My DIL was pregnant with twins and her due date was March 23th. I had been checking every day and all was fine. When I booked my trip, she was only expecting one and her due date was April 1st so I thought I was safe. So anyway, they arrived at 5.2 and 5.1 pounds (a girl and a boy!) I got to see them the next morning so it wasn’t too bad.

Random Comments:

•We had the best weather ever!!! Didn’t rain once and was not too hot at all. (Feb. 3 through Feb. 12)
•You can use dollars almost everywhere and the ATM’s will disburse either colones or dollars
•I bought a pair of Crocs to wear and they were the best!! I wore them everywhere except on the zipline and lava hike
•My debit card (Plus) worked at all the ATM’s except Banco Nationale (but there was always another bank or ATM around)
•I don’t know if it was because it was the very beginning of the high season or if the economy is affecting tourism but there were hardly any tourists. We were practically the only people at all of our lodgings. No line into Manuel Antonio Park, very few people on the hikes and tours with us.
•Nobody warned us about the road to Cano Negro – it was worse than Monteverde! Just really really bumpy not dangerous.
•If you book a lava hike in La Fortuna, make sure it is a lava hike and not just to the observation point. You don’t need to pay for a tour if you just want to view the volcano. You can locate the viewing area on the way to El Silencio. We paid $25 each for the tour but it did include the hike through El Silencio, which was not a volcano hike. We didn’t mind but if you have your heart set on hiking the actual lava this one did not. (Canoa Adventuras)
•Driving is not all that bad. We really didn’t find the drivers to be bad at all, compared to where I live. (Passing on hills and curves etc!)
•We felt very safe (except when driving that little road at night on the way to the hospital!) I was kind of worried about taking all of our things out of the car everytime we stopped but most places you can park right in front of where you eat or we felt OK leaving our things in the room with our credit cards, passports, cameras and cash either in the safe or with us in our money belts.
•If I were to do the zipline again, I would probably go with SkyTrek because of the braking system. I did not handle the braking by hand very well and ended up smashing into the tree at one point! LOL I didn’t get hurt because it is very padded but it was scary flying in backward and not being able to slow down!
•B’s cell phone worked for texting even though she didn’t have international on it.

And lastly…..WE LOVED COSTA RICA!!!!!

I have some really nice pictures I will post once I get them downloaded.

Thanks everyone here for all the advice! I would never have been able to plan it so well without you guys!!

Thank you for the wonderful trip report. My family is going in April, and I can hardly wait! Did you get any vaccinations before your trip?

Thanks for typing that out, sounds like a great time depite the dengue scare ! The place you refer to in MA as eating at a few times is La Cantina and I ate there a few times myself! It's opposite Costa Verde hotel which owns that and yes El Avion as well. I'm wondering if the place you refer to in Quepos is Coffee Milagro - sounds like it! Can't wait to see some pics.

Thanks for a great trip report, Maureen. I'm looking forward to seeing your pictures!

I'm not sure if Cafe Milagro might be the restaurant and coffee spot you're thinking of - does that sound familiar?

Thank you for the great report and for taking the time for all the details. It's very nice to refer too. Also to have a few new hotels mentioned here.

I think maybe it's El Patio next to Cafe Milagro that you're referring to in Quepos? Not sure, I just have those places in my "stuff" from previous research.

Looking forward to the pics!

Yes, Hipvirgochick, it definitely was El Patio next to Cafe Milagro.

CritterP - No we did not get any vaccinations before leaving. I took a ton of mosquito repellant but did not use much of it. Only on the hikes. I actually did not see any mosquitos or bugs at all. I think we did get a bite or two but don't know if it was mosquito because it was just a small little bump. I was expecting more bugs but maybe they are more prevalent during the wet season.

And Tully, it was La Cantina. Did you like it when you were there? It was so convenient, right next to our hotel.

Yes maureen I ate there several times in my two visits, I stayed at Costa verde so it was convenient. I also did an ill-advised walk up to El Avion for dinner one night, okay going up but coming back with no sidewalk or lights - uh! I think I know where your hotel is, it's 4-5 stories and a reddish colour right?

Tully, Actually we stayed at Hotel Arboleda which is kind of ugly on the outside. It is yellow and blue. But you have to drive down a steep driveway to the beach cabins and they are quite cute. It's not as fancy as some of the bigger hotels there but very reasonable in price.

I just remembered another comment that I meant to post....

It seems that every town has a one way street that is not very well marked. We ended up going the wrong way three times on streets. So if you are driving, make sure you find out which street it is!

Maureen