lorelietravels

Our Trip to Costa Rica:

We had an amazing time! It was the perfect combination of adventure, relaxation, escape and Central American cultural!

Relaxation was needed because of the screw up with United Airlines. When we got to the airport we were scheduled to go to San Jose California instead of San Jose Costa Rica but after 3 hours of working with an agent, manager and IT specialist they got us on a flight the following day mid-Spring break. We brought them thank you cards and a Starbucks gift card the following day.

We started our trip with a very difficult drive up to the Monteverde Rainforest. This was a 3.5 hour drive up a dirt road with many pot holes and a cliff to our right. We hired a driver luckily because it is pitch black and there are not many street signs to guide the way. Along our drive we stopped at a very typical village restaurant that has pots on an open flame, a tin roof, no walls with plantain and other fruits and utensils hanging from the wooden posts that rest on a dirt and/or rock floor. We had an Imperial beer and a hot tamale wrapped in a banana leaf. I would've liked to take a picture here but we already stuck out like a sore thumb. In places like these and with our drivers Tracy?s Spanish came in handy.

*Tip: We booked tours and transportation with Desafio Expeditions at www.monteverdetours.com and loved them. They were helpful, reliable and friendly. I would advice hiring a driver. Why suffer through the drive and have it take double the time. Our driver made this drive several times a day so they were able to get us up and down fairly quickly.

When we arrived in Monteverde we checked into the adorable Belmar Hotel, which is made entirely of a wood like cedar (the smell is amazing). Our room looked like something out of Smith Family Robinson. It was a room with windows surrounding it looking out into the rainforest. There was green as far as the eye could see and stars were so bright and brilliant with not one light to pollute the view. It almost looked like we could reach out and touch them from our room. In the morning we had an amazing breakfast in the lodges gathering room that overlooked the cloud rainforest. It was very hot everyday but somehow the breeze kept us continuously cooled.

*Tip: Be careful to book directly with Hotel Belmar. We got tricked into thinking we booked with the hotel through Monteverdeinfo.com but it was a very unprofessional women at Calypso that we dealt with who threatened to charge our credit card unfairly.

Soon we forgot about how little sleep we had and the very late night drive up the mountain. Again a driver came to pick us up and dropped us off at the lodge on top of the mountain (El Merida?). Our exhaustion soon became exhilaration when we met Manfred, our personal guide that took us Canyoneering. Canyoneering is a tour that takes you on a half an hour or so hike to a series of 4 waterfalls that you repel down. Our guide spoke very good English and we learned a lot about the 300 species of orchids and other wildlife of the region. While repelling we were harnessed to a rope at the top of the waterfall that you climb down through the waterfall to the bottom. You get drenched and in many cases you end up going through the waterfall. It was so surreal to me that many times I would have to stop concentrating on my mission of repelling (and not slipping) and look around me.

*Tip: This is a very demanding hike (and I am young and in shape) and if you are fearful of heights I do not advice this tour. Bring a change of clothes and raingear as well as a waterproof camera. They provide boots.

One of the waterfalls was called the dragons? mouth because in the middle of it it was concave. You had to repel down and then take a big jump in order to get past it and if you didn?t than you?d go right through the waterfall. John was the first one to tackle this waterfall. Because it was so steep we were not able to see his repel. We did here his ?woohoo? when he ended up going through the waterfall. At the bottom he was completely soaked with a big smile on his face.

After the Canyoneering we had about an hour-long hike back up the mountain we just repelled down. It was very steep, muddy and difficult especially with water filled boots. The trip left us happy but tired so we were ready for our lunch. During our lunch our guide told us about the girl who was the cook and waitress. She looks like she is 17 tops yet she has 6 kids and rides her horse through the mountainside 2 hours every day to and from her home where she runs the tiny restaurant. Manfred advised us that we should have her handmade corn tortillas with cheese that she made just that morning. It was the best meal of the whole trip!

After our Canyoneering excursion we decided to get back to our hotel and change. We found out that our driver was there a day early to take us to the Pacific Coast. Even though it cut our trip short in Monteverde we decided a little relaxation was needed so we packed up our bags and headed to Tamarindo on the Pacific Coast where we entered paradise!

Tamarindo is a little surfer?s village. It is mostly hippy like tourists and some very wealthy people that want to get away from the commercial vacation homes in places like CanCun. The thing about it is that there is no difference between these two sets of tourists. Whether you were 17 and on Spring Break or a wealthy family with a home on the ocean everyone looked the same. Flip flops, beach hair and a tan. Not once did we unpack our nice outfits. We wore our bathing suit, shorts and tank tops the entire time. In fact I never once took my blow dryer out of the suitcase. The town itself is pretty small. It had a few stores, a couple internet cafes and a lot of restaurants and bars. Every restaurant was open with just a roof but the food was amazing and pretty cheap. For dinner we could have mahi mahi, or a typical meal as they called it (usually some sort of beef, chicken or fish with plantain, rice and beans) for about $7 per person. We even had sushi one night.

*Tip: Alcohol (including beer) can be very expensive and is not always priced out on the menu. We found that having a drink at a hotel could run almost as much as a meal so ask before ordering. We noticed that in most cases everyone was friendly and fair but in a couple of the restaurants we found that they disguised the 10% service fee as tax and charged us twice or that they were not very helpful if we were just ordering appetizers or desert. In Tamarindo we really liked Maria Bonito, Nogui?s. We did not really ever have a bad meal though and we ate out for lunch and dinner for 6 days.

After dinner one of the nights we went to the local casino and bar. The casino was so small. It had about 10 slot machines and two tables yet the place was hopping. Outside they had a 3 man band that was a cross between Jimmy Buffet and Bon Jovi. They were the famous in this area. We had a couple of beers enjoyed the music and went back to hotel.

Most of the time we walked or took make shift taxi?s which were typically locals that would drive you places for a couple of dollars but the first day we rented scooters (again, no helmets, wavers or directions) and toured the town a bit. It was challenging on their dirt roads but it was fun.

*Tip: Ask how much before getting into any vehicle and I would not get into any vehicle alone if I were a women. The men are very verbal?even though I did not feel threatened it was a bit unnerving.

While driving through a few towns you got to see why Costa Rica is really still a third world country. The roads are not paved, that was obvious, but in some areas you?d see one bedroom shacks with wholes in the siding or you?d see kids running around with their mangy skinny dogs doing chores around their homes usually involving their outdoor fire pits. In a couple instances we drove past schools where the school was basically the size of a trailer home with a soccer field as their play area. They always waved at us in our 4x4 vehicles because they knew we were tourists. The nice thing is that there is not really an obvious separation of class. It seemed that everyone was content and friendly and the fancy houses along the ocean and the nicer hotels are all so secluded that it was never showy or pretentious.

*Tip: I would not pack anything white or light colored because the dirt road can get into everything. Unless you are golfing or plan on going to a very high-end restaurant you can get away with shorts, tanks and flip-flops.

Our little B&B on the ocean, Sueno del Mar (English translation is Lazy by the Sea), was more than I could have ever dreamed of. It was a 6-room adobe and stucco structure that instantly relaxed you. We had the honeymoon suite for a few of the days but all of the rooms were so beautiful. Each room featured a four-poster wood framed bed with extremely comfortable linens and to John?s pleasant surprise a fan and air conditioning. The rooms did not have a clock, tv or phone?in fact we rarely knew what time it was or even what day it was. Each room was decorated with handmade artwork and featured an outdoor shower with mosaic tile and ferns and plants for privacy. We spent very little time in the rooms though because the weather was gorgeous every day. The beaches were very secluded unless you walked down a few minutes during high tide to watch the surfers.

Sueno del Mar felt like it was all ours. Hammocks hung from the trees, wind chimes and dream catchers made music that blended well with the ocean waves and the sounds of birds chirping gradually woke you every morning. We woke up naturally every morning around 7:30 where we would head directly to their famous gourmet breakfast pool and Oceanside. The barefoot cooks would serve you fresh fruit (I am permanently spoiled), a homemade pastry or cake with fruit puree adorned with a tropical flower clipped from their garden that morning followed by a fruit smoothie and a main entrée which was always the best dish I had ever tried. Of course I cannot forget the coffee. Coffee is one of their main exports. Again, I am not sure if I can go to Starbucks ever again!

*Tip: Even if you do not stay at this B&B you can enjoy their breakfast. It is a 15minute walk North along the beach. This area has great beaches but be careful of the undertow. I?ve heard they can be pretty dangerous.

The breakfast routine usually lasted an hour or so and ended up in a hammock while we contemplated what to do the remainder of the day or discussed yesterday?s activities with the two or three other couples/families that were at Sueno. Sometimes we took a walk into town along the ocean sometimes we laid out or lounged in the pool and sometimes we did both and than in the afternoon went on some type of excursion. Every day felt like two because you went from extremely relaxation to fun and exciting.

Our excursions were always entailed more surprises than we bargained for. The first tour we did was a kayaking estuary tour. Tracy and I got into a two-person kayak and went through the mangrove trees that were sometimes only about 4 feet wide. We were told not to put our feet or hands in the water because there were crocodiles and cayman. We were very careful not to tip over after that. Something we found interesting was that there was never a waver to sign, life jackets or safety rules. It is so laid back that sometimes there is really only 1 or 2 sentence instructions in broken English before you left on a tour. I felt very safe though at all times. When we went through some of the mangrove paths we got out of our kayak to see if we could find some howler monkeys. We did! We all looked like idiots making monkey noises but our guide was right, they did communicate with us because we did this. For such a small animal their voice really carries. It was very fun! On our trip we also saw exotic birds and a small bush that if you knock on it?s thorns ants come out to protect it that live in the tree?there were thousands of them and they bite so we continued on. We really wanted to see a crocodile or cayman but the tide was a bit too high at this time so we did not see any.
*Tip: This tour had way too many kayaks in it (15) so no one could hear the guide and the chaos caused many birds to flee. Be careful to book a smaller tour and get a good guide. We used Iguana Tours.


Our second excursion was a catamaran snorkeling and sunset cruise. This was an amazing tour!!! We went aboard a custom built catamaran I personally felt like a celebrity. We sunned ourselves on the nets between the pontoons while we were served drinks and food. After a couple of hours of this we anchored so that we could get out and snorkel. I did it but I hate jumping into the middle of the ocean to snorkel (I prefer beach starts). All I could think about where big fish biting my toes off and the wind was strong enough that the water was a bit murky in that area so I did not really get to see much. So, I jumped in long enough to cool off and to say I did it but I quickly returned to my indention in the net to sun myself some more. We soon took off again and one of the hosts was deep-sea fishing off the back of the boat. He caught a large fish that he said was in the same family as the tuna. It was pretty exciting to watch him reel it in. After that the host announced it was happy hour and said I will turn on some American music that we enjoy here in Costa Rica. 50 Cent! It was hilarious. Everyone on this tour was pretty young so we found it entertaining. Just when I thought it could not get any better someone yelled out dolphins! For over 20 minutes we had at least 8 dolphins swimming along side of our boat. They were diving out of the water and diving down deep only to resurface in front of our boat. I could have touched them they were so close. We all kept an eye out for more dolphins after that surprise and so we were able to see a huge sea turtle. The sunset and a few cocktails topped the end of a spectacular day.

*Tip: Use Blue Dolphin tours. They were very hospitable, the boat was clean and fabulous and the crew kept pouring the drinks, passing around the fresh food and played fun music.

Our final excursion was a full day adventure again full of surprises. It started off with our driver picking us up for a two-hour 4x4 vehicle ride to the Guancaste region where there is rainforests and an inactive volcano. Our excursion started off on horseback. No one really spoke any English except for our driver/host who went along on the excursions with Tracy and I. Again, we were on a private tour. They signaled for us to get up on our horses and then pointed us in the right direction. This was not like horseback riding in the states where the horses is on a rotation and without any guidance could get you back to the stable. It was more like a horse that we had on loan to take wherever we wanted. We were in our bathing suites galloping and even running through the forests and crossing over streams. Our driver/host took us through trails that lead us to a gigantic waterfall. The mist felt so good because we were hot and dusty from our ride. Next we tied up our horses and hiked to the hot springs where we sat in a sauna and than covered ourselves with mineral rich rainforest mud. After our mask dried we rinsed off and got to sit in the natural hot springs. It felt so good and our skin had never looked better. All you could do was close your eyes and relax. Between the natural foods, our excursions, the mud baths and hot springs I felt like I had been completely cleansed inside and out.

After turning into a prune our guide brought us back to the horses where we road a bit more to the area where they had a manmade waterslide that was over a mile long. It was a clay like loosh that had a basin that they collect the waterfall/rain water from that when released from the damn shot you down the water slide. We had to wear a rubber diaper to protect our butts, a helmet and an inner tub. Our guide thought it was funny and took a picture of us (I will not be sharing that one).

The last part of this excursion was a canopy tour with zip lines that zip you along cables in the rainforest canopy. This was the only tour we had a group in. Our group was hilarious because it was a group of retirees that kept calling us honey and sweetie. They were very nervous but once they did the first line were hootin? and hollerin?. I want to be like them when I retire! On our third zip line we ended up in a tree top with a family of monkey?s. They were within 10 feet of us. They were howling at us and really very active in the tree. There was a baby too that could not have been more than 5lbs yet it was swinging through the braches right above us. I did not want to leave the treetop for the next platform. I could?ve stayed there all day.

On our last day we laid by the pool until the last possible minute. We took a 16 seater single propeller plane from a dirt and grass runway where the ?gate? if you can call it that was a tin roof, cement floor open shelter with a man wearing a T-shirt with the name of the airline a desk with a calculator and a rock for a paper weight. The guys who loaded our luggage were local area kids that did it for tips. We had to give them our weight and they weighed our bags so that they knew if we could take off. It was a little unnerving until we got up in the sky because it was like a personal tour of the area. We were able to get the best aerial view of the beautiful cost of Costa Rica.

*Tip: We used Sansa air, which I guess was fine because we?re alive to tell you about it but if you are at all claustrophobic or scared or flying or it is a windy day I would not advice taking these small airplanes. I fly all the time and it was a big scary even though our landing was graceful and turbulence was low. Nature Air looked a bit more commercial although I can not attest to their quality or safety.

So, I hope I did not bore you with our vacation notes but I wanted to share with you our vacation of a lifetime.

Misc. Tips:
Always wear sunscreen; the sun is very hot in March. There were several controlled fires because everything is so dry so if you are allergic you may want to avoid the end of the dry season.
Most of the guides spoke pretty good English but some of our drivers and some restaurant staff had a very hard time with some basic English.
ATM?s are hard to find, but most places take dollars under $20. You get colones change back. Travelers checks are accepted with most of the tour companies.

JoBurritt

Lorelie--That was absolutely, positively the best trip report I have ever read. I only wish you had traveled to the areas we're going to because your descriptions were great! The details were so helpful--like the way you described the beach at Tamarindo by comparing it to U.S. beaches. Having a frame of reference makes it much easier to understand what Costa Rica is like.
It sounds like you had such a great time--thanks for getting me so psyched, and thanks for a wonderful report!

JoBurritt

I'm so sorry, Lorelie--I feel like an idiot--I read Ashley's trip report and yours one after the other and was thinking that it was you who compared Tamarindo to U.S. beaches. Sorry about the mix up.

Anyhow, I still loved your report--the tips about drinks, the detailed descriptions of your activities, the accommodations, and what you saw along the way.

Thanks!

SciSyd

Thanks for sharing! It's good to know some of the tour companies take traveler's checks. Blue Dolphin Tours isn't coming up on the internet but then, I doubt they have a location in Manuel Antonio. Thanks for giving some insite into some of the tours!

lorelietravels

No problem. If you have any other quesitons let me know.

Have fun! I wish I were doing it all again next week.

Wes2004

I'm VERY glad I read your trip report. We are doing some of the same tours you did...especially the CANYONING!! I cannot wait, little nervous!

I enjoyed reading your trip and glad you had a great time. Thanks for sharing it with us!