Trip Report - 7/22 to 8/2 CR
 

I used these boards for so much that I feel compelled to post my report. I will do it in phases and it is long.

We left San Diego 7/22 on AA thru Dallas to San Jose. I must say that I was most impressed with how everything was on time. Arrived in San Jose in the evening and transfered to our hotel near the airport. We stayed and the Marriott near the airport as we had a 7 am flight the next morning to Tortugero. The Marriott is charming, the beds are so comfortable and the wine so expensive. Had a great night sleep and awoke first thing to hop on a small charter flight to Tortugero. Our flight was about 30 minutes long and uneventful but beautiful. We landed on the little airstrip and we met by a boat to go over to the Tortuga Lodge. Breakfast at the lodge is the same every morning. Good strong Costa Rica coffee, bacon, fresh fruit, gallo pinto, scrambled eggs and toast.

I was really surprised at how big the rooms are and they have NOOOO bugs in them. During breakfast our guide arranged for a morning canal tour (was booked prior to our arrival). As we departed, we wondered if we should have brought our poncho's. As the sky darkened and the roar of thunder approached, our guide went to the back of the boat and produced poncho's for all. Boy, did the rain start to come down. This didn't discourage anyone though as we continued on our hunt for wild life. Through out the morning and especially as the sun came out we saw caiman, spider and howler monkeys, river turtles, otters, and a plethera of birds.

Our meals at the lodge always had some fantastic salad and dressing to accompany them. Only one meal was a bit sketch and that was some meat surprise. We also found that you could request a child's menu (did I forget to say we were traveling with 2 picky eating teenagers). The hamburgers were not what they were used to, so they pretty much ate pasta and dedo's de pollo (chicken fingers).

Our afternoon tour of the town would have been really boring if we hadn't gone on a wild pig hunt (we are not big souvenir shoppers). The beach was pretty covered with debris from the canal (tree trunks, etc). Not super pretty.

We were able to do the evening tour to see the sea turtles lay their eggs. If you get an opportunity to see this, it is pretty spectacular. They say you are supposed to wear dark long sleeve long pants, I saw so many people in shorts and white shirts. I was somewhat bummed as it was a bit warm for long sleeves.

The next day we kayaked the canals. This was so amazing to be so up close in the water to caiman. It is a peaceful experience. No motor's running just the sound of the jungle, birds and monkeys.

We did see a few sloths, in fact one was in the trees at the lodge.

Alas, our trip to the Turtle nesting grounds came to an end on day 4 and we departed by plane to be met in San Jose for a ride to Arenal.

Sounds like you got off to a great start! Anxious to hear more. . . :)

Are you going to tell us about the rest of your trip?

Aren't the canals so pretty. We traveled from Nicaragua down to Barra Colorado in them as well as all over the Tortuguero area. We stayed at Tortuga lodge as well. Saw my first coral snake right behind the lodge!

Looking forward to reliving more memories.

Sorry for the delay in the rest of the trip.

We arranged all our transporation thru Costa Rica Expeditions. Again I cannot say enough great things about them and the staff they hire. Quality personable professionals.

Onward.

We were met in San Jose by Olman a naturalist with CR Expeditions and a driver. Our first stop was at a coffee plantation just out of Allejula. A 20-30 minute stop in a beautiful place. Olman explained to us about coffee growing in CR and even help us later that afternoon in the grocery store stocking up on the best coffee. Next stop was the La Paz waterfall/butterfly farm for a tour and lunch. Having Olman with us was a blessing. We could have walked the place ourselves, but our kids would not have experience and learned all the things that Olman showed us. He would pick up a butterfly for an up close look, turn over leaves and show us a unique frog. Touring the old house he showed us how he used to husk the rice from the fields. Just little things that made it that much more special. My kids loved the buffet lunch. Lots to chose from (pizza, french fries, great salads, ...). The waterfalls were beautiful and it was great to have a driver waiting for us at the end of the trail and not wait for the shuttle. After leaving the Waterfall farm, we headed towards Arenal. Olman had a surprise stop for us on the way to Arenal- just a little before La Fortuna there is a place called the Iguana Bridge. There's a store where the Iguana's roam free inside, but the cool part were the iguana that lived in the trees just under the bridge.

Now, an amazing thing happened while we were in Costa Rica. Just minutes after arriving at the Iguana bridge, a huge wind storm started and than it started to rain cats and dogs. We all jumped in the van and drove away as it started to pour. 5 minutes into the drive to La Fortuna, we came upon a long line of cars and tour buses. It seems that the wind storm had knock a rather large tree into the road. Had this been in California, the road would have been closed for a week waiting for Cal trans to come and clear it out. Not in Costa Rica. Every available man was out there with there machettes (sp?) and someone even had a chain saw. That 50ft tree was cleared in 10 minutes.

As it turns out, this wind storm was pretty big news, it had done tons of damage everywhere you looked. Apparently, the trees in Costa Rica are not deep rooted and wind storms are not normal. Even the hanging bridges had trees that crushed some of the bridges and bent the steel. We encountered 3 falled tree in the road on our drive from the Iguana bridge to the Lost Iguana hotel

Enough of our adventurous drive. We stayed at the Lost Iguana. The rooms were absolutely beautiful. We had one suite and one standard room. They were located in the older part of the hotel, and the rooms were musty smelling. I must say that the rock shower was the best part as it had strong water flow and 2 shower head and controls.

Meals at Lost Iguana were marginal. Breakfast was good, but the dinner we had was just okay.

We were so fortunate to see lava flow all three nights of our stay.

The first full day in Arenal we went to the hanging bridges in the morning. Lost of cool things to see. Even saw a viper snake.

Evening was at the Eco Thermales hot springs. I don't have anything to compare it to, but it was so fun. It was raining when we got there, but didn't really matter as we were going in water. They have an honor bar system there. You get a drink and at the end of the night you tell them what you drank and they charge you as you leave. Drinks were so cheap. Dinner was family style and was so tasty. I loved the beef and chicken they served.

Second day we did not have much planned, so my husband, son and I went into town on the Lost Iguana shuttle. They have a complementary shuttle that runs into town. The funny part of this was that the guy at the front desk recommended we take a cab back, but our driver told us to come back to the same spot he dropped us off at at 1:30. We strolled thru town, bought a few souvenirs (son had to have a hammock after Tortuga Lodge) and then met the van at 1:30. Well, little did we know that the van is also the way employees get to work. We hoped in with about 5 other employees. The van started to go the opposite direction of the hotel, so we were abit concerned. Than he stopped and pick up a couple more employees, we started back towards town and picked up more employees. Next thing you know, I have my son on my lap and the van has about 5 more bodies than it should hold. We felt so bad, thinking we had taken up someone's spot. It was a funny experience

Next on to the Paradisus zip lines. This was really fun, with one minor exception. When we got there, they proceeded to tell us that they had some trouble the day before with the #3 zip line (a tree fell over in the wind storm and ripped the cable off), so we were starting at the #4 cable. No big deal, it was fun....

At dinner at Volcano lodge (this was recommended by our guide the day before). Best and most reasonable meal of all. We had cesear salad made at our table, the meat was fantastic, the service a bit slow (2 hours to get our food), but well worth it.

Next day we are off to Tamarindo. Will post more later. Sorry if this is too long....

Too long? You kidding? We're all reliving our own experiences as we read about your--keep it coming! We saw the iguanas at Tanque for the first time this year although we've been through Tanque a few times in the past! Didn't know they were there. . .amazing how many of them there are.

What a storm--must have really been something to knock so many trees down---sounds like Oklahoma! Glad the clouds blew over and allowed you those great views of Arenal. Thanks for taking the time to share with us!

Thank you for the great report. Sounds like you had a great trip too. I was excited to see Olman's name and where he works. He guided us on the Tortugero Canals a year and a half ago when we stopped there on a cruise. We wrote down his phone number and e-mail in a log my wife was keeping and then we left it by accident on the top of the temple at Coba when we visited there. A sacrifice to the Gods sort of!! Anyway, we tried to find out how to contact him for our trip last June/July but missed out. He was fantastic for us and we would have loved to spend some time with him again.

LOL! That will be my story from now on when I misplace (or lose) something. . .a frequent occurrence. "I sacrificed it to the gods!" :)

Okay, last part of the trip to share. Our driver picked us up at 8:30 for a drive to Tamarindo. Starting off he told us it would take 5 hours to get there. We were a pick unsure, but when we started off on the roads, we knew exactly why it took 4 hours to go 120 miles. The road in between Tamarino and Arenal is fill with spots (lots of them) of rutted road. Our driver was very conservative in his driving too. I guess that's a good thing if you are on Tico time (which we were by this point in our trip). We arrived in Tamarino and checked into the Diria hotel. I must say that I read a lot of reviews on this hotel and I was a bit nervous. We requested to be in the newer section of the hotel and got 2 deluxe sunset ocean view rooms right next to each other (we had 2 kids with us ages 13 & 15). The rooms were beautiful, big and great bathrooms. The biggest down side to being in the new wing is being on the 2nd or 3rd floor. Our front door was directly next to the street and you could hear traffic noise at night and in the morning. The second day there we went to see if we could move, and they were very accomodating, showing us rooms on the ground floor in the old wing and the condo's across the street. Neither one of these options worked for us as the older wing had smaller rooms and bathrooms (my kids would have killed me) and the condo only had a king bed and a fold out sofa. Kids would not have liked to share a fold out sofa. So we stayed and I rolled up towels for under the door to see if it muffled the sound. Point is, the hotel is beautiful, just get a room in the new wing on the ground floor.

Our adventures in Tamarindo included surfing, body boarding, massage on the beach (she used baby oil, uck) and dining. We did rent a car for a day and 1 1/2 and drive to a couple of beaches.

Our first adventure in the car was up to Playa Conchal. This was pretty easy drive on fairly good roads. The fun part was when we thought we had arrived at the beach and looked out and thought - What's so special??? Than we noticed that there were a few cars driving right by us onto the beach and disappearing into the jungle. After about 4 or 5 cars we said "what the heck" and followed the pathway. Driving along the beach in San Diego is strictly prohibited, so my kids thought this was so cool. Over the sand, thru the creek and into the jungle, up a rutted hill (and I do mean rutted). We crested the hill to see a beautiful white sand (okay so not sand but crushed up sea shelles) beach with a lot of locals having a great time on a Sunday afternoon. We parked, and claimed a spot under a tree. The water was pretty, and my husband and I rented some snorkle gear and left the kids playing cards. As soon as we got out into the water, it started raining. We stayed out a bit more and than my son wanted to snorkle, so my daughter and I claimed refuge in the car while they snorkled in the rain.

Our next stop was Playa Flamingo hotel for lunch and a bathroom stop. Beautiful hotel. Kids thought that we should stay here next time, I thought the hotel at Playa Concal looked cool.

The next day we ventured off to Playa Negra. Now this was an adventure. Very little signage showing the way, in fact we went thru one town and we headed on a road when a man came out of his house and said - you can't go this way the road is washed out. He sent us on another road. We actually ended up finding the beach (2 hours later), but to our dissappointment it was a total surfing beach with real rocky shoreline. We hung there for a bit, but then went back to Playa Avenella (sp) a bit better to get wet in, but not much of a beach to play in. We are from San Diego, and I must say that the water in Costa Rica was so warm in comparison. However, I still love the look and water clarity of our beachs (on there good days) here better.

Our trip to Tamarindo was mostly beach's and relaxation. One of our funny moments here was when we were dropped off at the Tamarindo airport for our charter flight to San Jose. The guy dropped us off at the deserted airport and said goodbye. We were just sitting there wondering where our plane was. But in true Costa Rica Expeditions style, the plane arrived about 10 minutes after we were dropped off and took us for a 30 minute flight back to San Jose.

Spent the last night at the Marriott, and off to the airport the next morning. By the way, they have shuttles to the airport every hour, but if you arent there waiting, they will leave with out you. We were there waiting and got on the shuttles as it got there, they loaded everyone up and left. There were 2 people who came running up just after we pulled away, and they did not turn back for them.

We arrive 2 hours early for our flight and found ourselves waiting in the terminal for 1 1/2 of those. We bought our departure tax, filled out our paperwork and check in at the airline counter, got thru security all in a 1/2 an hour.

Flights home were all on time (amazing). Such a flawless vacation and a beautiful country. We will be back.

Thanks for the report of your wonderful family adventure.

Interesting your drive along the beach to Playa Conchal. We used to drive on that beach all the time, but when we were there back in early July, there was a sign prohibiting driving on the beach. I was curious about that (and we didn't see anyone doing it) because it has always been a popular activity of Tica families to hang out at Playa Conchal, having picnics, cook outs, etc. As far as I know, driving up the beach from Playa Brasilito is the only way to get to Playa Conchal since the Paradisus has been there. Maybe the prohibited driving isn't enforced (well, duh!) which would be a good thing! Or maybe they've removed the sign--did you notice?