Hey Folks,

I'd like to thank all those who weighed in with great advice in response to my many questions about our trip to Costa Rica. I am not a prolific writer so please excuse this brief report. It in no way way reflects the incredible time we had only my limits as an author. For background we (husband, myself and two sons 15 and 13)spent 10 days and only had rain one day and one evening (8/7 - 8/17)

8/7 - 8/9 Trapp Country Inn - Alajuela -

Great small lodge with immaculate rooms and a beautiful verandah upon which meals were served. Breakfasts were great and the dinner was very good as well. Close to SJO and great for excursions to La Paz and Poaz. The hosts were exceedingly gracious and warm. The ambiance was peaceful with the exception of some very occasional airplane noise but not enough to spoil the peacefulness of the grounds. Would highly recommend this lodging.

We rented a car with GPS (vital) from Payless/Elegante which was a smooth experience.

August 9 - 11 - Silencio De Campo, La Fortuna -- excellant location and immaculate accomodations. The hot springs pool was a God send after days spent touring. Good breakfasts and excellant assistance by desk staff in arranging tours. We can highly recommend the Canyoneering Tour offered by DeSafaio Tours - safe, exciting and very, very wet!!! Also the Sky Trek Tram and Zip Line, Hanging Bridges and the ATV "Finca Tour" offered by the people at La Pradera Hotel. The staff at SDC can fix you up.

Great restaurant we found in La Fortuna is Anch'io, an Italian restaurant with THE best pizza this side of Italy. Also the Cafe Vienna, right next store for coffee and dessert. For laundry services, we used Alice's Laundry in La Fortuna for $7 a load, washed, dried and folded.

Our luck continued with several clear sitings of Arenal blowing off some steam.

August 12 - Rafting down the Rio Pacure with Exploradores Outdoors -- A once in a lifetime experience for this family -- great fun -- great adrenaline rush and great beauty. Highly recommend this tour.

August 12 - 15 - Banana Azul. Puerto Viejo. Probably the best decision of our trip was to visit the Caribbean side. The people, beaches and food were exceptional. The town is a little funky, but it only added to the experience. The inn, as many of you know, was great. Immaculate accomodations, great desolate beach and the hosts were extremely helpful with tours and restaurant recommendations. We did the 1/2 day snorkling and hike in the Cahuita National Park, again with Exploradores Outdoors both incredible experiences. While snorkling we saw a nurse shark, manta ray, sea urchins, coral reef, parrot fish and needle fish. ON the hike we saw an iguana, 2 and 3 toed sloths, tons of monkeys, eyelash vipers, and endangered butterflies. Our guide was tremendous as left to our own devices we would have seen practically nothing.

The BA arranged a private surfing lesson with "Beto" - which was the highlight of our sons' trip. He was excellant with the boys and the waves in Cocles cooperated. After the sessions we walked across the street to a small local inn, and the boys showered outside while we enjoyed a beer with the owner.

Restaurants of note:

Puerto Viejo

Chili Rojo - Thai and middle eastern food.

De Paso - great seafood, pasta, pizza

Jungle Love - carribean fusion

Loco Natural - just about everything!!!

Aug. 16 Last night in CR was in the Grano de Oro - an elegant and peaceful way to end a great vacation.

Aug 17 Flight out of SJO - delayed, delayed, delayed, courtesy of American Airlines - overnight stay in Miami arrived home in Boston on August 18th. Not even American Airlines could spoil our trip to Costa Rica.

I hope this helps those who are planning a trip and again, my sincerest thanks to those who help with ours.



Liz

Hi Liz! You really packed in a lot in those 10 days. What a great vacation! I still have yet to try the canyoning...some day! I'm glad you were able to hang out at 2 of my favorite hotels, Silencio and Banana Azul. Isn't the family that owns Silencio wonderful?...and Colin and Roberto at BA too. So happy you and the fam got to do so many things. Your kids will be talking about it for quite some time I bet!

Sounds like a wonderful trip. I was about to say that you enjoyed all of hip's favorite spots, but she beat me to it!

I'd love to know more about the canyoneering tour - is that the one where you repel down waterfalls? We did our first repels on our last trip and thought it was so much fun!

Yup, canyoneering is rappelling most often down waterfalls. I can't tell you how much fun we had. Diego at SDC suggested either the Desafio Co. or Pure Trek, but both he and Eliomar recommended Desafio. The difference being that all of the rappells in the Desafio trip are reached by hiking/sloshing through streams, so you are wet the entire time. The longest rappel is about 200 feet, but is dry for the way down except for the landing, back in the river.

As you can imagine, the scenery is breathtaking. After the tour, they provided a great lunch at the camp. I would highly encourage everyone to take this tour. The guides were very serious about safety and very, very serious about fun... We laughed the entire trip - once I got over my sheer terror that is.

I hope this helps.

Great report--sounds like a few new restaurants in Puerto Viejo! So glad you had a nice time.

Great report! Really makes me want to go to PV someday. Glad you had such a good time!

That sounds great; we'll have to add it to our to do list for when we go back!

Great reading your report, still haven't made it over to the east side at all. Did you use your car much at P Viejo?

Hey Tully,

Despite what all the guide books say, the road from Puerto Viejo to Manzanillo is very rugged. Colin at the Banana Azul said the road was paved a few years ago, but deteriorated due to the heavy truck traffic, rains and poor quality work. Having said that, we used our car alot. The roads were way to bumpy and too dusty, for me anyway, to ride bikes on. We liked having the convenience of just throwing some towels and snorkling gear in the back of the car and just going from beach to beach. We would also head back to the hotel for showers and go back into PV for dinner and not worry about taxis.

The GPS was incredibly helpful because as you know, there are few, if any street names, let alone addresses.

We had a great time on the Caribbean side and I would highly recommend a stop there on your next trip.

Hope this helps.

Tully, you'd like it. Especially time with Abel. We usually have a car as it is, of course, all strung out. We like the option of driving up to Cahuita if we want.

But in 2006 we did it sans vehicle and got along just fine. I found a very friendly taxi driver (pirate) and made almost all the arrangements we would need on the first day, including the drive to Moin to meet Modesto for Tortuguero. It worked out very nicely. We biked it the rest of the time and walked a VERY little bit (and very carefully) at night to restaurants.