Day 6 - (March 13) - Daryl rang us to tell us Solid had arrived to exchange our car for the correct one - they were prompt, arriving at 8 am. They did have the correct size vehicle but not the automatic we reserved. At this point my husband mentioned that we had a downgrade the first day and had paid more for an automatic - were we going to get any discount?? so they discounted us $30. after he called headquarters. They also provided a map (SJ insert would have been nice the first day...lol) and the gentleman told us he always gets lost at the same circle we did (too funny). The new guy from Solid also asked us what time we wanted to drop off the car at the airport and we changed the time to 10:30 - he spoke perfect english and wrote down the time on our agreement (changes make me nervous...) - to be discussed later....
Off we go to Delicious for breakfast - this is a very good bfast spot - the fruit juices are awesome! side of fresh fruit was nice, pastries are divine, wouldn't recommend omelette but tico bfast looked good...
Our plan for the day was playa ventanas - drive down the road and pay for the parking w/ the local family- it's worth it and very cheap...it's an easy walk in from their property....we were here last year and really enjoyed the caves and just the whole setting of the beach w/ mountains in the background, jungle right up to the beach, and HUGE waves - too rough for me but a lot of people were swimming...we explored the caves and then other than a brief walk, just sat and read on the beach until the imperials started calling We went to Ceviche Pinuelas just up the road from ventanas....super cheap and the best ceviche!! we had 2 beers each, 1 ceviche each, and we split an order of fries and it was well under $20 They also have a seating area that faced the jungle down to the beach and there were a ton of birds to see if you are a birder...
Ended up back at the pool at SFTS, met up w/ our new friends D&T and ended up going to Exotica for dinner w/ them. My husband drove (this can be exciting at times) and although Donna had mentioned the "land crabs" doing this nesting thing we had no idea what we were about to see....there were 1000's of crabs EVERYWHERE!!! They were running across the road in every direction - I'm sure you get the picture that this was not a good scene....I kept saying "ooohh, oh no, ewww, ooohhhh," over and over which of course drove my husband nuts but made us all chuckle....in a sick sort of way....needless to say there were thousands of corpses left behind - it was both a visual and an auditory experience...ick Our dinners at Exotica were very good - Hubby had tuna, T had chicken exotica (stuffed w/ plums and cr. cheese) and D & I had snook - what a great fish! The crabs didn't let us down on the return trip...instant replay....even on the drive up to SFTS - they were even trying to claw their way into our room so we kept our doors shut w/ the a/c on

Oh wow, the crabs swarming, oh I would've been like you mumbling. I guess it's a good thing maybe I am opposite - I have trouble driving an automatic. Thanks for the heads up on the SFTS hill...should be interesting. Oh dear. Thanks for the food tips. Was your husband okay driving out & about to dinner at night?

steph270 - We also saw what the locals referred to as "The Running of the Crabs." They come by the thousands down across the highway for about two weeks, and then return back above it, and then repeat the whole scenario. It's very, very weird.

Day 7 - March 14
Did I mention the land crabs???? Because the next morning, there was virtually no sign of them unless you witnessed their journey the nite before...the birds must have had an all you can eat buffet...the food chain at it's best...
At Donna's recommendation prior to our arrival, we decided to check out the feria (market) in Uvita at the soccer pavillion. We went early (8am when they open) so we could get something to eat and do a little gift shopping. Beautiful produce and baked goods!! Also a lot of nice crafts - organic soaps, essential oils, handcrafted jewelry, embroidered linens, bags, etc. We opted for one of the Boruca masks, the mountain berry vinaigrette (CR blackberries)...excellent w/ avocado, and a few other gifts. If you go to the market, which I highly recommend, when you walk in, if you turn to your left, the coffee at the end by the restrooms is excellent. We also shared the "local" german's kraut and sausage sandwich...it was actually quite tasty...a nice change (can't say i've ever had kraut for bfast but my hubby is polish...go figure ) oh, the fresh OJ is good too...lol
From here we headed to Playa Ballena and Arco beaches. There were not a lot of people here - the beaches are huge and I felt like we had them to ourselves. You can walk forever if you don't mind some areas full of rocks....but wear shoes for "boulder hopping" (keens or solomans) because to reach arco you will have to hike over a huge area of very large rocks similar to river rocks. After walking the entire beach we decided to camp out under an almond tree that someone had laid palms across to make even more shade for a nice little siesta Since this beach is part of the park sytem, you will need to pay to go to the beach here but you can use your pass to go to other beaches on the same day. As part of the park system there are showers, bathrooms, etc.
We decided to go to Ceviche Pinuelas again since it was close...just as good the second time and then back to the pool again to read and relax. We originally had planned to go down to the beach in Dominical, watch the sunset and grab a few cervezas at Tortilla flats, and then eat there....well, we did everything except eat there...it was pretty crowded so we decided to grab a bite elsewhere. We ended up back at SFTS and Donna managed to get us a reservation at the Chef's Table at Villas de Las Aves. She told us our friends D & T ended up going there. As I posted earlier, this is an interesting drive. When we arrived, our friends were laughing and joking about us pulling up for dinner even though we were supposed to be in town for the evening...surprise! So we ended up spending another great evening w/ excellent food and company....by the way, the passion fruit merengue semi freddo is to die for

tully - My hubby was fine driving at night. In that area, you just need really good landmarks at night to look for and the owners from SFTS are VERY GOOD at providing them. Their lists for the beaches, dinner, and general info are so detailed....another personal touch that was so helpful!

First of all, steph, you're making me very hungry and thirsty!

Second, I had to laugh about the land crabs. I experienced those my first trip and they were scurrying everywhere. There was one in our bathroom one night and I have no idea how he got in with the door shut. Also, they're good stair climbers! The resident cats didn't seem to know what to make of them! I asked if they were good to eat, but alas, no.

At BDC we had a pet crab living on our porch (my daughter named it Bob). One day we came home to find a mutilated Bob in the grass near our cabina. Daughter was very sad.

Good to know all the info is handy at SFTS. Tully will have all the hot spots scoped out before I get there!

Poor bob, lol.

Hopefully will have the hot spots, right now I'm just hopeful I can drive up & down that hill

steph - I won't have a car my first night at SFTS. I was thinking of just grabbing something on the way in at the grocery store to make, sounds like it may be a little bit of a process to get a taxi up there?

Steph-loving your report with all it's humourous detail! Thanks for all your helpful information.
Hip-so sorry about Bob the crab, what a story. Poor, poor Bob!

Hipvirgo - They can climb everywhere - they were trying to get in the bathroom window...lol...poor bob...

tully - You should be ok w/ taxi if you want to go out...again, Donna has 1 or 2 she recommends ....don't worry, you'll be fine...I was excited to drive and bummed when I couldn't...

crlover - thx!

Getting ready to finish or at least get to Manuel Antonio

This has been such a fun report, steph! Thanks for taking the time. That's crazy about all those crabs. I'd like to see that; road carnage excluded (and my condolences on Bob, Hip; I would have been saddened as well...).

I've done the bulk of the driving on both my CR trips, tully. You'll do fine! We stayed at Arenal Lodge on our first trip (it's right past VG's favorite Lost Iguana). The driveway up to the reception area is <i>very</i> steep, curvy and only one lane (which was interesting when you encountered a car coming the other way!). I had to navigate that thing several times; the very first time was in the evening after sunset and it was DARK on that narrow, heavily forested lane. Needless to say, we survived the adventure, none the worse for wear!

Day 8 - March 15th - Up for breakfast as usual at the crack of dawn. "Why can't I drag my @$$ out of bed at home", my hubby keeps asking over and over and over....let's see...because I'm not on VACATION??
Off to breakfast at Arena y Sol...very busy w/ the surfer crowd - nothing exciting about the food, just basic tico breakfast. We never made it to the Whale's Tail the year before so we decided to spend a partial day there. The Whale's Tail is accessed through Playas Uvita and Bahia which are part of the park system (again there is a fee to help w/ upkeep - showers, restrooms, etc). If you go on a weekend as we did, try to go early - although the beach is HUGE and doesn't seem crowded, the parking area is small and overflow parking is along the road on the drive in...you will also, as with all the beaches in this area, want to go just before low tide if you want to spend some time there.
We love all the hiking and the walking that we do when in CR, but just an FYI - you will need to walk quite a distance to get to the actual "tail" (from the lot to the end of the tail is probably close to a mile) and we had our towels, backpack w/ water and our trusty beach chair (courtesy of Shelter...another nice touch). Recommend the chair (for those staying at SFTS) for most of the beaches since they are easy to get to....but not for this beach - it was a bit much...As we were dragging our gear down the beach, we ran into D & T....they were off to get massages and then a sunset horseback ride.
The tail was different than I expected - I knew it was a sandbar but I didn't realize that the tail was all rock....lots of little tidal pools when the tide starts coming in. It was a pretty cool sensation to sit on the narrow part of the tail that leads out to the rocky area and watch the water coming in from both sides...a lot of sand dollars on this beach. After leaving the beach we decided to try ceviche somewhere new and tried La Mancha soda - large serving of ceviche and very good but don't get the marlin - it's not endangered but an illegal catch...went back to hang at pool w/ D & T for a bit and then right after they left, a group of arcaris came in the tree by the pool....this was the closest I've seen one...they are so pretty!!
On our way out to sunset on the SFTS road leading down to highway, we heard toucans and pulled the car over (not exactly an easy endeavour....don't get freaked tully ) and we saw more arcari, toucans, and a flock of some very large birds that looked like a game bird...not sure yet what it was??? It was actually pretty comical because the toucans would call and then this rooster would call back...it went on for like 10 minutes...we were cracking up listening to this clueless rooster doing his er er err errrrrr....
We decided to check out the sunset at Cristal Ballena - a totally different atmosphere than Tortilla flats (and different view - elevated). What a nice view!! The grounds were really nice and the place was surprisingly empty....they have a nice bar area, pool, and it looks like a nice place to stay...I would compare it to Mariposa in MA but on a smaller scale? The bar was actually more reasonable than we thought it would be... After our sunset margaritas, we headed off to Citrus for our last dinner in the Dominical area.
Citrus is actually in Ojochal, south of Uvita. There is a sign to turn to the left to go to Ojochal and instead of following the road straight to go to Exotica, you make the first let and it is just past the police station - very unassuming but great ambiance and food. I had the Chicken curry and hubby had fish (?). We had 2 different caprese type apps. - tomatoes were great!! This restaurant was very different than what we expected!
Off to Manuel Antonio in the morning although very sad to leave SFTS and the Dominical/Uvita/Ojochal area!!

Got it - stopping on hill may be tricky. Oh dear! I would go practice but we don't have hills in FL

Love all the details, stuff like the chairs that SFTS provides etc. Want to get out to the Whale's Tail too, thought it was just sand - interesting!

Will have to remember Arena y Sol too. I like basic tico breakfasts while taking in the surfers boys

Weird about Cristal Ballena...never even beenthere but I've always got the same inpression, that it seems empty. Beautiful location but never gets much mention at all. Another place to add to the list.

Is there a cat at SFTS?

Looking forward to hearing about the drive from SFTS to MA!

Great info about that area, Steph. Your hubby kindly pointed out the 'Whale's Tail' to mine on the plane, and he got a great photo of it from the air. He will be very interested to hear it is rock. Sounds fun!

I'm waiting to see how you enjoyed your ride from Dominical to Quepos. How is the new paved road going (he-he).

tully - yes there are at least 3 cats (hubby says there may have been 4?) at SFTS plus the dogs - a blueheeler and a ??, not sure what the 2nd dog was. The breakfast at Arena y sol was good, I was just enamored with the fresh OJ and carrot juice combo at delicious and i'm too lazy at home to use the juicer...a lot of local workers seemed to stop in delicious too. The view wasn't too shabby at arena although it was sunday...a little hangover going on w/ the youngins i think........
janenicole - i don't know what photo program you have but if you "zoom" on the tail, you can actually see the difference between sand and rock - it never crossed my mind it was rock at the end either!
brian - the new "paved" road was.........

Day 9 - March 16th - Another early start - we say our "hope to see you soon" to Donna and off we go to Delicious for our final breakfast in Dominical. Considering the condition of the road to MA last year we opt for a light breakfast...lol and we are on the road just before 8:30am.
The first 6 km or so are just as we remembered - very rough and extremely bumpy with big trucks by the dozens and LOTS of dust. At one point I remarked to my husband about the air filter in the car - wondering if there was any way possible it was still capable of filtering all that dust (pics to follow). Things looked pretty much the same - same construction, same new bridges being built, and then, suddenly, our speed tripled!! (60 to 70 km per hour woohoo!) Now I'm not saying the road is nice, by any means, but they had graded the road to prepare for paving, hauling tons of rocks off to the side and along some of the streams. We made it to Quepos in under an hour !! (it took a lot longer last year).
We arrive at Villas Nicolas much earlier than we had planned but after a 10 minute wait we are told we can check in to our room! As my hubby is reaching in his pocket for money, he pulls out this key - Uh oh - it's our key to SFTS! Needless to say, we were assured by Daryl it was ok, he was glad we called, and we arranged to give the key to Solid when we returned the car and they would get the key to them.
We decided to just beach it and relax. We would do the park the next day. We rented 2 chairs, umbrella, and table for the day for about $9.00. Soon, the "march of the vendors" started - I forgot how much stuff is sold on the main beach!! Oh, and I forgot about the "parking fees" ...lol After many "no gracias", we are approached by a waiter named Donald - he ends up being the same waiter we had last time we were in MA! He sets us up w/ a bucket of ice, water, a few cervezas, and eventually our lunch....I'm never leaving :} What a beautiful beach!! We spent the entire day on the beach taking turns going into the water - this is important - NEVER leave your stuff alone, esp. on this beach. After packing up, we checked out all the vendors lining the beach, bought a few trinkets, and headed back to VN.
Sunset at La Mariposa - I still think this is one of the best spots to check out the sunset, but please, if anyone has any other suggestions, let us know! It's nice because it has a bar (essential), music, it's elevated, and has an unobstructed view to watch the sun disappear into the ocean....the bar is pricey ($$$) though...
The owner at VN suggested Kapi Kapi for dinner (fairly new restaurant) and we weren't disappointed....what a lovely place! Excellent wait staff. It's a polynesian type restaurant - the apps were good - chicken/peanut lettuce wraps and a shrimp app. For dinner, we took the recommendations of our waiter (they were out of tuna ) and we both had fish - hubby opting for macadamia crusted mahi and I had some fish (tilapia?) on a bed of polynesian rice (basically pork fried rice). The french press coffee is excellent.
Headed back to VN to call it a night, but on the way, stopped at the outdoor restaurant at VN - met Susan and Paco, who own the restaurant - and this is where we met Sheree and Pete from Houston and their two adorable children. Had a blast talking to them and an hour later, we make plans to meet the next day at either breakfast or in the park.
Day 10 - March 17th - St Patrick's Day
Susan has two women that run the breakfast at VN - it is by far one of the best breakfasts in CR! Everything is made to order, so if you are in a hurry, don't bother. The fruit plate is enormous - 1/4 pinapple, 1/4 canteloupe, watermelon, 1/2 mango, 1/2 papaya, whole banana, and a piece of apple or an orange. S & P showed up just as we were finishing and we ended up meeting them at the entrance to the park.
The entrance to the park - what a fiasco - it was completely different than last time we were there and not marked very well. The old entrance was now the exit and we met several people who were just as confused as we were about how to get in to this place!! No one wanted to tell you how to get in to the entrance without directing you toward the tours and guides - if you had never been there before, you could be easily convinced it was mandatory to have a guide! Finally, someone directed us down a long road (again, distances were not accurate) that dead ended - we decided to take a right and eventually found the entrance!
If you haven't been in the park in a while, the new entrance takes you in on one of the service roads. While we were with S & P and the kids, we saw sloths (many w/ a baby), several birds, squirrel monkeys, and finally the capuchins. I had warned S & P about leaving any bags unattended, stuff laying around on the beach, etc, even pointing out people that had left their sunglasses and bag sitting on a picnic table, ready to be picked off by a monkey at any moment. Well, not long after, I see S & P on the beach w/ the kids and this capuchin comes tearing out of nowhere and starts going through their bag. Within seconds, this monkey is high tailing it up a tree with a pair of her underwear and a kotex pad!! The monkey dropped the undies on a lower branch and was holding this kotex pad, looking at everyone that had gathered around, trying to figure out if he could eat it or what.....finally he dropped the pad and went to get the underwear - this was one of the most hysterical things i have ever seen - the monkey looked like he was trying to figure out how to put on her panties!! he was stretching them and pulling them onto his legs and putting them on his head - finally, he gave up and dropped the panties to safety, which S quickly stuffed back in to her bag - she was such a great sport about this whole episode because several people had gathered to watch this scene play out - i have to say, i would have been mortified (and yes, i have pictures )
We decided to leave S & P and do some hiking, to get away from the crowds. Most of the people stayed on the first beach or along the main road with guides so the rest of the park was pretty quiet.....

LMAO! That's the best 'Capuchin caught stealing' story in a while! I haven't been to Mariposa, but Ronny's Place is very nice for sunsets, open air casual atmosphere. Thanks for the report on the roads too! Looking forward to pics.

That is hilarious!!! I would pretended they weren't my panties and snuck away quietly, I think.

going to finish this so i can start working on pics
So we hiked most of the trails in the next couple of hours and saw several sloths (or is it sloth?), more capuchins, marine iguanas, squirrel monkeys, more birds (although i'm not great at identifying most w/out a cheatsheet), lizards, etc. We hiked down to the 3rd beach (name escapes me) and there were actually quite a few people here so we hung around for a little bit -watching yet another monkey show - this time the capuchin leafed through a tour book in someone's back pack and then ran to another bag trying to take the whole bag, and then settled for a piece of food. Another one tried to take someone's clothes hanging over a tree branch...it was crazy.
As we approached the exit to leave, there were monkeys hanging out in the shower area waiting for people to leave so they could drink the water on the ground. One of the tour guides told us they know how to turn on the water which has become an issue! We watched the monkey show for a bit longer - they totally know we are captivated by them!! - reflected on how different MA is from the Osa - and then hit the trail back to the main beach. Donald took care of us again and after a few hours we headed back to the pool to cool off.
On our way out to sunset, we saw Sheree at the bar with two other new friends - Brian and Chris. We laughed so hard about the "panty incident" and my pictures....S & P were bummed they didn't video the whole debacle - they probably could have won "funniest videos" or something!!! We decided to come back after sunset and eat at the restaurant at VN. On our way out, we asked the owner if Agua Azul was a good place to watch the sunset and got an interesting answer of "well it overlooks the water doesn't it"....hmmmm so we headed down the street to Agua only to find out you can't see the sunset from there, just the afterglow....oh well...the margarita i had was kickin'! Happy St. Patty's Day!!
Back at VN, we met up w/S & P and the kids and had a wonderful meal!! Susan was there helping Paco - I have no idea how he cooks such a great meal in such a tiny space!! I would definitely recommend the dinner here if you want good food and a laid back atmosphere. C & B returned from their dinner and we had some more laughs, exchanged info, and said our farewells.
Day 11- March 18th -
Susan took our bfast order the night before, so when we arrived at 6:30 when they opened, they had already started our breakfast excellent gallo pinto - I got to watch them make it The women that made breakfast were supersweet - I think they liked that we tried to speak w/ them in spanish....it was a struggle at times..haha
We headed out for SJO at around 7:20. On the way we got to see several macaws heading down to the Osa - I secretly wished I was going with them.....There were the usual speed traps just north of Jaco (we passed two) and quite a bit of construction so speeding wasn't really an option. We heard the road from SJO to Jaco is almost complete although we heard that last year too...haha
We arrived at SJO at approx. 10:20 for our 10:30 drop-off and tried to park for a few minutes since we didn't see the Solid guy. We were eventually moved along by security and drove around again and parked further down. 10:40 - no Solid guy but it is CR....10:45 a mild panic starts. We drive around a few more times. 10:55- now I am panicking. We try a payphone but waste money not knowing we had to dial 22 or something like that first. I take my passport and go inside - a VERY nice gentleman at the departure tax counter helps me dial Solid on the payphone beside him. I get a manager on the phone who tells me they were at the airport at 9:30 - the time never got changed!!!! He told me someone would be right over so I go and get my stuff from the car and start the process of paying the tax and checking in (thank goodness we flew Spirit b/c there was no line - Continental was out the door!!) Soon my husband comes in and we get in line to check-in. The guy from Solid admitted the time on our receipt was correct - he just never rec'd that copy from the Dominical office....he wanted my hubby to hang around while he inspected the car but that didn't happen...lol. We make it w/ time to spare, buy several bags of coffee, and sadly await to board our flight home......

Hope you enjoyed the "lengthy" trip report - pics are on the way!!!

I almost forgot that I received an email from "T" from Canada that she wanted me to share so I cut and paste part of it - she was in Lapa while we were at BdC -enjoy!

Back to BDC - we also had a mouse in our room - just heard the droppings fall on the plastic over our canopy, and kept finding them on the floor! Did we tell you about our other visitors? One afternoon we went out to do the Titi Trail, and were thrilled to see an armadillo along the road enroute! When we came back to our cabin, Lapa, we found one of the louvered doors open. Inside we found a ripped-open granola bar wrapper! Evidently our resident coati family, known to be lovers of sweets, made their way in via the open door to the shower, climbed up onto my open suitcase, threw a blouse and another item onto the floor, and found the Ziploc bag containing my stash of granola bars. They opened the bag carefully and left it on top of my clothes, but made off with 5 granola bars! To top it off, the next morning when we woke up, they were trying to sneak into the room to look for more of those delectable treats!