Very long family trip report - with highlights and glitches
Aug 23rd, 2007, 11:45 AM
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Very long family trip report - with highlights and glitches
Trip report
We are a family of 4 (kids 7 & 11) who spent 15 days in Costa Rica. Our trip was fun, but it had a series of highlights and glitches that I will share for those of you that may benefit from our adventures. We booked virtually all of our reservations ourselves, but we did use Pat Hewitt of Costa Rica travel exchange for a small portion of our trip. If you don’t speak Spanish, I suggest using an agent more than we did. It is very helpful to have someone who knows the language helping you. I would use Pat again and have him do all of our reservations if we ever get back to Costa Rica.
Overall general glitch. We went in green season and well, in green season it does rain, sometimes a lot. This didn’t bother me but it turned out to bother the kids occasionally. Think about what kind of family you have before you pick your season. My kids are really into sun and the beach and I hadn’t thought that through as much as I should have. It’s very much a personal choice, but do make sure you think of all members of your traveling group.
7/29 Flew into Liberia airport with no problems. Liberia is a very small open air airport. We were through customs and had our bags in less than 30 minutes. Payless car rental was waiting for us just outside the gate. We went to the car rental office picked up our car. They did an inspection of the car and noted the damage on a form in Spanish. Since our Spanish is limited we had to go on faith with this. This was the first of many times that I wished I could speak the language. The car rental office also showed us a dashboard light indicating some issue with the car but said the car was fine to drive despite the light. Off we went to Arenal. Drive was pretty and uneventful. We enjoyed the view around the lake. My kids liked looking at all the “rabbit eared” cows that seemed to be the preferred variety of cattle in Costa Rica. We all enjoyed checking out the large wind farm we passed.
Stayed at the Arenal Observatory Lodge. We had one of the rooms in the White Hawk Villa. Loved our room. I can’t imagine a better view of the lava or the volcano. We saw molten rocks tumbling down the side of the volcano the first night. We had a buffet dinner at the Lodge ($16 per adult/$8 per child). I thought the buffet was fine. I know people have complained about the food at the Lodge on these boards, but I didn’t find the food to be much different than many of the places we ate in Costa Rica. I would stay here again as long as the lava is flowing on this side. With the kids it was much easier to hang out in our room and try and catch a glimpse of the lava that way.
7/30 Breakfast the next day was at the Lodge and was included in our room cost. 3 types of fruit, eggs, pancakes, bacon, sausage, toast, beans & rice, and 3 types of juices. The flavors of the fruit and juices varied each day but otherwise breakfast was the same.
We went on the free morning hike at the Lodge and learned that our kids don’t have the patience to do long, slow, crowded, guided hikes. Another family had organized a private hike and I wished I had been smart enough to do this. We dropped out about 1/2 way through the trek. We went to the front desk to arrange activities but didn’t find the staff very helpful. I wish we had organized our activities in advance for the first couple of days of our trip. The desk was pushing canyoneering but it was full. They then offered up a horseback ride to the waterfall.
Big highlight of our vacation was the horseback ride to the waterfall. It was just the 4 of us with 1 guide. We rode as fast as we wanted through fields, across streams, etc. for about an hour to the waterfall. It was a ton of fun. In hindsight though, this wasn’t the safest thing to have done with our kids. I’ll blame the negligent parenting on vacation fever. There were no helmets. Our 7 year old, whose experience in the past had been limited to pony rides at fairs, should never have been going as fast as he was on his horse. Our 11 year old who has had years of riding lessons was very happy going at a full canter across the fields. At the falls our guide watched all of our stuff so we could swim and enjoy the falls. They were stunningly beautiful and our guide told us where and where not to swim. We felt very safe doing this with his assistance. The lower pool was full of fish and we enjoyed watching them after a refreshing dip in the upper pool. We were allowed to stay at the falls as long as we wanted before returning on the same path with our horses. Our guide, Nano, had perfect English, probably the best of anyone we encountered who had lived his entire life in Costa Rica. We really enjoyed talking with him and learning about his life in Costa Rica.
Lunch was at La Choza del Laurel. Their famed chicken was not ready when we arrived for lunch, so the kids had nachos, which were covered in lots of ground beef and something that tasted like a discount store brand of cheez whiz (don’t order these if you are over the age of 12). Adults had Azzoz con pollo. This seems to be a very standard dish across the country.
Dinner was at Mirador steak house. Huge steaks at US prices. A ribeye was $20, Surf and turf (which we did not order) was a whopping $40. This place is all about the steak. Side dishes and service were mediocre. As with many restaurants in Costa Rica, they didn’t know how to serve the wine. Wine by the glass was served filled to the rim just like the kids’ ginger ale.
7/31 We did Hanging Bridges with a guide and absolutely loved this. Hanging Bridges is a bargain for families because kids under 12 get in free. Our guide, Jorge, was fantastic. My kids loved the suspension bridges, because it made the walk much more of an adventure. We saw so much wildlife on this trek, probably more than any other hike we did. I loved the howler monkey mom and baby that we saw. We also saw leaf cutter ants, a sloth, many other monkeys, morpho and the clear wing butterflies, an eyelash pit viper, one of those tiny red and blue poisonous frogs, and many fascinating insects. A violent rainstorm cut our hike slightly short and we headed back to the Lodge to dry off.
Back at the Lodge we found our digital camera had gotten wet in the storm and the LCD screen was not working. My dear hubby had packed all of his vitamins and various over the counter medicines just in case. I originally teased him about this, but it sure came in handy with the camera disaster. We grabbed all the little silica gel packs from the pill bottles and put them in a sealed plastic bag with the camera. By morning they had soaked up the moisture and we were back to taking pictures.
We had asked the AOL front desk staff to arrange Ecothermales for us for tonight. The front desk was really, really pushing Baldi, but we had stopped in the day before and looked at it. It just wasn’t our kind of place. The AOL front desk reluctantly made the Eco reservation. We told the desk we wanted to dinner at Eco and they said we had to ask for it when we arrived.
Ecothermales. Beautiful place. We are glad we went to this hot spring, but we did have a glitch or two here. When we arrived we were told dinner was impossible because our hotel had not made a reservation for us. This was disappointing because we would have to leave earlier than we intended to feed the kids. We went with the flow though and enjoyed the springs. There was only one bartender working at the bar near the springs and she was carefully mixing drinks by hand, even hand grinding mint leaves for drinks. This meant the line to get any drink, even a soda or bottle of water was over 30 minutes long. Many people gave up and went without drinks. I am guessing with more staff they could have sold many more beverages and also accommodated more people for dinner.
Dinner was at a pizza place nearby, Vagabond Pizza. This turned out to be really good. Service was great. They brought our family brain teaser puzzles to play with while we waited for our food. Pizza was cooked in a wood burning oven and was served very quickly.
8/1 Off to Monteverde. The drive was much easier than expected. Clear signs directed us from Tilaren to Monteverde. I had printed out directions, but we didn’t need them with the clearly marked roads. The road was bumpy and tedious but not difficult to drive. The only “glitch” was how embarrassing it was watching the locals pass us on motorcycles while we were in our 4 wheel drive SUV.
Our first big vacation problem occurred here. We checked into a house I had rented privately. The house had been vacant and mold/mildew was in the house. We opened the door and smelled a horrible stench. OK, renting a house sight unseen and unsmelled in a foreign country wasn’t the smartest thing I have ever done. We found some Lysol and got a dehumidifier going and hoped for the best.
We went to the Hidden Valley Night tour. The kids liked the night tour with the flashlights. I liked that each group of 8 was given their own guide. We saw coatimundi, a possum, leaf cutter ants, a sloth, and a Morpho butterly that landed on me and rode on my shirt for part of the walk. This was a very nice hike, but not as good as Hanging Bridges mostly because our guide at Hanging Bridges was more knowledgeable and a better at spotting wildlife. How good any of these walks are depends on how good your individual guide is.
Dinner at Sofia’s. This place did not live up to its hype. I ordered the crusted sea bass. It was “crusted” with flour and deep fried turning it into a very tasty fish stick. One of our kids ordered the chicken quesadilla. This became a vacation joke for us. He took one bite and said, “would you like some burnt wood and fire for dinner.” I don’t know what went wrong with this dish or the restaurant’s wood burning oven, but his quesadilla tasted like it had been cooked in the center of a roaring Boy Scout campfire. The only flavor was of strong burnt wood. For the rest of our trip if anyone didn’t care for their food, we all looked at each other and said “would you like some burnt wood and fire.”
Back to the house for the night where we all had an awful night’s sleep due to the smell/mold. One son woke with very swollen eyes and felt terrible until we got him out in the fresh air. We were very worried about staying here, but we weren’t sure what to do. We left the dehumidifier on and hoped for the best.
8/2 Breakfast at a soda in Santa Elena and off to a horseback ride. Our horseback ride was part highlight, part glitch. The ride was through the beautiful farm country on the hills above Monteverde. It was on very well cared for horses and was also very safe. Unfortunately, a slow walk on a horse in a single file line admiring the view just wasn’t enough activity for an adrenalin filled middle school boy, especially one who has been taking horseback riding lessons for years. Whenever he tried to go a little faster he was tsked tsked by our guide. When we asked about going slightly faster we were told their insurance does not allow them to do so. By the end of the ride he was giving the guide the kind of looks reserved for very strict teachers. I am sure our relatively sleepless night in the house didn’t help matters here. I made a mental note to ask more questions before I signed up for horseback rides in the future. My husband and I loved this ride though.
Next funny glitch: Went to a soda for lunch and I ordered what I thought was black bean soup. Imagine my surprise when I received black bean broth with intestines/tripe floating in it! Once again, I really wish I spoke more Spanish.
Back to the smelly house. It had been 24 hours now with the dehumidifier running and it wasn’t fixed. Worried it was a health hazard we packed up and began driving around trying to find another place to stay. Definitely not how I wanted to be spending my time or money on vacation.
Found a delightful B&B, The Mariposa, near the reserve and directly across the street from Hotel Fonda Vela. Rooms were $40 for a room with a queen bed, twin bed and private bath. The rooms had nice mattresses, high wooden ceilings, and most importantly after smelly house, the rooms were immaculately clean. You could have eaten off the floors in this place. The owner clearly took a lot of pride in her establishment. The icing on the cake was that the room rate included a hot, cooked to order breakfast with the best pancakes I have ever eaten. If my Spanish was better
I would have asked for the recipe. We rented 2 rooms next to each other. The rooms opened to a locked common area, which made it a great set up for a family. The B&B had another 2 bedroom suite that would also have been perfect for a family. The owner did 3 loads of laundry for us and neatly folded the laundry for a very low fee. In fact the laundry was practically free and I felt guilty. This place was just such an incredible bargain.
Dinner at the Hotel Fonda Vela across the street. This was a highlight. Best service of any restaurant we experienced in Costa Rica. Food was very good and it was much more affordable than I expected. I didn’t recognize many of the wines on the menu and the server pointed out a bargain $12 bottle that she said was very good. She was right. Everything we ordered was perfectly cooked and delicious. I highly recommend this restaurant.
8/3 Off to Selvatura for zip lining. I was scared to death for this one, but we all ended up having fun. A couple of things to know before you do this. Our kids did not weigh enough to go on most of the lines by themselves, so they had to go with a guide. Kids that go with a guide have to go to the front of the line and ours were not the only kids needing the weight of guides. Because of this we ended up separated from our kids for much of this adventure. They were sometimes 2 zips ahead of us while we were stuck back in line. I would have preferred to stay together, and we only saw each other about 25% of the time. There were 27 people in our group. This was way too many in my opinion. It would have been more fun in a smaller group. Also, we were told there was some issue with some platforms so we only get to go on 12 lines rather than the total advertised number. Selvatura didn’t tell us this in advance, nor did they offer any price reductions. I wondered if there was really a problem with the platforms or whether it was just a matter of too many people in our group and they were trying to get us through the lines before the next group was set to zip.
Lunch at Selvatura was fine and not as expensive as I expected for a restaurant with a captive audience.
Next up was a hike in the Stana Elana reserve with an outstanding guide, David. The Santa Elana reserve is very close to Selvatura so they are good activities to combine in a day. We liked the Santa Elena reserve because it is owned by the local high school and the entrance fees benefit the school. David was the most professional guide we encountered, but this was also the most expensive hike we did. We paid $100 for our entrance fees and private guide for the 2 hour hike. The Santa Elena reserve is much more about the plants and the rainforest than animals. The animals don’t like the colder, higher altitude per our guide.
The rest of the day was filled with shopping. Monteverde had the best shopping and best prices we saw on our travels in Costa Rica. We bought gifts at Casem and the Hummingbird Gallery. In addition to the galleries, there is a small shop right before you get to Monteverde on the right that sells wooden bowls. The bowls are made there and you can even go into the studio and try to make your own bowl. I wish we had bought all of our gifts in Monteverde, but we didn’t know what a good deal it was until we visited a few more places. We especially appreciated Casem being able to put through charges on our credit card in US$ so we didn’t pay any exchange fees. In general, Casem was a less expensive than the Hummingbird Gallery. The wood bowl place had very inexpensive bowls.
If you are at the Hummingbird Gallery at closing time, bring your flash lights and stay a while. As soon as it turns dark, the hummingbirds go in and small bats come out to drink from the hummingbird feeders. Both the birds and the bats were fun to watch.
8/4 We had another outstanding breakfast at the Mariposa B&B and left our bags with them to hike. Next big glitch: We had seen signs for the Monteverde waterfall and thought we would try it. The hike was steep and muddy. Unfortunately, I fell and twisted my ankle badly. Back to Mariposa for ice and our bags. Grabbed take out lunch from Stella’s and headed out of Monteverde. Bumpy road with hurt ankle was no fun. The drive was actually easy, but again slow and bumpy. Occasionally, bicycles passed us on the road!
We drove about 4 hours to Jaco to turn in our rental car. This was another glitch. Remember the dashboard light at the beginning of my post and damage form in Spanish that we couldn’t read? Well, when we got to the car rental place in Jaco we had a difficult time arguing about whether we had damaged the car. We had not damaged the car in any way, but they thought we had because of the light which indicated a transmission issue. We couldn’t prove the light was on when we rented the car. After much arguing in the hot sun with our kids, they agreed we didn’t damage the car. I think if we had spoken Spanish and been able to communicate better this may not have been as difficult.
Next up we boarded a Windjammer cruise in Caldera. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS. Windjammer is having severefinancial difficulties and may be going into bankrputcy. You can find news articles about the Windjammer situation in the Wall Street Journal and the Miami Herald. When I booked the trip I thought it would be an easy way to see some remote places on the Osa peninsula but we really didn’t get enough time on shore. We also didn’t get the itinerary Windjammer offered. If I had one thing to do over again, it would be to skip Windjammer and go to a lodge in the Osa region.
Cruise:
Day 1 of cruise – Checked in at Caldera, a commercial port with no passenger facilities, boarded the ship and had a decent buffet dinner.
Day 2 of the cruise- docked at Marriott Los Suenos. We were a little disappointed in this stop. The itinerary was not anything like the itinerary in the Windjammer brochure. The Marriott wasn’t off the beaten path and if we had wanted to stay at Los Suenos we would just spent part of our trip at the Marriott. Shore excursions offered: crocodile tour or canopy tour. Note, during the crocodile tour the wild animals are fed by the guides. My environmentalist friends were appalled by this practice, so if you are concerned about wild animals being fed this isn't the tour for you. Canopy tour in the area is not as good as the canopy tours offered in Monteverde or Arenal.
Our family opted for the beach and took an inexpensive taxi to Jaco. Jaco is a party town but fine for a day trip. We had a great day and would do it again. One son took a $45 one hour surf lesson. Lesson price included the use of the board for the remainder of the day. Horse back rides were available on the beach too, but I can't vouch for the condition of the horses. As we saw throughout Costa Rica, horses were not always given the level of care we are used to in the US. The horses on the Jaco beach were not given water all day from what I could see.
In Jaco, there were some "ladies" openly working a corner but my kids were oblivious and didn't notice them. Ditto drug sales. Some people on the beach told us ANYTHING was for sale after dark. I believe it given what we saw at 11:00 on Sunday morning. I don't recommend staying overnight here with young kids, but it was a fun day trip for us.
Day 2 of the cruise: At sea, in the wind and rain. Many people on board were seasick. Kids counselors kept the kids busy with games - Pictionary, charades, movies, etc. This was pretty much the kids counselor’s routine on board the ship. My kids only wanted to participate when there was nothing else going on, like the sea day, so I can't comment on the Windjammer kids program. Stopped in Panama, but no passengers allowed off the ship.
Day 3 of the cruise: Golfito. This is the day we woke up to the interesting morning announcement about being stuck in Golfito because of the first mate had to leave the ship due to a family emergency. Within an hour of the story time, crew members were openly saying that it was not a family emergency but rather a pay issue and we could be stuck in Golfito for a long time. We took a water taxi to the little beach (really just a sand spit) in Golfito. I don't recommend this. Nice bar though and we enjoyed the good company of another family from the ship. This was probably our worst day. I spent it trying to come up with a back up plan in case we were stuck in Golfito permanently. Kind of a stressful, but called Pat Hewitt and knew I could get help if Windjammer didn't resolve things quickly.
Day 4: Golfito still. This was a much better day. Took a water taxi to Zancudo. This is very simple to arrange on you own if you want to do this. We paid $35 to Zancudo and $40 back for our family of 4 - this is the total price, not per person. The water taxi was an excursion in itself. On the way there we went through a mangrove swamp (high tide). On the way back we went very fast through a storm across the bay. It was probably not the most responsible parenting to have relatively small kids in a tiny boat bouncing across an open sea in a storm with lightening striking all around us. The boys, however, consider it a highlight of our vacation. Better parents should plan to leave Zancudo a bit earlier in the rain and not wait for the full storm to hit. Spent to day at Oceano, a bar and beach area about a 20 minute walk from the water taxi drop off. The bar and cabinas are owned by a delightful Canadian couple. Rented a surf board for $15. Oceano had the cheapest beers we saw in Costa Rica - less than $1.25 for a long neck bottle.
Day 5: Drake's Bay & Corcovado National Park. This was one place we really wanted to see. Unfortunately, we only had 5 hours on shore. Docked near the Aguila de Osa. This hotel had a rope swing over the water, but make sure you stay away from it. Crocodiles were nearby and late in the day we saw fishermen cleaning fish and dumping the heads in the area of the rope swing. The ship rented snorkel equipment for $10, but there was 0 visibility due to the rain. We couldn't arrange a trip to Cano island, our originaly plan, due to short time at shore.
Day 6: Quepos. We took a taxi on our own to the public beach near the National park entrance. Lots of vendors that allowed us to pick up a few souvenirs for the folks back home. There were massages offered on the beach $20 for a half hour. Our kids bought one for my husband in honor of his birthday. Rented a surfboard for $20 for the day and chairs and an umbrella for $12 or so.
Side comment on Quepos restaurants near the beach. When we got to the beach area my son had to go to the bathroom. He stopped in and used the bathroom at Marlin's beach restaurant. After he used it he told me he couldn't flush or wash his hands because the water was not working. Five hours later when we went for lunch, the restaurant still had no running water and was still serving food. YUCK! When we asked at host at the front of the restaurant, he told us the whole city was out of water. Fortunately, we did not believe him and walked a block to a restaurant with running water. I would be wary of eating at a place that would take chances like this with the health of customers.
Day 7 of the cruise: Buffet breakfast and off the ship. Wonderful bonus at the dock. Instead of a taxi to take us to Jaco, we had called Pat Hewitt for help and he had arranged for a rental car company to deliver our car to as at the dock in Caldera. It was a wonderful sight seeing our car pull up next to the ship so we could continue on our vacation. This saved us a ton of driving time.
Once off the boat we drove to Nosara and spent 3 nights. I know a lot has been written about the road to Monteverde, but we found the road to Nosara to be much worse. Nosara was having an unusual amount of rain when we arrived, so much so that we worried about getting out once we were there. The rain filled large potholes and you had no idea how deep they were. More than once my husband got out of the car and checked the depth with a stick before attempting to drive through them. Also, I did say drive through them. Many of the water filled holes were so large you had to drive through them rather than go around them. Fortunately, the rain stopped one day after we arrived and all was well.
We stayed at the Villa Mango in Nosara and this was by far the nicest place we stayed on vacation. I would stay here again in a heartbeat. My family loved the resident coatimundi and all the wildlife around the inn. What made it even nicer was that we had purchased our stay through a local charity that we read about on this board. The charity helps the local schools. The condition of the schools is heartbreaking and I encourage anyone visiting Nosara to consider buying their stay through Project Ninos.
In Nosara we pretty much stuck to the beach and enjoyed our last 2 vacation days. Meals in Nosara:
Sandwiches at Robin’s icecream – US food at US prices. Very yummy icecream and the only whole grain bread we saw during our travels.
Café de Paris: Great lunch and a great atmosphere
Harbor Reef: I am struggling with how to rate this place. It was the absolute worst service of any restaurant we encountered in Costa Rica, but we loved the atmosphere and the live music. Harbor Reef also had the only children’s menu we were offered during our travels.
Olga’s: good food on the beach. This was the cheapest place we ate in Nosara. The bathrooms were more disgusting than those of my old college bar but the food was good.
Lagarta Lodge: good food, but we missed the view by arriving after dark. Try to arrive earlier and make sure you have a reservation. Even in off season we had a hard time getting a table.
Shopping in Nosara was awful. Prices in the one or two shops were almost double the prices we paid in Monteverde. Save your shopping for someplace else. On the other hand, surf board rentals were cheaper in Nosara than the other places we visited.
Thanks to all who helped plan our trip and provided information on this Board.
We are a family of 4 (kids 7 & 11) who spent 15 days in Costa Rica. Our trip was fun, but it had a series of highlights and glitches that I will share for those of you that may benefit from our adventures. We booked virtually all of our reservations ourselves, but we did use Pat Hewitt of Costa Rica travel exchange for a small portion of our trip. If you don’t speak Spanish, I suggest using an agent more than we did. It is very helpful to have someone who knows the language helping you. I would use Pat again and have him do all of our reservations if we ever get back to Costa Rica.
Overall general glitch. We went in green season and well, in green season it does rain, sometimes a lot. This didn’t bother me but it turned out to bother the kids occasionally. Think about what kind of family you have before you pick your season. My kids are really into sun and the beach and I hadn’t thought that through as much as I should have. It’s very much a personal choice, but do make sure you think of all members of your traveling group.
7/29 Flew into Liberia airport with no problems. Liberia is a very small open air airport. We were through customs and had our bags in less than 30 minutes. Payless car rental was waiting for us just outside the gate. We went to the car rental office picked up our car. They did an inspection of the car and noted the damage on a form in Spanish. Since our Spanish is limited we had to go on faith with this. This was the first of many times that I wished I could speak the language. The car rental office also showed us a dashboard light indicating some issue with the car but said the car was fine to drive despite the light. Off we went to Arenal. Drive was pretty and uneventful. We enjoyed the view around the lake. My kids liked looking at all the “rabbit eared” cows that seemed to be the preferred variety of cattle in Costa Rica. We all enjoyed checking out the large wind farm we passed.
Stayed at the Arenal Observatory Lodge. We had one of the rooms in the White Hawk Villa. Loved our room. I can’t imagine a better view of the lava or the volcano. We saw molten rocks tumbling down the side of the volcano the first night. We had a buffet dinner at the Lodge ($16 per adult/$8 per child). I thought the buffet was fine. I know people have complained about the food at the Lodge on these boards, but I didn’t find the food to be much different than many of the places we ate in Costa Rica. I would stay here again as long as the lava is flowing on this side. With the kids it was much easier to hang out in our room and try and catch a glimpse of the lava that way.
7/30 Breakfast the next day was at the Lodge and was included in our room cost. 3 types of fruit, eggs, pancakes, bacon, sausage, toast, beans & rice, and 3 types of juices. The flavors of the fruit and juices varied each day but otherwise breakfast was the same.
We went on the free morning hike at the Lodge and learned that our kids don’t have the patience to do long, slow, crowded, guided hikes. Another family had organized a private hike and I wished I had been smart enough to do this. We dropped out about 1/2 way through the trek. We went to the front desk to arrange activities but didn’t find the staff very helpful. I wish we had organized our activities in advance for the first couple of days of our trip. The desk was pushing canyoneering but it was full. They then offered up a horseback ride to the waterfall.
Big highlight of our vacation was the horseback ride to the waterfall. It was just the 4 of us with 1 guide. We rode as fast as we wanted through fields, across streams, etc. for about an hour to the waterfall. It was a ton of fun. In hindsight though, this wasn’t the safest thing to have done with our kids. I’ll blame the negligent parenting on vacation fever. There were no helmets. Our 7 year old, whose experience in the past had been limited to pony rides at fairs, should never have been going as fast as he was on his horse. Our 11 year old who has had years of riding lessons was very happy going at a full canter across the fields. At the falls our guide watched all of our stuff so we could swim and enjoy the falls. They were stunningly beautiful and our guide told us where and where not to swim. We felt very safe doing this with his assistance. The lower pool was full of fish and we enjoyed watching them after a refreshing dip in the upper pool. We were allowed to stay at the falls as long as we wanted before returning on the same path with our horses. Our guide, Nano, had perfect English, probably the best of anyone we encountered who had lived his entire life in Costa Rica. We really enjoyed talking with him and learning about his life in Costa Rica.
Lunch was at La Choza del Laurel. Their famed chicken was not ready when we arrived for lunch, so the kids had nachos, which were covered in lots of ground beef and something that tasted like a discount store brand of cheez whiz (don’t order these if you are over the age of 12). Adults had Azzoz con pollo. This seems to be a very standard dish across the country.
Dinner was at Mirador steak house. Huge steaks at US prices. A ribeye was $20, Surf and turf (which we did not order) was a whopping $40. This place is all about the steak. Side dishes and service were mediocre. As with many restaurants in Costa Rica, they didn’t know how to serve the wine. Wine by the glass was served filled to the rim just like the kids’ ginger ale.
7/31 We did Hanging Bridges with a guide and absolutely loved this. Hanging Bridges is a bargain for families because kids under 12 get in free. Our guide, Jorge, was fantastic. My kids loved the suspension bridges, because it made the walk much more of an adventure. We saw so much wildlife on this trek, probably more than any other hike we did. I loved the howler monkey mom and baby that we saw. We also saw leaf cutter ants, a sloth, many other monkeys, morpho and the clear wing butterflies, an eyelash pit viper, one of those tiny red and blue poisonous frogs, and many fascinating insects. A violent rainstorm cut our hike slightly short and we headed back to the Lodge to dry off.
Back at the Lodge we found our digital camera had gotten wet in the storm and the LCD screen was not working. My dear hubby had packed all of his vitamins and various over the counter medicines just in case. I originally teased him about this, but it sure came in handy with the camera disaster. We grabbed all the little silica gel packs from the pill bottles and put them in a sealed plastic bag with the camera. By morning they had soaked up the moisture and we were back to taking pictures.
We had asked the AOL front desk staff to arrange Ecothermales for us for tonight. The front desk was really, really pushing Baldi, but we had stopped in the day before and looked at it. It just wasn’t our kind of place. The AOL front desk reluctantly made the Eco reservation. We told the desk we wanted to dinner at Eco and they said we had to ask for it when we arrived.
Ecothermales. Beautiful place. We are glad we went to this hot spring, but we did have a glitch or two here. When we arrived we were told dinner was impossible because our hotel had not made a reservation for us. This was disappointing because we would have to leave earlier than we intended to feed the kids. We went with the flow though and enjoyed the springs. There was only one bartender working at the bar near the springs and she was carefully mixing drinks by hand, even hand grinding mint leaves for drinks. This meant the line to get any drink, even a soda or bottle of water was over 30 minutes long. Many people gave up and went without drinks. I am guessing with more staff they could have sold many more beverages and also accommodated more people for dinner.
Dinner was at a pizza place nearby, Vagabond Pizza. This turned out to be really good. Service was great. They brought our family brain teaser puzzles to play with while we waited for our food. Pizza was cooked in a wood burning oven and was served very quickly.
8/1 Off to Monteverde. The drive was much easier than expected. Clear signs directed us from Tilaren to Monteverde. I had printed out directions, but we didn’t need them with the clearly marked roads. The road was bumpy and tedious but not difficult to drive. The only “glitch” was how embarrassing it was watching the locals pass us on motorcycles while we were in our 4 wheel drive SUV.
Our first big vacation problem occurred here. We checked into a house I had rented privately. The house had been vacant and mold/mildew was in the house. We opened the door and smelled a horrible stench. OK, renting a house sight unseen and unsmelled in a foreign country wasn’t the smartest thing I have ever done. We found some Lysol and got a dehumidifier going and hoped for the best.
We went to the Hidden Valley Night tour. The kids liked the night tour with the flashlights. I liked that each group of 8 was given their own guide. We saw coatimundi, a possum, leaf cutter ants, a sloth, and a Morpho butterly that landed on me and rode on my shirt for part of the walk. This was a very nice hike, but not as good as Hanging Bridges mostly because our guide at Hanging Bridges was more knowledgeable and a better at spotting wildlife. How good any of these walks are depends on how good your individual guide is.
Dinner at Sofia’s. This place did not live up to its hype. I ordered the crusted sea bass. It was “crusted” with flour and deep fried turning it into a very tasty fish stick. One of our kids ordered the chicken quesadilla. This became a vacation joke for us. He took one bite and said, “would you like some burnt wood and fire for dinner.” I don’t know what went wrong with this dish or the restaurant’s wood burning oven, but his quesadilla tasted like it had been cooked in the center of a roaring Boy Scout campfire. The only flavor was of strong burnt wood. For the rest of our trip if anyone didn’t care for their food, we all looked at each other and said “would you like some burnt wood and fire.”
Back to the house for the night where we all had an awful night’s sleep due to the smell/mold. One son woke with very swollen eyes and felt terrible until we got him out in the fresh air. We were very worried about staying here, but we weren’t sure what to do. We left the dehumidifier on and hoped for the best.
8/2 Breakfast at a soda in Santa Elena and off to a horseback ride. Our horseback ride was part highlight, part glitch. The ride was through the beautiful farm country on the hills above Monteverde. It was on very well cared for horses and was also very safe. Unfortunately, a slow walk on a horse in a single file line admiring the view just wasn’t enough activity for an adrenalin filled middle school boy, especially one who has been taking horseback riding lessons for years. Whenever he tried to go a little faster he was tsked tsked by our guide. When we asked about going slightly faster we were told their insurance does not allow them to do so. By the end of the ride he was giving the guide the kind of looks reserved for very strict teachers. I am sure our relatively sleepless night in the house didn’t help matters here. I made a mental note to ask more questions before I signed up for horseback rides in the future. My husband and I loved this ride though.
Next funny glitch: Went to a soda for lunch and I ordered what I thought was black bean soup. Imagine my surprise when I received black bean broth with intestines/tripe floating in it! Once again, I really wish I spoke more Spanish.
Back to the smelly house. It had been 24 hours now with the dehumidifier running and it wasn’t fixed. Worried it was a health hazard we packed up and began driving around trying to find another place to stay. Definitely not how I wanted to be spending my time or money on vacation.
Found a delightful B&B, The Mariposa, near the reserve and directly across the street from Hotel Fonda Vela. Rooms were $40 for a room with a queen bed, twin bed and private bath. The rooms had nice mattresses, high wooden ceilings, and most importantly after smelly house, the rooms were immaculately clean. You could have eaten off the floors in this place. The owner clearly took a lot of pride in her establishment. The icing on the cake was that the room rate included a hot, cooked to order breakfast with the best pancakes I have ever eaten. If my Spanish was better
I would have asked for the recipe. We rented 2 rooms next to each other. The rooms opened to a locked common area, which made it a great set up for a family. The B&B had another 2 bedroom suite that would also have been perfect for a family. The owner did 3 loads of laundry for us and neatly folded the laundry for a very low fee. In fact the laundry was practically free and I felt guilty. This place was just such an incredible bargain. Dinner at the Hotel Fonda Vela across the street. This was a highlight. Best service of any restaurant we experienced in Costa Rica. Food was very good and it was much more affordable than I expected. I didn’t recognize many of the wines on the menu and the server pointed out a bargain $12 bottle that she said was very good. She was right. Everything we ordered was perfectly cooked and delicious. I highly recommend this restaurant.
8/3 Off to Selvatura for zip lining. I was scared to death for this one, but we all ended up having fun. A couple of things to know before you do this. Our kids did not weigh enough to go on most of the lines by themselves, so they had to go with a guide. Kids that go with a guide have to go to the front of the line and ours were not the only kids needing the weight of guides. Because of this we ended up separated from our kids for much of this adventure. They were sometimes 2 zips ahead of us while we were stuck back in line. I would have preferred to stay together, and we only saw each other about 25% of the time. There were 27 people in our group. This was way too many in my opinion. It would have been more fun in a smaller group. Also, we were told there was some issue with some platforms so we only get to go on 12 lines rather than the total advertised number. Selvatura didn’t tell us this in advance, nor did they offer any price reductions. I wondered if there was really a problem with the platforms or whether it was just a matter of too many people in our group and they were trying to get us through the lines before the next group was set to zip.
Lunch at Selvatura was fine and not as expensive as I expected for a restaurant with a captive audience.
Next up was a hike in the Stana Elana reserve with an outstanding guide, David. The Santa Elana reserve is very close to Selvatura so they are good activities to combine in a day. We liked the Santa Elena reserve because it is owned by the local high school and the entrance fees benefit the school. David was the most professional guide we encountered, but this was also the most expensive hike we did. We paid $100 for our entrance fees and private guide for the 2 hour hike. The Santa Elena reserve is much more about the plants and the rainforest than animals. The animals don’t like the colder, higher altitude per our guide.
The rest of the day was filled with shopping. Monteverde had the best shopping and best prices we saw on our travels in Costa Rica. We bought gifts at Casem and the Hummingbird Gallery. In addition to the galleries, there is a small shop right before you get to Monteverde on the right that sells wooden bowls. The bowls are made there and you can even go into the studio and try to make your own bowl. I wish we had bought all of our gifts in Monteverde, but we didn’t know what a good deal it was until we visited a few more places. We especially appreciated Casem being able to put through charges on our credit card in US$ so we didn’t pay any exchange fees. In general, Casem was a less expensive than the Hummingbird Gallery. The wood bowl place had very inexpensive bowls.
If you are at the Hummingbird Gallery at closing time, bring your flash lights and stay a while. As soon as it turns dark, the hummingbirds go in and small bats come out to drink from the hummingbird feeders. Both the birds and the bats were fun to watch.
8/4 We had another outstanding breakfast at the Mariposa B&B and left our bags with them to hike. Next big glitch: We had seen signs for the Monteverde waterfall and thought we would try it. The hike was steep and muddy. Unfortunately, I fell and twisted my ankle badly. Back to Mariposa for ice and our bags. Grabbed take out lunch from Stella’s and headed out of Monteverde. Bumpy road with hurt ankle was no fun. The drive was actually easy, but again slow and bumpy. Occasionally, bicycles passed us on the road!
We drove about 4 hours to Jaco to turn in our rental car. This was another glitch. Remember the dashboard light at the beginning of my post and damage form in Spanish that we couldn’t read? Well, when we got to the car rental place in Jaco we had a difficult time arguing about whether we had damaged the car. We had not damaged the car in any way, but they thought we had because of the light which indicated a transmission issue. We couldn’t prove the light was on when we rented the car. After much arguing in the hot sun with our kids, they agreed we didn’t damage the car. I think if we had spoken Spanish and been able to communicate better this may not have been as difficult.
Next up we boarded a Windjammer cruise in Caldera. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS. Windjammer is having severefinancial difficulties and may be going into bankrputcy. You can find news articles about the Windjammer situation in the Wall Street Journal and the Miami Herald. When I booked the trip I thought it would be an easy way to see some remote places on the Osa peninsula but we really didn’t get enough time on shore. We also didn’t get the itinerary Windjammer offered. If I had one thing to do over again, it would be to skip Windjammer and go to a lodge in the Osa region.
Cruise:
Day 1 of cruise – Checked in at Caldera, a commercial port with no passenger facilities, boarded the ship and had a decent buffet dinner.
Day 2 of the cruise- docked at Marriott Los Suenos. We were a little disappointed in this stop. The itinerary was not anything like the itinerary in the Windjammer brochure. The Marriott wasn’t off the beaten path and if we had wanted to stay at Los Suenos we would just spent part of our trip at the Marriott. Shore excursions offered: crocodile tour or canopy tour. Note, during the crocodile tour the wild animals are fed by the guides. My environmentalist friends were appalled by this practice, so if you are concerned about wild animals being fed this isn't the tour for you. Canopy tour in the area is not as good as the canopy tours offered in Monteverde or Arenal.
Our family opted for the beach and took an inexpensive taxi to Jaco. Jaco is a party town but fine for a day trip. We had a great day and would do it again. One son took a $45 one hour surf lesson. Lesson price included the use of the board for the remainder of the day. Horse back rides were available on the beach too, but I can't vouch for the condition of the horses. As we saw throughout Costa Rica, horses were not always given the level of care we are used to in the US. The horses on the Jaco beach were not given water all day from what I could see.
In Jaco, there were some "ladies" openly working a corner but my kids were oblivious and didn't notice them. Ditto drug sales. Some people on the beach told us ANYTHING was for sale after dark. I believe it given what we saw at 11:00 on Sunday morning. I don't recommend staying overnight here with young kids, but it was a fun day trip for us.
Day 2 of the cruise: At sea, in the wind and rain. Many people on board were seasick. Kids counselors kept the kids busy with games - Pictionary, charades, movies, etc. This was pretty much the kids counselor’s routine on board the ship. My kids only wanted to participate when there was nothing else going on, like the sea day, so I can't comment on the Windjammer kids program. Stopped in Panama, but no passengers allowed off the ship.
Day 3 of the cruise: Golfito. This is the day we woke up to the interesting morning announcement about being stuck in Golfito because of the first mate had to leave the ship due to a family emergency. Within an hour of the story time, crew members were openly saying that it was not a family emergency but rather a pay issue and we could be stuck in Golfito for a long time. We took a water taxi to the little beach (really just a sand spit) in Golfito. I don't recommend this. Nice bar though and we enjoyed the good company of another family from the ship. This was probably our worst day. I spent it trying to come up with a back up plan in case we were stuck in Golfito permanently. Kind of a stressful, but called Pat Hewitt and knew I could get help if Windjammer didn't resolve things quickly.
Day 4: Golfito still. This was a much better day. Took a water taxi to Zancudo. This is very simple to arrange on you own if you want to do this. We paid $35 to Zancudo and $40 back for our family of 4 - this is the total price, not per person. The water taxi was an excursion in itself. On the way there we went through a mangrove swamp (high tide). On the way back we went very fast through a storm across the bay. It was probably not the most responsible parenting to have relatively small kids in a tiny boat bouncing across an open sea in a storm with lightening striking all around us. The boys, however, consider it a highlight of our vacation. Better parents should plan to leave Zancudo a bit earlier in the rain and not wait for the full storm to hit. Spent to day at Oceano, a bar and beach area about a 20 minute walk from the water taxi drop off. The bar and cabinas are owned by a delightful Canadian couple. Rented a surf board for $15. Oceano had the cheapest beers we saw in Costa Rica - less than $1.25 for a long neck bottle.
Day 5: Drake's Bay & Corcovado National Park. This was one place we really wanted to see. Unfortunately, we only had 5 hours on shore. Docked near the Aguila de Osa. This hotel had a rope swing over the water, but make sure you stay away from it. Crocodiles were nearby and late in the day we saw fishermen cleaning fish and dumping the heads in the area of the rope swing. The ship rented snorkel equipment for $10, but there was 0 visibility due to the rain. We couldn't arrange a trip to Cano island, our originaly plan, due to short time at shore.
Day 6: Quepos. We took a taxi on our own to the public beach near the National park entrance. Lots of vendors that allowed us to pick up a few souvenirs for the folks back home. There were massages offered on the beach $20 for a half hour. Our kids bought one for my husband in honor of his birthday. Rented a surfboard for $20 for the day and chairs and an umbrella for $12 or so.
Side comment on Quepos restaurants near the beach. When we got to the beach area my son had to go to the bathroom. He stopped in and used the bathroom at Marlin's beach restaurant. After he used it he told me he couldn't flush or wash his hands because the water was not working. Five hours later when we went for lunch, the restaurant still had no running water and was still serving food. YUCK! When we asked at host at the front of the restaurant, he told us the whole city was out of water. Fortunately, we did not believe him and walked a block to a restaurant with running water. I would be wary of eating at a place that would take chances like this with the health of customers.
Day 7 of the cruise: Buffet breakfast and off the ship. Wonderful bonus at the dock. Instead of a taxi to take us to Jaco, we had called Pat Hewitt for help and he had arranged for a rental car company to deliver our car to as at the dock in Caldera. It was a wonderful sight seeing our car pull up next to the ship so we could continue on our vacation. This saved us a ton of driving time.
Once off the boat we drove to Nosara and spent 3 nights. I know a lot has been written about the road to Monteverde, but we found the road to Nosara to be much worse. Nosara was having an unusual amount of rain when we arrived, so much so that we worried about getting out once we were there. The rain filled large potholes and you had no idea how deep they were. More than once my husband got out of the car and checked the depth with a stick before attempting to drive through them. Also, I did say drive through them. Many of the water filled holes were so large you had to drive through them rather than go around them. Fortunately, the rain stopped one day after we arrived and all was well.
We stayed at the Villa Mango in Nosara and this was by far the nicest place we stayed on vacation. I would stay here again in a heartbeat. My family loved the resident coatimundi and all the wildlife around the inn. What made it even nicer was that we had purchased our stay through a local charity that we read about on this board. The charity helps the local schools. The condition of the schools is heartbreaking and I encourage anyone visiting Nosara to consider buying their stay through Project Ninos.
In Nosara we pretty much stuck to the beach and enjoyed our last 2 vacation days. Meals in Nosara:
Sandwiches at Robin’s icecream – US food at US prices. Very yummy icecream and the only whole grain bread we saw during our travels.
Café de Paris: Great lunch and a great atmosphere
Harbor Reef: I am struggling with how to rate this place. It was the absolute worst service of any restaurant we encountered in Costa Rica, but we loved the atmosphere and the live music. Harbor Reef also had the only children’s menu we were offered during our travels.
Olga’s: good food on the beach. This was the cheapest place we ate in Nosara. The bathrooms were more disgusting than those of my old college bar but the food was good.
Lagarta Lodge: good food, but we missed the view by arriving after dark. Try to arrive earlier and make sure you have a reservation. Even in off season we had a hard time getting a table.
Shopping in Nosara was awful. Prices in the one or two shops were almost double the prices we paid in Monteverde. Save your shopping for someplace else. On the other hand, surf board rentals were cheaper in Nosara than the other places we visited.
Thanks to all who helped plan our trip and provided information on this Board.
Aug 23rd, 2007, 12:36 PM
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Just read your trip report and loved it! I will post more comments regarding your helpful tips later when I have more time (questions too), but for now I just wanted to tell you I giggled about the "better parents" comments and laughed ridiculously at the thought of a rope swing over hungry crocs! Yikes!
Glad you had a great adventure, glitches and all!
Glad you had a great adventure, glitches and all!
Aug 23rd, 2007, 01:36 PM
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Thank you Netta for the kind words.
I just wanted to mention that we did not book the Windjammer portion. It is a shame that they are having financial problems. I have always thought that this would be a fun thing to do.
When this customer called, they did not know when a new mate would show up. We started looking for ways to get them out of Golfito. Flying was out, because they had too much luggage.
I don't have a contact for a transportation company there. I called the folks at Bosque del Cabo, but all they knew of were services based in Puerto Jimenez. This would have taken them four hours to get to the guests, and they would have had to pay extra for this portion. I had transportation companies that would come from San Jose or Quepos, but this would take the better part of a day. If the mate showed up in the meantime, it would be a wasted trip.
I called Windjammer directly. I was told they were flying in another guy from California. But he wasn't in Miami yet, and would not get to Costa Rica until the next day. They didn't know how to get him from San Jose to Golfito, so I shared the name and phone number of an air charter service that we occasionally use.
They also asked if I knew of anyone with a mate's license that could get there sooner. I at first said no. But then thought of the folks at Calypso (we used to represent them in Quepos). We tried to get one of their captains, but this did not pan out. But it was worth a try.
Eventually, the mate made it to the ship and they were able to sail on. All in all, I was a little surprised that they had no contingency plan in place for situations like this.
I have to say that this family is certainly a resilient group! Between the car, the house, and Windjammer, you would think that they would have considered the vacation ruined. But through it all, they were cheerful and had a good time. Netta's calls to me were always upbeat. I guess it goes to show how important a good attitude is!
Hope this helps! Let me know if I can offer more advice.
Warm Regards,
Pat Hewitt
(Travel professional)
I just wanted to mention that we did not book the Windjammer portion. It is a shame that they are having financial problems. I have always thought that this would be a fun thing to do.
When this customer called, they did not know when a new mate would show up. We started looking for ways to get them out of Golfito. Flying was out, because they had too much luggage.
I don't have a contact for a transportation company there. I called the folks at Bosque del Cabo, but all they knew of were services based in Puerto Jimenez. This would have taken them four hours to get to the guests, and they would have had to pay extra for this portion. I had transportation companies that would come from San Jose or Quepos, but this would take the better part of a day. If the mate showed up in the meantime, it would be a wasted trip.
I called Windjammer directly. I was told they were flying in another guy from California. But he wasn't in Miami yet, and would not get to Costa Rica until the next day. They didn't know how to get him from San Jose to Golfito, so I shared the name and phone number of an air charter service that we occasionally use.
They also asked if I knew of anyone with a mate's license that could get there sooner. I at first said no. But then thought of the folks at Calypso (we used to represent them in Quepos). We tried to get one of their captains, but this did not pan out. But it was worth a try.
Eventually, the mate made it to the ship and they were able to sail on. All in all, I was a little surprised that they had no contingency plan in place for situations like this.
I have to say that this family is certainly a resilient group! Between the car, the house, and Windjammer, you would think that they would have considered the vacation ruined. But through it all, they were cheerful and had a good time. Netta's calls to me were always upbeat. I guess it goes to show how important a good attitude is!
Hope this helps! Let me know if I can offer more advice.
Warm Regards,
Pat Hewitt
(Travel professional)
Aug 24th, 2007, 06:32 AM
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All,
Thanks for your kind words. My kids are adventuresome and had a good time, but we did push the limits of good parenting a couple of times. Everything turned out well and it will be a vacation to remember.
Thanks again.
Thanks for your kind words. My kids are adventuresome and had a good time, but we did push the limits of good parenting a couple of times. Everything turned out well and it will be a vacation to remember.
Thanks again.
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