Costa Rica is a beautiful country with lots to see and do. Despite warnings of the safety risks, I booked a flight that landed at Juan Santamaria International Airport around 1a in the morning and felt completely safe. With the large numbers of American tourists and nomad travelers that make their way to Costa Rica, I wasn’t worried. We exchanged our dollars for colones in the airport and a cab took us to our hotel for a reasonable price.
In the morning, we were ready for action, but before I chronicle our trip, let me just take a minute to rave about the excellent complimentary breakfast at our hotel. Not just donuts and danishes, but a full breakfast buffet of fresh cooked omelets, french toast, eggs, sausage, rice& beans, platanos and more. I will forgo anymore rants about how amazing the breakfast was, but for a free breakfast it was pretty great.
Now, since I pretty much travel sans a set itinerary, all of our trips were booked via the ever so helpful hotel concierge. On our first afternoon we took a relaxed city tour highlighting local culture including: Catedral Metropolitano, Teatro Nacional, Museos Banco Central de Costa Rica, coffee production, various other local sites and an introduction to the country’s catch phrase “Pura Vida” (a recurring theme throughout the trip). Our tour guide also recommended some local restaurants serving up traditional Costa Rican cuisine. In the evening; we hailed a cab and, for about 10 American dollars, he took us into the city. We made our way to Nuestra Tierra for a slightly pricy, but very delicious and filling dinner.
Our next day started off with an arranged tour beginning with a 3+ hour drive to the La Fortuna area. Along the way, we made a stop at “The biggest Oxcart in the World” (who knew?), a local souvenir shop and Restaurante La Finca for a traditional lunch. After finally making it to the La Fortuna area, we arrived at the volcano looking point with excellent views and photo ops of the Arenal Volcano. There was also some unplanned bird watching as a group of blue jays posed for a picture. I was interested in taking a volcano hike, but time did not permit. However, we made our way to the Tabacon Hot Springs and enjoyed a day of relaxing in the warm waters and attempting to capture a picture of the oh-so-elusive hummingbirds. After dinner, which was included in our tour, we made the long drive back to the San Jose area. The roads are not so smooth and the ride is rough, but it was worth the drive (if you suffer from motion sickness, plan accordingly).
The biggest Oxcart in the World
Arenal Volcano
Blue jays
Tabacon Hot Springs
For our last day in Costa Rica, we planned an action packed adventure of ziplining, rappelling and, unbeknownst to us, a few “sorpresas.” The tour driver picked us up from our hotel and we discovered that it would be just us on this particular tour. We set off on the rocky roads and probably had more near death experiences in the vehicle than at the adventure site, but I digress… After arriving at the San Luis Canopy Tour company in Cloud Forest and being outfitted with our excursion gear, we were on our way. My mom (my travel partner), was extremely nervous and not in the mood for jokes. I, on the other hand, had done this before and was ready for excitement (I’m also a thrill seeker so I live for this kind of stuff). Our tour guides were great and in no time, my mom was calm. We started off with rappelling down a series of mountainsides and in between time, I had conversations with my tour guide where I was speaking English and he was speaking Spanish (thank you, Miami, for the Spanish I acquired). We were both too shy to speak in each other’s language except for a few words/sentences so he carried on in Spanish and I in English. Probably an interesting conversation to listen to, but again…. I digress. After rappelling it was off to ziplining. We did a few lines through the forest, then came the first sorpresa. They explained it quickly, but I didn’t quite grasp the concept until they pushed me off the edge of a cliff and had me swinging high above the trees on a rope. This they call “The Tarzan.” Exhilarating! My mom didn’t participate in this one. There’s only so much excitement she can handle. After a few more ziplines, came the next sorpresa. They thought it would be fun to drop us from the highest canopy in the forest (75ft) on just a rope. At this point, I didn’t know how much more excitement I could take in one day. The final zipline was called “The Superman.” They harness you in Superman style then send you face first on what seemed to be a never ending line, high above a river of rocks. This zipline, the grand finale, was the most fun and had amazing views. After leaving my stomach somewhere in the forest, they served up another great lunch and I was finally able to snap a picture of the elusive hummingbird. Then we headed back to the hotel (I napped the entire ride back to avoid losing my lunch inside the tour van).
The Tarzan Swing
We packed up our things to head back to the states and said goodbye to “Pura Vida!”
Eclectic Lemonade Stand 