Costa Rica – Coast to Coast June 2005 and August 2006

We woke up early and had another wonderful buffet breakfast. The hotel arranged for our transportation to the airport. I recommend getting to the airport very early as it takes a long time to pay your exit tax and check in as they hand search all the luggage that is checked in before you get to the ticket counter. Once we got to the terminal I took advantage of the duty free shop to grab a bottle of top shelf tequila for $22 that would have cost at least $45 in the states.

Our flight was delayed for about 20 minutes and since we only had an hour to clear customs in Miami and make our connection flight to San Francisco we were a little worried that we might miss our flight. The flight back to San Francisco was uneventful with the exception of the airlines loosing my luggage! Fortunately the bag we checked only contained our dirty clothes and was finally delivered to our house after three days.

We had a wonderful time in Costa Rica and I can’t wait to go back. Next time we definitely want to check out Aernal Volcano, Montverde, and the Osa peninsula..

Montezuma was our favorite place. We really liked the small town and laid back atmosphere that Montezuma offered. it was very easy to walk around there and meet other travelers.

We liked not having a definite itinerary for our trip and every day we met other travelers who we were able to give suggestions on where to go and stay
One of the best parts about our trip was meeting other travelers and being able to compare notes and get suggestions on where to go. We met so many wonderful people: Casey and Cassy from Arlington, TX; Lissa, Steven, Lucan, Tad, and Jana from Los Angeles, CA; Jay and James Mc Cracken from Lewisville, TX; Joe, Kelly, and family from Wisconsin; and everybody else we met on our travels.

Where we stayed:

Hotel Pasatiempo in Tamarindo – Everything was excellent and would definitely stay there again.

El Sano Banano in Montezuma – We liked it because it was a good value and centrally located. We only ate the free breakfast that was included with our room at their restaurant and found that some of the items offered on their breakfast menu was pretty average. Next time I’d probably want to stay at one of the other nicer hotels near the center of town.

La Colonia in Manuel Antonio – Would definitely stay there again as long as they had hot water in the room but would definitely eat dinner elsewhere.

Things I learned:

Tips are usually included on the bill for meals and if you are not sure just ask. 10% seems to be the standard for tipping and I always left my spare change after paying the bill if the service was good.

Most of the food there is EXCELLENT!

I should have brought back more bottles of Salsa Lizano!

All the gas stations are full service and they will wash your windows and check your tire pressure. I always tipped the gas station guys around 200 colonies each.

The roads are pretty well marked on the highways but it’s easy to get lost in the cities as the streets are not well signed.

Everybody is very friendly and in the tourist areas just about everybody speaks enough English to get by.

COSTA RICA IS PURA VIDA!

We woke up at 3:00am for a 7:00am flight out of San Francisco to Miami. With the new security rules we were told to arrive as early as possible since there would undoubtedly be long lines through ticketing and security. We arrived at the airport at 5am and whizzed through ticketing and security in less than 15 minutes leaving us plenty of time to sit around and eat $8 grilled cheese sandwiches for breakfast at the terminal restaurant.

Our four hour layover in Miami was uneventful and we had some more crappy airport food and walked around the terminals while killing time. Our flight to San Jose was delayed about an hour. Fortunately, when we landed at San Jose, there was someone with a sign from our hotel waiting outside. It turned out that that person wasn’t the driver but a local guy who took us upstairs to where our driver was waiting in his van. The guy explained that he worked for tips so I gave him $2 for carrying our bags. We were at the Orquideas Inn in 15 minutes (we stayed there last year as well), checked into our room and then headed to the bar for a few Imperials before calling it a night.

We woke up early and had the Orquideas Inn’s famous and wonderful buffet breakfast by the pool. Breakfast included: fresh fruit, gallo pinto, potatoes, fried yucca, sausage, orange juice, tamales, plantains, coffee, juice as well as a made to order omelets and pancakes. One of the hotel’s parrots was out walking around.

After breakfast the driver from Tricolor car rental arrived right on time at 9am. He didn’t speak much English but we finally figured out that we needed to go with him back to the office at the airport (last time they just dropped off the car and did the paperwork at the hotel). We checked out of the hotel, loaded our luggage in the rental and headed to the office near the airport. The paper work was completed quickly and we were on the road an hour later at 10am.

After filling up the gas tank, we followed directions to avoid downtown San Jose on the way to the highway that would take us to the Caribbean coast but took a wrong turn somewhere, got lost and ended up in downtown San Jose. After consulting the map in the Lonely Planet book we were able to get our bearings. The Holiday Inn was a good, tall landmark located near the road that leads to the highway and we quickly found our way out of the city.

The drive to Puerto Viejo wasn’t bad. There is a toll booth just out of San Jose so it’s a good idea to have some colonies ready (I don’t know if they accept dollars). The highway was in good condition, traffic was fairly light and it rained most of the way to Limon. We saw a few trafficos (traffic police) but since it was raining they seemed more interested in staying dry inside their police cars then pulling anybody over. Once in Limon there was a huge traffic jam that lasted for several blocks until we were able to make the turn south to Puerto Viejo.

Read the rest of this entry »

It rained heavy during the night with thunder and lightning. Our room had good ventilation and a ceiling and portable fan so we were comfortably cool through the night. In the mornings Collin makes a giant pot of coffee available for guests on the downstairs deck (which also contains a pond with fish and turtles). A yummy light breakfast was served upstairs and consisted of frittatas, homemade bread, fresh fruit, and more coffee.

After breakfast we decided to head down and check out the beaches towards Manzanillo. Kay from El Dorado said to turn left after the third bridge past Punta Uva but we couldn’t find it and ended up at the end of the road in Manzanillo. We took a turn towards the Marisqueria Arrecife restaurant and ended up at a picture perfect beach that only contained about 12 other people as far as we could see. After a few hours on the beach and swimming we were getting hungry so we drove back north a little bit to the other side of Punta Uva where we had some tasty casados at the Ranchito Beach Restaurant.

After driving back to Banana Azul we met up with the other guests and all headed into town for dinner at El Loco Natural. AWESOME food and live Caribbean style music consisting of a guy singing and playing electric guitar accompanied by another guy playing a homemade standup bass.

I woke up early and went for a walk on the beach with their three dogs. Came back had had a good breakfast of eggs, toast, fruit, and juice. Roberto then took us to an amazing waterfall on the road to Bribri. There is a 50 foot waterfall and another smaller 15 foot fall that you can jump off of.

On the way back we stopped at a local ingenious family’s house where the mother showed us how she made chocolate from the coco bean. Very interesting! We then bought various chocolates and brownies flavored with nutmeg, mint, and clove. All were delicious!

After getting back we went into town for lunch and ended up at Amimodo, a Italian restaurant on the southern edge of town right by the water. We sat outside with a view of the ocean and had some pretty tasty antipasto and pizza. We then checked our email at the internet café and then had some drinks back at El Dorado (becoming our local watering hole). After going back to Banana Azul for a dip in the ocean we drove to Playa Chaquita with Collin, Roberto and the other guests for an awesome dinner at Jungle Love. After returning to Banana Azul, Roberto and I stayed up talking and drinking beer until pretty late.

Had another great breakfast consisting of gallo pinto, eggs, tortillas, fresh fruit and juice. Collin and Roberto’s other dog, Cody, was at the veterinarian in Bribri getting spayed. Since I am a veterinary nursing student I thought it would be interesting to meet the veterinarian and see what kind of medicine is practiced there. We drove to the clinic and I got to meet the veterinarian who didn’t speak any English but we were able to communicate with the little Spanish I knew. The hospital was somewhat primitive by US standards but they make do with what they have.

After leaving the vet clinic we stopped by a roadside stand where a woman was selling some tasty frozen mango juice in plastic bags where you bite off a corner and suck the frozen juice out. Collin also bought some fresh eggs and fruit from her and we then headed back to Puerto Viejo stopping at the school in Hone Creek where Roberto is a teacher and watched the kids play drums in the soccer field.

We were a little low on gas so we went into town and bought two gallons from a local guy who sells it out of his house from cans. He only marks each gallon up a few hundred colonies so it was a pretty good deal.

We then drove up to Chahuta for lunch but the restaurant, Cha Cha Cha, which was recommended was closed. The town seemed pretty dead but there were people around the national park so we ate at the National Park Café and watched kids playing with a soccer ball on the beach.

We drove back to Banana Azul, had a swim in the ocean and then headed into town for dinner. Since it was Saturday night the town was quite packed with people walking around. We ended up eating at Café Rojo (excellent curry) and a late cocktail at El Dorado before heading back and going to bed.

I woke up early and hung out with Collin while he prepared us a breakfast of French toast. After breakfast, we said our goodbyes and hit the road to La Fortuna and the Arenal Volcano. On the road heading back towards Limon, north of Chahuta, there is a checkpoint with lots of serious looking police with automatic rifles. I am assuming that since it is the road coming from Panama they are looking for illegals as well as drugs. We were asked for our passports and were back on our way within minutes.

We took the “back route” to Arenal turning north on to highway 4 and going through Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui, San Miguel, and San Carlos. It was a pleasant and easy drive with abrely any other traffic and took us about five and a half hours to get to La Fortuna pretty much without stopping. The highway brought us directly into town and we continued on toward the volcano and our hotel which was 2km past the town of La Fortuna proper. Just as we checked into our hotel, La Pradera, we got a glimpse of the volcano and then it started to rain pretty hard. Our room was decent and had a small porch area with chairs to admire the volcano and was worth the $65/night price (tax and breakfast included)

Since we hadn’t eaten since breakfast, we were hungry so we drove back to La Fortuna and ate a somewhat pricey Mexican lunch at Las Brasitas. It started raining really hard. Too hard to even make it back to the car so we ended up lingering over our Imperials a bit longer than we wanted. The rain finally let up and we walked around the town of La Fortuna for a bit before heading back to La Pradera where we hung out in the rather uninspiring bar and the watched the soccer highlights on TV and the bartender explained about the local teams and rivalries. We then went for a nighttime swim and afterwards craved something sweet so drove back to La Fortuna for an ice cream at Volcan Cone and a nightcap at the karaoke bar where we heard a girl with a amazing voice belting out some Diana Ross songs. After returning to the hotel we still couldn’t see but could hear a rhythmic thumping sound coming from the volcano

I woke up early and went outside and was greeted with a very clear view of the volcano. I can’t even describe how impressive it is. It’s there, gigantic, taking up the entire view. WOW!

Ate a tipico breakfast of gallo pinto, eggs, tortillas, coffee and juice that was included with the room at the hotel. After breakfast we drove back into town to get some pictures of the church with the volcano in the background.

We then checked out of the hotel and drove around Lake Arenal on our way to Tamarindo. The road around the lake was mostly well paved with only a few rough spots. We made it to Liberia in good time and the good road continued to Belen but after that the road condition really deteriorated the rest of the way to Tamarindo.

Once in Tamarindo we were horrified with all the changes since our visit last June. Lots of construction and new buildings – mostly 5-6 story condominiums, a pizza hut, subway sandwiches, TCBY yogurt and a Burger King! After checking in at Hotel Pasatiempo we were also disappointed to learn that several of our favorite staff members were no longer working there. We walked down into town dodging the trucks hauling construction equipment and choking on their dust clouds. We found that several of the restaurants we liked last year were either out of business or had been replaced with new buildings. We ended up at Nibbana (we ate there last year) and found that most of the tables closer to the beach were gone as a result of enforcing the 25 meter rule that nothing can be built or owned by non citizens that close to the water. We had pizza that was ok. We then walked down to Witches Rock surf camp which is now more fancy with higher prices and the waiters wearing uniforms. With advertising “Nachos as big as your ass” you would think this place would be more laid back! We then went back to Pasatiempo for a swim and hung out in their restaurant/bar playing scrabble until it was time to go to bed.

As usual I woke up early and took a walk around town and along the beach. I checked email at the office at Pasatiempo (free for guests). They now also have free wi-fi for guests as well. While eating breakfast, I met one of the owners of the hotel and she told me that they were disappointed with the direction that Tamarindo is headed. They have put Pasatiempo on the market and plan on opening a new hotel in the Playa Negra or Avellana area.

Since it was a gorgeous day we decided to chill at the beach. On the way we stopped at the Super-2000 to pick up some beers and snacks. In the store we met a Tica who had been living in Tamarindo for the past three months working in real estate. Even though she was making a lot of money she said she couldn’t take it anymore and had to move back to Escazu. Other locals told me that they can no longer afford to live in the area and don’t know how they will be able to get to work as their rents keep getting raised and they need to move further and further away.

After the beach we headed back to Pasatiempo for a dip in the pool and a late lunch. We played cards and talked to other people in the restaurant/bar. That night at the bar, it was the weekly Tuesday party that features local bands that played some really good blues music. They stopped selling food at the restaurant when the music started so at around 10pm we were a little hungry and walked into town looking for a snack. We ended up at Fiesta del Mar where I had a tasty dish of arroz con pollo. After that we headed back and went to sleep.