I apologize in advance for this especially long post (or at least it is long for me) but we had so much fun on the trip and learned so much (hence, 'fun facts') that we did not want to leave anything out! (A big thanks to C for the recap of our fun-filled week and the photo collages...as they are the highlight of this post!)
Friday
Arrived in Costa Rica! Really exciting. Flight left Atlanta at 10am so we arrived in Liberia around 12pm Costa Rica time. Fun fact: Costa Rica is only in one time zone, 2 hours behind EST. We met Mark from Mardigi Tours at the airport and he drove us to Condovac la Costa in Playa Hermosa.
The resort was really nice, simple in many ways. It was wonderful to have our own "villa" though! Playa Hermosa is beautiful. In the evening, we explored some and walked along the beach.
There are lots of restaurants on the beach, but we decided just to eat at the hotel restaurant. In Costa Rica the sun sets around 6:15, so while it was light when we sat down for dinner....by the time the food came it was completely dark! After a travel and exploration filled day, we headed to bed.
Saturday
Thank goodness for vacation! I loved being able to sleep in (8am)! Of course, C woke up early....some ridiculous hour that I will not even mention. We decided to start the day with a walk on the beach.It also happens that the beach is a place where a lot of commerce takes place, we were approached by half of Playa Hermosa trying to sell us something… a trinket, a sundress, a volcano tour, a fishing and snorkeling trip, a massage. Well, that last one sounded great - a massage on the beach, yes please! Thankfully, it was very affordable and oh so peaceful!
After a massage, we hung out at the pool for a few hours tanning. Despite being the “rainy season,” the weather was great. The pool area was really nice, I especially liked the the infinity pool that looks out over the bay.
A couple big iguanas even came to hang out with us by the pool!
Our trip happened to coincide with Euro Cup 2012. Thank goodness Condovac had both internet and TV, otherwise I think C might have gone crazy! Curtis spent afternoons watching soccer and I was at the pool!
We ventured down the beach to Aquasport for dinner, it was nice to eat outside and be so close to the water to watch the sunset.
We ventured down the beach to Aquasport for dinner, it was nice to eat outside and be so close to the water to watch the sunset.
We discovered some awesome Costa Rican TV shows when we got back to the hotel. They have one show where the contestants play musical chairs with a couple twists....when the music stops, the players have to run outside the circle, grab a ball, and then make it back to a chair so that two players are left chair-less, so the host takes a random caller who chooses who gets to keep playing. Sounds exciting...who wants to play?!
This was our first adventure with Mardigi Tours, and it was awesome. Mark picked us up at 6am because we had a looooooong bus ride to Selvatura Park in Monteverde. Monteverde is about 5000’ above sea level, so we stopped along the way to stretch our legs and take some pictures of Guanacaste.
Some 'fun facts' about Guanacaste: most of the province is pasture for cattle grazing; a lot of the country's beef is produced here; closer to Monteverde however, the cattle are used for dairy.
The first half (by time, not distance) of our ride was on paved road, but as we got deeper into the country (past Tilaran), the roads got nasty. Very bumpy, narrow, and very slow-going for the bus.
Our third break was to see a coffee farm. The coffee plants are on steep, steep slopes. I can’t really imagine having to pick beans and hold a bag while balancing. Mostly Nicaraguans work the farms and make about $1/day.
More 'fun facts': education is required through 11th grade in Costa Rica; students attend 200 days a year, but only 5 hours a day (young kids in the morning, older kids in the afternoon); their breaks are opposite ours… two month break in December/January, and two weeks in late June. The rainy season is June and July which is their winter, while the dry season (from November to April) is the summer.
We finally arrived at Selvatura, a privately owned reserve, around 10:30am. They had lots of animal exhibits: hummingbirds, butterflies, and reptiles. The purple hummingbird is most rare; there is only one at the park, but C was lucky to get a few good pictures of it.
The highlight of Selvatura was the SkyWalk, a set of 8 suspension bridges through the jungle canopy. We didn’t see many animals; Mark said basically there’s too many plants for the animals (monkeys, birds, etc) to find space in the trees. We saw lots of cool plants though. Overall the beauty of the cloud forest is hard to find adequate words to describe!
It was a long, but great day!
Monday
A slow day (I think slow days are something to be savored...especially on vacation!). I spent most of the day tanning and C reading. We ate pizza (if you know C, you understand that this is a BIG deal!) at the restaurant and had some pina coladas for lunch while watching Italy v Ireland.
After soccer, we walked around the entire town of Playa Hermosa; it was an interesting mix of “poor” houses and “super rich” houses.
I think the best part of the day was dinner at Aquarium. We both ordered whole snapper… but this was not exactly what I was expecting:
After soccer, we walked around the entire town of Playa Hermosa; it was an interesting mix of “poor” houses and “super rich” houses.
I think the best part of the day was dinner at Aquarium. We both ordered whole snapper… but this was not exactly what I was expecting:
Tuesday: Borinquen Resort @ Rincon de la Vieja
Trip #2 with Mark and Mardigi Tours today… horseback riding, ziplining, and mud bath all promised excitement. We left on the bus a little before 8am. The ride was not nearly as long as Monteverde, and we only went up to about 2500'. This was not all the way up Rincon (which is a volcano); the resort with all the activities is located part of the way up on some hot springs. Still, we stopped on the way to stretch and take some pictures.
First up on arrival was horseback riding. It was not an overly exciting horseback ride, just a slow plod further up the side of the volcano to where we were going to hipline. C' horse was named Mapa and Mapa is apparently a follower and not a leader. No matter how many teeth clicks or infrequent heels to the ribs, Mapa did not move very fast at all (much to C' frustration). My horse didn’t seem to be moving much faster but somehow I ended up out in front most of the trip.
Once we reached the start of the zipline course, the fun began! They don’t start you out on a baby one to get the feel of it, that’s for sure. The first one was the highest and one of the longer ones. C was certain that he was going to pee his pants….or at least that is what he said! He almost didn't go! Thankfully, after watching a couple other people go and letting me go as well, he did it! It was awesome! Definitely the best hour of the whole trip (even for C!).
After lunch, it was time for the mud bath. We went and sat in a sauna hut that was situated over a natural hot spring. Then we covered ourselves in mud from the hot spring (obviously not directly from the hot spring, but it was still VERY hot), let it dry for about 20 minutes, and then rinsed it off. Fun and love the clean skin! As you can see in the picture, C was much more excited about covering himself in mud than I was.
We left Borinquen around 3:30pm. On the way home, we saw a King Vulture. This apparently is a big deal; Mark said that in the 7 years he has been giving tours with Mardigi, this is only the 2nd time he has seen one. And there were actually two of them together! Sorry the picture is small… we made friends with the family from Vancouver that went on this trip with us and they had a super lens so we’re hoping they will email us some of the pictures!
All in all, an adventurous day that was probably my favorite of the trip.
Wednesday
We decided early in the morning to take a taxi and visit Playas del Coco, another, more “touristy” beach town about 10 minutes south of Playa Hermosa.
Although definitely more “touristy,” there still was almost nothing to do in Coco (which is definatley not a bad thing!). We walked around Coco for an hour, bought some smoothies, and went back to the resort.
It was another lazy afternoon by the pool, which was fine by me, and then an evening out at a restaurant on the beach.
Thursday: Palo Verde
Tour #3 with Mark and Mardigi Tours today… went to Palo Verde National Park for a morning boat ride on the Tempisque River. Mark and Felix (our boat captain) were ridiculous spotters. I’m sure we saw way more than other the other boats!
However, before we made it to the park, we made a stop to see traditional Costa Rican work… sand cultivation from the river bed. They use the sand in concrete and for some other things, and they’re still “old school” about it; just one man and a bucket, shovel, and pair of oxen:
So we got to Palo Verde, got on the boat, and basically spent the next 3 hours cruising up and down the river spotting animals. The top left corner is a baby crocodile (a very rare sighting, especially this late in the year; you can see how small it is… those are leaves and twigs with it in the picture!). We also got some good close up experiences with monkeys; the white face monkeys are more social than howler monkeys so we got pictures of them and just listened to the howlers. The picture of the tree with roots was meant to show the crazy erosion on the riverside. The Tempisque flows to the ocean so the water level changes multiple times daily with the tide on the part we saw. We also saw some herons. The one in the middle is a boat-bill heron, I don’t remember what the one on the left is called but it had crazy red eyes, and the one in the bottom right is a tiger heron. Mark said those are rare to see, but this one was even more rare because if you look close, you will notice that he had just caught a baby crocodile and had it dangling from his beak. The picture of the tree with bumps… those are actually bats.
Last picture of the tour… nothing special, except you’ll notice the plastic jug that Hurricane Katrina’s floodwaters deposited in the tree branches. Got to be at least 25’ above low tide depth and almost 20’ above standard depth. WOW!
Friday
Travel day, back home....sadly.
Overall, the trip was completely incredible. We saw so much and learned even more on the Mardigi Tours. The weather was perfect; despite being the “rainy season,” it only rained at night when we were already in bed. We had fun in the sun and enjoyed the locals’ “Pura Vida” attitude and the fantastic cuisine. We had lots of great talks and made lots of plans (and even decided our next big trip = summer 2016!).
Thanks for reading this super long post...more adventures (and projects around the house) to come!
Overall, the trip was completely incredible. We saw so much and learned even more on the Mardigi Tours. The weather was perfect; despite being the “rainy season,” it only rained at night when we were already in bed. We had fun in the sun and enjoyed the locals’ “Pura Vida” attitude and the fantastic cuisine. We had lots of great talks and made lots of plans (and even decided our next big trip = summer 2016!).
Thanks for reading this super long post...more adventures (and projects around the house) to come!
