Our trip began with a 24-hour delay. Traveling during/post-pandemic requires some patience. The important thing -- we made it and it was definitely worth the wait and inconvenient delays. During our extended layover in Dallas (American Airlines provided a hotel room that night and changed our departure time and gate five times the following day), we met a young woman from Iowa who sadly ended up cancelling her entire trip to Costa Rica. She had lost a day of a short trip and had unfortunately scheduled another flight the following day to local attractions. Rule of thumb we live by: never schedule crucial tours/events the first day of your international vacation. Allow for delays. Accept the losses and enjoy what you get. :)
First Stop: San Juan and then onward to La Fortuna -- the Arenal Rainforest Area. We were picked up rather late by our driver (who we tipped generously for our delay) and taken to dinner at Restaurante Mi Rancho. We won't soon forget the volcano nachos that looked like cheese lava flowing down a giant pile of chips with a variety of interesting items tossed in -- from plantains to pork. The food was just okay. Clearly, the driver got a tip from the owner for bringing us to his establishment. We were tired, grateful, and hungry -- so we didn't mind. We were enjoying our first hours in Costa and taking in all the culture.
At the time we traveled, most of Costa Rica was still very strict on wearing masks and washing hands before entering shops/restaurants. Covid hit Costa Rica very hard economically. One tour guide told us he'd lost eight friends, not to Covid, but to suicide. The tourism industry was just picking back up when we arrived.
A few hours later, after a bumpy and windy ride, we arrived to our hotel -- El Silencio del Campo in La Fortuna.
La Fortuna, or the Arenal Volcano Region, is known for its fresh flowing water and hot springs. Our hotel had six different hot spring pools, of varying temperatures, to choose from for fun and relaxation. The pools were available early and late and proved a perfect way to end each of our nights in the rainforest.
Our hotel had a working farm complete with cows, donkeys (oh, we could here one little guy outside our window each morning), chickens, and ponies. The hotel also had its own garden to provide fresh fruits and vegetables.
A traditional breakfast included rice and black beans, eggs, tortilla, fried plantains, local cheese, and assorted fruit (e.g. papaya, bananas, strawberries, and pineapple). We loved the combination and generally opted for this over the traditional offerings of pancakes or waffles. Our hotel had an open-air restaurant that served fresh, well-prepared selections. The Costa Ricans, especially in this area, were very helpful and friendly.
A few more pics of the hot springs...
And the working farm (above) ... and volcano (below) that was always hidden by the clouds while we were visiting.
Day 1: Our first day began with a lovely breakfast at our beautiful hotel (with small cabins and a collection of hot spring pools and a farm) in La Fortuna, San Carlos.
Our package adventure was with Sky Adventure Tour (thanks Amy for arranging the trip) in the Arenal area. It began with a guided rainforest tour that included lots of rain due to the season, a baby viper, tarantula, lessons on leaf ants, birds, and amazing flora. After our tour through the canopy, complete with hanging bridges and breathtaking views, we took time out for lunch in a scenic little restaurant with delicious, fresh food and spicy margaritas.
The next adventure was zip lining above the canopy. This tour was nothing short of spectacular. The adventure included seven cables that were each appropriately named depending on their length and height above the canopy. Some of the names included "Big Mama" and "Big Daddy." Needless to say, it was a frightening experience, but included stunning views of the mountains, Arenal Lake, the constant mist, and the canopy below by hundreds of feet. The seven cables go as high as 656 feet and 2,460 feet in length. At times, our speeds could go up to 43 mph. I'm not sure if you can find a better zip line experience, but either way, this one provided heart-pounding experiences for our entire group of eight.
For more information: https://skyadventures.travel/arenal/skytrek/
Moving on to the tram that would take us high above the canopy...
Halle's light weight made it a little more challenging not to stall on the cable, but nevertheless, no issues. Sadie to right.
Day 2: Lost Canyon Waterfall Rappelling and White Water Rafting with Desafio Adventure Company -- Arenal Volcano. This was hands-down our favorite day. Here's an excerpt from Desafio's website https://desafiocostarica.com/tours-details/arenal-mambo-combo-tour-rappel-raft:
Indulge in river tracing along the canyon, down-climbing the canyon walls and scrambling over river boulders through what we call “mother nature's obstacle course”
Trek briefly up through the rainforest to refuel with a light early lunch or late breakfast at the Canyon House
Take in the gorgeous mountainside flora and fauna during the Desafio Jungle Limo ride to the Rio Balsa (Note to reader: It was NOT a limo ride, but we didn't care. The tour vehicle was quite appropriate considering we were wet and grinning ear to ear...yep, that much fun!)
Hold on tight for the thrilling Class 2 and 3 rapids of Rio Balsa - considered one of the top rivers for rafting in Costa Rica! (Note to reader: our guides were wonderful. Fun. Informed -- helped us spot Howler Monkeys and other animals while also maintaining our safety and teaching us some Spanish words such as 'el alto' or stop, in this case, rowing)
Dig in to a Costa Rican style lunch at an authentic rural restaurant (Note to reader: this may have been one of our best meals in the Arenal area. Prior to this, they provided a snack that was a warm rice, bean, egg, plantain burrito served in warm banana leaves... amazing.)
Our Canyon Rappellers and Rafters
FOOD shots!! These are the meals provided. The first was a snack with fresh juice and the warm burrito wrapped in banana leaves. These two meals/snacks were among the best.
MABEL: Our family was constantly checking on our dog Mabel. Mabel, while on our trip, was being boarded and trained (first time) at the Chisolm Trail Pet Resort in Kechi. Shoutout to them -- three weeks of success! But the live video stream provided us with updates and assurances. Mabel stayed in the 'beach resort' room. Oh we missed her!
More RAFTING: Halle joined Aaron, Amy and Keira on their raft.
More FOOD: our lunch/dinner at the rural restaurant was so good. Surprisingly good, in fact. It included the traditional staples of beans and rice, along with chicken, vegetables, plantains, hard-boiled egg, salad, and fruit. It was lovely.
SAD STORY...
But... we had a sad backdrop to our day and for the locals. A young boy, maybe ten to twelve in age, went swimming in the river and lost his life to drowning. He was from the 'city' and unknowledgeable of the dangers of the river currents. We watched authorities recover his body hours later in front of the restaurant we were having our meal. We said lots of prayers for his family that day. It's a constant reminder that in an instant, our worlds can be changed forever.
More rafting... the river was flowing at 2-3. Perfect.
Once our adventure was over, the adventure company transported us back to our hotels. Very convenient. Our evening included relaxing in our hotel hot spring pools and taking a short walk to a local restaurant -- Bongos. We had great service, fun outdoor atmosphere, and pretty good food. Holt wasn't crazy about his giant shrimp with the heads, spines, and appendages still fully attached... :) We found food/drink reasonably priced in this area.
After a long and strenuous day of hiking, rappelling, and rafting -- we finished up our lunch and headed back 'home.'
Day 3: Leaving the Arenal Region with a few important stops along the way: La Fortuna Waterfall, Sloth Park, and local shopping. It was a super hot day, with only short pops of rain, but more great experiences.
At La Fortuna Waterfall Park -- where all money goes back to the City of La Fortuna. We were able to walk to the base of the falls. Swimming was encouraged, but because we had a long drive to Tamarindo ahead, only Aaron opted for the dip.
The next stop was the Sloth Park. The cost: $50/person. We about choked and normally would have said 'no thank you,' but didn't want to be a) rude and b) take away much-needed income (especially coming out of no work/tourism from the covid pandemic). So... we sucked it up and made the most of our sloth tour. In the end, our guide was excellent at spotting both the two and three-toed sloths, toucan, lizards, insects, and other birds. There are multiple sloth parks, but this one was on the main road inside La Fortuna. Here are some pics from our morning adventure...
Shopping was next... we picked up some wood items, snacks (musts: chocolate and coffee), and a few trinkets.
From shopping ... it was time to make the beautiful four-hour drive to Tamarindo.
We stopped half way at a popular touristy restaurant, Cafe y Macadamia, had beautiful scenery, excellent service (though covid strict), and wonderful dishes with excellent, homemade breads. Though this is clearly a typical tourist stop -- it's earned and maintained its reputation fairly. Highly recommend. In fact, Joe ran into a friend from Wichita while we were eating. https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g309235-d1755365-Reviews-Cafe_y_Macadamia-Province_of_Guanacaste.html
The Cuban was great! And... look at the spectacular view of the lake.
From here... we made our way through Liberia and to our final destination: Tamarindo (a popular surfing/beach town).
Tamarindo... we have arrived!
We stayed at a VRBO house called Hacienda Del Pacifico just 50 meters from La Suiza Hotel Tamarindo. This VRBO had four bedrooms, one small waterfall pool, outdoor patio with kitchen and showers, laundry, and family/media room. It was situated directly across the street from the beach and directly across from the beach entrance. Though we didn't have a direct view of the beach, we didn't miss it due to the private gardens and pool and the close proximity to the beach. We had eight with us -- so plenty of room. Note: you do have to get over the ants. They are more active in the evening, but overall, not a big deal.
We took a quick hike to the grocery store and had our first dinner at our VRBO.
Note our animal encounters: Cats were well-fed as they visited home to home. We had one sweet kitty we fed milk, leftovers, and Joe even bought some cat food. See below the howler monkeys we so often heard in the trees, but had a close encounter on the way to the store. A family of howlers crossed the road. Fun!
DAY 4: Surf Lessons on the beach, lunch at Breaking Bread (Jewish sandwich shop) Restaurant, time hanging out on beach and shopping, and our first dinner out was only 50 meters away at the Capitan Suizo Beachfront Boutique Hotel Restaurant -- which was so good we decided to go back a couple of days later. The Tartar Capitan was our favorite starter -- tuna with mango, capers in a cilantro, ginger, soy sauce ... mouth-watering amazing. The kids loved the pasta. Everything was fresh and homemade.
As for the SURFING: everyone surfed but Joe and me. We enjoyed watching! Everyone got up and surfed quite well. Joe almost joined in, but had given it a try in Hawaii and wasn't sure his knees were up for it. As for me, just not interested. :)
Lunch stop pics: Breaking Bread. The tuna sandwich, along with the spicy crushed spice paste -- worth going back (and we did!).
Day 5: More Tamarindo Beach, time at our Hacienda enjoying the pool and shade... and shopping. Dinner on the beach.
Our Hacienda... and our little friend Ricky who faithfully sunned next to the pool (window) daily. And then there was our cat visitor we named Lou. Sweet memories, for sure!
Holt never takes a vacation without bringing a pile of games. Here's the kids playing "You've
got Crabs." Good laughs.
Nogui's Restaurant -- Tamarindo Beach ... recommend the shrimp tacos. Nice casual dining.
First thing Friday -- Covid testing. We hired a company to come to our place and provide the testing for all eight of us since it's required to re-enter US. The cost: $90 per person. This is in addition to the $520 we paid in additional covid healthcare insurance required in Costa. The process, though unnecessary, wasn't too bad. Up the nose for a rapid antigen test and upload to Verifly (which didn't work for me, but Joe got ours on his). We were thankfully all negative -- no covid! Yay!
More great food: breakfast at the Waffle Monkey -- another great choice!
Great coffee and great waffles with bacon.
Day 6: More beach, shopping, eating, and a walking to Playa Langosta.
Shopping pics:
Snow cones/shaved ice ... only found one shop, but it was pretty good. Not Hawaii-good, but good. Refreshing...fresh coconut and pineapple.
Playa Langosta. This beach was very close to ours and was full of marine life with tons of tide pools to explore. The shelling, especially for spirals, was dense in this area. Of course, it was impressive to see the living mollusks, anemones, and starfish in action. We were always careful to leave this areas untouched. We took this walk during low tide so we could cross the cliffed area and make it to the other side. HIGHLY recommend this walk. For dinner, we went back to Hotel Suiza on the beach.
Lots of marine life...shells galore.
And then back to Hotel Suiza for dinner... If a family didn't want the amenities or cost of the Hacienda, this would be a great hotel to choose. Directly on the beach.
Day 7: This was Halle's Sweet 16th birthday. We made a day at La Conchal Beach where we enjoyed white sand beaches, clear water, snorkeling, jet skiing, and a picnic on the beach compliments of the many vendors selling lobster, pork, and pina coladas. Great beach! Well worth it... much prettier than Tamarindo.
More purchases... Pura Vida!
We really couldn't resist the cute bracelets... :) And those drinks... oh my!
Halle is 16!
The kids bargained for 30 minutes of jet skiing for $100. Happy birthday, Halle!
And then our final night, last dinner, and a very long walk on the beach to Panga's (recommended by Kristine). Food was great. Upscale, but on the beach. Service prompt, but perfunctory. A wonderful ending!
Signing off from Costa Rica, but with a few final thoughts and memories.
Visiting at least two locations within this diverse country is a good bet. We had 10 days including travel, but lost one due to delayed travel... so we included two primary destination points. Next time, I'd go back to the Arenal area, add in Monteverde, and a different ending beach location.
Including two families is a lot of fun, if you have that option. We were lucky to have our friends not only join us, but Amy planned the entire trip. Perfecto! Mucho gracias!
Tamarindo is a busy surfing town with good shopping and restaurants. Other than that, it's not ideal for beautiful water or sand. Caribbean beaches offer much more; however... that's only part of the story. Exploring other beaches was recommended to us and I fully agree. We almost passed on the thought, but sure glad we didn't. Never judge a place by one beach, one town, one person... make room to learn. Next visit: I'd like to see the black sand beaches. Bottomline: Costa DOES have beautiful beaches. Research what's best for you -- big waves or clear waters? Surf or snorkel? Busy or quiet? Tico (locals) or ex-Patriots or tourists?
The sounds of the howler monkeys and birds, with the regular iguana sitings, were highlights to the exotic ambiance of our trip. Though Hawaii is more beautiful (my opinion, only), it's animal life is far lacking compared to the rainforest/beaches of Costa Rica. They each offer something similar, but different, and each are amazingly beautiful. For me, it's always fun to go to new places. So repeat: though you can see colorful chickens roaming everywhere in Kauai, you get more diverse animals -- from monkey and toucans to sloths and iguanas in Costa. You also get big insects in Costa. And big ants. And bats... but pretty sure some of these creatures are just about everywhere you might want to go... so embrace!
I don't regret any of my purchases and wish we'd had a few more. The wood carvings are beautiful and remind me of our trip. We left with a large wooden macaw, bowl, spatula, and tray -- but would have gotten a few more. Bigger sizes, too.
The coffee was great, but coffee has been uniquely different every country I travel to... maybe it's the 'romance' of the trip that makes it taste so good...or the water...or how it's brewed. The best coffee I've ever had on a trip -- Uganda, Africa. Still, thumbs up to Costa's coffee.
Sloths -- creatures worth a view. They are respected and loved in this country. Pick up a stuffed animal for a little friend. Or a magnet. :)
It's hot. Embrace it. We overpacked with unnecessary clothes. Our second hacienda had a washer and dryer which we used. In addition, we didn't really feel like dressing up for evening dinners. We just cleaned up and were good to go. I wore a ponytail almost all of the time. So... less clothes would be my recommendation. No pants/jeans unless for the plane. Swimsuits and good hiking shoes a must.
Sunscreen! We brought many bottles and went through three. I should have brought a couple more sprays. Though sprays may not last as long, they are more likely to be reapplied. The last day, Holt and I got pretty burned. Close to the equator.
Take pictures of the food, the fauna, the wildlife, and the people (beyond your people). It makes for more vivid memories and adds color to your digital books or scrapbooks. LOVE fun pics!
Most importantly -- my bonus recommendation: be grateful. For me, I am overwhelmingly grateful to God for allowing us to travel to Costa Rica. For His provision, graciousness, and delight as we looked at awe of another beautiful part of His creation...another beautiful part of the world. His lovingkindness extends throughout all the generations! I'm also grateful I finished reading Psalms on the flight home...it was part of my reading through the Bible in a Year Plan and I was behind the recommended schedule. I'm also grateful for my husband Joe who provided the finance of our trip, to my children for their enthusiasm on the many adventures we took (Sadie, Holt, and Halle), and to Amy and Aaron Wells (and Keira) for their planning, insurance, and company. We are blessed! God is good.
This is the end of our trip, but not the end of the story. We'll be back!
I will thank the Lord with all my heart...
Psalm 111