Costa Rica (sorry for any confusion in the timeline)

Preface:

Long haul flights require a bit of strategy to minimize the effects of jet lag. We left San Francisco at 8:30pm and landed at 4:00pm the following day as we flew against Earth's rotation. In addition to staying hydrated, to combat jet lag, our goal was to stay awake the entire flight so that we were tired when we got to Copenhagen. So how did I fill ten hours?... I atoned for my lack of travel blogging consistency and crafted a post that is one year overdue. Fortunately I took just enough notes in my daily journal to piece it together.  (Note, I'm posting this after a we wrapped up Copenhagen. Took a while to get the images in there. As it turns out, it was not an entirely sleep free flight. 10hrs of sitting is a long time to not sleep). 

Here goes... 

Our two week Costa Rican adventure of June 2022.

Why Costa Rica? We were looking for a Hawaii type climate with just enough of an exotic twist to make it an adventure without doing something too off the wall. We had heard great things about CR from friends, and my brother once spent a summer there doing some volunteer work back in the late 80s. And to top it off, Yaeko could put their six years of Spanish to the test (even though most Ticos (what the locals call themselves) spoke enough English that it didn't much matter except for one particularly unique situation... Foreshadowing).
  
One thing is plainly clear, Costa Rica knows how their bread is buttered - Eco-tourism. Getting there and through customs couldn't have been easier and the agent was such a pleasant fella.

 

Another thing is plainly clear, Pura Vida (pure life) is a very real thing. It's THE greeting for everyone. We must have heard it three or four times before we got to the car rental location. By the end of the trip, it just kind of rolled off the tongue.

  

In typical fashion, we elected to make this trip a road trip. As we rolled out of the rental car lot, a tourist stopped us and handed us an umbrella, "we're done with this, but you're going to need it." Boy was he right. Thanks random dude. We'll have to pay it forward in two weeks.

Yet another thing that is plainly clear, Costa Rica is a wet place with terrible roads. Having a 4x4 SUV and an umbrella were a necessity.

Our trip was fairly evenly divided into four regions: La Fortuna, Playa Flamingo, Monteverde, and Manuel Antonio.

La Fortuna Area:

Outside of the coastal beach towns, La Fortuna is probably the most frequented tourist location nestled at the base of Arenal, an active volcano. It's the place with the famous zip lines and hot springs.

                                        

We settled into our place at the base of the volcano that was billed as having amazing views. I had expected that to mean the volcano. But no matter, we had great views of these little creatures all around the yard. And the host that lived on the property was super nice.

You ever do something totally amazing right out of the gate, and then compare everything else to that thing and wonder why it's not as good? That's pretty much what happened on this trip. The next day, we chose to do this random excursion I found on Google maps called the Maquique Adventure Canyoning. It was a combination of rappelling down waterfalls, hiking through rivers, zip lining through trees, a nature walk, and ended with some traditional Costa Rican food. And the guides were super energetic and friendly. So fun. We actually had many other great experiences through the rest of the trip, but this one set the bar.

  

The following day we drove to the other side of the volcano to do the top rated and first of it's kind Sky Adventure Zip Line experience. While it was pretty incredible, and some of the lines were a mile long, it wasn't as cool as Maquique. On the way back we stopped at the famous Tabacon Hot Springs for a soak. You can pay a boat load of money to sit in the same hot river in the club up the way. We chose the free version and parked on the road. Same water.

A couple days in, and we could see that our favorite food would come from restaurants called Sodas, small family run shops. We frequented the same one three times in this area called Tiquicia. So good. I do love the Casada plate.

This region is also known for its coffee. Yup, I can see why. Before we headed out of town, we did the North Fields Coffee & Chocolate Tour. We all enjoyed it more than we expected, and I learned a ton about how it's grown and roasted. According to the guide, Americans love crappy burnt coffee that is actually a sign of poor roasting. No more dark roast for me. And pour over is definitely the way to go. 

Pics of Coffee Tour and other random La Fortuna adventures...

 

Note the free umbrella

Our next stop was the west coast region called Playa Flamingo, the more "family oriented" version of the famous Tamarindo. However, as expected, why take the direct route, when there was a perfectly random natural oddity about an hour out of the way that I just had to see. The oddity, a blue river, was just ok, but we did end up at an incredible butterfly sanctuary attached to a yummy Soda. Totally worth the detour.

                                                                

Did I mention the roads are terrible in Costa Rica? So terrible in fact, some times they turn into actual rivers. I had to use boat mode at one point.

Playa Flamingo area:

We were living pretty large in a condo perched on top of a hill overlooking the Pacific. The sacrifice was navigating the wheel-engulfing ruts up a 30 degree incline to get to the place. Did I mention the roads are bad?

Highlights in no particular order:

Zane and I took a surf lesson in Tamarindo. It's really the perfect beach to learn with warm water and long breaks over flat sand. I learned that surfing is tiring (so much paddling), it's like doing yoga on a moving platform, Zane is way better, and I like a softer approach to coaching. Jeez, our teacher, while a nice enough fella, mostly just kept asking, "why didn't you just stand up?" Oh, so that's what I was supposed to do?

Explaining to Zane it's "Upward Facing Dog, to Downward Facing Dog, to Lower Lunge, to Warrior Two..."

Zane, Yaeko, and Nicole took a Costa Rican cooking class with a local named Maria. They shopped at a local market and went to her kitchen to whip up some traditional affair. It's one of those activities that Nicole loves to do when we travel as it is as much about the chef as it is the food.

Bryce and I cruised the beach looking for shells while Nicole / Yaeko / Zane cooked

Turns out Maria also happens to run the local chapter of the Clean Wave. That's how we ended up spending a couple hours on a volunteer beach clean up. Ironically, given how important the environment is to Costa Ricans, there really wasn't much to clean up!

This was a notable experience that didn't require us to go anywhere. As Bryce was doing his normal morning bathroom ritual, he happened upon this scene...

... While I'm accustomed to the occasional spider extraction services, this was a bit nerve-racking. I learned that spatulas are not just for flipping pancakes.

Did I mention the roads were bad? One afternoon we came back from a daily adventure and one of our tires was looking a little deflated. In all my years of renting cars, I've never had a flat. Why did my first need to be in a foreign country? Does Costa Rica have AAA? A quick call to our rental car company revealed that we were pretty much on our own to find a service station. Yaeko! It's time to put your Spanish auto repair communication skills to the test. We headed back into town only to find ourselves in the afternoon traffic jam. As luck would have it, we were at a standstill directly in front of a tire repair service station (that I'm sure we would have blown by). The only problem was that it closes at 5pm, and it was presently 5:05pm. As they were closing the entry gate, we slipped through and Yaeko did their thing, explaining our predicament. They took pity on us, kept the shop open, fixed the tire, and charged us nothing. I tipped them generously. The repair person said that the government repairs tires for free because the roads are so bad (see, I told you the roads are bad). 

When problems arise, just start picking away at it, and eventually it works out in the end... Albeit sometimes with a bit of luck.

Monteverde (Cloud Forest):

The western slope of the central mountain range is called Monteverde. It bears the brunt of the weather coming from the sea and is often shrouded in clouds. This made for a surprisingly chilly couple of days.

Getting there from the coast was, as to be expected, a journey. One that resulted in back tracking 30 minutes. We were warned not to use Google Maps for directions. Use Waze instead. Yeah, what do they know. What they know is that occasionally bridges no longer exist that show on Google Maps. After a 30 minute drive thru a countryside that clearly does not frequent tourists, we learned about the bridge thing. Our short cut turned into a decidedly long cut. Again, did I mention the road thing? 

Our Monteverde time was a little slower paced. The main attraction was walking over the treetop cable suspension bridges. I have reaffirmed my unhealthy urge to throw myself off high places. This made for white knuckle passage. The rest of the group gleefully bounced their way across.

I had not expected to travel to Central America to stay in a mountain cabin complete with a classic brick fireplace that we put to use. The home even came with a barn and a horse. We're country mice, so the Monteverde area suited us well.

The House had a bunch of this style paintings.

Thus far we were a little underwhelmed with wildlife. (Except there was a really cool Hummingbird Sanctuary just down the road from our place). We hoped our final stop would rectify that.

Manuel Antonio area:

Our final stop was Manuel Antonio, famous for it's small wildlife preserve that is packed with all kinds of creatures, in particular, the three toed sloths. My only real goal of the trip was to see one in the wild.

This section of our adventure was notable for two things, and one of them was a harrowing experience.

Bryce loves white water rafting, and CR has no shortage of rafting opportunities. We had two options in this area, one that was more extreme with class 4 and 5 rapids, and one with a more pedestrian class 2 and 3. We opted for the ladder. There was an asterisk though, recent rains may result in more intensity.

Yaeko opted to sit this one out, so it was Nicole, the boys, and me. Our guide was great; definitely trusted him to navigate us successfully. All was well until one particular stretch that he even said looked a little dodgier than normal. I was up front with Zane, Nicole and Bryce at mid, and our guide in back of course. That's until we hit a pocket and the guide was flying over me just before I joined him along with Zane and Nicole.

The next several minutes still gives me chills. I was simultaneously trying not to drown and remember the feet-first technique, while worrying out about everyone else. Somehow, and I don't recall exactly how, I managed to get ashore, paddle still in hand. Another 100 yards down the river on the other side was our guide yelling for his support team, and Zane and Nicole had managed to get out just up river from me. But no Bryce. Where's Bryce?

The raft had managed to get stuck in an eddy at the base of the drop. Miraculously, Bryce popped up from inside the raft and stood there, wondering what to do. The guide was screaming, "Stay in! Stay in!". Apparently Bryce heard "Get in! Get in!" At which point, Bryce jumps from the safety of the raft into the boiling rapids and gets swept away. Thankfully the support team made their way over and fished him out of the river a hundred yards away. We were shaking with adrenaline. The guide felt awful. So much for class 2 and 3. And Nicole's done with rafting forever.

There is truly nothing more gut wrenching than seeing your family in peril.

If the first day was an incredible start, the last day was pretty darn amazing too. Our flight wasn't until midnight, so we effectively had an entire day to explore the Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio. What a joy that was. We finally got to see a Sloth (actually in motion), monkeys everywhere, toucans, spiders, coati, and much more. The squirrel monkeys were particularly entertaining. Yaeko and I could sit there all day watching them goof off and cause chaos. We chilled on a beautiful beach and frolicked in the warm water.

 

Couple Squirrel Monkey Videos: 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/4D79gDcfGnHq3LZU6

https://photos.app.goo.gl/3qCdrvUt1moRhFAT7

About halfway through our time in the park, Nicole started feeling a little... "Tired." By the time we got to the airport after a white knuckle night time drive through intense rain storms, Nicole was willing herself onto the plane. By the time we got home, she was dead to the world. And that's the story of how Nicole caught the VID. Thankfully, while we were actually in Costa Rica, our government dropped the requirement to test negative before returning home. Phew. Two days later, Bryce got it, two days after that, Yaeko got it. It's a mystery how it passed me over.

Despite how it ended, the general consensus was that CR is fun, the people are wonderful, the food is yummy, there is a ton of adventures, and all in all, worth a visit. Would we go back? Maybe, but not before many other spots we need to visit. But if we did go back, Manuel Antonio and Monteverde would certainly be on the list.

BTW, we paid it forward. An unsuspecting tourist at Adobe Car Rental is the proud owner of a heavily used umbrella.