HaveShoesWillEatandTravel: Costa Rica

Showing posts with label Costa Rica. Show all posts

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Ziplining

I'm attempting my first video on the blog. Our guide made this during our zipline tour.

So first a confession. We never actually made it into Manuel Antonio. Yes we went all the way there and didn't go to the national park. The upside is there is tons of things to do in the area so we did those instead.

The drive from Arenal to Quepos was very long. Like 6.5 hours long on some back curvy roads with lots of speed traps and stuck behind big trucks you can't get around. We stopped in Jaco and ate at Taco Bar which was great. We were staying at the Hotel Parador for 2 nights because we got a great deal through American Express travel on their rooms. We had a "jungle view" room but in reality we faced a tennis court. I didn't know animals played tennis. The pool area however was really nice. There were 2 main pools that were kind of connected to each other along with a swim-up pool bar. Then there was an adults only pool with a waterfall. All the pools looked out over the ocean.

Since we didn't get in until 2:30 pm the first day we spent the afternoon at the pool with some umbrella drinks. For dinner we hired a taxi and headed up the terrible road that our hotel was at the very end of for dinner at Aguas Azule. Excellent food and it overlooks the ocean if you're there during the day time. I had a mango daiquiri which was fabulous. We split some guacamole and salsa for an appetizer. Both were very fresh and the chips were fresh and still warm. For dinner I had a plate of nachos which was delicious. The Husband had something called a Big Ass Burger. Seriously this thing was huge. And gross. Not gross tasting, just gross because it was so big. I told him he couldn't finish or he would have a heart attack. The Husband loved the burger though.

The next day we didn't have an activity until 2:30 pm. We were visiting Damas Estuary for a boat ride and wildlife spotting and our other choice was to go at 6:30 am (aren't we on vacation?) since you have to go when the tide is right. After breakfast we walked down to the beach for me to dip my toes in the Pacific since I'd never been. The beach was nice but nothing special and we both prefer the pool so we made the long and steep trek back up to the hotel. Seriously if I'd done this midday I would have passed out. We spent our morning at the pool getting incredibly sunburnt. We are both pale pale and ghostly and we were only slightly north of the equator. It was inevitable. It was also hotter than hell. So hot that I didn't even have any fun umbrella drinks since it was too hot to drink anything but water. We ate lunch at the hotel restaurant. The Husband had guacamole which is his new obsession after refusing to eat it for years. I had a bowl of gazpacho and a plate of ceviche. Both were perfect for the hot weather although I really only should have picked one of them. The gazpacho had all the ingredients such as tiny chopped up onions and peppers and croutons on the side to add in as much as you wanted. The ceviche was made with mahi mahi which believe it or not I'd never had before.

We decided on the Damas Estuary tour because we heard monkeys were everywhere. One of the couples we'd met at the Pacuare Lodge said tours in Manuel Antonio you put bananas on your hand and monkeys come up to you and eat it off. This tour doesn't do that because apparently it's bad for the monkeys. Bummer. We learned a lot about the mangroves which was interesting. But most of the animals were difficult to see. The guide would spot something hidden under leaves or high up in the tree then it took 10 minutes for each of us in the boat to finally see it. We saw snakes (ewww), anteaters, and a baby crocodile. The highlight was the monkeys. We finally saw them towards the end of the tour. They were the only animals that were out and really visible swinging around everywhere. And they were adorable getting really close to the boat and even jumping on the roof of the boat. We managed to get a lot of pictures. Had it not been for the monkeys though the tour would have been a bust.

That night we had dinner at a wonderful restaurant called Kapi Kapi. This restaurant was pretty upscale and beautifully decorated. There was mostly fish on the menu although we both had the beef tenderloin over scalloped potatoes. Excellent all around. Hands down the best part of the meal was dessert though. It was a hot chocolate souffle with homemade vanilla bean ice cream on top. This was honestly the best dessert I've ever had in my life. I'm not really a dessert eater but I could have eaten multiple of these they were that good. Absolutely not to be missed if you're in the area.

Our last day we went ATVing. We'd gone before in Mexico but we liked this one better. We saw a lot of the local people swimming along the river that we were ATVing around and through. A big thumbs down to the lady in our group who appeared to be terrified of her ATV. We end up with one of those on nearly every excursion we go on. She was so slow. With all the bouncing up and down I ended up very sore the next day, especially in my back and my hands felt bruised from gripping the handles so hard. We also got a meal after the ATVing which was really good. Typical chicken, rice, and beans.

I grabbed one last daiquiri at the pool bar and swam for a little bit. Then we loaded ourselves into the car for one last trip down the terrible road. We weren't that hungry after our late lunch but didn't want to stop along the way so we grabbed some more food from Aguas Azule. This time we had guacamole, salsa, and bacon and cheese fries. I can't say enough about fresh cut french fries covered in two of my favorite foods - cheese and bacon. We were spending the night at the Holiday Inn next to the airport. The whole next day was long and uneventful with a lot of time spent in airports and adding a lot of layers from our carry-ons to be ready when we got to Chicago. We loved Costa Rica. So relaxing even though we were so active and so many things to do there.

A palm tree plantation on the way into Quepos

Our hotel

Pool area

Sunset

Waterfall in the adults only pool

Main building

At the pool deck

The huge lizard we saw at the hotel twice

One the Damas Estuary tour

Mangroves

Finally the monkeys!

They are adorable

I wanted to take it home with me

Sunset from where the estuary meets the Pacific

ATVing

Don't I look rugged?

Heading through the river. At one point I got stuck and started sinking. Yes I had to be rescued and The Husband was laughing at me.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Costa Rica - Arenal Volcano

We drove up to Arenal Volcano on Tuesday morning. It was about a 3 hour drive. Miraculously I haven't felt car sick with all the winding driving we've been doing in the Costa Rican countryside. We had lunch when we reached the town of La Fortuna then we were off to our hotel. Originally we'd planned on checking in and going for a hike at the La Fortuna waterfall. That went to the wayside when we saw our hotel though.

Arenal Nayara was off the main road and down a dirt road. Upon entering the main lobby we were greeted with a welcome drink and a cool scented towel to cool off with. We were taken by a golf cart on a tour of the grounds, which actually aren't that big since there was only 24 units total. Our room was absolutely gorgeous. A beautiful porch overlooking the volcano. Both an indoor and outdoor shower. And a jacuzzi on the porch. Best of all each unit is secluded.

The pool was likewise gorgeous and this is where we decided to plant ourselves for the rest of the afternoon instead of going on a hike. There were whirlpools within the pool and a swim-up pool bar that I used extensively. I decided to get a massage since I can never resist a spa. Prices were high but they had a 15% off coupon. Since I was in volcano territory I had a volcano mud massage by Lillian which was excellent.

Because we were lazy and the massage was later in the day, we decided just to eat dinner at the hotel. I had the onion soup which was good and the paella which was okay. The Husband had the tortilla soup which was okay and tropical chicken breast with mango sauce which was good. Prices for dinner weren't too bad considering it's a hotel.

The next day we tried canyoning. Now this was intense. Canyoning included rappelling down small waterfalls while using the rocks and sides of the waterfall as footholds or basically dropping yourself down large waterfalls and kind of free-falling. We also did some intense hiking through the jungle along and in the river. I say intense since we were hiking in the small river along slippery rocks. You had to watch every foot placement so you didn't slip and land on the rocks. There were many rock formations you had to climb down including one that had no footholds so you had to jump into a pool of water located right between two steep rock faces. I am shocked I didn't fall or scrape against the rocks and become a bloody mess although I did get fairly beat up during this whole excursion. Very cool but be prepared that it is exhausted. I thought we were just going to drop down the waterfalls, nothing was mentioned about this long hike. Also, this will be harder for shorter people since it's harder for your legs to stretch to find the footholds. I had a much more difficult time with this than The Husband since I'm about 5 inches shorter than he is.

That night we headed for the hot springs that Arenal is famous for. There's a couple different ones you can choose from. Baldi Hot Springs is like going to Daytona Beach. Completely cheesy, young and cheap crowd, lots of drinking. It is the cheapest option. I don't know much about Ecotermales but it's a smaller hot springs and often reservations are needed. Tabacon until recently was known for being the fancy hot springs. It's also pretty expensive. We decided to try the newest hot springs at the hotel called The Springs. This place just opened 6 months ago and were offering a great deal. 2 full days of hot spring usage for $40/person.

I had really been looking forward to the hot springs but I was quite disappointed. At first we were very impressed by The Springs but then it kind of wore off on us. It was quite Disneyesque. Everything was manufactured. They even had some fake tree stumps. They have 18 total pools. Several are cold, several are medium, and several are hot. There are 11 of these total right outside the back of the hotel. There are also 7 in the forest a couple hundred meters down a path. These are all hot There they had built a slide right into the hot springs that we really enjoyed. They were not hot enough for us though. It was like lukewarm bath water. We tried the hot ones near the main building and they were hotter. We had planned on eating dinner here but the prices were pretty exhorbitant compared to our own hotel so we decided to just head back. Likewise spa prices were ridiculous. The weirdest thing was the whole place was empty. Eventually they're going to have a large amount of rooms but right now only a fraction of the rooms are open. (Note: the rooms are high priced as well.) But apparently hardly anyone had heard of this place yet and there was no one. It was kind of eerie. So back to our own hotel for dinner.

The next day was our last day in Arenal. We were scheduled to go ziplining through Sky Tram/Sky Trek. We drove there ourselves since getting picked up was an additional cost and we already had a car. Leave yourself plenty of time to drive there. The road is terrible and unpaved. The ziplining was great though. You take a tram up to the top. Also in the trams are people who are only taking the tram and not ziplining with you so if some in your party want to take the weenie option this is it. The ziplines were the highest and farthest I'd ever seen. One is half a mile in length and you can barely see over to the other side. It made the ziplines we did in Belize look like a kiddie playground. Absolutely wear old clothes though. Our clothes and faces were covered with oil from the wires and needless to say the clothes are ruined.

After another afternoon lounging by the pool we headed into town for dinner. We chose a steakhouse Don Rufino's. We shared an appetizer of cheeses and Italian meats which was fantastic. Then we shared a bacon-wrapped filet which was decent but of course didn't match up to the filets we've had at the top steakhouses in Chicago. But I would recommend Don Rufino's anyway. The next day we would be off to Quepos so to bed early again. I've never gotten so much sleep in my life yet been so tired from all the activity as this trip.

View of the cloud forest while driving up to Arenal

Our bungalow

More of our room

View from our patio to the volcano

The jacuzzi tub

Bathroom and closet area

Outdoor shower

View from our hotel

The hotel. The landscaping was so lush and green.

Pool and swim-up pool bar where I had many umbrella drinks

The Husband rappelling down the waterfall

There's me

Sitting amidst the rocks while our guides dammed up the water

And when the guides released the dam

The Husband rappelling

I'm going straight through a waterfall here

The Husband at dinner

The Springs lodge

Hot springs in the forest

Getting ready to zipline. I spent so much time this trip wearing those ugly and nasty helmets for all our excursions.

View from one of the zipline platforms

More views

View of Lake Arenal from the zipline

We saw a whole bunch of cotamundis on the way back from the ziplines

The cheesy display our maid left us. The elephants were cute though.

View of the pool at night

My artistic flower picture

One of the many rabbits that wander around our hotel grounds

Costa Rica - Pacuare Lodge

Our trip began at the ridiculous time of 4:00 am when we caught a taxi to O'Hare. Ouch. Everything went smoothly and we checked into our hotel. Some readers of this blog know that The Husband travels a ton. As such, he has built up a ton of points at IC Brand hotels which are Holiday Inn, Intercontinental, and Crowne Plaza. So we chose a free night at the Holiday Inn in San Jose before embarking on our whitewater rafting trip the next morning.

I would avoid San Jose if possible. There are many charming towns (at least from what I read in the guidebooks) in the Central Valley. San Jose is not charming. The Holiday Inn is a retired person in a tour group's haven. Skip if you're paying. If you do stay downtown opt for Grano de Oro which looks great. We were exhausted so we grabbed dinner at a small soda within walking distance. A soda is a small casual restaurant. Turned out the nachos and fried bananas we shared were excellent!

Our first full day started with a pick-up at 6:15 am. Ouch again. We drove an hour and 20 minutes outside of San Jose where we enjoyed a traditional Costa Rican breakfast of rice, beans, fruit, cheese, tortillas, and eggs. Then we had another hour and 20 minute drive to the river put-in for our whitewater rafting adventure. During this time our guide talking about the horrors of whitewater rafting (falling out of the boat) and even worse, the horrors of our accomodations in the jungle (scorpions in our rooms along with other assorted wildlife). Needless to say, the scorpions were terrifying. According to our guide that was the only wildlife we could kill. All others were to be left alone.

We arrived at the river put-in to rain. Awesome. It was just cold enough to be freezing when we got in the river. We hiked down a hill so steep the van couldn't transport our bags. They had to be transported via 4x4 vehicle. Finally the start of our rafting trip. The trip was set up really well. About an hour rafting on the first day over grade 1 and 2 rapids which was a very nice start for beginners like me. Day 2 would be grades 1-4 rapids for 3 or 4 hours on the river. The Husband and I got extremely lucky and were put at the front of the raft. Meaning we got extremely soaked. The rafting was awesome though.

The Pacuare Lodge though was AMAZING. You are able to access the lodge by land but that involves taking a basket over a cable across the river and a horseback ride. So everyone rafts in. From the cooks to the guests. They raft in all supplies including food and linens. The only electricity is some produced by the lodge itself for the kitchen to use for cooking. The main lodge was open air. The bottom part included the kitchen, eating area, and a wine cellar (yes a wine cellar in the middle of the jungle). The upstairs part included a bar and some couches for reading. The entire thing is lit by candlelight at night. Everyone has an individual bungalow set off from all the others. It had a room with a bed and a couch, then stairs down to a bathroom that had stone floors and a large shower area. Unfortunately showers were heated by the sun which we didn't have any that day. So that was a really quick one. Because it was pouring we decided to relax in our rooms instead of going on the waterfall hike like we had originally planned. Originally I had been looking forward to a massage by one of the local Indian women that the lodge hired but she had apparently quit. So we spent the afternoon relaxing and reading in our bungalow.

The best part was the gourmet meals. Lunch was a buffet on the first day. There was flatbreads, fruit, and couscous. Dinner was the main masterpiece. Appetizer choice was between goat-cheese and honey stuffed phyllo dough or carrot soup. Dinner was tilapia in a passionfruit sauce or beef tenderloin in a porcini mushroom sauce. And dessert was creme brulee or pineapple with ice cream. Seriously a 5 star meal. In the middle of the jungle. Breakfast the next morning was delicious as well with rice and beans, eggs, cheese, and fruits.

The next day started our rafting at 10 am. This day we would hit some big rapids. It started out raining again. It had poured all night and then when we woke up at 7:30 am it was finally sunny. However it started pouring right as we were getting our rafting gear on. Luckily it cleared up soon and as a result we have a lovely sunburn complete with life jacket tan. Really there are no words to describe the river. Absolutely gorgeous and surrounded on both sides by trees growing hundreds of feet tall. We also got a glimpse of native Indian life alongside the banks of the river as we rafted down. We bought the CD at the end of the trip of us rafting. We had an expertly prepared lunch when we stopped at a beach on the way down. Pasta salad, tuna fish salad, pitas, chicken, and fresh fruit. They did a great job creating our lunch and presenting it on an upturned raft.

I would highly recommend this trip. The river was gorgeous. There was nonstop action with the rapids. Hardly any flatwater so it was exciting the entire time. It was easy enough that a first time rafter like me could do it but some more experienced rafters also enjoyed it as well. http://www.junglelodgecostarica.com

We were deposited back at our beloved Holiday Inn in San Jose after a 2 hour drive back from the river take-out. We were so exhausted we went back to the same soda for dinner since it was so close and we knew it was good. Then we were in bed by 8:30 pm. I'm starting to feel elderly this trip with going to bed so early.