So…we have just arrived back from an awesome week in Costa Rica. We landed in San Jose, Costa Rica on Friday, February 3rd at about 10:30pm. The flight lasted about 5 hours and 20 minutes and was fairly uneventful. Staying true to ourselves and our hatred of flying, Miguel and drank enough to keep us fully fueled for the duration of the flight. Although, it did not seem to make much of a difference for Miguel, I was in wonderland with an iPod and some fantastic airplane food. The flight attendant kept the drinks coming, free of charge. Apparently he had opened a bottle of red in first class and the passenger did not like it…I had no problem polishing it off. I think the flight attendant had a crush on one of us, to be honest. We sat beside a woman, who, I was convinced was a nun. It turned out she was married and going to see her “friend” in Costa Rica for the week. I then became convinced that she was having a lesbian affair with this so-called “friend,” and her husband knew nothing about it. She just had “that look” about her. She will come up again. Stepping off the plane, we could feel the Central American warmth. That was a great feeling, as the harsh New England winters are getting very old, very quickly. We made our way to baggage claim and eventually to immigration. The Costa Rican Tourist Board in full force, even in the airport. They had canopy lines set up, with a dummy hanging from them. We were greeted with a friendly smile, and a “Welcome to Costa Rica. May I see your passports, please.” Trust me, you don’t get that coming into the US. After clearing immigration, without incident, we headed out of the airport to be greeted by our driver holding a sign saying “Kevin Gleeson.” I’ll explain in another post how we came to have our own driver. By this point, Miguel was feeling nauseous and needed to eat. So, the driver took us to a very busy outdoor restaurant. Miguel and the driver ordered food, and I ordered a beer…”No beer tonight,” I was told (in Spanish.) Apparently, it was Election Day in Costa Rica and there would be no alcohol sales for the duration of the weekend. Initially, it seemed asinine to me, but I’ll tell you why it is a great idea a little bit later on. After we finished our snack, our driver, Carlos took us to our hotel, ApartHotel Christina.
We had no idea what to expect for a mere $50 (US Dollars) per night. We were pleasantly surprised, to say the least. Our digs had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen and a sitting room. I could not believe it. It was exceptionally clean and had all the amenities one could expect, including free high-speed Internet access in each room. Here is a picture of the sitting room. The staff was very friendly and always greeted us in the morning with a “Buenos Dias.” They were extremely helpful with organizing tours and offering suggestions for places to eat and things to do. The complex had a beautiful swimming pool and the typical Costa Rican breakfast of Gallo Pinto was delicious. Who would have thought of rice and beans first thing in the morning…none-the-less, it was yummy.
The hotel was located beside the Sabana Park. This is the largest park in San Jose and looked quite nice. The locals obviously took full advantage as there were always people playing soccer and having BBQ’s. The next day involved a self-guided tour through San Jose. The weather was nice, with scattered clouds and a temperature that felt about 75 degrees F, or 23 degrees C. To be completely honest, I was not overly impressed with the city. During the day it is fine, with tons of street vendors and people everywhere. It is nighttime that shows a different side of the city center. Every single building has metal shutters on it. So, after dark all the shutters are pulled and the streets become very unattractive. There is a fair amount of litter about the place that would make a world of difference if picked up. Just like any other city, San Jose has its share of junkies. I’m not too sure what sort of drugs are a problem there, but it was definitely some sort of “downer”…Heroin perhaps. The junkies were exceptionally passive in begging and never became a nuisance. We wondered through the streets for hours, stopping for photo-ops, and snacking on different Costa Rican treats along the way. After a nice dinner (can’t remember what I had) we decided to head back to the hotel…after all, there were no bars open and restaurants were not serving drinks. At the reception desk in the hotel, were greeted with a friendly smile and asked, “What have you done today.” After a nice chat with the guy at reception and he learning that we are a Puerto Rican and an Irish, he said “Oh, Irish…you must want beer?!?!” He went behind the counter and came back with a six-pack of Imperial. He explained that we could not drink it in public, but within the hotel grounds was not a problem. With big smiles we headed back to the apartment and fell asleep halfway through our first beer 
The next day, we woke early. A tour bus, which we had arranged the night before, collected us at the hotel. Already onboard the bus were and Argentina couple, a couple from Finland, two girl friends (one from Luxemburg and the other Mexican) and ourselves, of course. Everyone on the bus introduced themselves and as the bus got underway, each group continued their own conversation. We traveled for about 2 hours. First, through the city, past the airport and up into the hills. The scenery and views were absolutely amazing. Passing through small villages, the streets were packed with people promoting one man, or another to be their new president. They would wave as we passed and holler out their favorite name. Eventually, the van stopped at a lovely coffee shop/bakery. We had 15 minutes to get a snack and take some photos of the beautiful scenery. Back on the road again, we continued our chat and were told by the tour guide when were passing through the continental divide. He also pointed out the Volcanoes, which were surrounded by clouds and made them worthless to go and see. The mountains were spectacular. After about another hour, we came to a park that had a beautiful Butterfly Garden, Humming Bird Garden, and tons of other wildlife sanctuaries. The best part of the park was the hike to see the waterfalls. The hike lasted about 2 hours and we saw about 10 magnificent waterfalls. We climbed up mountains and back down mountains…it was truly spectacular and unfortunately, the photos don’t do much justice. At the end of the trail the bus driver picked us up again and we started the long drive back to San Jose. That night we had a really nice dinner in a restaurant up the road from the hotel. After dinner it was back to ApartHotel Christina for a few beers, poolside, and off to bed.
Monday I had an appointment, which lasted all day…, I’ll write about that in a different post. Miguel went to the museum and the shopping mall, while he waited for me. Carlos’ dad was his personal driver for the day Tuesday morning we found ourselves at the Coca-Cola bus station in downtown San Jose. We were ready to board a bus for Quepos - Manuel Antonio on the Pacific coast.
The bus trip was about 4 hours long. The distance traveled was not very far (125 km, I think,) but there are no freeways, so lengthy travel time was mostly due to the need to climb mountains and maneuver the coach bus over tiny bridges, and around hair-pin turns. As expected, there was no air conditioning on the coach bus, but the windows were all wide open with the curtains blowing. There was not an empty seat on the bus. The views along the journey were spectacular. The driver was obviously an experienced driver and used to the roads. One tiny mistake and the entire coach bus would have been tumbling down the side of a mountain, as the roads did not have barricades on the sides. I can’t actually believe that we made it over some of the bridges. Most of them were constructed of two metal planks…one for each wheel of the bus. Precision was obviously the key to making it across. From one bridge we managed to see an alligator below…he looked fairly hungry too, so it is a good thing we made it across the bridge. In the same river as the alligator, there were turtles sunning themselves. Shortly after crossing the last wobbly bridge, we arrived in Quepos - Manuel Antonio, where Pura Vida ensued. All about Manuel Antonio, the beaches, national parks, monkeys, sloths, restaurants, bars and clubs coming soon…
Photos can be found here
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