Costa Rica trip
January 22 to February 1, 2006
General comments
Ten days, four very good friends (two
couples), one 4-wheel drive vehicle, three maps, hundreds of digital
pictures, lots of laughs. A a very laid-back trip, concentrating on the
Caribbean side and volcanoes. Moderate meals and accommodation. All
prices are quoted in US.
Day1
Left Vancouver
for San Jose
via Houston – long day. Stopped at cab booth at SJO and bought a ticket
for a $12 cab ride to the hotel. We just gave the ticket to the first
available driver and off we went.
Hotel: Grano de Oro
Absolutely
beautiful hotel, with impeccably pleasant, professional service. It’s a
converted mansion with twenty tastefully-decorated rooms and an army of
staff. It has an elegant but not expensive gift shop, and the buyer has
very discriminating taste. There’s a wonderful rooftop jacuzzi. $95 per
night (plus tax)
Weather:
gorgeous. Sunny,
about 80 degrees F.
Day 2
Mooched around
the market, wandered around San Jose.
Dinner: Grano de Oro restaurant (make reservations) cost $109
for five people, including some drinks and desserts. Very good. Lovely
breakfast too, great granola, and the macadamia pancakes are a specialty.
Hotel: Grano do Oro
Weather:
gorgeous. Sunny, about 80 degrees F.
Day 3
Oscar from
Adobe car rentals (“Oscar de la Rent-a-car”) came to the hotel to
deliver the car, and we were upgraded from a Rav4 to a Mitsubishi Sport. I
saw the rate sheet, and we’d saved a bundle by prepaying in Canadian
dollars. We were prepared for the insurance charge of about $18 per day,
which we couldn’t prepay, and the $2 per day additional driver charge.
Great service, and no trouble with the vehicle.
Headed for Manzanillo, about six hours’ driving time due to traffic and
potholes.
Lunch: Butterfly Gardens
(near Guapiles) en
route to the coast. Good
food, pleasant staff, but slow and overpriced. Should have eaten at a
soda.
Hotel: Almonds & Corals
What an
amazing place, with twenty-five units, joined by wooden walkways. The
units are hard to describe. They’re cabins with high, peaked roofs, and
the walls are made of screens and trellises. Inside, there are two green
tents: one for the queen-size four-poster bed, and one for the bathroom.
Other than that it’s all open screening, but they’re very private because
of the foliage. There’s a sort of futon fold-out bed, hammock, bathroom
with hot shower, electricity (even a hair dryer, if you’re that way
inclined). Wonderful bed. We went to sleep to the sounds of insects and
frogs (or deafening rain and frogs!), and every morning we were wakened by
howler monkeys.
The staff was lovely. I wouldn’t call the food a reason to stay there, but
it was quite good, and there was lots of it. The price of $150 includes
breakfast and dinner. Expensive, but a unique opportunity to feel as if
you’re sleeping right in the jungle. They provide biodegradable soap and
shampoo – don’t use your own if you have it with you. Tours
can be easily arranged by the front desk.
Weather:
rainy and
warm, about 80 degrees
Days 4, 5, and 6
We spent the
next three days lazing on the gorgeous beach (warm water) just down
from the property – undertow too strong to swim right there -- reading,
relaxing, exploring Punta Uva, Puerto Viejo, and Manzanillo.
We did a terrific nature tour with Florentino, a guide from
Manzanillo. What he didn’t know wasn’t worth knowing. We saw, among a
million other things, four eyelash vipers and two fer-de-lance snakes, all
very dangerous; a baselisk, or Jesus Christ Lizard, poison dart frogs,
two-toed and three-toed sloths, etc. etc. It was wonderful, and Tino had
lots of good stories. The 6-hour tour cost $35 per person including a
boxed lunch. Note: don't experiment with the India Ink Plant on exposed
skin because you'll be stuck with it for ten days. My husband has a happy
face on his calf, and our friend's elbow is still black, two weeks later.
Weather for Days 3-6: poured, absolutely poured, for hours on end,
but not when we wanted to do anything. The heavens opened every night
except the second night. Sometimes if it wasn't raining hard,
we hardly got wet
because of the jungle canopy. And after the rain had stopped, it sounded
as if it was still raining because of the drips from high above onto the
cabin roof. About 80 degrees.
Day 7
We drove to
Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui, about 6 hours at a not-too-frantic pace from
Manzanillo.
Lunch: Terrific restaurant called Marisqueria la Trocha at
Guapiles. Lunch with dinner-sized portions of prawns, 3 or 4 beers
and a bottle of water, cost $30 for four people.
Dinner: Ara Ambigua, Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui – very good,
well-priced. About $35 for four people including wine.
Hotel: Posasa Andrea Cristina, Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui, had been
highly recommended by Lonely Planet, Fodor, Rough Guide, and on the
website it looked wonderful, with rave reviews about the personable and
knowledgeable host. We got there at 2:30 so that we could have plenty of
time for one of his recommended nature tours, but he wasn’t there. So we
came back an hour and a half later... still not there, and it appeared
that we didn’t have two cabins.
When he arrived at about 5:30,
he freely admitted that although we’d booked the cabins six months
previously and confirmed them the week before the trip, he’d given one of
them to his friend who was visiting for a month. The room he offered us
was really depressing. It was clean though, and did have a great patio,
and the grounds and breakfast were terrific. Just be prepared for a kind
of offhand approach to customer service, and hope that you get what you
reserved. $40 per night.
Weather: rainy, then fine. About 80 degrees.
Day 8
Drove to La
Fortuna. We stopped at Poaz Crater, fairly crowded (Sunday afternoon), but
worth doing for $7 per person plus $7 for the car. We also stopped at the
Waterfall
Gardens, which was not really our cup of tea, but might be for other
people. There was a butterfly garden, serpentaria, orchid garden, and my
friend thought it was worth the $25 per person (gulp) admission fee just
to see the hummingbird garden. The falls were spectacular, no doubt about
it. It just felt kind of overpriced and a bit over-processed, catering for
the tour bus business.
Lunch: pricey buffet ($12 per person) at the Waterfall Gardens,
La Fortuna
Dinner: at the hotel, Montana del Fuego, La Fortuna. The restaurant
is definitely not recommended. Pricey – we thought we’d splurge and it was
a whopping $63 for two people! The food was unremarkable, and the service,
although friendly, was hit and miss. It was very noisy from passing
trucks and the lighting on the terrace was bleak white.
Hotel:
Montana
del Fuego, La fortuna. Very
nice. Ask for the standard wooden cabins (I think they’re older than the
stucco ones). They’re really charming, and have great volcano views. When
we were there, the lava was flowing on the other side, but we could hear
the volcano, and see a puff of smoke when there was a small eruption. We
drove around to the other side at night and caught a glimpse of a kind of
necklace of lava, but the cloud came down pretty rapidly and that was
that. $100 per night plus tax, including breakfast.
Weather: intermittent showers and sunshine, 75-80 degrees.
Day 9
Breakfast at
the hotel. Good.
We wanted to avoid Tabacon, so our friend had made a reservation at
Eco-termales. It was a bit hard to find since it didn’t have a sign,
and when we pulled up to the closed gate, we had to ring the buzzer and
give our names. The gate swung slowly open, and the pools were gorgeous.
It cost $19 per person, and we all thought it was worth it. For the first
two hours, there was not another soul there. Later we were joined by
another couple who apologized for disturbing us. There is absolutely no
admission without a reservation, and I’m sure it has its share of tour bus
activity. But it was certainly idyllic for us. You can put your stuff in
lockers, get beverages on the honour system, and pay at reception when you
leave.
Lunch: The Lost Iguana, La Fortuna. Fabulous lunch including beer
cost $40 for four people, and best of all they sold half-price tickets for
the Hanging
Gardens, which we had planned to do after lunch. We left our car in their
parking lot, used their Toucan Trail as a short cut to the Gardens, and
got in for $10 each. So the lunch stop was a lucky one. Perfect view of
the volcano, and we saw steam trails when the lava flowed.
We loved the Hanging Bridges. Fifteen bridges, six of them
suspension bridges, and two of them so high at 45 metres that we were
looking down on the canopy, and at eye level with a sleepy howler monkey
who couldn’t have cared less that we were gawking and snapping.
Dinner: The Lost Iguana. We liked it so much at lunch we went back
for dinner. Great sax player, wonderful ambience and very good food. Don’t
miss the key lime pie.
Day 10
Beautiful
drive south via
San Carlos,
Zarcero, and on to Heredia. We were looking for a specific address in
order to meet a friend for dinner, and there are no street signs. We
finally sort of spiralled in on it, had dinner, and navigated our way back
to the Grano de Oro in San Jose.
Lunch: Zarcero. A soda called Heguiron, across from the weird
topiary in front of the cathedral. Good lunch, especially the spicy
chicken. Including beer, lunch for two cost $8.00.
Dinner: Le Petit Paris, Heredia. The food was OK, and there was a
kind of spinny but very pleasant hostess. We ate in the courtyard, which
was lovely, and the interior part of the restaurant was very nice too. The
bill was $42 for five people, including wine.
Hotel: Grano de Oro, where everyone from the front desk staff to
the waiters welcomed us back.
Day 11
Lovely
morning, time for last-minute sunning on the roof. Oscar came to the hotel
to pick up the car and we took a cab to the airport ($12) – the
hassle-free way to do it. Lo-o-o-ng day flying back to Vancouver and got
home to the Fraser Valley at 3:00 a.m.
Sensational trip. Much laughter, wonderful people, great food, superb
scenery, warm water, and on and on and on -- can’t wait to go back.
Graham Dowden's website