Costa Rica Adventure

As much as I'd love to do a play by play on every aspect of our trip so that I can remember all that we did, that would take forever, people would stop reading our blog, and I start school this week and will be too busy for that. So I'm going to hit the highlights. I might add, that we bought a great book called "Let's go Costa Rica on a budget." And let me tell you, it was great! Very thorough and had great recommendations for cheap lodging and eating. We only had a hotel reservation for our first night and that is our best tip for traveling there. It's very easy to find many different places that range from resort style Marriott or simply a cabina for cheap! **Disclaimer: at least a little Spanish is necessary for this route, or you will automatically get labeled a rich American and get ripped off!***
Our first night in San Jose was crazy, as it took over an hour to find our hotel. The address: Calle 11 in between Avenida 2 and 6. Really? If there were addresses like that here, people would be lost forever, not to mention that between ave. 2 & 6 are about 3 different one way streets and nowhere to park the car. When we asked people what street we were on, about 3 people told me they didn't know. Now...did they truly not know, or were they just entertained with the gringos driving around in circles?

Hotel Dona Ines, our most expensive night (since it was in the city- $50)

Yep, that's a palm tree growing in the middle of the hotel

Colby wondering why we didn't stay at the Grand Costa Rican hotel? $$$By far, the most fun that we had and our one "splurge" of the whole trip was going white water rafting on the Pacuare River. It was absolutely beautiful and really one of the reasons that we chose Costa Rica in the first place. It has some awesome class 3 & 4 rapids and was so much fun! We did a two day trip where we paddled for half the day, stayed right on the river at their lodge and then paddled the rest of the day. We highly recommend this! So fun!

The PacuareThe River Lodge we stayed at- everything here is in and out by boat only- they even had to bring the construction supplies this way. It was beautiful there!

Colby hanging out on the hammock with the river below, have you ever seen him this relaxed?

Hiking to a waterfall around the lodgeHanging out around the lodge

Getting ready for our ziplining canopy tour at the lodge. This is Andrea, one of our rafting guidesColby on the canopy tour

We woke up early to get a yummy breakfast and watched the morning rain come down. Did I mention how delicious the Costa Rican coffee was?!?Can you see Colby down by the waterfall? They were everywhere b/c of all the rain and all fed into the river

After our trip with Andrea and Miguel, our rafting guides, who just so happened to be the captains of the men's and women's Costa Rica National rafting team, they were awesome! We totally lucked out!

This is in La Fortuna, where we went to see the Arenal Volcano

Where we stayed in La Fortuna...cabinas sissy. This was pretty much the people's house, turned into a few rooms. Our main attracting point for this place was the "private parking" since we needed a good place to leave Himmy overnight. So where was the private parking you might ask? Oh, just in Roger's backyard where his wife was busy hanging clothes on the clothesline. Ha! It's all good, Cabinas sissy actually included a fan and hot water showers, which was a treat at a whopping $20.

Don't you dare try to steal their television!

Since we slept cheap, we went to a nice dinner and enjoyed Sangria, coconut shrimp and fresh tuna steak!

That evening and the next morning we went and waded in the hotspring that is naturally heated by the volcano. Tour price for someone to take you there-$30 per person. Ask the locals and walk along a trail and under the bridge-free!

In Monteverde went went and saw the Don Juan coffee farm, yumm

Here's where we stayed in Monteverde, Hotel Oasis, a steal at $18! Here's where the Spanish paid off b/c while in the office and asking the price, the man told me $30 (which is totally do-able) and then a local girl was in there at the same time and he told her $18. Knowing that I understood what he was saying, and after asking him about the difference, he decided we could pay the same price. :)Colby played in a local soccer game that evening. It's an indoor field, but they don't use walls, just nets. The picture is blurry- but I think you can probably see his red hair and gray shirt.

After being in the mountains, we headed down to the beach at Manuel Antonio. On our way, we decided to stop off at a smaller beach where there would be less people for a day and found a nice little cabina (aka-the guest room in someone's house to stay at, ha!) and while we were on the beach met some nice local friends. We ended up hanging out with them at their family beach house, going out to dinner with them (which they bought, so nice) and made some great contacts for our next trip down there. I think this was my favorite part. Getting to know the people and the culture that make up a country, so much more fun to really learn about how they live and spend time with them!

Colby at dinner with Hector, Guillermo, Miguel, and Guillermo Sr.Yes I swam with my umbrella quite a bit b/c I didn't want to get fried!

The End! It was truly a trip that we will remember forever! I encourage everyone to go there at some point. It is a great country, that's very affordable and has things for everyone, from adventure-to relaxation and great food and beautiful scenery! Pura Vida!