Costa Rica Trip

Day 1 (2/10/2008): The day started off early. We woke up at 2:30am, got ready, finished packing, and the car service came promptly to pick us up. Upon arrival at Newark, we checked in and waited patiently at the gate. All appeared to be going well until it was close to boarding time. It was then that they announced that our flight was going to be delayed two hours b/c of a missing flight attendant. We went to the front desk and told them we had a connecting flight to Costa Rica through Miami. They reassured us that we would be protected on the next flight 2 hours later if we missed ours, so we weren't too concerned. Eventually, a disheveled-looking flight attendant showed up, and we were finally able to depart. When we got to Miami, we were told that our flight to Costa Rica was still boarding, and that we'd have to make a run for it... literally! They assured us that our luggage would be brought on the plane faster than we would, so we ran and ran and ran to the next terminal to catch our flight. We made it... only to find out once we got to Costa Rica that our luggage didn't. We filed a claim and was told that it would be brought on the next flight out and that we'd get the luggage delivered to our hotel that night. And it did... only they mixed up one of the bags and M's luggage ended up being delivered to another hotel. We had to take a taxi to that hotel and make a swap to get the correct luggage. What a mess!

Day 2 (2/11/2008): Another early morning... we went on a "highlights tour" around Costa Rica that started at 6:00am. This included breakfast at a coffee plantation, a visit to the Poaz volcano, La Paz waterfall, lunch, a visit to see hummingbirds, and a "jungle" boat ride. The tour guide was pretty good, but we were a bit disappointed b/c by the time we got to the volcano, it was rainy and covered up by the clouds, so we couldn't see anything. To compensate for our disappointment, the tour guide made an extra stop by the Rio Sucio (translated as "Dirty River," as one can see from the color of the photo below) on our way back to San Jose, where we ran into the middle of a bridge with oncoming traffic to see two rivers of different colors flow into one:


Day 3 (2/12/2008): We went white-water rafting at the Pascua River. This was probably my best experience out of the entire trip... well worth the muscle aches and pains for the days that followed. Three hours on the river with Class 3 rapids, and I am happy to say that neither M nor I fell out of the raft.

Day 4 (2/13/2008): Another day excursion leaving from San Jose, this time to go to the Baldi hot springs, where we should've been able to see the Arenal volcano. But again, mother nature wasn't cooperating with us, so all we saw were clouds over what should've been the volcano top. It took us 4 hours to get there (yes, that meant another 4 hours getting back), and was totally not worth it. The hot springs was overrated... not really my cup of tea.

Day 5 (2/14/2008): A LONG 5-hour bus ride to Manuel Antonio, where we would be staying for the next 3 days. It actually would've taken less time to get there if the bus didn't have to pick so many people up and drop them off (we were the first to get on and the last to be dropped off).

Day 6 (2/15/2008): We spent the morning at the Manuel Antonio National Park with a tour guide. He had a telescope and was able to spot animals from afar. It was pretty cool. M was content b/c he got to see his sloth. After the tour ended, we hiked through the park ourselves. Monkeys ran right past us... I think I was more scared of them than they were of us. It was too hot to do anything else (not that there was anything else to do anyhow), so we spent the rest of the day lounging at the pool. If nothing else, the hotel we were staying at had a nice pool.

Day 7 (2/16/2008): We took the bus back to San Jose and checked into the Courtyard Marriott. Quite a nice hotel (catered towards business folks)... much different from the ghetto places we stayed at earlier in the trip. But the best part was not having to pay for it (still using those Marriott points I have left). Unfortunately, it was far from downtown San Jose, but it felt good to take a hot shower and sleep in a comfortable bed (oh, did I not mention that we didn't have hot water at the place we stayed at in Manuel Antonio?).

Day 8 (2/17/2008): We visited the Central Bank Museums where they had a special Rembrandt etchings exhibit. The exhibit room was quite small, so they had a limit of 50 people in there at one time. We waited on line after we got our tickets to go see the exhibit, only to find out that once we got past that line, we had to wait on another line to actually go into the room. After the museum, we walked around downtown San Jose, which took a total of about 10 minutes. We happened to see a bus going to the San Pedro Mall, so we hopped on it since we didn't have anything better to do... only we didn't know where the mall was. We ended up missing the stop and taking the bus all the way to the end of its route. Good thing the route wasn't very long, and the bus was heading back downtown, so we were able to get off at the mall on the return trip.

Day 9 (2/18/2008): We took the local bus to the Poaz volcano in hopes of actually being able to see something this time. We got there, only to be disappointed once again. The clouds were too thick and like the week before, covered up the volcano in its entirety. We waited there for about a half hour, M in the meantime praying for a huge gust of wind to move the clouds away. And guess what? God answers prayers! All of a sudden, the clouds started thinning out and we were able to see the crater of the volcano. M told me to just start snapping away with the camera. I did, and it was over in about 5 seconds. The clouds came back just as quickly as it had dissipated, and the crater was not to be seen again for the rest of the day. At least we had those 5 seconds.. that was all we needed to make the 2-hour trip worth it. The pictures didn't come out too clear, but here's one of the better ones:


Day 10 (2/19/2008): And this brings us to the end of our trip. Our flight out of Costa Rica was delayed due to "maintenance" (don't you love how they never actually tell you what's wrong with the plane?), so we missed our connecting flight back to Newark. American Airlines put us up at the Comfort Inn near the airport in Miami. Things were so old and decrepit that it looked like no one's stayed there since the 1970s. Airlines messing up passengers with connecting flights is probably the only thing keeping them in business. At any rate, we woke up at 3:30am (Day 11, 2/20/2008) to catch a 6:30am flight back to Newark. Once we got home, I showered, changed, and drove right to work. I am currently running on 3 hours of sleep, and surprisingly, am not totally exhausted. I'm just happy to be home.