hey little bat!

Breakfast at 7:30 was nice. A big buffet with custom omelettes and homemade pastries and the usual and then some. We got showered and went back to the market to buy more stuff in time to come back late, check out, and take a taxi to the airport ($16). We were even more late because of traffic, an accident or something. We checked in slowly but made the flight because it was running late also. (Note that you'll have to pay an exit tax of $26 per person at the airport, and this will add on some time.) It was slow going through security because of the s l o w people in front of us. Once we made it through security, we decided to get lunch. Church's #1 didn't carry the chicken sandwich, so we had to go to Church's #2 - they did. Anyway, the plane took off 45-60 minutes late, so we arrived about an hour later than scheduled. * * * Many times, at the end of a vacation - no matter how good it was - you are ready to return home. We were not at all ready to return home...

This last ride was pretty bumpy, like a rollercoaster. A bit scary. In the Pavas airport, we said goodbye to the family from Plano, then took a taxi to Hotel Aranjuez ($18). Later, we walked through el Parque Central and photographed the art cows. We then walked towards the National Museum - cool building (the one below may or may not be the building) - ... ...and found a place to have lunch called Nuestro Tierra . It was good, though I should've had what Nick had - and everyone else in the restaurant - which was the almuercito , basically a casado . But no, I had to order half a roasted chicken with mashed beans, corn on the cob, a and salad. Needless to say, it was way too much chicken! Good, but WAY too much. (I'm not sure why I thought that was a good idea.) Also, we should've had the coffee. It looked really cozy in the wooden stand with the cloth bag. And it was rainy - it would've been perfect. Next we went to the market to look for more gifts. ...

We woke at 5 or so. The bad part about Hotel Aranjuez is the noise outside of the room of other people inside the hotel - talking, walking around, closing doors, etc. We heard this in the morning and going to sleep last night was the same. It got chilly during the night. Nick didn't sleep well. We had to miss the hotel's famous breakfast to get to the airport on time for our flight to Puerto Jiménez. (Turns out we could've left later because we arrived at the airport with an hour to kill.) The front desk arranged the taxi for us, and we left the hotel at 7 and got to the Pavas/Tobias Bolaños airport around 7:25 ( 7000 colones). Puerto Jiménez, on the Osa Peninsula, is the closest town to the Lapa Rios ecolodge, our final destination. In our planning, we were saving the best for last. (And wondering now how we could possibly top what we've already experienced...) next post > day 10 - Lapa Rios! previous post > day 9 - San José & Hotel Aranjuez first pos...

We met the taxi at the hotel and went to the Tamarindo airport ($10 for the taxi/ took about 15 minutes). The 50 minute afternoon flight to San José , Costa Rica's capital, was called the Loco, for some reason which we would soon find out. It was through tons of rain. It seemed that this flight consisted mostly of locals, whereas the previous ones consisted mainly of tourists. One of the passengers had a palm in her hand. The ones blessed by the priest on Palm Sunday. You know, the ones you take out and burn when you're in DANGER. So, yes, she held this in her hand as she made the sign of the cross. So that's why this flight was cheaper. And called Loco . It wasn't that bumpy - considering all the rain we were flying through - just very tense and scary for me. There was no visibility. The plane did do those rollercoaster dips at times, that make you lose your stomach. We had to land at the international airport because the Pavas/Tobias Bolaños airport (the ai...

We woke to the sounds of the elusive morning vampire monkey (I'm guessing these were Howler Monkeys, but I prefer my husband's more fanciful description!) and birds and other various animals. I woke up at 5 or so (Costa Rica is in the same time zone as Houston, though it's much easier to wake up early here) then later got out of bed to have a look around and take pictures. What a colorful morning wake-up! I spotted birds and monkeys. It's gorgeous out here! A little later Nick got out of bed and we had some good coffee that we made in the shared kitchen (shared by 2 rooms) and sipped it in our chairs outside with a blanket. The temperature was nice and cool. The song of one of the birds sounded like a cell phone on vibrate - it was nuts! Then we walked to breakfast. The walks from the cottages to the office and restaurant were quite nice. Though we didn't see any during our stay, we were told that this spot is a favorite monkey hangout! The view fro...

It started raining pretty hard just as we arrived. The staff were extremely welcoming; they carried our luggage to our room, while the hotel's manager gave us a tour of the place and a welcome drink - all under a giant umbrella. Vista del Valle is gorgeous! And well done. The room we stayed in, Exotic Woods Suite "Ceibo" was very nice, architecturally and stylistically. The view from the porch was amazing! (It's a shared porch with a shared kitchen in between.) The bathroom was awesome, very open and light. The handmade soap was wrapped in a banana leaf. We took naps while it rained (and heard some crazy loud locust noises) then had dinner. The rain had cleared up by the time we were ready for dinner. The restaurant was okay. You order your dinner earlier in the day from a few options. They utilize fresh, local produce. (Unless you have a rental car, I think the hotel's restaurant would be your only food option.) Vista del Valle - highly recommended $162.36 per ...

Deciding on Costa Rica... My husband and I were in the Houston airport about to go back to New York and casually noticed a flight to Costa Rica. He said "how about Costa Rica?" - we had been discussing options for our pre-wedding honeymoon/post-graduation trip and hadn't yet decided on anything. Costa Rica sounded exotic. Having spent the past almost-4 years in New York, something tropical and exotic sounded fantastic! We began looking at travel guides for Costa Rica, also Belize, some islands off Portugal which I had read about in a National Geographic Travel magazine, Bora Bora, and Malta. Around that time, I had come across an article in a bride magazine about luxury ecolodges, and Lapa Rios (in Costa Rica) was one of the places featured. After visiting the spectacular Lapa Rios website, we were sold! Costa Rica it would be! While Lapa Rios would be our 5 day splurge at the end, we had a total of 15 days to work with. We wanted to see the different regions of C...