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Lots of you have been asking how the trip to Costa Rica went so rather than writing over and over I figured I would try using my new blog. Not so many have asked about the wedding (probably since most everyone was there) so I’ll post about that once I have the pics uploaded.

We left the day after the wedding with a stop over in Houston. It was there I realized that my travel agent has switched my flights a couple weeks before and I forgot to tell the bus company. However we got some advice from a businessmen and found the taxi desk inside the airport. You have no idea how crazy it was outside what with the taxi drivers. They run a proper queuing system but still allow anyone to try and get a fare. wild. the queue was way less stressful.

The night our travel agent made up for it by getting our suite in downtown San Jose upgraded. It had a living room, jacuzzi, television (most hotels don’t have tv in the rooms). Really nice.

We left the next day for the beach. We were a bit freaked as the night before our cabbi had told us Limon (where we thought we were going) was a sketchy place and to be careful. However we soon discovered we were headed for Limon the province (not Limon the city) so all was well. Which made more sense as Puerto Viejo - Limon was actually Puerto Viejo, Limon. The hotel (La Perla Negra) was right on the beach and the proprietor (Marlena) gave us a spot with a balcony over looking the ocean. Very sweet. Only sketchy thing was the room didn’t have curtains. That was sort of weird except that we had the top room and you couldn’t easily see in. Everything else was class though. We walked down the beach into town. It totally reminded me of Waterton, Alberta. Mostly locals and die hard travelers. Not a 80 year old retired American in sight We also discovered it was a major destination for surfers.

We went trolling around for supper and managed to find an out of the way seafood place. Really nice owner and the chef was very proud of his cooking. Ono I think it was called? Anyway I don’t think they were open that long (or just looking to impress) as we were treated like royalty. The seafood was fantastic and we ended up eating there once more before we left.

The next day it was raining which was a bit sucky. We later learned the Caribbean side of Costa Rica is wet… alot… even in the dry season. So we attempted to turn lemons into lemonade by booking an ATV tour. Totally great idea. Got covered in mud and almost got stuck a couple times. We went out to a remote waterfall were almost everyone tried to fall at least once (except for me of course!) one guy went down on his face hard, and Mary’s knee took a big whack from a rock. We finally reached the waterfall to find a bunch of naked tourists! Gotta love naked tourists… and not ugly naked tourists which was even better. Anyway I digress. We got some great photos of the waterfall and “Jack” decided to go for a swim.

On the way back we saw a rubber tree (it’s sap is white to begin with) and a poison dart frog (cool stuff). Before we were done we also ATV’d over to a local’s farm where he had a garden with a tonne of local fruit and plants, very tasty/educational. Finally we saw half a boa constrictor on the side of the road (someone had mowed over it). That night we chatted with the hotel bartender Anton. He had lots of advice (he suggested the ATV tour) and was just a really nice guy (even if I mistook him for an ausi rather than a brit!).

We then had planned to try out my cousins recommendation of bungalows rather than a hotel room and moved over to the Azania Bungalows. Really classy place again and the bungalows were roomy and private. It was a bit more “modern” and had curtains this time:) That afternoon we trekked into town for some souvenirs. We got a lot of great stuff for us, our family, and the friends we trade souvenirs back and forth with. That night we sat on the beach and had a few cold ones.

For our last day on the beach it was a bit cloudy however the waves were still up and surfing seemed like a good idea. I did pretty good and got up on my third attempt. However after that I started to get pretty tired (my beer belly got the best of me) and only got in a dozen more rides in the next couple hours (surfing is hard!). Mary didn’t have quite the sense of balance I had (knee boarding, snowboarding, water-skiing) but nonetheless managed to get up by the end of our lesson. All in all I swallowed a lot of seawater and rubbed my nipples raw on the surfboard… I think I’ll stick to water skiing! But it was a great experience.

That afternoon Mary wanted to go down to the Panama boarder and see the park down that way so we rented a scooter. I forgot that I had never driven anything mechanized with two wheels before so the first few minutes were a bit hairy. However I managed to get the hang of it before I ran over the locals pointing and laughing. I think it may have had more to do with my looks rather than my driving ability:

Anyway that finished our trip to the beach and next it was off to the Arenal volcano. For this leg I got the honeymoon suite again and as it turns out we had a living room, tv and patio. As well as a great view of the Volcano. As we were relaxing on the patio we were greeted by a couple parrots. All of a sudden one of them said “ola!”. I figured I was hearing things and said “ola!” back. And it replied “ola!”. Talking wild parrots… well I’ll be. The grounds really made the views even better.

That night we hit the Tabacon hot springs where we spent 3 hours hopping pool to pool to pool. It was like a giant classy waterpark that was almost dark (they don’t seem to believe in lights:) hence the lack of photos). We almost didn’t go as I had been running a fever that afternoon and after we got back it broke out into an all out sickness. I was sweating pretty hard and Mary was pretty worried (as was I really, the only thing that kept me ok was that I knew i wasn’t delerios yet) however the fever broke about 5am and that was the last of it. It didn’t really interfere with our trip at all. The next day as a wedding present our cousin had arranged for horse back riding around our hotel. We did some photos, some galloping and talked with the locals about how the area had changed due to tourism in the last decade.

It was a pretty popular place for ranching and plantations until people realized they could make more money with tourism. The vista views around the hotel grew crops before they were replaced with grass for the hotel. That night I introduced Mary to the great game of Chess, shes a fast learner and we played a lot from then on.

The next day we took off for Monteverde and the cloud forest. It was only 35K to the town however we only went 20Kph the entire way. So it still took 3 hours. As the bus was full I was in the drivers seat which made the trip seem even slower. However once we got there it was again a great hotel (as recommended by my cousin) called the Arco Iris. It wasn’t long though before we were whisked away in yet another bus to go zip lining through the jungle. As our camera went dead it’s tough to describe this but here’s a picture from the internet from the place we went to:

http://www.monteverdehomestay.com/chicoLG.jpg

That night we were in the mood for some western fair so we actually found a pizza place. And it was good
The next day we had a bit of a mix up getting to the Monteverde Forest reserve. Turns out our guide thought we were meeting him at the gate and we thought he was picking us up. A quick call though fixed things up and were soon trekking through the jungle again. The tarantula spider was pretty freaky. I can believe our guide got close enough to snap this pic:

He says they won’t attack anything bigger then them… Mary and I chose to err on the cautious side. We also saw this bird, which are guide dragged us running across the reserve to see. It seems it doesn’t come out to often and it was considered a god to the aztecs.

We said goodbye to our guide and proceed to walk the reserve for the rest of the day. We visited the continental divide (sort of cool seeing as we almost live on the continental divide in Canada) and then hiked over to a waterfall. Mary took a video:

Our last full day in Costa Rica we spent at a coffee plantation. I have never learned so much about coffee so quickly. They still pick their coffee by hand at a pickers cost of 1$ per bucket. A really tough way to make a living. I now know not to select “Mountain Coffee” in the supermarket! It’s actually the second rate stuff that’s left over (at least in Costa Rica).

The ride back to San Jose was nasty. I almost got carsick for the first time ever. We went from the top of the continental divide area to the ocean area in another 30Km. Lots of switchbacks, potholes and gravel. I think I’ll look for an airport if I want to go back!

We arrived back in San Jose about 6pm that night and decided to go risk the promenade. We were told to be very careful in the capital city but the nightlife was too tempting. It turns out it was very safe and full of American style restaurants and clothing stores (think of a brand name and we saw it). We even ate at quizno’s just for fun.

Early the next morning we flew back to Calgary. The folks picked us up at the airport as they were already in town and dad fixed my truck while I was away. Good people.

Anyway that’s it… Hope you now know how our honeymoon went!