Costa Rica trip Nov. 2006 Here's a map link to track our route
THE RAFT TRIP TO THE EASTERN SIDE OF THE COUNTRY
PART 1 & 2
First day in San Jose', Costa Rica:
The flight from Miami took 2.3 hrs. Easy entrance through customs, no problems whatever. Tauck Tours was great, their people met us as we got out of customs and escorted us to the hotel. First class all the way. Start to finish.
These first photos are of our arrival at the Marriott Hotel, San Jose, Costa Rica. Obviously we are NOT slumming...so far. Will post more photos as we have internet access. However, I may not be able to get internet service until we arrive back in this hotel on the 7th.
These photos were taken as we got into the hotel about noon. Not many people around that time of day, just a lot of older men with their nieces I think. (Grin).
It was very cool tonight at dinner around 7 PM. The food was excellent. Everything is open, no air conditioning needed. Expecting a low of 60 degrees tonight, high of 75 tomorrow. San Jose' is in a valley up in the mountains. Everything is very lush and green. It lightly rained most of the afternoon, but it's no big deal. Comes and goes. Rainy season ends in December. It's very much like Hawaii, but cooler. The hotel is in the middle of a coffee plantation. The people working in the hotel are wonderful, very, very nice. So far, so good. We met with the Tauck tour director this evening and it sounds like everything is right on schedule and we are ready to get started tomorrow.
click on any image to enlarge it
From our window at the Marriott hotel in San Jose', which is in a high altitude valley. Very cool during the day and cold at night, rainy at times, but the best weather in the country from what we have been told. The city is over one million strong.
Day two
We got an early start today and spent the morning touring the city of San Jose'. The first stops were down town to walk around to see various museums and churches. The photos of the rather ornate and exotic statues were at the opera house and then we headed to the National Museum. The large round volcanic stone balls in the courtyard of the museum were carved by the pre-historic Indians no one can explain how. Apparently the man with the most or biggest balls was the high honcho! The two photos of the exterior walls with the pox marks were taken just outside the museum, which used to be a fort, and are pox marked with bullet holes from a battle during a revolution. We couldn't take photos inside the museum, but there was an early central-American pottery and gold exhibit, of which the Costa Rican's are very proud. It was better than any museum we have seen before on that topic.
Next we headed by bus (new Mercedes and very comfortable) to a rain forest about two hours away to eat lunch at Roberto's and then to take a tour by aerial tram. We learned quickly why they call it a 'rain' forest as it poured on us the entire time while on the tram. The tram, which is like a ski lift, takes you up into the tops of the canopy, hundreds of feet high. The photos don't show it well, but almost all are shot from high in the trees looking down or out over the tops of the highest trees. The hard rain limited the photos that could be taken. The alternative to the aerial tram is what is called a 'zip' line. You wear a harness and are zipped along a cable from tree stand to tree stand rather quickly. Obviously the objective is to enjoy the ride, not see the canopy. Tauck wanted releases if we did it, so we passed. Hint taken. There are no OSHA safety inspections here.
The best sites where we wanted to take photos were on the ride to the rain forest through what is known as the 'cloud' forest. The cloud part refers to the fact that most of the time the mountains are in clouds. The types of plants are different and more dense at higher altitude than in the lower 'rain' forest. The road through the 'cloud' forest is at high altitude, above 3,000 ft. At times we were at 6 or 7,000 ft. The rain forest is down about 1,500 ft. The constant rain is due to convergence of the winds colliding from the Atlantic (Caribbean) side with the Pacific over the mountains. The place is so dense with foliage and trees, you couldn't walk through it without a machete.
It was almost dark when we left to return to San Jose'. Tomorrow we head for the Pacific side of the country.
View from our room in the early morning, with no rain, later on in down town San Jose' soaking up the culture.
This was the day we drove up into the mountains and up into the 'cloud' forest. Again, the forest is in the clouds most of the time, very wet, but at high altitude. Not many animals up here, as it is too wet and too dense. The trip through the canopy is via a tram on a continuous cable strung through a narrow grove in the forest. It took an hour and a half to make the tram trip and it rained like crazy the whole time.
We took a 'float' trip through the jungle with a stop for coffee at a very primitive farm along the way. Minor rapids here, but the real 'rafting' trip is to come at the end of the week. We are going to do the rafting trip on our own after the tour, as it's much more dangerous that what we are doing so far. Lots of Howler monkeys on this part of the trip, but not much else. The guides seem to spend a lot of time hunting animals, but there are not that many in the rain forest.
Spent 1 and 1/2 days at a resort on top of a mountain in the cloud forest. The food was good and it was pretty, but it was kind of boring compared to the rest of the trip. It was a duplicate of other places we went, so no big deal at that point. We would not have come to this hotel or area if given a choice. Not much to see or do. More of a place to relax and enjoy peace and quiet...which was not what we were here to do.
Day four or five? We have now moved to a lower altitude and took an all day excursion trough an area called La Paz, which is in the rain forest (starting at about 3,000 ft.) and we worked our way to a lower altitude past a series of 5 waterfalls. It's an amazing place and well worth the time spent. La Paz is a must see area. We ran into a couple the last day who had traversed this area and done a repelling tour down some waterfalls. Sounded like big fun, but not something you get to do on a Tauck tour. If you want high adventure, this is not the tour company to take. We will do it different on our next trip down here and there will be another trip for sure.
Moving down the mountain side beside the five waterfalls into major rain forest
La Paz has a number of controlled areas with frogs and butterflies. If they didn't you would never find them all in the jungle, so it's a good thing they concentrate the various examples as in a zoo.
Day six. (Tuesday?) We just arrived on the south Pacific coast of Costa Rica and are staying in the nicest hotel location yet. It's perched up on a mountain side over looking the Pacific and is paradise. The trip could not be going better. For the past few days we have been in and out of jungle, mountains, rain, cold, heat, and pretty much had about enough of that part of the trip. Now we do the Pacific coast and enjoy the luxury of being on the sunny coast. (Too bad we couldn't have spent more time on the coast and this is what we will do next trip. Stay on the Pacific coast from north to south and move from resort to resort with day trips to the various in land and mountain locations.
Right now, we are sitting poolside in Quepos at the El Parador Hotel, high up on the mountain side over looking the pool and the Pacific...very ritzy. The view from the pool area is of the Pacific in late afternoon. Good WIFI at the pool and the drinks are terrific. It doesn't get much better than that for doing computer work. There are a couple of Spider monkeys raiding the bar to steal bananas and causing a lot of commotion, but apparently that is a normal distraction as the bar tenders don't seem to aggravated. Another crummy day in paradise.
We tried to organize a fishing trip as this is a big fishing area, but couldn't see paying a grand for half a day of fishing, which is all we had to devote to a fishing trip. Quepos is a fishing oriented village and looks like party central judging from all the bars and restaurants we passed. Lots of Americanos in this area.
During the early part of the day, we were at the beach and in the nearby jungle looking at monkeys, sloth, and Iguanas.
A couple of days ago, we spent two hours in San Remo, which is a small farming town. Not some place you would want to stay or see again. Some of the group was fascinated by vegetables and fruit, thus the pictures in a fruit stand. ??? No idea why Tauck took us to this location. ???
The coastal areas are much drier, sunny and there are beautiful vistas from every point. More like home with a Pacific view from the mountains. There is jungle right against the beach where we took the close photos of the rocky shoreline and it's full of animals, especially monkeys, deer, bats, birds, sloth, and iguana's. There seems to be a lot more wild life at lower altitudes than the higher and colder areas. The guides had no problem finding lots of animals here. By the way, we had local guides with us at every stop and on the bus with us in addition to the Tauck tour director.
The above photos were shot right down on the beach. Note the sand is not white, but darker due to the volcanoes.
Costa Rica has more than their share of very beautiful women. Prostitution is legal...and in a very Catholic country. This may be the source of all the 'beautiful young nieces' we saw with their old uncles at the high-rent hotels.
Farmer's market in San Remo, where the ladies were checking out the good looking guide's big vegetable. I asked him about all the good looking girls in Costa Rica and he gave me a funny description of all the beautiful women he sees down town as they come out of the offices and university at lunch. No, we didn't get to see that show.
Dan's cigar rolling lesson. (Instructed by Cubans.)
Yes, it was a little nippy here! Oh, and the dress was okay too.
One of our many local guides who took us through the jungle paralleling the beach
The houses being built along the beach areas are phenomenal. No lack of money being invested.
On our way back from the Pacific coast to San Jose', we stopped at one of the bridges to take a look at the river. There are no alligators in Costa Rica, these are saltwater crocs and they are huge!
We then stopped at a crafts shop to buy a few souvenirs. Everything away from the cities is really cheap. The large wooden bowls that we have seen for over $900 -$1.800 at art shows are only $200 or less and the smaller ones are much cheaper. We managed to buy the biggest one we found and have it all boxed up to take back in the cargo space of the plane. No idea if we can make it back with it or not, but it's going to be well worth the effort if we pull it off. (Note: we made it home with the bowl, but a day late.)
The three photos at the bottom of this section are of a bong another member of our tour bought at the gift shop. Take a close look at the detail as it's a hoot. No, we did NOT buy one and would not have either. There was so much neat stuff to buy we couldn't bring as much back as we wanted due to the fact nobody ships at these small shops and the prices are just way too high in the cities by comparison. Yes, we are bringing back coffee directly from the factory.
The day after the tour ended, we have booked a rafting trip to the Caribbean side of the country. (Six of us were on the raft trip together with a guide. We left at 6 AM and got home at 6 PM.)
Saturday AM, in San Jose' and we are back in the Marriott.
The next posting will be of the awesome raft trip we took independent of the Tauck tour and it was not for the faint-of-heart.. It's going to be almost 50 absolutely great photos taken by a professional photographer from the shore and another raft, which would go ahead of us as we proceeded down 50 rapids over 18 miles. The river is of one of the top 5 rafting rivers in the world. Watch for the photos of where Jane is knocked out of the raft horizontally by a wave and the guide grabs her mid-air and pulls her back in the raft.... true and it's amazing. An 'Oh, my God moment!!!!
PHOTOS OF THE RAFT TRIP TO THE EASTERN SIDE OF THE COUNTRY
PART 1 & 2
Saturday: We leave this afternoon and get home late tonight.... hopefully.
( Sunday the 10th, Miami International Airport.....Well, we didn't make it to Ft. Myers last night. Our plane arrived an hour late after sitting on the runway an hour in San Jose' due to weather, so we missed our flight last night to Ft. Myers. One of our bags didn't make it out of San Jose' and the other two disappeared into never-never land before we made the big run to catch the departed plane. American Airlines sucks big time. BIG TIME! (Note: our bags caught up with us the next day as well as the big cardboard box with the wood bowl...amazing!)
Saturday night after running through the airport lugging two bags and missing our flight: All the nearby hotels within miles of the airport were booked (cruise ships!) and we were forced to stay in a flea bag dump a couple of miles from the airport ($89 if that tells you anything. It was the worst place I've ever stayed... ever. (Strictly third world and in Miami.) But, I guess it beat sleeping in the terminal and the sheets 'appeared' to be clean. (I'm glad I didn't have a black light to check the sheets. If you don't know about that one, don't ask!) The room was one of the last and the black woman at the desk was in a surly mood so we just said okay and schlepped our two carry-on bags up to the room. (Our other three bags with all our clothes are out there some place, most likely never to be seen again.) We had to buy tooth brushes, razor, and junk food in the 'lobby' of the motel (c. 1950's). The room (about the size of a cargo container) was over the bar and the loud rock/disc music played until 2 AM, so we didn't get much sleep. I'll spare you the rest of the details, especially the part about the big signs that told you what you would have to do to get clean towels or your room cleaned, and the lack of any kind of supplies in the bathroom. (I wasn't about to ask that black woman at the desk about anything as I suspect she had a gun and a knife!)
Sunday morning: We didn't wait on the motel's shuttle bus this morning for fear of having to get into a knife fight with a couple of large Haitian women who appeared to be looking for a fight and opted to pay for a cab. Got to the airport at 6 AM for an 11:30 flight. We've heard more Spanish in this airport than we did the whole time in Costa Rica. Miami has always been a place we avoided in the past ten years, but it's worse than ever. The airport is a nightmare and the city is too dangerous to be anywhere other than in a first class hotel. I've flown my plane into the city for years, visited the boat show almost every year, stayed on the beaches, but the city has truly deteriorated into a third world dump. Avoid it!
Word of warning...if you book an international flight out of or through Miami, be aware that on Saturday-Sunday the cruise ships leave and every hotel in town is booked plus the security lines take a minimum of one hour, so plan on a three hour ordeal to jump through all the hoops of security and immigration. Don't bring anything you can't carry for about 5 miles at a full gallop.
We are hoping to catch the first flight out of here for home at 11:30 AM, failing that, we are going to rent or buy a car and drive home if necessary.
Update: Sunday afternoon 3 PM. Made it home without anymore hitches. Unpacking and checking out the house before crashing for the night. Glad to be home....! Our luggage did catch up with us and we picked it up at the baggage claim in Ft. Myers. Whew!
The day after the tour ended, we booked a rafting trip (not with Tauck tours) to the Caribbean side of the country. Six of us were on the raft trip together with a guide. We left at 6 AM and got home at 6 PM. This was definitely the highlight of the trip. A must do experience.
PHOTOS OF THE RAFT TRIP TO THE EASTERN SIDE OF THE COUNTRY
PART 1 & 2
