“fireflies spinning – sloth smiling – Chardi sipping – minds buzzing”
Well our trip to Costa Rica was all we imagined and better, to start with we got upgraded to first class, great start to a holiday. Bermuda to New York to Miami, to San Jose, arrived in good form, time for a couple of beers before hitting the sack. Spent the
first 3 days at the most divine place called Peace Lodge, we hired a driver who took us on a tiki tour, went to a coffee farm on the way (for the best coffee) and from there wound our way up the mountains through little villages into the clouds! and finally at our destination we arrived, rooms on side of valley overlooking jungle. Our room was to die for, all wood and stone, huge stone fireplace, amazing 4 poster bed, french doors opening onto balcony that has a Jacuzzi on it, and humming Bird feeders (love the hummingbirds,
their colours are amazing), bathroom, had a huge bath, waterfall complete with orchids, and amazing walk in shower. Surround sound music, etc All very tastefully done. The accommodation was in a park with amazing waterfalls, humming bird gardens, frogs,
butterfly area, and the gardens are soo tropical and beautiful. Fantastic time there well worth the $.
From there we went down to the Caribbean coast (lots warmer) and stayed at a placed called Punta Uva, in a tree house, in the jungle by the sea. Fabulous, we went kayaking, walking, hired a couple of old bikes and wended our way around the many potholes in
the road to the shops 8km away or wandered around to little restaurants. Of course I found a perfect little spa tucked away down the road which was reasonable priced and where we frequented often. We hired a guy and his 4wd to take us into the Gandoca
Laguna national park, to kayak, it was pissing down when we arrived (yeah, it was the wet season) but cleared up after an hour or 2 (as it does) and we has a fantastic kayak around even tho was it still very warm.
Its so “close to nature” staying in a tree house, (waking up to ‘howler monkeys’ every morning) you get to experience lots of animals and the bugs were minimal. One highlight was a visit from a Sloth which usually are at the very top of trees and hard to see so took
lots of photos and enjoyed watching her. One evening we just sat on the steps, sipping chardy (of course) with amazing fireflies flitting around and watching the sloth climb around us. The nearby town of Puerto Viejo is a bit of a surfie hangout out, but found I
some people who are right into mosaicing which got me all enthused again, haven’t done any pieces since Carnarvon.
A quick trip back to San Jose we climbed higher and higher back into the mountains amongst, tropical downpour and winding roads, with waterfalls everywhere was glad to get there, we stayed the night in a lovely old mansion, now hotel with little indoor
courtyards etc, went out for dinner to a lovely old hotel, (that we couldn’t afford to stay in!) and had an amazing dinner, really cheap, (compared to Bermuda) and all the profits go to a single mums refuge.
The next day we caught a plane to Palmur Sur, to stay on the Osa peninsula, of course it rained and we caught a small boat down The river and out to sea along the coast to our accommodation, needless to say we were WET, the path up the hill to our cabin was a
river by the time we got there, but the next day it fined up and was pretty good considering this place gets the wettest and hence is the most remote rainforest. Our little cabin had a thatched roof, very basic but private and lovely balcony over looking the bush and the sea. The wildlife here was incredible, with monkeys, scarlet macaws, hummingbirds, and toucans passing by. We went kayaking here on a couple of trips, lovely coastline, and enjoyed the scenes, up at 6am as its so light and noisy as the animals wake up. Early to bed as limited power. We stayed here for 5 nights, well worth the experience and we were pleased to have our return trip done in perfect weather.
Back to San Jose to a small boutique hotel with Jacuzzi, ahh hot water! and look around San Jose, lots of neat really old buildings, we enjoyed wandering around. One night we went to a really amazing cafe, The Jazz Cafe, which has different live jazz bands playing, great place, lots of atmosphere, def not on the tourist list, no one could speak English, but we had a fabulous time and boogied back to our hotel in the early hours much to disappointment of the sleeping security at the hotel. Unfortunately we paid for it with hangover the next day, still managed to get in some more wandering around the city and shopping of course always lifts the spirits.
Our trip home was uneventful, but nice to be home.
Highlights
Sitting in Jacuzzi on balcony watching humming birds flit past, at peace lodge
The frogs, so many different colours
People were so friendly and kept trying to teach us Spanish with poor results
Dinner at the Hotel Grando De Ora
biking along pothole ridden roads surrounded by jungle, on way to spa in Punta Uva
Waking up to howler monkeys in the morning
The Jazz cafe
Getting good photos of the amazing wildlife
Walking through the jungle
The visit from the Sloth in our tree house
Cruising through the amazing waterways on the Sierpe River
Yoga at 5.30 am on balcony overlooking jungle, only distractions being hummingbirds
Quote “this is a plant I tried to grow in Carnarvon” repeated more than once and so many of the varieties D did try to grow.
Quote “The staff root tree?” “Clean you ears out, Star Fruit Tree!”
Quote [after watching Tico’s Salsa @ the Jazz Cafe]
“Y Kiwi’s can’t Salsa – they’re too p…ed; Y Ozzies can’t Salsa – they’re too lazy”