Costa Rica

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      Costa Rica is a beautiful tropical country situated between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean.  A tiny country, only 75 miles wide at its narrowest point, it has an amazingly diverse array of scenery, from sandy beaches to marshy swamps on the coasts, and volcanoes, mountains, and dense rain forests in the interior.  Costa Rica is also full of a great variety of flora and fauna like crocodiles, monkeys, sloths, and over 850 species of birds.  With so many fantastic regions and national parks (25% of the land has been set aside as parks and preserves), and its warm tropical climate, Costa Rica has become a mecca for ecotourism. 

      Of all of the third world countries we've traveled to, Costa Rica is certainly the most comfortable in terms of allowing a standard of living that we're used to in the US.  The water is drinkable anywhere you travel, the roads are well paved and easy to drive on, hotel rooms and service in hotels and restaurants are similar to that in the US, English is widely spoken, and the dollar is accepted (even preferred) almost anywhere.  Not only was Costa Rica a tropical paradise, it was easy and comfortable to travel in.

Oct 1, 2003  5:45am

      Early rise and shine in Cuzco to catch our flight to Lima.  Once in Lima, we had to hustle to get our luggage, check in for our international flight to Costa Rica, pay extra airport taxes, go through immigration, (all of which required standing in separate lines) and run to the plane.  However, it turned out to be one of the few times that our flights were on time and our tickets were all in order.  Adios to Peru.

Oct 1, 2003 1:30pm

      We arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica right on time.  The airport, which we had already been in for a few hours on our way to Peru, was modern and well organized, a great sign.  We quickly got our luggage and caught the Avis shuttle to pick up our rental car.  The one thing that had us worried was that we knew we were arriving at the beginning of the rainy season, and it was raining as we picked up our rental car.  Although we had been able to receive great out-of-season rates for all of our lodging, we knew that there was the possibility that it could rain during most of our visit.

      Our research on Costa Rica had led us to believe that travel there would be much more difficult than it was.  As far as renting a car, the suggestions were that a four wheel drive vehicle would be necessary because the roads were so bad.  Also, we were advised to take photos of our vehicle before we took it from the agency because when we returned it they would try to claim that any small scratches or dents were caused by us and over charge us.  Therefore, here are the photos we took of our Kia Sportage before we took it:

      Along with the opinions that Costa Rican traffic was crazy and driving was dangerous, we found that we disagreed with about everything we had heard.  The rental car agency was great.  The guy working there even went out of his way to help us find a credit card that would cover our insurance so we didn't have to pay for it.  As for the roads, they were fantastic, and traffic was not much worse than anything here at home.  We were able to tour around Costa Rica with ease, very quickly, and only once when we were off-roading had any need of four wheel drive.

To begin the slideshow with the rest of our photos from Costa Rica, click here.

To skip to a particular portion of the trip, click on the corresponding link below:

Oct 1-2 - Arenal Oct 2-4 - Jaco and Pacific Coast Oct 4-5 - San Jose Go back to the Peru photos

Oct 4, 2003 4:00pm

      Back in San Jose, we returned our rental with no problems. We then took a taxi to our hotel which was near downtown San Jose. After a little nap we walked to a nearby outdoor mall for some shopping and dinner. We had some good South American wines for dinner, and Andrea had the bacon-wrapped filet mignon, topped with mushrooms. Nice pick!

Although the nearby dance clubs were hopping, we decided to just walk around some more after dinner then call it a night. I guess we're getting old.

Oct 5, 2003 9:00am

The last day of vacation! It went so fast! We had brunch at the hotel restaurant then walked to the nearby downtown. There were several museums that we checked out including the National Museum, Gold Museum, and the Museum of Money before having to catch our taxi to the airport at 3:00. By 1:00am on the 6th, we were safe and sound back in the good old U.S. of A and in our cozy bed. Without a doubt, it had been an amazing and nearly perfect trip that we'll be hard pressed to top in the future.