Costa Rica 2024

Ahhh… a full day of nothing but beach and pool!  No stressful driving, no sights to see, just our R&R.  After yesterday’s stressful drive, we were ready for, well, nothing.  Originally, we had planned to go zip-lining today.  But having enjoyed a morning by the pool so much, just floating around and around with pool noodles, we decided that zip-lining would add nothing more to our level of relaxation, so we skipped it.   After a wonderful breakfast, we walked Playa Manista from one end to the other (it’s a fairly small beach), then hit the pool.  There were lots of lounge chairs and umbrellas to choose from, and the pool was far from crowded.   At noon, we decided to head to our room for a light lunch.  We no longer got back there when the skies opened and the lightning started.  It went for a full two hours, so we sat on our patio, drank coffee, and took in the show! At 2:30PM, we headed back to the pool, where we stayed for the rest of ...

We organized the trip such that our main go-go-go and exploration portion was at the front end, with a couple days of R&R on the back end.  One exception, however, was the necessity to get from Puntarenas Province to Guanacaste Province.  After our relaxing afternoon yesterday and our complete morning of R&R this morning, we checked out at 1PM and started the trek, picking up sandwiches along the way.   Our ferry departure time was at 3:30PM, and we made it to the chaotic ferry terminal at 2:45PM.  Boarding started shortly after we arrived, and the ferry pulled out on time.  Rain was falling across the Gulf of Nicoya and, by the time we were approaching the ferry terminal in Playa Naranjo on the other side, the torrential rains were upon us and accompanied us for the first hour of our drive. And what a stressful drive it was. (See the caption under the hotel sign at the end of this post for ‘why’ it was stressful!) The hotel was stunning even under the c...

After our day exploring San Jose, it was time to switch into beach resort mode.  We had another nice breakfast in the Club Lounge, then we set out around 9:30AM for Herradura on the Pacific coast, just under two hours from San Jose.  The traffic wasn’t heavy at all, and the toll highway west of San Jose was actually pretty decent.   We planned two stops on the way:  Crocodile Bridge, known as one of the country’s best sites for sure-bet views of crocodiles, and Carara National Park, which has several good but short trails through the rainforest, promising the opportunity to see good examples of flora and/or fauna. Crocodile Bridge did not disappoint:  the hungry reptiles were sitting directly below the bridge in the muddy waters, possibly waiting for a dumb tourist taking risky iPhone pics to fall over the bridge rail!   Carara did not disappoint, either.  We agreed as we started out on the trail that, if we came away having seen a frog, we would be co...