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Published: February 21st 2007
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Sunrise on Airplane
Nick captured this great shot with the AA wing and great colors in the sky somewhere over Central America. Costa Rica, or "rich coast", has been a favorite destination of my roommate for the past few years. His first trip left such an impression on him, that he even joked about quitting his job and retiring there as soon as possible. Well, I guess the joke is on us. Day 1: As Nick, Eric, and I headed out on our 5.5 hour overnight flight to meet up with my roommate John, I thought to myself 3 things. 1, Why didn't I brush up on what little Spanish I learned in High School? 2, How is Costa Rica going to compare to all the Mexican trips I've taken. Is it going to be hotter, beautiful, more dangerous, quiet, or maybe wilder like the bars in Cancun? And 3, I wonder how much fun this is going to be and am I going to get a chance to take any good photos? After about 2 hours of sleep, I sat restlessly listening to my Ipod thinking about how I was going to enjoy San Jose on such little sleep. Around 6AM, briefly before we were getting ready to land, the sun started coming up over the eastern horizon. I quickly grabbed
Avenida Central and Hotel Presidente
The Central Avenue with shopping and restaurants and our Hotel on the corner. my camera but couldn't get a good shot. Lucky for me, Nick also has a keen eye for photography and was sitting graciously at the window. After seeing this sunrise, I knew the answer to my third question, this is going to be a great trip!!!
San Jose is the capital of Costa Rica and the largest city encompassing around 340,000 people in the central province. San Jose is located on a mountain plateau surrounded by beautiful green mountains which provides a very moderate climate. This made our morning walk around the central area of the city a pleasant one as we waited to check in to our hotel. I actually started to think that I'd get use out of my 2nd pair of pants that I packed, but this idea later dissolved as we continued our walk that afternoon and the sun came up. We were staying in the downtown area on Avenida Central at the highly recommended
Hotel Presidente. This was a very high quality hotel, attached to a Fiesta Casino, the News Cafe restaurant/bar, and staffed with a friendly, multilingual crew. The standard rooms were plenty big with tasteful, contemporary artwork on the walls, sizable bathrooms with
National Theater
This was the front of the National Theater of Costa Rica. The three statues represent music, dance, and fame. satisfyingly high water pressure, and an included Costa Rican tipico breakfast buffet of fruit, eggs, potatoes, and beans and rice. As we walked around town, we toured the National Theater, wandered through the National History Museum on the hill, and then rested in National Park down the street. The city is full of culture, old buildings, parks, casinos, and red taxi cabs. There was much more to see then what we saw in our little central area, but that will have to wait until another trip. As we stopped for a late lunch at a restaurant on the main drag, my California roommate randomly wandered in to welcome us. Surprised to see him, he remarked "This looked like a touristy place that you Gringo's would be eating at."
Day 2: The alarm came quickly at 7AM so we could make our 9AM regional flight to Palmar Sur and the Osa Peninsula. We flew Sansa, one of the two local airlines, and to my reluctance, boarded the 12 person, 1 prop plane. To my surprise, the flight went very smoothly, even with a small child announcing his thoughts as we started to take off, "Mom, is this plane really going
National Theater Main
This was looking down from one of the boxes up on the 2nd floor. to fly?" The flight was a quick 30 minutes over the mountains and then down the Pacific Coast. As we started our descent, I wandered what and where this so called airfield was among the vast green countryside, plantain orchards, and rain forests. Then I saw it. It was a small paved road in the middle of nothing. After a finger crossed, smooth landing, we taxied to the one roofed Palmar Sur airport. We found our luggage from the teenage baggage claim handlers and were off on a quick bus towards the town of Sierpe, on the Sierpe River. As we headed down the mangrove lined river by boat towards Drake Bay and our destination resort "Aguila de Osa", our tour guide pointed out various birds, bats, and wildlife. It was a great start to what was to be a very educational trip. (continued on next blog...)
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