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Published: August 2nd 2009
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Departure day...but not before we try to fit in another couple of hours of fun & sun. Our flight isn't until 2:45, and the airport looks like something out of a third-world country. No air conditioning, and only a couple of flights per day. (Trivia courtesy of Rafael: Daniel Odubar, the airport's namesake who donated the land, was so revered that part of his heart is buried on the airport grounds, while the rest of him is in Liberia.) The good news is that we don't need to plan on getting there more than an hour or so ahead of time. That gives us a couple of hours to do some jet-skiing, spend a last hour by the pool, and grab lunch back at Casa Conde resort.
Our new favorite oasis proved to be one of the best outings yet. The jet skis were top-notch, the bay tranquil as a pond, and the beach shaded with chairs--Mike's favorite things. A bird visited us at lunch, and then it was off to the airport with our bags and hearts crammed full. Thank God we spent the extra hundred bucks each for first class. As I said while we were waiting for
our dinner and drinks to be served, "The poor people are buying snack boxes." 😊
We were home by midnight with a broken bottle of rum in Nora's suitcase, her ill-gotten Cuban cigar (for Tyler) intact, and only a broken snorkel mask and exploded suntan lotion as damages. My mind wouldn't go to sleep, though, because I kept thinking about how I'd sum up the Costa Rica experience.
It is the type of place that slowly grows on you. The food is mediocre (at best), which is a big minus because we like to eat. The people are firmly lower-middle-class, but friendly and well-educated. Petty crime is apparently so rampant that even in our gated, limited access complex (complete with roving security guard) where we rented the house, we were told to lock the iron gates and arm the security system. The beaches are very different than white Caribbean sands. The towns are barely that, with little retail or tourist build-ups. The roads to most of the "tourist" attractions are unspeakably bad. The language barrier is very real, but everyone is game to try and appreciates our terrible efforts to communicate in Spanish.
And yet, these very
obstacles, along with Costa Rica's simplicity and the lack of crowds, force you out of your comfort zone and enrich the experience. The natural wonders are truly that, even if not conveniently laid out in Disney-esque order and cleanliness. People say I spoil my girls (which I freely admit), but they both loved Costa Rica and were game to try every activity and almost every food. From surfing to fishing to tubing to eating variations of simple rice and beans, they never complained. OK, almost never! We learned more about nature than we ever would have imagined. I miss my twenty parakeets that would come sing and chatter every morning in the tree by the pool. And isn't that what travel is meant to do--educate, energize and expand your horizons? If you are very, very lucky, you come to appreciate that there are different types of travel experiences that may at first seem less than what you expected...but as you think back, you come to remember a destination that is both more and less than what you dreamed of. To quote Frommer again, Costa Rica is at once exotic and alluring. Monkeys, turtles, more birds than you'd imagine, the splendor
of the volcanos and rainforest...these make up for a lot of the minuses. It is not for the faint of heart or those without a spirit of adventure, nor for those who expect luxury and manufactured tourism to surround you. But it now is in a special place in my heart.
Would I go back? Early on I would have said no; but as we boarded the plane, I think we were all a bit melancholy to leave this wild, untamed place. It made me grow in many ways, and I think in the rearview mirror this trip will be remembered as one of our most spectacular vacations. Expensive (we are now the poor people), sometimes exasperating, but spectacular.
Pura Vida..."pure life." It's the national slogan for a reason.
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