Geo: 9.66303, -85.0671Spent some time catching up on stories and visited with airline stewardess from Alaska that was down visiting in Costa Rica. Decided to eat at Montezuma Restaurant and then walked on down the street to see if anyone was playing at Organico. There was a very nice reggae band playing and we sat and listened to them and visited with Debbie. Visited with the drummer when they took a break. He had played last year with the group we had enjoyed from Cabuya last year. He is quite an accomplished drummer and we were glad we had walked down to Organico. Downtown Montezuma is basically a one street town so it is great to watch the people walking back oand forth down the street past all the street vendors set up with their wares ... read more

Geo: 9.66303, -85.0671uphill all the wayDecided we would hike to the Butterfly Garden. We were going to take a taxi but decided to get the heartbeat up to say nothing of the quadriceps and hamstrings stretching out as we did the very steep climb up the hillside. According to a sign near the camping area near the string of inexpensive hotels on the beach, the is 2 km. From Luna Llena it was 2.47 km. Thanks to the step counter on my phone! When we set off one of our main concerns was the road traffic. Because it is such a steep incline, many of the vehicles coming up from the bottom of the road tend to race up the road and it is not real safe for the person walking up the hill. Fortunately for ... read more

Geo: 9.66303, -85.0671Reserva Natural Absoluta Nicolas WessburgGot up and were ready for another adventure. Laura was not in the best of moods but soon flipped the switch and had a nice time. We decided to walk to the edge of Playa Grande and check things out.Walked the road toward Ylang Ylang passing through the area where the campers are and the cemetario. Don't know if beach camping is still in my idea of having fun but there were quite a few campers in this area and also down near the beach hotel/hostels are. Don't know where the fresh water or ablutions are but this is not my problem!Once you pass Ylang Ylang, you start going up down a path that is cut out of the lava and is not a smooth path at all. Have to ... read more

Geo: 9.66303, -85.0671Eating at Ylang Ylang allows you to enjoy the beautiful coastline and dine on very delicious food with a nice presentation. We walked the beach to Ylang Ylang enjoying watching the pelicans fishing off shore from us. There was a nice breeze as we walked along which made the walk even more pleasant. The sand in front of Ylang Ylang looks whiter than the other sand but not sure why. There are some volcanic rock formations out front that are beautiful with the waves crashing over them. The menu is quite extensive with vegan, vegetarian and fish and chicken options as well. We decided on Sauteed shrimp with a barbeque sauce with vegetables and mashed potatoes and Fish ambrosia in an eggplant tower with vegetables and potatoes and a sauce that was delicious. Both ... read more

Geo: 10.0333, -84.1833a Got up at 5 am and began drowsily to struggle our 7 bags of luggage for our ( lol 7 week Costa Rica trip spread among 5 Pacific locations) down the stairs. On the second trip down sad to admit it but I tripped and fell down the bottom three slick tiled steps. Of course, this was all my fault for trying it in the dark. Miraculously, after laying there stunned for several minute I took stock and found that I had just sprained my ankle and bunged up my shin. Yay! No broken bones ! Fortunately Laura had a cloth ankle brace in our kit that I have on as I write this from heavenly Montezuma.On numerous past trips we have chosen to go into central San Jose and catch the Transportes ... read more