Costa Rica Trip - Celebrating our 25th Anniversary - December 21, 2012

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Friday, December 21, 2012

As expected, I was up at 6:00am, working on my blog and a little staring at the water of the ocean and pool. Cindy woke up at 7:15am. This morning we decided order room service, something we had not done in a long time. Room service arrived around 8:00am. We ordered the ham and cheese omelet and a croissant. The food was delivered fairly quickly. We actually received a lot morning than what we ordered. We received multiple croissants, pieces of toast and a big pot of coffee. It arrived on a cart, set on both side of for each of us. Cindy had a great idea of setting the breakfast on the patio. I took the table cloth of the cart and put it on the outside patio table and set the table. We thoroughly enjoy eating on patio this morning. We left the set up outside when we went back in the room. Cindy noticed that her bird friends were trying to steal some of our food.

A word about the birds at the hotel, something not mentioned in my trip blog. Every morning, when it starts to get light outside, around 5:15am, the birds outside are really really loud. They certainly make their presence known. Funny, but annoying at the same time.

At 10:50am we meet our tour bus to take us the Panilla Canopy tour for zip lining. After stopping at another hotel, within 15 minutes we were at the zip line location. After getting off the bus, we walk over to the guides and they put on our zip line gear. Of all the people on the adventure, they asked Cindy’s name, more to come on that. We then moved over to the orientation area and they showed us the eight lines we would ride on. Then we moved to the first platform where we received instructions on how to zip line and some safety stuff.

The guide asked who wanted to go first. Not one volunteered so Cindy was the first one to do the zip line run. No fear for my Cindy, she is also the one that loves fast rollercoaster’s. I followed her. The trick to zip lining, I learned quickly is the leather hand guard they have you wear is just a guide, if you squeeze, you slow down and stop short of the ending platform. We then did another line. On the third line, people were given the option to zip line superman style. Cindy nor I did this, however others did. By now the guides all knew Cindy and really attached themselves to her encouraging her more and more. As we progressed to the other lines, they got longer and faster. So very cool, the adrenaline was incredible. The last line, number eight, we had the option to ride upside down. I did not want this, nor did Cindy. I rode the line first and the guides at the end bounced line so I bounce up and down, this was awesome. I stood at the end waiting end of line eight waiting for Cindy to come (one of the last people) and then all of sudden Cindy was riding upside down, WOW. The pressure of another person on the tour and the guides egging her on, she went on it. She absolutely loved it. I attached a photo to the blog showing how much fun she was having. After the zip lining experience we walked back to starting point the photographer was selling picture disks for $30.00. We bought a disk without thinking twice. Most of the photos on my blog are from the photographer. The tour guides also provided us water bottles and fresh pineapple. This was an awesome adventure and I am so glad people in the states encouraged us to include this in our plans.

We returned back to the hotel at 1:00pm and ate lunch at the Azul Bar. Cindy had a hamburger, Todd a shrimp baguette. It was fun sitting close to the pool for lunch.

After eating lunch, we heading back to the beach, staked our spot and relaxed some more on our last day in paradise. Around 4:00pm I had the urge to run on the beach. This would be the first exercise I had on the trip, other than the walk tours we did. It was fun running on the beach, but hard on my heals. I stepped on a small rock that did me in.

Cindy and I got dressed up one more time and headed back to the beach to take a few more sunset pictures, most of our photos were using the timer function on our camera. It was great having one more sunset photo session.

Around 8:00pm, Cindy and I headed down to the other Azul restaurant. We had a reservation at 8:45pm; however the waiter from our beach dinner found us a table earlier. This dinner was probably our second best, next to the beach dinner. The waiter from the evening before waited on us again, super service. We are so impressed with the restaurant service.

What a fun day we had. It was a mix of relaxing and intense adrenaline.

This is my last blog for our Costa Rica trip.

Some closing thoughts.

One thing I have not mentioned is we meet some awesome people, both couples and employees. Two particular young couples were super nice and we really enjoyed chatting with them each day when we saw them on the hotel property. The one couple, the newlyweds, was from Chicago area and the other couple was from the DC area.

Costa Rica is rich in culture and ecology. The terrain is so diverse and provides a lot exciting things to see and do. The people of Costa Rica really go out of your way to make you happy and encourage you to experience the local flavors. One of the JW Marriott restaurant employees during breakfast, specifically Margarita, really went out of her way make sure Cindy fully embraced the Costa Rican foods. JW Marriott’s bellman Rodney did excellent job pointing out the fun things to do at the hotel, particularly the beach dinner. JW Marriott waiter, Aljandero, at Azul restaurant and our beach dinner provided fantastic service. Finally the lady concierge, sorru forgot her name, did an excellent job planning our beach dinner and other activities for the week. We will miss the wonderful hospitality.

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Comments

[Martha]

Hilarious!
You look not unlike I do in my para-sailing photos!