Blogs from Guanacaste, Costa Rica, Central America Caribbean - page 3

The plan before leaving Monteverde was to add in a second natural reserve dedicated to conservation as was Curi Cancha. Unlike before, the alarms got set for a slightly later time to take our shuttle bus. Ascending several 100m from Santa Elena town, we climbed for a good fifteen minutes up a bumpy gravel road, with several works in progress trying to recuperate it with the imminent wet season. The mainly European tourists aboard joined the bus bit by bit, but fortunately, being the off season, the chances of entering were greater than it could’ve been. A beautiful lush scene of dense rainforest lay before us, and in minutes we’d parted with $25NZDpp to enter this paradise. Of the 48km of trails laid here, we’d time for a fraction choosing the ‘de bajo’ and ‘encantadora’ in ... read more

Early on our first morning we woke to see the breathtaking view outside our room of the colorful tropical garden with the impressive Arenal Volcano in the distance. Not having the luxury of time, we dressed quickly, ran down to the same resort restaurant for a very delicious buffet breakfast including freshly made omelets, yogurts, pastries, oatmeal, many local specialties, and my favorite, the “digestive juices” that changed each day. This morning, along with a hearty breakfast, we enjoyed a refreshing lemon-cucumber juice and excellent Costa Rican coffee. We ate our breakfast in the open air restaurant overlooking the volcano, gardens and lovely birds. With no time to lose we were soon dashing to the main entrance where we met Jose from Jacamar Tours for our first Costa Rican adventure. Jose was waiting for us at ... read more

It was time to leave our spa hotel for Playa Hermosa but first: a must stop at the Rainforest Chocolate Tour in La Fortuna. We packed the car after our last wonderful buffet breakfast with a plan to head to Playa Hermosa, a good day’s drive with stops along the way. Our first stop was just outside of La Fortuna at the Rainforest Chocolate Tour. I had no idea what to expect but when you say chocolate and tour, I'm in! This was a last minute decision before leaving La Fortuna and we were really glad we went. We found that they are usually booked in advance but since we were doing the tour early in the morning there were just enough spots for us to join the first tour. We were a small group, there ... read more

We had another early start with coffee and stale German pastries, before heading to the lobby for our 8am pickup for our Sail-Snorkel-Rum-Punch-Lunch trip. We had arranged for the sailboat-lunch-snorkel cruise from the hotel the day before. A woman from the boat tour picked us up and drove us in her car to a beach in Playas del Coco where the sailboat was anchored off shore. The harbor, set in a secluded cove, was filled with other sailboats and fishing boats. A dingy soon came to shore to pick us up and carry us to the sailboat. We were the first to arrive but soon were joined by a French family of four, bringing us to only 7 of us on board. The seas were calm yet there was enough breeze to get us underway. We ... read more