immediately after the link. This means the link will take you to pictures we took.
On August 28, 2005, Pat and I flew overnight non-stop from Los Angels to San Jose Costa Rica on TACA Airlines. We toured the country with Overseas Adventure Travel and returned home on September 9. This Web page presents highlights of our trip.
There are links that have a immediately after the link. This means the link will take you to pictures we took.
We are the first of our group to arrive. We are met at the airport by an OAT
representative, whisked to our hotel on an OAT bus and greeted by our guide, Celiece. After a warm welcome and introduction, she gives us
printed suggestions about local money, water, what to wear tomorrow, etc. Each evening
we will receive a briefing about tomorrow and a one page set of guidelines. It is nice to have it written for us rather than trying to read our handwritten notes or remember everything we are told.
We have time to explore around our hotel and in a nearby shopping mall. We are in a Marriott Courtyard hotel, there is an Outback Steakhouse next to the hotel, an Office Depot across the street and in the mall many of the stores have familiar names and most carry familiar bands. Welcome to globalization. Fortunately, most of our trip is away from the big cities.
After breakfast we all meet in the hotel lobby. Celiece welcomes the group to Costa Rica. After introductions and some general guidance she suggests that the way to get the most out of the trip is to participate at a level outside our "comfort zone." We will learn more about that as the trip progresses. The trip is designed for 16 participants, but there are only ten in our group.
Today we visit some of the highlights of San Jose, the nation's capital. Our first stop is the National Theater. It provides a perfect setting for Celiece to introduce us to the cultural history of the country and share the specific charms of a successful effort by the early aristocracy to demonstrate that they were good enough to host touring European artists. An interesting side-note: the floor can be raised and the theater used for ballroom dancing. The entrance fees for tourists are used to subsidize performances and keep ticket prices for performances low.
Our next stop is the National Museum. It is housed in an old fort; one of the outside walls is pockmarked where some of the losers in the Civil War of 1948 were executed. Officially the Museum is closed on Monday but OAT and Celiece have made arrangements for us to have a private tour. The museum provides the opportunity for Celiece to introduce us to the pre-Columbian history of the country and some of the local flora and fauna.
We return to our bus and Celiece gives us a booklet: Animals Observed while on Vacation in Costa Rica - Check-Off List. I'm not into bird watching, but I must admit that I got into both the sightseeing and recording -- along with my photography.
Our tour continues through the older part of downtown and then onto the highway leading to our destination for the next two evenings. We go through La Ruta de los Santos. Along the way we stop at Doka Estate coffee plantation for a tour of the plantation and the coffee processing area. They are major exporters to Europe but we are told they also export to the US and 65% of those exports are to Starbucks; I checked and my local Starbucks has several Central American blends but no specific Costa Rican coffee. After becoming experts on the growing, selection and roasting of coffee we visit the gift shop and buy a bottle of Cafè Rica coffee liquor -- nice straight and even better over good vanilla ice cream.
Late in the afternoon we arrive at Centro Neotropico Sarapiqui. Neotropico, or neo-tropics, refer to the tropics in the Western Hemisphere as contrast tropical areas around the world. This is a facility dedicated to education, conservation and scientific research. The architecture of our rooms is inspired by the indigenous pre-Columbian construction techniques of the region, used by natives for more than 1000 years. The round palenques (or ranchos) are covered with a traditional thatched roof of palm leaves, like an inverted flower. The three guest units are divided into eight rooms within the turret. Meals are served in a dining room that is open on two sides so we can enjoy the view and the fresh air.
After breakfast we are off to the first real test of our comfort zone: white water rafting on the Sarapiquis River. There are two boat guides and two boats, oars, life jackets and helmets waiting for us. We get our gear and a safety talk and demonstration and then head down river. The sun is a bit hot and the cool water that splashes over us occasionally feels good. Under directions from our boat guide we turn left, right, all the way around and into the middle of rapids. There is a photographer in a kayak who races past and then stops to take photos -- for sale this evening at dinner.
Like everywhere else in Costa Rica there is bird watching and flower spotting. We stop along the way and the guides catch two types of poison arrow frogs. The natives used their secretions to poison the tips of arrows and spears. The one pictured
here is a "blue jeans" frog.
This afternoon we tour a pineapple plantation and processing plant. The plantation was created to meet the needs for candied pineapple by a Texas fruitcake maker. They now produce more than they need and sell it under several names.
They plant bushes on a rotating cycle so that some pineapples are ready to harvest every day of the year. They are harvested, washed, packed and chilled within hours. We get a brief lecture on how they are grown and brought to full fruit at predictable times. We tour the processing plant, sample some pineapples that are waiting to be packed: sweet and juicy. And then we visit the huge refrigerator used to chill the packed pineapples quickly; the chill feels really good on a hot, humid day.
The reception area where they told us about pineapples is being expanded. When it is finished passengers on cruise ships that stop in Puerto Limon will be bussed up for the same tour we just took.
Back at Sarapiqui Center we get an introduction to flora and fauna of the area.
At dinner this evening we celebrate Herb's 75th birthday with a cake and candle.
After dinner four of us go to an optional lecture on bats -- another opportunity to play at the edge of our comfort zone. There are more than 200 species of mammals in Costa Rica and half of them are bats. There is a general presentation on bats and then "show and tell." The Center has put up a net and captured four bats, each now in a heavy green bag. One-by-one the lecturer takes a bat out of a bag and, based on a variety of characteristics identifies its species. Each is different and small. They have very soft fur on their bodies -- fur is part of the definition of mammal. The bones in their wings are very delicate, their wings are covered with a thin translucent layer of skin and fold like a small umbrella at the end.
The have tiny teeth and two of them make serious efforts to bite our leather gloves. We each take a turn at feeding a bat some nectar like liquid. They were caught early in the evening and probably have not had anything to eat since the prior evening. After looking at each one, we put them back in the bag. After looking at all four, each of us takes one from a bag and releases it. The first three sit still for a moment and then fly off. Mine walked to the end of my glove and then hung upside down for a few seconds, dropped head down and then while falling started to fly off into the night.
This morning we have our first walk through the rain forest. We break into two groups, five each. Celiece takes our group and one of the guides from the Center takes the other. As be leave, they check with the work crews for anything special they have seen this morning.
The canyon walls in Costa Rica are often very steep. Rather than struggle down and back up, they often have steel suspension bridges from one side to the other. All of them we were on were in good shape despite the rain and humidity. It rained during the night but the path is well constructed and there is very little mud. We see frogs, including the little "blue jean" frog above. The sun filtering through the trees and reflecting off the wet leaves fits my pictures of rain-forest.
This afternoon we are off to our next lodge. Along the way Celiece again divides us into two teams and presents us with a challenge. We will stop in a town and go to the indoor town market. Before we get there she will give each team a list of four type of food to purchase. The only clue is that we will use the food to prepare hors d'oeuvre. She will repeat the names of what we are to buy in Spanish as often as we want. We can write it down as best we can in some phonetic code but we have to listen and then buy -- no other clues. The leader of each team gets a list of what we are to buy, but is sworn not to open it until just before we pay for our purchases. Both teams eventually got the right things but both of us got the wrong quantities -- thank goodness for the cheat sheet.
We could hear the rain start pounding on the roof of the market. When we came out it was bucketing. Both teams had asked -- in broken Spanish and charade type gestures -- about where to get a ice cream cone. The rain lightened up and each team finds a different place for ice cream.
This evening we are staying at the Hotel Basques de Chachagua. Before dinner we gather in an outdoor kitchen adjacent to the main kitchen.
Celiece shows us the OATs way to prepare guacamole and fried chips made with two root vegetables -- we can't give away the secret but we bet you've never had either one.
We each have a separate bungalow. The shower has a windows above a discreet height that look out into the rain forest. Here's a picture from the shower. Doesn't it look like an old tapestry?
Breakfast is in the open air dining area. There are birds all around and there is a green parakeet in a cage with the door open. Pat and the parakeet became immediate friends.
Celiece says that Costa Ricans stop mid-morning for coffee break and she has arranged
with a local housewife to prepare coffee for us. We stop at her house and she is milking a cow. I've never done that before. The first shot went on my sandal but after that it was fairly simple. Several of us tried our hand and a couple of old country boys had to show off a bit. We followed our hostess to the kitchen to make jam filled empanadas. They were great with bread, farmers cheese and coffee made in a typical coffee maker.
The Grand Circle Foundation supports a variety of projects in the countries where they offer trips. Some of these are schools and our next stop is the San Francisco School, one of eight they support in Costa Rica, one of 70 around the world.
At the school we are greeted by a number of the children and the principal. Each of us has a child to show us around. Our first stop is a covered area where the children welcome us with their national anthem and ours. Then they perform several folk dances; each couple is in a costume of a different region of the country. We then get a tour of the school grounds and several rooms. Great photo opportunities for portraits. They escort us back to our bus.
Again we break into two groups. Each group goes to the home of one of the students for lunch. The bus drops us off. It is just us with our limited or non-existent command of Spanish and our hostess, host and their children who speak a bit more English than we speak Spanish. No problem, we are immediately made to feel welcome. Our hostess has prepared a typical Costa Rican lunch for us which was very good. After lunch they show us their house: two bedrooms, living room and kitchen with tile floors throughout. Very comfortable, neat and tidy. With the help of our English/Spanish dictionary we learn that he is a draftsman with an architect and did most of the work to build their home.
After lunch we go back to the lodge with some time to see the grounds, animals and butterflies.
Today is another moving day with stops along the way. Our first stop is to look at a three towed sloth up in a tree. Our next stop is the "factory" of Grupo Ecológica de Mujeres De El Abanico (GEMA). This is a group of women in a macho society who have created their own business packaging and selling herbs and teas they grow despite the fact that the men in their lives said they couldn't do it. We bought several packages of herbs.
We stop at the farm of a former school principal. He uses his farm to demonstrate sound ecological processes. The farm sustains his family with some left over for the neighbors. Among other things he introduces us to a yuca tree and explained that he needed to have one pulled up for lunch. Pat volunteers and pulls, and pulls and ... It turns out that the roots grow sideways just below the ground and Pat is standing on them. A little coaching and success at last.
It starts to sprinkle and we move toward a covered area and as we got there the sky opens. There is a small sugar cane press and we get an introduction to the growing, pressing and fermentation process -- followed my some moonshine. The rain stops and we walk to the patio for lunch and a spectacular view of the rain forest after the rain.
Tonight's lodging is Volcano Lodge with a direct view of the Arenal Volcano. We get settled and it rains hard again but stops before we leave for a hike on the Arenal Hanging Bridges through the rain forest. The bridges allow us to cross steep canyons but we hike uphill quite a bit. It rains softly off and on, fairly warm and somehow fitting in the rain forest.
Our next stop is a natural hot spring complete with a series of pools of various temperatures from just below "lobster pot" down to just a bit cool. A spectacular setting in the forest complete with a bar. After a dip, drink and shower we have an excellent dinner on the covered patio then back to the lodge.
After breakfast we set out again. There is a bridge where we can look down on a tree full of iguanas. Great photo op. Our next stop is Rio Frio (the Cold River). We take a boat ride down the river to the Nicaragua border. Along the way there are birds, monkeys, a cayman and a Jesus Christ lizard that can run on water.
On the way back to the lodge we stop in the small town of La Fortuna for an ice cream cone and some shopping. During dinner there are some booming sounds in the background. After dinner we take the bus several miles down the road to a place where we can see the volcano's eruption. Every few minutes the volcano throws out a huge piece of rock -- a good guess would be bigger than a bus -- that tumbles down the side of the mountain spraying sparks each time it strikes the ground. We are about as close as I would want to be. It is an awesome sight.
We are off again. The trip begins with a scenic drive around Lake Arenal. Along the way we stop at Centro de Rescate Las Pumas. This is a facility to rehabilitate parrots and wild animals that have been injured or have been taken from people who illegally had them as pets. They appear to be well cared for and we would never see them this close in the wild.
Late in the afternoon we arrive at the Buena Vista Lodge which will be our home for two nights. We have time to hike to the top of a small hill for a view of the surrounding countryside that seems to go on forever. There is a bar here and we plan a sunset cocktail, but it rains. This is the only place where the breakfast and dinning area are in-doors.
After breakfast we are off to the optional Canopy Tour. You take a "canopy tour"
by getting into a harness, getting up on a platform near the top of a tree, attaching a pulley to the harness and then attaching the pulley to a steel cable and zipping down the cable from one tree to the next. At each platform you step off and immediately begin to build up speed; you use your right hand to slow down as needed to land gracefully on the next platform.
Too often this kind of adventure ride consists of just one trip. About all you can do on your first trip is try to do it right and stay alive. This one definitely pushes the boundaries of my comfort zone but it is great because it has eight more rides ranging in length from about 150 feet to more that 450 feet and with drops of 30 to 80 feet. By the third zip I am back in my comfort zone and let my speed build up. I have to use both hands to slow down to land on the next platform -- that's fun and I do several more good fast runs just for the thrill.
Even with nine rides, it comes to an end too soon. We take off our gear and after riding under a cable we head for the stables and get up on top of a horse. We have been told to take our swim suits; we put them in a wagon that is pulled by a trailer and get on our horses.
We ride along a trail through the forest, downhill most of the way and across a couple of small streams and arrive at a special destination: a sauna, mud bath and hot pools in the forest. There are very nice changing facilities with lockers. The sauna is hot and we soon have open pores and a good sweat. Outside they have basins with very hot thin mud and we put mud where we can reach and ask for help from a member of our group for those areas we can't reach. There is a soft breeze and the mud dries fairly quickly and, we are told, leaves our skin exfoiated. There are outdoor showers to wash off the mud and then we have a choice of four hot pools that range down from scalding to wonderfully relaxing. Too soon Celiece says we have to get ready to ride. Back to the changing room and then to the horses.
We take a different and prettier route back. Celiece asks if any of us would like to gallop. I've never ridden a horse at any speed other than a slow walk behind another horse. I said yes and so did several others. One more time I find myself beyond my comfort zone, both at the psychological and physical level -- the saddle is hard and keeps colliding with my rear end as we bounce down the trail. At the same time there is an inner satisfaction in expanding my world of experience.
After dinner several of us take a tour of the snake facility that includes brief lectures about various live snakes including a boa constrictor that -- we are told -- had recently been fed.
Today is another moving day; we head for the west coast. We stop for hambergers and ice cream for lunch. This is a roadside stand run by a one of the smaller dairy cooperatives in Costa Rica. Some very-close-to-USA-style food; a great break but also a reminder that the trip is coming to an end.
We drive through the Port of Caldera, one of the early ports used to export coffee. Along the road are billboards advertising homes and condominiums for sale at state-side prices.
This afternoon we arrive at Hotel Villa Lapas, unpack and then get back on the bus and head for an evening boat tour in the Pacific Mangroves. More birds, another Jesus Christ lizard, and along the river a billboard (in English) advertising homes for sale. We get close to several crocodiles. At the gift shop back at the dock, I buy a great T-shirt!
After dinner this evening Celiece takes takes us on a frog hunt right outside our rooms. We find several frogs, all small and most quite colorful.
We have a White nosed Coati join our group. He wants to be friendly but Celiece points out that he is a wild animal. I resist the urge to pet him but take a close up picture. He sniffs my foot with a cold nose and the leg of my trousers. He eventually loses interest in us and we call it a night.
Today is one of those special days, it begins with a Calypso Cruise aboard the 71 foot catamaran Manta Ray. This is a combination of a public tour to Tortuga Island and a private tour for us to Punta Coral and a public tour that continues to Tortuga Island. The boat has a crew in crisp white shorts and short sleeve shirts. There is bar and two small hot tubs. . Map - click on world, Costa Rica, or Punta Coral
It takes about 45 minutes to get to Punta Coral. Some of the crew come with us including a bar tender, Abuelo and his marimba. The boat leaves for Tortuga.
David, the owner of Calypso Cruise and Punta Coral gives us a tour. We walk up into the forest and there are howler monkeys in the trees, including the one at the top of this page. There is a selection of lizards and flowers. On the far side of the peninsula there are more islands. 
Back at the main area, he challenges us to a game of horse shoes with a cocktail for the winner. He tells us the facility is used for weddings and Celiece was married here.
Abuelo plays the marimba he made himself. He is both a musician and a character who obviously enjoys playing the marimba and our applause. He shares the marimba with Pat and several others and makes it fun. After lunch we buy a copy of his CD and he autographs it with a smile.
After a delicious lunch served with white wine and followed with baked fudge it is time to relax a bit in a hammock. After lunch has settled, there are sea kayaks and a safe bay for exploring. And the bar is open.
Celiece's suggestion to participate beyond our comfort zone extends to food. Every morning the buffet includes dirty rice and beans and her suggestion to add maple syrup sounded weird but is very tasty. She also recommends Lizano, a local spice that I find similar to pepper but more interesting. I liked it so much I brought a bottle home.
Herb is our self-appointed ice cream guy. He, and several others of us, are always ready for ice cream and Herb keeps Celiece aware of our desire. This morning he demonstrates the size of his comfort zone by adding ice cream to pancakes; I pass on this one.
Today we are heading back to San Jose. Our first stop is a bridge across the river we cruised yesterday. Below us is a congregation of crocodiles. There
is a 
large one sunning on the bank and others casually swimming.
Our next stop is a local crafts shop to pick up things we saw earlier and didn't buy but decided too later that we should have. That's where I bought the Lizano.
Lunch is at a popular Costa Rican restaurant specializing in traditional corn-based dishes, La Fiesta del Maize.
As we enter San Jose, we stop at a jewelry store where they show us some of the traditional figures from indigenous art and demonstrate the lost wax process they use to mold these figures.
Celiece has been wearing a necklace with a small sea turtle made of colored glass. Several people are interested in buying a necklace and she has arranged for an artist friend to drop some off at the hotel. Pat bought a frog and gets comments where ever she wears it.
Dinner this evening is in a restaurant near the top of one of the surrounding mountains. The view of the twinkling lights of the city are spectacular. We have a last opportunity for a group picture and the kind of sharing that is part of completing a great trip.
Members of our group begin to leave for the airport very early in the morning. We were the first to arrive and the last scheduled to leave. We have lunch with Celiece and her husband who is also a tour guide. OAT provides a bus ride back to the airport and we arrived home back in Los Angeles just before midnight.
We were in Costa Rica in the rainy season. When it rained, it came quickly and, most of the time, very hard. But, it usually came when we were asleep, indoors or otherwise, protected. It did rain on the day we walked in the rain forest, but somehow that seemed appropriate. Celiece pointed out that the off season is a great time to travel because most travel companies keep their best guides all year by giving them their off-season trips.
We had a lot of opportunities to enjoy being outdoors. All of the dining areas except one were covered but open on one or more sides so we could enjoy the view and fresh air.
The food is flavorful and mild. We never has a "spicy hot" dish. Costa Rica exports dairy products and their ice cream is very good with lots of flavor options.
This is an adventure trip. The accommodations were all clean and comfortable. Amenities were limited and varied from place to place; only one had a hair dryer in the room.
