We’d been looking for a deal on a trip to Costa Rica for three years and finally found one with Vacation Express. Zach’s sister Julie and her husband Doug went with us. It was a week at an all-inclusive resort called Giardini di Papagayo, near Playa Panama, in Guanacaste province in the Pacific northwest of the country. We flew directly into Liberia from Atlanta on Saturday. The resort was only a half hour bus ride from the airport. The resort was in a beautiful setting overlooking the Bay of Papagayo. All the units were on the cliffs overlooking the ocean and the restaurant, bar, pool, and other activities were down the hill by the beach. It was a long walk up and down the hill but there were shuttles running all day and night taking guests that didn’t want to walk up and down. No one will be surprised that we always walked up and down the hill. Since this is off-season the resort was not crowded and since it was all-inclusive there was always plenty of good food to eat and beer and margaritas to drink. We also had the use of another resort which was a two mile walk down the beach. The beach was clean, wide (except at high tide), and sparsely used.
On Monday we did our touristy tour which included; the bus ride, a canopy tour on 10 zip lines up to 400 ft long, a 1500 foot water slide (yes, 1500 feet), that was more survival than fun, lunch, a horseback ride, a trail hike to a scenic waterfall, a trip to hot springs, and another horseback ride to end the day. Doug and Cathy were a little apprehensive about the zip lines, but after the first one they were enjoying the ride over the dry forest (as opposed to rain forests which are on the Caribbean side of the country). The dry forests still have lots of trees, vegetation, animals, and birds. We were moving so fast on the zip lines we didn’t see much of the forest below. The horseback ride took us up and down what we thought were some steep hills. We found out several days later on another ride what steep really meant.
The hot springs were natural. The time there included a trip to a rock house sauna to open the pores. Then we were painted head to toe in volcanic mud that is supposed to be good for slowing skin aging. The mud dried in the sun and is washed off. The “treatment” is finished by spending time in three hot springs each one progressively cooler to close the pores.
Tuesday we went on a three hour ATV ride through dry river beds, forest trails, and roads in the savannah, and back into the hills for a view of the bay from two different locations. We saw lots of birds (but no monkeys), farm animals, sugar cane fields, and mango orchards. We went through a small impoverished town but every house had electricity and running water. There was also a school in the town and every town in Costa Rica has a school. In fact, Costa Rica has the third highest literacy rate in the world.
That afternoon we took a cab to Playa Coco, the closest town of any size. There wasn’t all that much to see, but Cathy and Julie checked out all the interesting stuff to buy in the shops. It was dark by the time we returned to the resort. In that part of the world at this time of the year darkness comes early. The sun starts to set before 6 pm and it’s dark in a hurry. We’ve never seen the sun set so quickly. That meant if we wanted to do and see things we started our day early, usually between 5-6 am. In the evenings it was dinner and some cards. Since we were getting up earlier, we were also going to sleep earlier. Although we had a television in our room we never turned it on.
On Wednesday we went snorkeling. We took a sail boat out of the bay into the ocean. As we left the bay we passed a rock formation called monkey head since that is what it looks like. Our first stop was a cave along the beach that we walked into as the tide was rushing in from two directions. We didn’t go in very far as the water current was quite powerful and we weren’t sure we could get back out. Then we snorkeled for two hours. There are no coral reefs in that area but the water was clear and we saw an amazing number and variety of fish. The fish we in all sizes, shapes, and colors. It was the best snorkeling we had ever done.
The next day we rented a car and went to Rincon de la Vieja, one of the six active volcanoes in Costa Rica. After exiting the main road the ride to the volcano took an hour on rough dirt roads that were very good by Costa Rican road standards. During the drive up, we thought the rental car would rattle into pieces and this was one of the better roads. This area was very interesting and looked like Jurassic Park. It was an eight hour trip to the top of the volcano and down but we didn’t do the climb due to the rainy weather higher up. We followed trails that took us by huge ficus trees almost as big as California redwoods. We passed through a large area that was covered with bubbling mud, steamy sulfur water ponds, and fumaroles all about 250 degrees. We were able to get surprisingly close to them. On one trail we ventured down we ran into a colony of spider monkeys numbering about 30. Since spider monkeys are travelers it was by luck they were at the same place in the forest that we were. The monkeys were just as interested in watching us as we were in watching them. We spent a delightful hour watching their antics.
Friday Julie and Doug went on a boat trip down a river to view wildlife and we went for a horseback ride. We road the horses along the beach and then into the forest looking for Howler Monkeys. Our guide was very knowledgeable about the area and led us along some very narrow and difficult trails. We saw a mountain lion in a tree which we found out later was a very rare sight. We found the monkeys too, but only after we went up and down some extremely steep hills that we though looked impossible for the horses, but they made it. We also saw some nice views of the ocean from atop those steep hills.
The next day we reluctantly returned to Atlanta. It was a very interesting and enjoyable trip with a stay at a very nice resort. Costa Rica is definitely worth a return trip.
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