Costa Rica Trip Costa Rica February 2005 Travel Notes:

We left the deluge of rain in Los Angeles at midnight and arrived at 8AM in San Jose, Costa Rica (in the sun, BTW).  We took a shuttle to a nearby car rental and where we got a Galloper2 (Hundai), SUV sort of thing.  It's seen a lot of wear, but got us to the resort community of Manuel Antonio (near Quepas).  Quepos is on the flat area and MA is up on the hill.  Lots of lush hotels nearby.

Last night we went next door to El Avacion.  This is a restaurant built in, under and around an old military jet aircraft.  The restaurant is very large and was full of diners.

In town yesterday, we developed a flat tire.  The car behind us honked and waved.  We went around the block and parked.  The spare was on the back hatch door and we started to change the tire.  We couldn't loosen the nuts and a man with his pregnant wife stopped by and helped us.  He was able to unscrew one or two and then he went to a nearby business an brought back a heave iron pipe which did the trick.  When we took the old tire off the hub was not high enough for the spare tire.  Another man came by and showed us how to scrape away the gravel from below and we were in business.  Now we are working with the car rental to get a new spare. We ate breakfast at the hotel and are now walking to Quepos to do some shopping

Rain Forest:

Yesterday we drove about 15 miles away to a compound called Rainmaker.  It is a preserve located in the rain forest.  We signed up for a $45 guided tour which included lunch.  Michael let 10 of us up into the jungle.  We saw frogs, iguanas, a sloth, owl, poisonous viper, army ants, fire ants, termites.  (You can see a picture of Michael with a poisonous frog on his arm in the picture below.)
Along the way he pulled off leaves for us to smell or chew on (like lemon grass and a wild begonia.  It was too late in the day to see monkeys.

Instead of sailing through the canopy on ropes, we climbed up the mountainside and then bounced across bridges suspended 100 feet above the ground.  It was rainy and very humid and we were soaked by the end.

The dollar is exchanged almost every where.  In fact, at an ATM machine, we were asked if we wanted Colones or Dollars.  Lots of prices are in Dollars and most places seem to give us a fair exchange.  The exchange rate is about 465 Colones to a Dollar.  I have not exchanged any money so far.

Prices in the tourist shops are on the high side (a T-shirt can be $10-20).  There are vendors set up along the beach near the Manuel Antonio National Park which have more reasonable offerings.  Yesterday Randy and I went into Quepos and he bought a pair of shorts for $11 and I got a t-shirt for $3).

You can see pictures of us at the RainMaker tour here:

Subject: Costa Rica trip has come to an end (sigh)

Hello ... This is our last full day here.  Today we went for breakfast next door at a resort called Si Como No (yes but no) and this kind of sums it up at this point ... it will be nice to return home, but I wouldn't mind staying on!

On Thursday we signed up for a white water rafting trip on a nearby river.  A big Mercedes truck came and we climbed aboard for the long drive up to the starting point.  I thought ... 'this is great ... paved roads'.  Well this lasted only about 2 miles then we were on a very wide gravel road.  That turned into a narrow unpaved road which led to red dirt trails.  At one point we stopped crossing bridges and just taking the lower route through the creek itself.

We were 3 rafts of 4 poeople each.  Our driver was Juan Jose.  We wore life vest and helmets and were given instructions before starting out.

I thought we had our option of getting wet, but Juan had other ideas and immediately spashed us good.  Through out the trip we were't sure if Juan was just giving us our moneys worth or if he had a mean sadistic streak and wanted us all to fall out.  We ran into boulders and spent far too much time in the Class 4 rapids, I thought.  But I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Today is the Sunset Sail which I think will last until at least sunset.

You can see white water pictures of us at: