Chilling in Costa Rica

 I love my opening line on the previous post:  " I've come to the opinion that travel is rarely seamless".  It is humorous how innocuous statements such as the one above can bite you in the ass.  Nickie, my sister Christine and I booked a direct flight to Costa Rica.  That way, we wouldn't have any of the issues arising from connector flights, right?  Perhaps, perhaps not.  Our flight boarded beautifully and then we sat at the gate.  Then we sat some more.  Eventually, the pilot decided to let us in on the reasons.  Yes, plural.  First, a doohickey in the cockpit needed replacing.  I don't believe it was critical to our flight, but I'm all for having an airplane in 100% shape before take-off.  Then, there was a broken chair in the row behind us.  Another technician popped by and fixed the chair.  During this time, one of the passengers decided to disembark for medical reasons.  It happens.  We then waited for his/her luggage to be pulled from the plane.  2 HOURS after our scheduled departure time, we took off from Pearson Airport.

Big fern in Dominicalito

The flight was uneventful.  This is the best type of flight.  Delays / issues before take-off and after landing are a pain, but issues during the flight are not welcome.  Finally, we started our descent into the San Jose airport.  I heard the landing gear extend (this is good), then just before landing, the engines roared to life and we abruptly started to climb.  I've only been on one other flight where the landing was aborted.  This is an excellent way of making sure everyone is awake.  We started to circle and the pilot informed us there was too much fog to land.  He quickly added that the fog was expected to dissipate within 20 minutes.  Almost 3 hours after our scheduled arrival time, we were at our gate.   

I tend to book a hotel near the airport for the first night abroad.  This is handy when luggage goes AWOL.  Since our landing was supposed to be at 21:00, I wasn't keen on adding a four hour drive to the mix.  We booked a room in San Jose for the first night.  The car rental agency closed at 23:00.  Since we made it through customs shortly after midnight, we could not pick up our rental car.  We took a taxi to our hotel in San Jose and returned the next day for our rental car.

At the condo in Dominicalito

Finally, we were on the road, travelling to Dominicalito, which is sort of a suburb of Dominical.  The area has broad beaches and nearby hiking trails.  The hotel we stayed at was up a steep hill from the highway.  Costa Ricans don't fool around with their road grades.  The trick is to never slow down, no matter how close to death you are.  I had driven in CR before, but it was Christine's first time on their "side roads".  I could tell she was enjoying the drive up the hill based on the screams coming from the back seat.

View from the upper pool

Our condo in Dominicalito was wonderful.  It was set along a cliff facing the ocean.  The unit had 2 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, a full kitchen, dining area and living room.  Outside was a small pool with incredible views of the ocean.  The water from the small pool formed a waterfall that ended up in a large infinity pool below.  This presented a slight quandary, as it was very very relaxing by the pools (and closer to the bar).  We also had the option of driving down the hill from hell and spending time on the beach.  We enjoyed both options, but at times we looked for excuses not to drive to the beach.  We only entertained valid excuses, such as "the sun will be down in 8 hours", or "there is a cloud 20 km west of the beach.  It might rain".

Nickie and I decided on a hike to the Nuayaca waterfall.  It was a pleasant slog through some steamy terrain.  The falls are beautiful, although I did not get a good picture of the upper chute.  There was too much mist for my camera.  We also found a great Soda (small local restaurant) nearby.  The food was quite good and the view was excellent.

Nuayaca Falls lower chute

It did rain almost every day of our visit to CR.  We were told this was not normal weather.  The rainy period tends to end in early November and by December, it is mostly sunny.  However, experiencing rain at 5 C is a lot different than rain when it is 28 degrees.  We almost welcomed the rain!  The rain was a factor in deciding where we would eat one night.  We had chosen a restaurant that was up a hill.  To call it a road is to denigrate roads in general.  It was steep with no shoulders and boasted some impressive potholes.  For Canadian readers, I should mention that "pothole" is misleading.  Some of the "potholes" were large enough to swallow the front end of a truck.  The trick is to swerve around these holes.  This can be tricky when climbing an impossibly steep hill.  We had rented a Toyota Rush as our hotel had recommended renting a 4-wheel drive.  "Rush" must be Japanese for "Lethargic".  I had it floored on the way up the road and we were slowing down.  Eventually, the wheels started to spin and we started going backwards down the hill.  Not wanting to ditch the car in teeming rain,  I decided to use the brakes.  We continued to descend backwards, but now the front wheels were locked.  I would ease pressure on the brakes just before the front end went into the ditch, then reapply the brakes to avoid speeding up on a steep dark road while going backwards.  I was having trouble hearing over the screams emanating from Nickie and Christine.  Fun times!

Nickie and Christine at the upper pool

My original plan was to try it again, once we found a relatively flat spot on which to accelerate.  Unfortunately,  there was now 2 cars ahead of me (I'm still going backwards) coming down the hill and a big truck behind me trying to go up.  After pulling into a driveway and letting the traffic sort itself out, "we" decided to continue down the hill.  Nearby we found what might be the best restaurant in Costa Rica.

I don't normally promote restaurants, but if you are ever in the area, consider a meal at La Palapa, located at the Cuna Del Angel hotel.  I assume we lucked out as it was not crowded and the staff were bored.  They went out of their way to provide us with an incredibly entertaining meal!  We watched for at least 30 minutes while our waiter (obviously a chef in some other life) prepared our dessert.  I've never seen anyone use that much Grand Marnier to flambe a dessert!  It was pricey, but worth it for the excellent cuisine and entertainment.

Sunset in Dominicalito

We also drove down to Punta Uvita, where one can go whale watching.  It was a nice walk along a large beach.  We went for a swim but did not see any whales.

Last Sunset picture - I promise!

After a week in the Dominical region, we headed north to Jaco, a beach town.  I was in Jaco in 2016 and wow, has it grown.  We stayed in a compound of 7 story condos.  There was a large shared pool with ample beach chairs and about 9 BBQ areas.  We could walk to the beach.  Jaco boasts a plethora of restaurants, some of which are quite decent.  At this point our interest in eating out was waning, so making meals at the condo was a pleasant option.

I call Him Art...

One of our excursions was to Isla Tortuga (turtle Island).  We were picked up at the condo at 06:00 and drove about 90 minutes to the ferry dock.  The ferry took another 90 minutes to reach Tortuga.  Included in the package was the shuttle, breakfast (a baloney sandwich), ferry, snorkeling and lunch (buffet).  At $135 USD each, the trip was not overly expensive, but failed to impress.  I joked with Nickie that we just paid $400 CAD and travelled 6 hours to a beach that was almost as good as the Jaco beach!  Snorkeling was a disappointment. We were brought to a small area with cloudy water saturated in plastic.  It is hard to describe just how much plastic there was, in the water.  Christine saw a fish but Nickie and I did not.  We were told that due to the excessive rain, the water was cloudy and a lot of plastic from the rivers had washed into the sea.  I feel that they could have made an attempt to find an area more appealing for snorkeling.

Condo in Jaco

Next was a trip to the Carara National Park.  The park has a few interesting trails through both wet and dry jungle.  I'm not sure what the difference was, as the excess rain during November made it difficult to see any variance.  I have pictures of monkeys from 2016, but we didn't see much wildlife this time.  We did see a squirrel, which will not likely impress Canadians.  I'll add a picture regardless, as it was a bit intimidating.  The trees are incredible and it was enjoyable simply being out in the jungle.

Nickie's tree

Scary Squirrel!

Woody

The flight home was a stark contrast to the flight out.  We took off on schedule and landed 20 minutes early.  After enjoying 25 - 28 degree days it was a rude shock to land in Toronto in snow and cold weather.  Nickie and I are planning a trip to Thailand, mainly to eat Thai food.  Our flights are booked (January 20 to February 14).  Hopefully maple syrup season will be patient and wait until I get back!