After we left Tamarindo beach we drove east, back to San Jose. It was about a 150 mile drive, but it took us the better part of five hours to complete it. All of the stories you may have heard about driving in Costa Rica are pretty much true. Although the actual condition of the roads has improved a lot since we were last there in 2005, the number of roads has not. There are basically two main roads in the entire country. One goes north/south and the other east/west. They aren't divided multiple lane highways like we have in the United States, but rather two lane roads - and ofter very narrow two lanes roads. They handle all of the cross country traffic in the entire country, including a million or so trucks, which are all but impossible to pass. Because a good part of Costa Rica is very mountainous these trucks have a difficult and very slow time navigating the often steep roads. And I do mean slow. We spent almost two hours on the steepest stretch going not more than 20 miles per hour (and often much slower). Did I mention that our Land Cruiser was a standard transmission? The only thing on the entire trip that bothered my knee was shifting gears every thirty seconds for hours at a time.
Once in San Jose we spent the night at a great hotel - the Hotel Grano de Oro. The rafting people picked us up at 6:00 the following morning for three hour ride to where we got on the Pacuare River, which is a World Heritage Site and one of the most beautiful and unspoiled rivers in the world. We rafted for about two hours into the Pacuare Lodge, where we spent two nights in the rain forest. While at the lodge we zip-lined in the canopy of massive trees, did some "canyoneering", and even did some bird watching. Vicki can now die a happy person, having seen three species of toucans, including the big one that's on the front of the Fruit Loops box. On day three we rafted out of the jungle for about six hours, through a good assortment of class III and class IV rapids. Then it was back to San Jose for the night, and back to Houston the next day. So, it's over - it's really over. We're thinking our next big trip will be to Machu Pichu (the "Lost City of the Incas") in Peru. Of course I'll need to find another job first and work a few years to save up some vacation - and some money. I'm thinking of targeting this trip for my 60th birthday. Let us know if you want to come along.
Below are a few pictures, in no particular order:
Waterfall on the river.
Loading up for the trip back to civilization.
Taking a break from rafting to get our picture taken on a large rock.
High hilarity after pulling Kayla and Vicki back into the raft.
(See next picture)
Kayla taking leave of the raft, with Vicki in hot pursuit.
Kayla and I on the bird watching tour, which started at 6:00 AM! Vicki was also on the tour, but she missed the picture while scaling a tree for a better look at Toucan Sam.
One of the "bungalows" which had no electricity, but which were still very comfortable (although just a little dark by candle light).
Bethany (or is it Kayla?) coming in for a landing on the zip line.
The interior of our bungalow.
Kayla after shooting the rapids on the "duckie", the feat which ultimately enabled her to wrest the coveted title of "Adventure Twin" from Bethany.
Vicki "canyoneering" down the creek bed of a jungle ravine. Of all that we did during our trip, Vicki said that she absolutely enjoyed this the most. As her about it.
Me chilling with the drunken Canadians. There was a group of fourteen from Toronto who were very friendly but also very prone to continuous drinking. I never passed the vicinity of the bar at any time of the day or night when it wasn't surrounded by drunken Canadians.
The entire fam chilling at breakfast in the lodge.
2 comments:
Great post! And YES we all had fun spending so much time together! I wish we were back! Pura Vida! :)
Oh man I love the pictures!! Thanks for the post!
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