2018 has been a great year so far. I haven't written much, but we've seen Jarek start his mission, I got a promotion, and it just has been a very positive year (even with the tragic death of a good friend of Enok's). But for now I thought I'd write down memories of our trip to Costa Rica - which was a great celebration for our 22 years of marriage.
As we decided where to go this year for our anniversary, we kicked around a few places and decided that Costa Rica might be a good choice for some variety and adventure. I had suggested going there to surf, and Tevia thought it would be a good idea. I had won an incentive contest at work that gave me 5 free vacation days and some cash, so we were able to use it for this trip, which was great.
We flew into San Jose, where I've been before when I flew there on business a few years ago. It is a boring, big city, so we only stayed that the first night. I stayed at the same hotel which is close to the airport (Double Tree Cariari) as it was nice. We rented a car and didn't even have to deal with them trying to convince us to pay more for insurance. We were convinced to get a 4X4 vehicle as they saw we were going to Nosara (west coast). So we had this tiny Toyota SUV (they don't sell it in the US). It was a standard, as is typical in most other countries. I like this is it gives me practice to remember how to drive stick. It ended up being nice having a 4X4 vehicle. The only negative part was they lost our luggage. I rarely bring luggage anymore for this reason. But Tevia calmed me down and they eventually got it to us the next night at our hotel up on the Volcano.
We got in late on Thursday (our anniversary) and ate a late dinner at the hotel. In the morning we had a nice breakfast and then went to the mall to get some clothes for Tevia since it was mostly her clothes that were in the lost luggage. This didn't go great as Tevia hates shopping and it ended up being a little stressful. But we got through it and then checked out, ate at a nearby McDonald's since there wasn't much nearby and then headed up into the mountains/jungle. We went up to the Arenal region, where I had gone for a couple of days my last time there. The hotel we had reserved ended up being gorgeous. The room, the grounds, everything was great. It had a bunch of hot (thermal) pools from the volcano which were all great. Even the restaurant was great. I rarely eat at hotel restaurants, but this place was quaint and great. And it wasn't a normal hotel, more like a resort with a bunch of casitas. We loved it. It was very quiet and felt like we were the only ones there.
Saturday morning we got up early to hike Cerro Chato, the hike I had done before. I loved it so much I wanted Tevia to experience it. Since I had gone, it had officially been 'closed'. But we saw online that people still would go, so we decided to give it a go. We went from the other side this time via the Arenal Observation Lodge, which was a great place. We talked to the guard (in Spanish) and told him we wanted to go to Cerro Chato. He told us it was closed, but we could go if we understood that if anything happened to us, it was our responsibility. He even gave us a map - which was a great map - but crossed out Cerro Chato and said "no' on it. Kinda funny. So we hiked in to the point where you can go up the mountain and found the trailhead which said "prohibido' and had barbed wire on it. There was another couple hiking near us (from Germany) and they saw us going up and asked about it. I told them I had done it before and that we were going to do it - so they decided to as well. A bit after them a couple from the UK (living in Mexico) also joined us. We were the only people we saw on the trail. The hike is short, but intense and being in a rain forest (though dry right now) you get soaked with sweat quickly. We had to stop several times to catch our breath. But eventually we hit the top of the now dormant volcano to see the green lake in the crater. We then had to hike down to the lake. Tevia didn't get in, but I did! It was nice and cool and a great reward for a hard hike up. One of the other guys (the UK couple) also eventually went in, but nobody else did. We stayed for a bit and talked to the other couples. Tevia ended up losing a sandal when she stepped into some quicksand. The hike down was much easier. Afterwards we hiked the long way back through some other parts of the lodge property. We even stopped at a waterfall - where once again I got in to swim in the waterfall but Tevia did not. It was a great hike and morning.
That night we went to the spa at our hotel. Tevia got a massage and I got a facial (it was free), which was nice. We spent some more time in the hot springs and ate again at our hotel. Sunday morning we woke up and had breakfast (great breakfast at the hotel) and checked out. Tevia had chosen to go to a hanging bridges park in the morning before we headed to our next place - a small bed and breakfast on the way to Nosara. The bridge park was great. They had a bunch of hanging bridges and we saw a bunch of wildlife like monkeys, poison dart frogs, birds, a huge spider, etc. But this is where the day got weird. The day before on our hike I had thought a lot about how weird it is how so many people die from coconuts falling on their heads. I kept thinking how perfect the timing has to be, etc. Well, as we were walking along the path that day I heard a large noise above me - which I first thought might be monkeys - but maybe BIG monkeys. Next thing I know I'm kneeling and realize that a huge branch (palm frond) has hit me on my head. The part that hit me had a diameter of about 8 inches. The leafy part had hit Tevia. Tevia was quite concerned and then said my head was bleeding. She poured water on it and sure enough, as I was bending over and watched the water stream in front of my eyes, I saw a lot of red. But I felt fine. I didn't feel like I had a concussion and after a few minutes the bleeding began to stop. Tevia was very worried and by this time other people were on the path and suggested we see a medical person. So we had to leave the park via an emergency exit and see a paramedic. He cleaned it out and suggested it was likely fine, but offered to give a stitch if I wanted one. I said no. At this point we left and drove to our next location - and Tevia worried about me the rest of the day.
Our next location was a bed and breakfast in New Arenal. We were the only ones there and the property was very pretty with jungle and a river in the backyard. We just relaxed the rest of the day. We had lunch at an amazing place called Cafe Macadamia. The maracuya drink I had was bliss. That night was the only time it really rained. We sat in the house listening to the rain and listening to the birds, frogs and insects. It was nice.
The next day we woke up and headed to our final destination - Nosara. We had chosen this location due to it being said it was a great place to learn to surf. I was shocked (and excited) when Tevia said she would like to learn to surf. Nosara ended up being like a mix between Hawaii and Mexico. I absolutely loved it. It truly was a surf town. So picture a lot of surfers and all the food places are healthy and everyone is extremely laid back. The beach was very cool. It was a swirl of black and tan sand. So it kinda looked like rippled sand; unlike any beach I've seen. This did not make it a picturesque white-sand beach, but I found it pleasing. Because of the dark sand, the water was also darker and sometimes looked brown. And the waves -- were -- perfect (for beginner surfers). And the only real people on the beach were surfers or people enjoying the constant barrage of nice waves. No vendors. No hotels. No sunbathers (maybe a few watching the waves/surfers). It was awesome. Getting there was not easy. Some of the roads were dirt roads, which made it nice to have our 4X4 SUV. At one point, Tevia's phone told us to immediately turn left onto this dirt road. We did and followed it for about 1/2 a mile and ended up getting to a river. We decided the phone must be wrong and went back to the main road and used my phone (Waze). But it was a funny incident.
The first morning there we took surf lessons together just the two of us with our own instructor (Helberth). He was a local and was awesome. Tevia got up her first time! Tevia even enjoyed it. After that, I took one of the hotel's boards as often as I could over the next couple of days to practice. I loved it.
Our hotel was a 5 minute walk through the mangrove to the beach; super convenient (and the reason I had booked it). Once again we felt almost alone at the hotel. We did have one family there that we ended up seeing a lot. They were French and had 3 kids (10, 8, 6), the youngest who reminded me very much of my nephew Izaac. They were super nice. We laughed because we ended up seeing them everywhere we went. At the pool? Yep. At the beach? Yep. Where we ate lunch? Yes. Dinner? Yes. Lunch the next day? Yes. Zip line tour? Yes. They were very nice and we even left the same day.
Nosara was basically surfing, relaxing, eating, and watching the sunset. The sunsets were amazing with all the waves and surfers. I usually was also surfing. It honestly looked straight out of a movie. Just gorgeous. The food we had was superb. I didn't have a bad meal to think of. And most of it was healthy, which was nice. We rode bikes (they had free bikes you could use for whatever to ride through town), walked the beach, etc.
The one morning Tevia wanted to do a zip-line tour. She chose one close-by and we drove there in the morning (and as mentioned, ran into our French friends). There were about 15 of us in our group. This was very fun. There were 13 zip-lines; one was nearly 1 km long. In total they said it was about 6 km of line. The drive up with our group and going with the people was fun. I'm not really afraid of heights, but some of the people got nervous as some of the lines were 900 feet above the valley. We could see the ocean and rivers and jungle and animals. It was a lot of fun.
Speaking of animals, one night Tevia woke me up about 4 AM and asked if I could hear the noise. Of course I could as it was extremely loud. I told her I was pretty sure it was a howler monkey. When I went out to investigate, indeed it was - about 100 meters from our hotel room. They are very loud. After that we saw and heard them regularly. It was fun. And now I can do a pretty good howler monkey impression.
The last day I woke up at 5 AM to get in a few more hours of surfing. At one point I tried a smaller board as I was getting confident. It was much harder. I eventually got OK at it, but my last day I stuck with the long board. I definitely want to return here to teach Enok to surf and/or spend time with family who like to surf. After our morning surf we had our last breakfast and started driving to Liberia where we would fly home from (instead of San Jose where we flew in). It was about a 2 hour drive. We stopped at Taco Bell, which was surprising good - even better than the US - at least the one burrito we had. Upon arrival we were told our flight was delayed and we would miss our flight back to Phoenix out of Texas. But we got lucky and they got us on an earlier flight to Miama and then a flight to Phoenix from there. We ended up getting back about the same time had we taken our other flights if not delayed. So not bad.
In the end the trip was wonderful. I felt relaxed and had some great times with Tevia. I was also very sore from surfing. My knees were red and scabbed, my chest was sore and hurt, and all these new muscles I don't use too often were complaining. But I won't complain. This is one place (particularly Nosara) that I would love to go back.
