Our Costa Rica Journey Begins!

We finally made it to Costa Rica! I say this because we originally had wanted to go here for our honeymoon back in 2002. However post 9/11 we decided to stay in the states. So it took us 6 years but it was surely worth the wait. WE LOVE COSTA RICA! If it wasn't for family and UCF I'd want to sell all our belongings in live there for a few years, ..no seriously. We may not ever live there but we'll definitely go back! The country is full of beautiful natural scenery and some of the nicest locals we've ever met on our travels. Costa Rican's seem to know what's important in life and how to enjoy it. Pura Vida as they say!

We arrived in San Jose very late at night on Wednesday May 14th and headed directly to our hotel (Hotel Aeropuerto) via taxi cab. This was the only hotel that we did on the cheap and well, you could tell. I'm not saying it's the worst place in the world, but driving in at 1am and checking in was an adventure. Luckily things only got better!

This is part 1 of what will be 4 tabblos that will share with you our May 2008 trip to Costa Rica. As the others are completed I will add links to them right here so check back!

La Paz  -|-  La Fortuna  -|-  Montezuma  -|-  Pacuara Rafting

These last two pics aren't from the Peace Lodge as you can tell. They are of a little restaurant that Rod (our travel agent) took us too on the way from Peace Lodge to La Fortuna. It split up the 3 hour drive and the place was delicious and authentic, we were by far the only non-locals anywhere around. We had the typical Costa Rica dish called casada which consists of rice, beans, chicken, fried plantains, and salad all on a single plate. There was hardly a day that went by that one of us didn't hava casada at least once, but this place stands out as the best. Oh and it was the cheapest too as it cost us all of $10 for both of us to get it plus drinks. More than anything it was great to have a typical Costa Rica experience!

As you can probably see the property and rooms here were nothing short of amazing. One of the best hotels we've ever stayed at anywhere. The bathroom in our room had one waterfall just for show and another one in which you could take a shower in. The balcony had a great view of the cloud forest and nice outdoor jacuzzi. It was a great setting to have lunch via room service or just enjoy some of our new local fruits! 

The pool area wasn't half bad either!

The Gardens also had a lot of animals. It was almost like a zoo. Hummingbird gardens, butterfly gardens, bird refuge, monkeys, snakes, frog, oh my.

Overall this was a great place to spend a couple days. Very relaxing and romantic with beautiful scenery everywhere you looked. As a bonus we felt like we had the place to ourselves many times! The only downside really is it is a bit Disney'ish in some ways, but that's not completely a bad thing as long as you see the rest of Costa Rica.