Costa Rica Day 7 - Parting Thoughts

Well...never did get that sloth sighting. This one will have to do. You can't tell, but Ian posed with this QUITE reluctantly. 

From the plane, we actually passed over Guatemala, and the pilot started describing sights to us. Not sure which lake this is, but I have considered Guatemala as a trip in the future! Maybe it's a sign!

There were even some active volcanos visible!

Final thoughts: I really liked that this trip was the kickoff to my 40s. Having done so much travel in my 20s, we stayed pretty land-bound for the past decade (unless you count Disney cruises), so maybe 40s is when we return to passport filling?

Costa Rica is a way more pleasing vacation destination than Mexico, in my opinion.  So much less touristy. And Boena Wilderness Lodges in particular gets an A+ from the Pacuare experience. I am already looking into a return visit where we can check out one of their other lodges -- Lapa Rios and Tortuguero both look pretty good! 

Costa Rica Day 6 - Beach Day

It is our last full vacation day, so even though I was sorely tempted to book a jungle cruise to get that sloth sighting, Ian convinced me that we would be better off just having a rest day and leaving the sloths for the return trip. The fact that the hotel offered a free coffee demonstration/tasting and kayak rentals also helped. 😊

No photos of the kayaks, we were scared we'd flip the kayaks and lose the phones. At least I was. My track record with water boats isn't the best.  Also, it was SUPER hot, so even though we were allowed to keep the kayaks for an hour, I'm pretty sure we were out and back within 15 min or so. 

No worries -- time for our coffee tasting anyhow! Ian was super psyched. Doesn't he look super psyched?

Our tasting included three different coffee varietals prepared in three different ways. As a non-coffee drinker, I got a sense of how folks who don't like wine must feel at wine tastings. After two sips of the first one I was feeling a bit woozy!

Here is the classic "sock" Costa Rican preparation method. (I bought one of these to take home because it seemed pretty fast. Not quite Keurig fast but it must taste better, right?). It was actually invented by the Spanish soldiers but has become popularized by Costa Ricans. 

Here's the second Japanese/German siphon method. Again, apparently invited by the Germans but popularized in Japan. It seemed way too involved/scientific for everyday coffee, but certainly was cool to watch. 

More coffee in an hour than I've had all year probably! 

Fitting that this is basically the only day we are fully catching the sunset. Sunsetting the trip. 😢

Have to say we've been to better beaches elsewhere, at least from the "palm trees, blue water, white sand" perspective, but this was still a lovely end to the vacation!

There was actually a wedding happening at the resort tonight, which meant we got to enjoy some tasteful guitar covers (for those who were at our wedding, Ian commented "MUCH better than DJ Redbeard") as we lounged through the sunset. 

And after the sun fully set, we continued the lounging indoors. Hammocks were big in Costa Rica. I realized I prefer the ones that are hooked to trees. Less swaying. Ian isn't so picky. 

And for the last meal, we went off in search of more steak. Lots of folks had warned us that the food in Costa Rica was decent, but not amazing and to keep our expectations low. I think compared to say, Italy or China, that was accurate, but I think we ate just as well as did in say, Mexico, Australia, Sri Lanka, etc. We had a lot of cerviche and steak -- tonight is no exception: Peninsula CR Steak & Seafood. 

Fun fact: this is the first time I've had a restaurant charge a corkage fee literally for uncorking. He said if we brought the bottle pre-opened, no fee.  Done! We also discovered on this trip that South American cabs are much more mellow than their Napa counterparts and also, surprisingly, that Chilean Malbecs are more complex than their Argentinian counterparts! (Well, at least the two we tried). 

And with that, back to pack our bags...back home tomorrow! 😭

Costa Rica Day 5 - Lake Arenal Drive

Today we pick up our rental car to make the trip out to Papagayo (the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica). You might ask why we are doing so much traveling within the country when we have so few days in total. I planned the trip around Pacuare, because I knew I wanted to experience that, but then we also wanted some beach time at the end, which in Costa Rica at this time of year, sun is only guaranteed over on the west coast. So we went ahead booked our departing flight out of Liberia. Arenal was more a stopover point between Pacuare and Papagayo. 

So, picking up the rental car was a little interesting. The Avis agent immediately claimed we needed to purchase mandatory loss/collision insurance. I was like, my friend, this is not my first international trip, no thank you. He then proceeded to tell me I could only use the credit card insurance if I could produce a letter from Amex saying my specific card was covered for Costa Rica. I'm pretty sure many folks would have given in at this point, but I viewed this as a challenge. 🧐 I got on the phone, Ian immediately went to go find a seat as he assumed we'd be in for the long haul...but surprisingly a mere 5 minutes or so later, I found the self service website and Amex emailed me a waiver letter. Apparently this is a well known rental company money-making scheme, a couple we ran into told us their insurance ended up being three times as much as their rental! If anyone else rents a car in Costa Rica, don't get taken in! 

Fantastic weather today, almost a waste since we'd be in the car all afternoon, but I suppose we avoid driving those curvy roads in the rain. The clouds even parted so we could get a parting shot of the Arenal volcano.

Pretty cool. Would be a great hike! (Ian doesn't agree).

A lot of the drive was basically just going around Lake Arenal. Here's the very tip by La Fortuna.

Halfway though we stopped for lunch at the Lake Arenal Brewery. Ian opted for the full flight of craft brews. Review: decent. 

Nice views! Something about the lake made it feel European to me. Like we were in Switzerland or Austria. 

We also passed right under a bunch of windmills. 

As an aside, the lake (which is quite large, took us an hour to drive just around a third or so of it) is entirely manmade for power producing purposes. Apparently 1/3 of all power consumed in Costa Rica comes from Lake Arenal!

Because I made us stop for more souvenir shopping in Liberia, we didn't arrive at El Mangroove, our last hotel, until after sunset.  Good thing we have no plans for tomorrow!