Steve Haas Travel

Category: 2022: Costa Rica

Honeymoon Trip!

  • 2022 Costa Rica: Day 5, Manuel Antonio National Park (Monkeys, Iguanas, and Sloths, oh my!)

    2022 Costa Rica: Day 5, Manuel Antonio National Park (Monkeys, Iguanas, and Sloths, oh my!)

    I started writing this about 4:30pm Thursday afternoon. We are done for the day except for dinner and Ash is napping so it’s a good use of time. We’ve had a wonderful day but both of us are pretty tired from the week and have a long travel day tomorrow. We’ve checked in and have our boarding passes so all of that is done.

    I was up this morning before 4am and was about done with the blog when Ash got up at about 5:30am. There’s coffee in the room but filters are needed (they acted like we were crazy when we asked for them – I swear there’s supposed to be a re-usable filter in the machine that’s missing!) so this afternoon Ash rigged it by using paper napkins. Worked pretty well!

    But I digress.

    Breakfast isn’t until 7am and we’d decided the night before we would go for a walk early. The coffee shop opens at 6am so we got drinks to go and made our way to the beach. It had rained quite a bit the night before and was still cloudy, with a cool mist coming up on the ocean by the shore. Note it’s about 73 degrees at this point and pretty humid.

    We were the first ones at breakfast so got the best table in the corner facing the pool and the beach beyond that.

    Our breakfast came with fresh fruit – apple, watermelon, papaya, pineapple banana (I’d eaten half of it before I remembered the photo!), a strawberry and 2 different kinds of grapes.

    We both got the same dish, now I can’t remember the name of it, starts with an M :) Eggs and a spicy tomato sauce, peas and cheese over tortilla chips with fried plantains. Very similar to chilaquiles.

    The plan for the day was Manuel Antonio National Park. It’s considered the best park in the country, and the surest way to see animals in their natural habitat. Once we learned about this, we decided to skip all of the many eco-parks we’ve come across over the last few days, so all of our bets were riding on this. And a deal if it worked: $16 per person vs. the over $50 per person we would have had to spend at, for example, the Sloth Park in La Fortuna. The reviews on TripAdvisor were super helpful: you must buy your tickets online and avoid all of the hustlers that will try to make you park early for crazy prices and force a guide on you telling you there’s no other way into the park and/or to guarantee that you’ll actually see wildlife. So we were braced.

    We bought our tickets for a 10-10:40am entry and got on the road about 8:15am. We had some rain but otherwise an easy trip and made it withing the 90 minutes that Google said we would. We knew we were close when a monkey crossed the road right in front of us! And sure enough, lots of very official looking guys who were too aggressive to be actual workers that we just kept waving off until we got as close to the park entrance as we could. Then we encountered Carlos, who was very nice, said he could point us to the way to the only place left to park for just $5, and agreed that a guide wasn’t necessary. So we took that and all of it worked. If there was an official place to park, we never saw it.

    We were so focused on just getting in that I forgot to take photos of the entrance, etc. You had to present passports which, suggested by Carlos, we did just using photos of them so we could leave the actual ones in the car. And they took them along with the screen print of our tickets and we were in. Ash was excited as you can see above.

    Pretty early on in the main trail we saw a side one for a waterfall, over half a mile away. We decided it was a good way to get our steps in (and ended up over 6 miles for the day – less than we usually do when we travel but the most on this trip!) and it was a beautiful walk with moderate inclines.

    As waterfalls in Costa Rica go it was pretty unimpressive, but we didn’t regret it, the scenery was gorgeous.

    And a nice stop for a photo.

    We went back to the main trail and then soon saw another side one called “Sloth Trail.” Well, that was a big reason we were here so why not?

    We didn’t see any sloths, but we did see these interesting land crabs. And a turtle.

    This was a raised wooden trail that eventually ended by connecting to the main one.

    And to the left of the end of that trail was the main trail and a little snack bar. And monkeys. If you look closely you can see one in the tree just left of center and several on the roof.

    We spotted two different families – a couple with a baby – and a handful of others, just climbing about and for the most part avoiding the people but certainly aware of us.

    Here are a few video clips of the monkeys. The first and the last ones are of the family above; the middle just shows all of them climbing around on the roof.

     

    We stopped for some tea and split a slice of pizza. Ash did not know there was a monkey just behind and above him in the tree.

    If you took a right at the end of that sloth trail you would go downhill a bit and come across this beach on your left. This is the Manuel Antonio Beach, the main one. You can see a good number of swimmers above and below.

    I did go into the water for a bit just to see how the temperature was – and it was perfect.

    Ash had no interest in going in the water but took this when I came back.

    If you go to the right instead of left at the end of that trail, and another hundred feet or so through the woods, you encounter another beach.

    Above and below is Cathedral Point Beach – pretty empty although just as gorgeous if not more so.

    There was a path you could take all along this beach back to the main entrance. But we still had more things to see – so far pretty much just monkeys, and I was promised (not exactly but almost) by many (especially on TripAdvisor) that iguanas were plentiful and that we’d one sloth for sure and at least two. So far, just the monkeys.

    And just as I was thinking that I turn around and there’s an iguana on a log I’d just walked by. And the first of 5 we would see as we made our way back out of the park.

    When we got back to the top of that trail there was a monkey sitting pretty on this sign. From our left, this gaggle of tall shirtless men coming walking up off the wooden trail we’d been on earlier. They were entranced by this monkey; I think unaware that there’s lots more over to the left of them.

    We took the main trail all the way back since we’d sidetracked it before on the wooden one. Ash was apologizing for not seeing any sloths since that was sort of the point of this trip. I said “it ain’t over yet.” And he’s like “yes, it is.” Me: “No, it’s not. We are not out of the park yet, anything is possible.”

    One of the reviews in TripAdvisor said, “sloths are easy to find – just look for a bunch of people looking up at a tree.” And a couple of hundred feet after I said the above, we saw just that.

    Between the 5x zoom and the cropping after this is as good as it gets. But you could see him moving – slowly of course – and that was pretty cool. On one of the signs we read we learned they move slowly because their stomachs are huge – disproportionate to the rest of their bodies – and it takes a long time to digest food and slows down their metabolism. They also only come down from trees once every 8 days to defecate – and always under the same tree, as if to fertilize it – and then back up. They are also nocturnal, so you often don’t see them during the day. But here you go.

     

     

    A pretty little stream not far from the entrance. We’d passed over it on the way in but didn’t see this view and it got my attention.

    And not far from that we saw another group of people all staring up at a tree. Enter sloth #2. Again, sorry for the blurriness but in real life this one was actually easier to see than the other.

    So that’s a bunch of monkeys, 5 iguanas, 2 sloths. Mission accomplished.

    I took a shot of the map on the way out, mostly because I wanted to show that area where the 2 beaches are separated by a small slip of land. The yellow line I drew on approximates the way we walked through the park.

    It was about 12:30 when we made our way out and we were hungry. We’d passed a ton of places on our way in; Ash wanted to try one of the Indian places we saw so here we are.

    It was literally just off the road. There’s just enough room to pull your car up to the front of it and that’s it. When you leave, you’re backing into a pretty busy road.

    We ordered a coconut curry dish and paneer tikka masala. Ash gave it 3 stars out of 5. Definitely about what we expected for these parts. But worth a shot.

    ——————

    We went to dinner around 6:30pm and I’d written this much of the entry by then – all but the food photos and a few others from Ash which I’ll incorporate now. It’s Friday morning, approaching 4:30am, and this is our travel day home. Oh, and I have coffee this morning using the paper napkins as a filter. Life is good.

    There's a huge crocodile painted or perhaps tiled into on the floor of the swimming pool.

    When we were leaving the hotel Thursday morning, I’d asked Ash if he knew where the name “Croc’s” came from. He said probably because this area is known for crocodiles, something I hadn’t heard of. Plus, he said, there’s a big crocodile in the pool. Huh? We walk to the balcony and he shows me. I’m often not so good with details!

    We went to the same restaurant for dinner that where we ate breakfast, and the same table in fact. Just spruced up with a tablecloth, etc.

    Ash had the salmon carpaccio, with pistachios, red onions and a type of arugula. The salmon was gravlax – cured with salt, giving it an almost smoky flavor, which worked well.

    I had a shrimp and avocado salad on watermelon. This was incredible and something we want to try at home.

    Ash had shrimp cooked in cognac with mashed plantains.

    Continuing my affair with beef (which I rarely eat at home), I had the tenderloin with mashed potatoes, asparagus, and a mushroom demi-glace. A simple but classic dish done superbly – this was definitely the best beef I’ve had on the whole trip.

    For dessert we split a warm brownie with vanilla ice cream, and they put it on 2 plates for us.

    We went back to the room and watched a couple of episodes of The Sinner (still on S3 – it’s been slow and weird but finally got really interesting) before going to bed around 9:40pm.

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    Today is just the way home: a 1.5-2 hour drive to the airport in San Jose, a connection in Houston to San Francisco. We will leave here around 9am and get home around midnight local times. So I’ll make this my final entry, although I haven’t thought about it too much.

    This was the first time in Costa Rica for both of us – puts Ash at 58 countries he thinks – and we have thoroughly enjoyed it. As I said on the first entry, we’ve known lots of people to come here and without exception talk about what an amazing time they had. I was a little bit afraid that it was too hyped and wouldn’t live up to expectations. But it did.

    1. First of all, with tourism the number 1 industry here, it is super easy travel for Americans. The local currency is colon (pronounced more like “cologne”) but literally everything has 2 prices: colon and dollars. Everyone seems to trade in both. We never even got local cash, just used the dollars that we brought with us when we weren’t using credit cards or charging to the room. And I think we only encountered 2 people that didn’t speak English, both times in the middle of nowhere when we were asking for directions.
    2. This is the closest I’ve been to the equator and boy can you feel it. It’s November and the temperature range was 72-83 the whole time we were here. In Arenal it never got above 76 or so, yesterday it was 83 at the park. And Humid. I wouldn’t come here during the summer that’s for sure.
    3. Pura Vida is Costa Rica’s version of Aloha. The literal translation is “pure life”, but they use it in a similar way to how Hawaiians use Aloha – for everything – but most commonly in a “don’t worry, be happy” sort of way. We actually didn’t hear people use it all that much, but it’s on billboards, shirts and hats everywhere. And you feel it even if you don’t hear it. Everyone we met was absolutely lovely, easy to talk with, happy to see us and help us (“it’s my pleasure” we heard a LOT), and just genuinely enjoying life.
    4. This is definitely an outdoorsy kinda place. We didn’t take advantage of all there is to do but are very happy with our choices. We would definitely come back and do more rainforest stuff and check out the Caribbean side of the country. It is absolutely one of the most beautiful places we’ve seen and lived up to that hype.
    5. The honeymoon aspect of the trip made it extra special. We used that to justify some things we might not do otherwise and that’s OK. But the truth is we probably would have made the same choices anyway. We like to take advantage of whatever we can when we travel. And all of the locals we encountered seemed genuinely happy for us on that aspect. Gay marriage was legalized here in 2020 and we felt very safe and welcomed here without exception.
    6. This was also the first time that I had stayed in resorts where it was easy to just hang out. I admit I missed doing a bit more local stuff than we did but at the same time it felt luxurious to be treated as well as we were – especially at The Royal Corin – and to be in great places to be lazy and do nothing, which we did a fair amount of.

    Between the nature, the wildlife, and the people, there is something very Alive about this place that I’ve never experienced anywhere else. Pura Vida, I guess! I highly encourage you to come check it out,

    Next up: we will be doing a long MLK weekend in NYC, then a week in Puerta Vallarta in February. This will be my 5th time to PVR and Ash’s first, believe it or not. We’re looking forward to all of that and will see you then. Thanks for coming along and have a great Thanksgiving weekend.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • 2022 Costa Rica: Day 4 – Jaco via Puntarenas, and some great food

    2022 Costa Rica: Day 4 – Jaco via Puntarenas, and some great food

    I slept a nice 7 hours, up around 4:30am. Ash was up by 6am and we went down for breakfast right after 6:30 as I’d just finished the blog,

    I mapped out our journey for the day and we decided we’d leave right after breakfast since things can take longer than maps suggest. And boy was that right. Above shows the plan: from La Fortuna to Puntarenas, a tiny peninsula that juts out into the Gulf of Nicoya, just a little town a friend recommended we see. Then from there to Jaco where we will stay 2 nights before heading back to the airport in San Jose.

    With the rain stopped the bugs were out and there were quite a few on that spiral staircase outside our room.

    We left before 9am and were having a beautiful, uneventful drive until around 11am. The road was blocked for construction and wouldn’t open for an hour until the workers stopped for lunch. There were no alternative routes.

    We were literally in the middle of nowhere and there wasn’t anything to do so we went for a walk after applying bug spray! By the time we got back the line had gotten pretty long. There were about 8 more vehicles ahead of this, including us.

    We did get going right at Noon and that road was still very under construction. Several miles of a very bumpy, windy, at times very steep ride. We were very glad it when was over. Ash just kept saying, “but look over there, it’s beautiful!” And it was – gorgeous, rich valleys everywhere we looked because this was the mountain ridge road.

    It was such a bumpy ride though it didn’t work well for photos but managed a couple above and below just to give you an idea. The videos I attempted were entertaining. It was better to just hold on :)

    But we ended up in a beautiful place: This is the tip of Puntarenas, looking over the Gulf of Nicoya. That’s still Costa Rica on the other side.

    It was a sleepy little town, not much going on. Ash thinks it’s because there’s no beach. Puntarenas Typical Seafood seemed like a a good place to stop for lunch. We were the only ones there. We sat at the table right in the middle of the photo.

    This was our view.

    We both had a shrimp salad that was wonderful in its simplicity: shrimp, lettuce, cucumber, tomato, red onion, orange juice.

    Ash had this great tomato soup that was so thick it worked great as a dip for that wonderful bread (he ordered extra of that!).

    I ordered a garlic shrimp basket and let’s just say was surprised when this was put in front of me. I didn’t know what to expect but it certainly wasn’t this. Those baskets are fried plantains. The shrimp were cooked in a rich garlic sauce, with some fresh red onion on top. Definitely the most interesting thing I’ve had in a while. And super filling. I ate most of the shrimp but only 3 of those baskets.

    A closeup so you could see how much garlic was used. Can never have too much garlic!

    We left there a little after 2pm and got caught in traffic again, a slowdown that added 30 minutes to what was supposed to be a 90-minute drive. We assume it was an accident of some kind: a fire truck pushed through in the direction we were going, and later we saw 4 ambulances with sirens going back the other direction. But we never saw what it was.

    shot of the lobby

    We made it to our hotel in Jaco a little after 4pm, Croc’s Casino and Resort. We are here for 2 nights using Ash’s points again. He asked about an upgrade to a suite, and they quoted a price that we decided was reasonable given the 5 nights we’ve had on points so we took it. And are very glad we did.

    The room wasn’t quite ready yet so we took a walk on the beach. This is the hotel from the beach. You just walk out to it.

    Not too many people out.

    This was about 4:40pm so the sun was starting to set.

    We got back up to our room about 5:15, and they’d taken our bags up. This is the living room, with an ocean view balcony.

    View from the balcony.

    Looking back at the kitchen and entrance. The only thing missing; coffee filters. Urrrgggh.

    bedroom with ocean view out the window

    Bedroom.

    We relaxed a little bit watching TV (RPDR S10 opening!) before heading down to dinner about 6:30pm.

    We chose a little Mexican restaurant at the hotel – it was clear early on we wouldn’t be leaving again just because we were so tired of being in the car.

    They started us with free chips and salsa which were great- the chips were fresh and still warm.

    We ordered queso with mushrooms and corn which was very good. That salsa on the right it made from pineapple at it was great.

    I had tacos al pastor, also great. More pineapple again, which is the way this dish is supposed to be done although I rarely see it like that in the US.

    Ash had chicken enchiladas which he enjoyed.

    But the best bite of the day – maybe of the whole trip – was these beans that we shared. Ash added them as a side at the last minute. They were amazing. Perfectly seasoned, a rich broth from pork hocks still in the dish, with too much fresh avocado on top to just call it a garnish. That dark brown thing in the middle is a chipotle pepper. Best beans I’ve ever had.

    We couldn’t decide on a dessert to split so got one each: churros with chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream.

    And a roasted sweet potato with corn ice cream and marshmallow sauce. It was great and we loved the originality – although maybe it’s normal for these parts!

    Today we visit Manual Antonio National Park, considered the best in the country. It’s about a 90-minute drive from here so we’re hoping we don’t encounter the same stuff we did yesterday.

    Happy Thanksgiving! We hope you have a wonderful holiday whatever you’re doing. Lord knows we have a ton to be grateful for.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • 2022 Costa Rica: Day 3 – Butterflies, Hanging Bridges, and the Arenal Volcano

    2022 Costa Rica: Day 3 – Butterflies, Hanging Bridges, and the Arenal Volcano

    I slept a good 7 hours, up around 5:30am. By the time Ash got up, I’d gotten about half of the blog written but was running into technical problems and had to stop. We went down for breakfast. I took my laptop with me but couldn’t figure things out so enlisted help. Oh well. It wasn’t as rainy as the day before and we hoped it stayed that way because we had stuff we wanted to do!

    On our way to our first stop we met up with this guy: a coatimundi, Costa Rica’s racoon.

    First stop was the Butterfly Conservatory, about a 30-minute drive from the hotel. This is a former cattle ranch, converted in 2001 into a conservatory for butterflies, frogs, insects and plants that are native to Costa Rica.

    It was in the mountains so hilly inside, but beautifully paved.

    There were 4 different butterfly houses. These little clips will give you an idea of the atmosphere – just flying around everywhere. They were beautiful.

     

    And now for some closeups.

    This was the first one we saw. It’s difficult to tell size from these photos but this was probably 4 inches high.

    This one was about 3 inches wide.

    A bunch of them feeding on a dish.

    Rest stop for a selfie.

    These were transparent!

    Tiny red frogs. Maybe an inch big.

    Cockroaches – 3.5 inches long, with a 5-6 inch wingspan.

    Turtle.

    Bright green and black frogs – maybe 2 inches long.

    There was a gazebo on a hill that allowed for a view of Arenal, the volcano, but it is covered in clouds. But a pretty shot of the rainforest.

    Ash calls these his “herbal essence moment.”

    more cone than flower. Red in color, petals are layered and stacked about 12 in high with lots of space in between. and not so much a petal but a ring.

    An interesting flower called bee hive ginger. Used in traditional medicine to treat inflammation and burns. These get about 12 inches high.

    We took a wrong turn coming out of the conservatory that allowed for this shot of Lake Arenal. A friendly local got us back on the right track.

    We decided to go to Hanging Bridges next. It wasn’t high on our list of things to do at first but it was in the same area-ish and we kept seeing signs for it so decided, why not? Turns out to be our favorite thing we’ve done so far. It was only 4.5 miles from where we were but with the wrong turn, backtracking, windy roads, etc, it took like an hour to get there.

    Another coatmundi just hanging out, climbing around on the outside tables until a worker came out and shooed him away.

    It was after 12:30 at this point and time for lunch. We didn’t have a reservation, but they seated us anyway, at a table that had a “reserved” sign on it. Hmm. But yay for us, it was the best table in the house there in middle by the windows – you can see Ash has his back to us.

    We had a “Denali” experience all over again: will we see it or not? This was the view of the volcano Arenal when we sat down, 12:39pm.

    12:44pm

    We both got Azteca soup, which is a spicy tomato soup with avocado and tortilla strips. Yummy.

    Ash had a beautiful salad with salmon.

    I had a “tropical hamburger” which included a big slab of pineapple.

    12:57pm. The moutain reveals itself.

    And the whole restaurant clamored up for a photo shoot.

    1:13pm and pretty much crystal clear. The last big eruption was in 1968, after being dormant over 400 years, where it covered 15 square miles over a couple of days, ruining 3 towns. They say things have been rebuilt at a safe distance, but this seems pretty close to me!

    Ash of course has to put his fingers on the tip, although it’s a horrible picture of us.

    Much better!

    Hanging Bridges is essentially a 2 mile walk through the rainforest. Theoretically you might see all kinds of wildlife – they made Ash sign a waiver for not wearing closed shoes (“in case a viper bites you!”) but we saw one bird the whole time and that was it. Still, it was beautiful and a nice change after staying in the room so much the day before.

    There was one well-kept garden as soon as you entered – with these cute tables – and then the rest was pretty much in the wild. Although, again, very well paved. This country sinks a ton of money into its tourism, which is the number 1 industry, surpassing agriculture in the 90s. Its biggest exports are coffee, pineapples, and bananas.

    The first hanging bridge. Think Mario Brothers: it’s super wobbly. There were a group of young Europeans in front of us (Dutch or German, we couldn’t tell) who were quite annoying. I have little tolerance for inconsiderate tourists who prioritize their photo time while making others wait. There was a limit to 15 people on a bridge at one time, so you had to wait for folks to get over. These guys took forever. Thankfully after this bridge we got in front of them.

    There were 15 bridges in the park in total, 6 of them hanging – and each of those pretty long and pretty high up. My vertigo kicked in bad Every Time. Hence me holding on!

    Only one time was I brave enough to try and take a photo while on the bridge, around the 4th one, I think. It was beautiful up there for sure.

    Ash took a video of us the last few steps of the longest hanging bridge – 97 meters. Each bridge was 7-10 stories high.

    The one bird we saw the whole time.

    This is the volcano Arenal as seen from our hotel balcony at 3:35pm. Still pretty clear, this is literally the opposite side of the mountain from the last time you saw it.

    My tech guy had fixed my problems on the backend of this thing, and I got Monday’s post up once back at the room. We watched more of The Sinner and made our way down to dinner at 6:30pm.

    The clear, clean air brought the bugs out, so Ash was now covered up – long pants and long sleeves! He’d gone down for coffee while I was working on the blog and gotten bit pretty badly. We do have bug spray just hadn’t needed it up until this point because it had been so wet.

    I had the carpaccio again just like I said I would!

    Ash had a chicken salad with honey mustard dressing and lots of croutons.

    I had another cut I hadn’t seen before: striploin. Better than last nights. Also buttered vegetables and mashed potatoes with baked cheese on top.

    Ash had shrimp and mushroom risotto which was excellent.

    Although I had reminded Ash when we first woke up that it was the 2nd anniversary of our first date, he did something about it. We’d decided the night before we were going to share this dessert the following evening, so he called ahead and had them write “happy anniversary” on the plate. There were also 6 chocolate covered strawberries on the side. What a sweetie.

    We watched more of the The Sinner and lights out before 9:30pm.

    We leave The Royal Corin today and make our way to our next stop in Jaco. It’s at least a 4-hour drive and we have some stops planned along the way so will see how long that actually takes. See you on the other side.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • 2022 Costa Rica: Day 2, Fortuna Waterfall

    2022 Costa Rica: Day 2, Fortuna Waterfall

    I was up early, like 2am, and when by 3am I hadn’t gone back to sleep I gave up and started working on the blog. It was done by the time Ash got up about 6:30, which is also what time breakfast opens so we started moving in that direction.

    The restaurant for breakfast is open all day, this was our first time here. They had a few tables outside and we were able to snag one since we were early. It’s beautiful here and more comfortable; the inside seating seems very formal.

    A nice variety of things: black beans and rice again which is called gallo pinto here; tender beef in a nice tomato sauce; eggs, bacon, pancake and, no, not tater tots but fried mozzarella.

    We lingered quite a while at breakfast and finally got moving around 9:30am. It’s vacation, right? No need to be in too much of a hurry.

    I thought to catch this on our way out: the front entrance. There’s no door. At all. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before. And I swear every time we walk through the lobby someone is mopping. They keep this place immaculate.

    We were headed to Fortuna Waterfall, about a 10-minute drive away.

    This is the first walkway after you pay for tickets. Ash insisted on me doing something goofy and all that came to mind was Jaida: Look over there! (IYKYK)

    There was a little butterfly garden at the very start. Beautiful but we only saw one butterfly. Probably not the right time of year.

    And this is where we were headed. There’s a great deck just at the start of the climb down where you get this view. It was a little misty most of the time and everything glistened wet. Rainforest, right?

    A shot early on our way down: 530 steps. It was at times quite steep but well paved.

    It is 70 meters high and was running at full force. The water flows to the left of this shot into a calmer area where people were swimming. We knew that was an option but had no interest. We are so not water people. We just like to look at it.

    A little video to capture the rush and the sound, with a person at the bottom for scale.

    Above and below: a couple of different shots we asked the guy in front of us to take. Swedish I think ;)

    A panoramic of the swimming hole. A fair number of people out.

    a drawing of a slot hanging from a tree limb. Guru Slot says: The secret is not to run behind butterflies, but to take care of the garden so they come to you."

    Guru Sloth leaves their wisdom up and down the trail.

    Another attempt to capture the climb.

    There was an orchid garden but not many of them were in bloom.

    On our way back to the hotel we stopped at an art gallery Ash wanted to take a look at.

    An interesting piece of sculpted wood and tire chains, very weathered. Several of these outside.

    And on the front deck what it would look like new. We bought a sculpted mask (Ash collects them) and a set of trivets for our dining room table. They are already wrapped for travel so no photos, sorry :)

    It was almost Noon at this point, so we decided to find a place to get a bite to eat. We stopped at Makoto Sushi Bar, although their menu was quite diverse.

    Much of La Fortuna looks just like this, as does much of the country. Reminds me a lot of places I’ve been in Mexico, with good reason I guess.

    Started with some great coffee.

    Shared a Dynamite Roll – tuna, salmon, sea bass, in a spicy sauce. It was great.

    Ash got the Makoto salad which included salmon, cherry tomatoes, tofu, red onion, other good stuff.

    I got chicken wings and what a surprise. They were very tasty, a crust like I’d never had before. See those little cubes of yellow? Pineapple. Talk about sweet and tangy. They were messy and delicious.

    When we got back to our room they had cleaned and left this adorable little elephant made of towels on the bed. This place is super classy. The most impressive thing is how everyone remembers our names and never fails to address us as Mr. Gupta and Mr. Haas whenever we appear. And they remember our room number, too. I wonder if maybe they just pay extra attention to those in the master suites or if everyone gets that treatment?

    It was also raining quite a bit by this time. (In a rain forest? No way!) We decided to be lazy and continued watching The Sinner (S2). Around 3pm we wanted to go downstairs for coffee. As we were leaving our room we saw David taking some chocolate covered strawberries down the hall.

    Oh right, I forgot to post the photo of David. See above. He staffs the front entrance, was the 2nd person to greet us (after the guy who took our bags out of our car), took our bags up to our room for us, and is generally just around all the time, and Always does the “hola Mr. Gupta, Mr. Haas, welcome back” when he sees us.

    At any rate, that gave us a hankering for chocolate covered strawberries and coffee which led to the next photo.

    We ordered them at the bar and they made them fresh for us. You could tell it was not something that they weren’t really prepared to do but this place doesn’t like to disappoint so someone whipped them up for us. A mix of still warm white and dark chocolate. Amazing. After finishing these we went back to our room for more of The Sinner. It was still rainy and we just had a lazy feeling about it all. That’s allowed on vacation, right? We went back down for dinner at 6:30pm.

    For dinner we dressed in some fun clothes we’d just brought in San Francisco a few weeks ago and went down to the same restaurant where we had breakfast.

    I started with the Carpaccio which was unbelievable. Maybe the best I’ve ever had. A rich beef flavor with tons of fresh parmesan. I might have to get it again tonight.

    Ash had what they called a garlic salad and liked it a lot.

    Ash had gazpacho….

    …and I had a cream of corn soup. Both great.

    For the entrees you got to pick two sauces for your protein and two sides. Ash got tuna, mushroom sauce and a balsamic sauce, with a sweet potato and grilled vegetables.

    I had a cut of beef I’d never heard of before – picanha, taken from the top of the rump – with the mushroom sauce and a chimichurri which is olive oil, garlic, cilantro, parsley. The sides were bacon wrapped green beans and vegetables in a rich tomato sauce.

    For dessert we shared a big bowl of coconut ice cream which was wonderful. We were so full we almost passed on dessert but have you met us?

    With that, we went back to our room, finished S2 and started S3 of The Sinner. We went to bed about 10pm.

    And finally: We have a friend dog-sitting for us at the Sacramento house. He sent us this photo late in the day: Zeus laying by the front door waiting for us. He does this when Ash is gone all the time. Hopefully he doesn’t stay there until Friday. Ash misses him like crazy so it will be fun to see them reunite.

    I was having tech problems with the website this morning so getting this up much later than usual the following day, but at least I won’t be a day behind. I really hate that! See you all tomorrow hopefully at the regular time….

  • 2022 Costa Rica: Day 1, Royal Corin Resort, Arenal/La Fortuna

    2022 Costa Rica: Day 1, Royal Corin Resort, Arenal/La Fortuna

    So the full name of this place is The Royal Corin Thermal Water & Spa Resort, but who’s got time for that? It’s a 2.5 hour drive northwest of San Jose if you use toll roads. We decided the not tolled path is probably more scenic so did that instead and are glad we did. With one stop it took about 3 hours.

    But I’m a little ahead of myself. We were up a little after 6am, sleeping about 8 hours which is normal for Ash but a lot for me (usually 5-6). The rental car place opened at 7am so we had a quick coffee in the room and called an Uber to make our way there.

    This is Ash and Sylvia inspecting the car for dents and scratches. We got a Citroen Elysee. It’s small but reasonably comfortable and most importantly has Apple CarPlay which loaded right up as soon as I plugged in the USB. We booked way in advance and got it for the week for $200.

    wide shot of the breakfast buffet area

    We went back to the hotel for their breakfast buffet. That’s our 2 coffees front and center.

    We sat right next to the omelet bar. Convenient.

    So of course got omelets which were very good.

    plate of food with beans & rice, grilled veggies, egg rolls, bacon, small croissant

    And assorted other goodies. I thought those wrap looking things would be like taquitos but no, they were egg rolls. What? Catering to Asian tourists we guessed. Let’s just say I was disappointed when I bit into it but Ash loved it. The beans & rice dish was great though, as were the veggies.

    I went up about 8:30am to get the blog up; there wasn’t much to it so it only took about 30 minutes. Ash stayed down to watch the opening of the World Cup. We got going around 10am.

    There are 12 climate zones in Costa Rica – a lot going on for such a small place, about the size of West Virginia. This article will give you an idea (especially those of you who already commented it’s on your bucket list). There’s a handy map that shows rainfall; on that map notice La Fortuna northwest of San Jose and that’s where we are headed. So the first decision we had to make was: what climate do we want, and how many? We decided on something rainforesty and something beachy. Today is rainforest.

    We saw lots and lots of hydrangeas on the first part of the trip, so we snapped a photo to help us remember that.

    We came across this waterfall about 1.5 hours in. People had just stopped along the road to take photos, so we decided to join in. Pretty sure we wouldn’t have come across this if we had taken the toll roads.

    One of many bridges we crossed along the way. This was wider than most, which were very much single lane only. There were lots of elevation changes and windy roads on our 3-hour drive.

    Close-up of the falls. I could have stood there and listened to that for a very long time.

    This little video will give you a bit of the sound and a sense of how lush everything is. At the end you see Ash coming back from the little roadside shop which you’ll see better in the next photo.

    There’s the little market stand, mostly souvenir type stuff. We saw tons of this along the way, lots of fresh fruit and baked goods, too. We are one of those cars parked along the road, top right.

    Requisite selfie.

    When we weren’t in forest we saw lots of plush greenery like this. Ash said he hasn’t seen these many hues of green since Sri Lanka, and that there’s more here and of course more variety.

    We made it to the resort about 1pm. Right away we realized we weren’t in Kansas anymore. A guy came to greet us at our car in the parking lot and offered to unload our bags for us. We looked at A LOT of places before landing on this one. We normally wouldn’t stay at something this high end but decided to splurge a bit since we are calling it our honeymoon. We found it initially on Booking.com, but then Ash checked his Chase credit card points program and it was on the list. He has a healthy number of points accrued and there was more than enough to cover this. So no money out of our pockets except for meals and stuff. Can’t beat that.

    We were greeted a couple of more times and asked to sit at the sofa where they had juice (already drank in photo above!) and cool towels ready for what the HR-guy in me would call an orientation. A cute little guy with a clip board walking us through all of the options of our stay. It was actually a little overwhelming and I went back down later after we had roamed a bit to ask more questions. That’s Ash at the top of the stairs in the background already starting to explore.

    This is the main pool off the lobby, heated to a very comfortable 102F. There are little signs all along the various pools that tell you the temperature. The coolest we saw was like 85; most were in the 100-104 range. The heat comes from the Arenal Volcano which is close by but hidden by the clouds.

    We headed up to our room and they followed with our bags.

    Since it’s all on points and we had plenty, we decided to go for it and booked the master suite. This is otherwise like $700/night and is about 700 square feet. (The “normal” rooms are like $500/night and just over 400 square feet.) Above is the living area. Behind that pony wall in the back is a jacuzzi.

    Bedroom area, and very comfortable.

    The jacuzzi. Complete with headrests and a TV!

    Looking back into the living area. That little desk and chair in the corner is where I’m sitting now.

    A little weird to include the exit route, but this gives you an idea of the difference between this suite and the other rooms. We are in 409. The rooms on the end I think are what they call “junior” suites, an in-between size. Notice the spiral staircase right outside our door.

    Ash in a goofy pose on the stair. Wood steps, looks like teak maybe. with a great view all the way down the center, with an outside wall of window looking into pools and gardens.

    Said spiral staircase! It’s pretty beautiful.

    A shot that includes the pool on the left, Ash sitting and waving on the right, and the hotel in the background.

    Although there seemed to be quite a bit to do and eat in the town of La Fortuna which is just outside of this, we decided after the 3-hour drive to take advantage of all this and not leave the property again that day. At first we were going to have lunch in one of their restaurants, and then decided ordering from the bar poolside was a better idea. When in Rome and all that. If you look up, the room on the 4th floor closest to the umbrella with the 2 sliding glass doors is ours. And just above that is the restaurant where we had dinner and sat at that edge table just behind the umbrella.

    Ash got a beautiful and tasty fruit juice drink; I had the Pellegrino. We never did quite figure out why they brought ketchup and mustard.

    We ordered essentially a large tray of appetizers to share. Three different cheeses, all great; chicken Cesar wraps, avocado toast, grilled shrimp, chicken and beef. And a little cup of ceviche each, bottom left.

    The ceviche was so good we ordered a bowl of it, and it came with 3 different kinds of chips: tortilla, sweet potato, and plantain.

    We decided to try out the outdoor jacuzzies. They had a handful that were sort of hidden behind plushness surrounding the main pool area. This was the hottest one at 104F but we wanted hotter and more bubbles so decided to try the one in the room instead. But it was beautiful and rainy a bit so very refreshing to be out in all that great air.

    a gray blue sky framed by palm trees

    Looking up from that jacuzzi. We were pretty enclosed.

    After the indoor jacuzzi experience we just rested up and watched “The Sinner” (S2) on Netflix until dinner. Which was a simple walk up one flight of that spiral staircase.

    Looking into the restaurant from our table over-looking the pool area. It’s actually more dimly lit than it appears in this photo, but it was comfortable and had a nice vibe to it overall.

    Night view of the pool from where I was sitting.

    Ash handling a complicated guest who essentially booked a month at the San Francisco house stringing together different rooms. It’s the downside to his work: he never gets to disconnect. But at least he can do it from his phone in beautiful places!

    Bread to start. There were 5 different kinds in this basket.

    Ash got the “shrimp and avocado tower” which was essentially those ingredients along with cucumber, cheddar cheese, frisee lettuce and what seemed like a mayonnaise sauce. It was tasty but we could easily do this at home. And might!

    I ordered the tuna tartar which we agreed was the best bite of the evening. Fresh raw tuna with avocado and other things in a spicy sauce in a crispy tortilla bowl. I gave Ash one of these and he pushed half his dish onto my plate.

    For my main I got the sea bass on polenta. It was actually pretty bland overall. The pica de gallo helped for sure. Those round green things are tomatoes.

    Ash had the salmon which was much better, although he said too many potatoes and not enough sauce :)

    This was Ash’s dessert. Inside that round cylinder of chocolate cake is a Bailey’s mousse. The caps on the ends are white chocolate. The crispy thing on the end was on top of a hard chocolate cube with a tangy filling. Overall a nice dish.

    I thought I was ordering some lemon berry dish so this took me completely by surprise. I still can’t quite describe that green thing – yes, looks like a lime and definitely lime in flavor. It’s the texture: part sponge cake, part mousse. Really hard to pin down and such a surprise it was almost unpleasant but it grew on me. That pink cube was ice cream and delicious. The bar on this end of it was like a little lemon meringue cake.

    And a surprise pink something once you got into that lime cake. Almost like ice cream. Maybe that was the berry? How this whole thing was constructed is beyond me. I ate it all, though!

    And that was our day. We went back to our room, watched a little more of The Sinner, and were in bed by 9pm.

    Today we will go into La Fortuna where there is lots to do and places to eat. We have some ideas about what we’re interested in but are mostly going to play it by ear. Stay tuned.

  • 2022: Costa Rica – The Honeymoon – Departure

    2022: Costa Rica – The Honeymoon – Departure

    We planned this trip in February, a few months before we even decided to get married. We got engaged in Paris in May, and later decided that we would get married in November. And we did: a simple ceremony at the Sacramento County clerk’s office on Thursday, November 10. Our friends Greg & Robert were our witnesses, and we went to The Kitchen to celebrate after. So although we didn’t plan this trip as a Honeymoon, the timing of it makes it calling that easy.

    We flew out of San Francisco on Saturday, November 19 around 7:30am.

    A nice shot of the Pacific as the plane initially headed south along the peninsula.

    It was about a 4-hour flight to Houston. Ash had snagged first class tickets using miles on United, all legs both ways, so it was a comfortable trip that came with decent food. This was my breakfast: a wonderful oatmal with cooked apples, dried cranberries and several kinds of seeds.

    Ash had a frittata which he didn’t like as much. But the fruit was nice and fresh at least!

    By the time we landed in Houston our plane had been delayed, so what was supposed to be a 1.5-hour layover was more like 3 hours. Our first-class tickets got us access to the lounge so at least we were comfortable. Ash went for a long walk at one point, but I stayed back to be lazy. It’s pretty rare I have a couple of hours to just do nothing.

    We had lunch/dinner on the next leg. I had a vegetarian chili with polenta that was very tasty. The lighting is weird because it was dark already and the cabin was dimly lit.

    Ash had a chicken and orzo dish. That dessert was like a warm chocolate chip pie, surprisingly good.

    We got to Costa Rica about 8pm local time. We eased through immigration, I’m sure Ash’s Spanish helped there (he’s pretty good). This was supposed to be where our bags came out but these folks had been waiting a long time for their bags from Cancun and eventually we found out that our carousel had changed. The bags were right out and we were on our way.

    As travel days go, this was an easy one. We stayed last night at a Marriott Courtyard about a mile from the airport. Just one night, we got our car this morning and that will be part of the next entry.

    We are here through Friday, flying back to San Francisco that afternoon and spending the weekend there before heading back to Sacramento. In between we have 2-3 nights each at two different resorts: first in the rainforest, and then closer to the water (Pacific side). Neither of us have been to Costa Rica before so we wanted to spend time in at least 2 different areas because there are so many microclimates here.

    We both know LOTS of people who have been here and have never heard a bad thing about it so are excited to have this adventure unfold. As always, we’re excited that you’re coming along, too! See you later at the first destination…

     

    PS: Since our last trip I had some work done on the design of the website. Not sure it will look much different from the single post point of view, but if you get a chance to poke around, I’m interested to hear what you think. And be sure to subscribe please if you haven’t!