Costa Rica w/P.Hilton, M. Gibson, a 6.4 shaker and swimsuit-stealing monkeys
Dec 1, 2004, 8:24 am
#1
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Join Date: Jun 1999
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Costa Rica w/P.Hilton, M. Gibson, a 6.4 shaker and swimsuit-stealing monkeys
What a Long Strange Trip it’s Been
Some of you know that once a year we rent some fabulous place with a group of friends and/or family. We only do it once a year because it takes that long for me to forget why, about two hours into each trip, I tell Rod to never let me do this again (see How I Lost My Parents in Spain). This year we decided to head to Costa Rica and rent this awesome hillside home at Manuel Antonio for Thanksgiving. We’d have the house for a week and then head up to Arenal volcano for two days and stay at Tabacon. There were 11 of us in all.
It was one strange trip – good, but strange.
The strangeness started the day of departure. The driver was picking us up at 5 p.m., yet by 4 p.m. no one in my family had even started packing. We didn’t do too badly though – I left behind my lipsticks; Zach left his swimsuit. As the driver arrived Zach jumped in the shower. Teenagers. Go figure. His Lateness met us five minutes later at the car.
At SFO, Rod, Zach and I finished checking in just in time to find my parents and my brother checking their bags despite that the agent was telling them he couldn’t guarantee their bags would arrive until the next day because there was an “embargo” on our LAX-Guatemala City segment. What are you doing? I ask. Get those bags off of there. We’re carrying them on. Little did I know that my mother, the traveling quilter, had a pair of scissors in every one of their bags. To stay within our one-plus-one carry-on limit, I took one of their small bags. Sure enough I get asked if I’ve packed scissors. Ummm, I may have. I, uh, don’t remember, I say. The security agent goes through the bag and finds a pair in the last pocket he checks. Meanwhile, other agents are searching the four bags my parents have between them. There’s a pair of scissors in each. I’m trying to disappear into the wall while the agent is very nice and patient with my parents. He’s apologizing repeatedly for taking my mom’s scissors, while my parents are being sports and laughing it off. Of course, my dad wouldn’t have been laughing if he knew what my mom spends on scissors. The five pair should fetch about $300 on eBay.
Our upgrades clear at the gate and we stop first at LAX and settle in at the RCC. The club’s pretty empty, but just over from us is Paris Hilton. She’s alone and reading (my big inside scoop: Ms. Hilton moves her lips while she reads
). My brother, who’s 34 going on 16, so wants to have his picture taken with her, but I hold him back. She leaves the club at the same time we do, but she’s headed for the East Coast. Security stops her in the jetway and searches her and her shopping bag. I wonder what the tabloids would have paid for that shot. 
The UA service to Guatemala pretty much stinks. We’re on a 757 that seems to have less legroom in F than E+ on any other plane. I sleep through dinner and the movie, and four hours later we make it to Guatemala, where they hold us in the gate area.
The segment to San Jose is beautiful and I keep my face stuck to the window for most of the flight. There are nothing but trees and volcanoes below. Over Nicaragua there are two volcanoes steaming.
In San Jose, we wait in a long line to clear immigration before being met by a driver who takes us to the domestic airport for out flight to Quepos.
It Takes A Thief
The domestic airport is a small building with a check-in counter and a waiting area with about 20 seats. There are no concessions - not even a vending machine. We check our rollaboards and then we all have to get on the scale. The Nature Air agent lets my brother hang out behind the counter so he can see everyone’s weights. Like I said, 34 going on 16.
At the waiting area, a woman sits behind my brother and keeps elbowing him in the back and asking him questions. She doesn’t speak English well and the whole thing is really odd. She’s asking questions about where the flights are going. After a couple minutes of this she and the guy she’s sitting with run out of the airport. It’s clear something just happened, but we all have our stuff so we don’t know what. About 15 minutes later a woman sitting nearby asks us if we’ve seen a black backpack. A-ha! While these two were distracting us, a third person made off with the backpack. Fortunately, it only had her kids’ games, but no passports or plane tickets. My brother mentioned this whole thing to the Nature Air agent. He wasn’t surprised. Happens several times a day he says. Clearly the local government doesn’t much care. They have about five cops in the tiny airport, but they spend their time chatting. There are no security cameras. The guidebooks all say to watch your stuff carefully anywhere in Costa Rica. Petty crime is rampant and this isn't our only brush with it.
We're the only ones flying on the eight-passenger Twin Otter, but security goes through all of our bags and gives us each a pass with the wand. I beep in a few spots, but the woman doesn't care what caused it. The plane's probably 20 years old and doesn't look real great, but Twin Otters are pretty reliable and, heck, it's only a 20-minute flight (versus a three-hour drive). The scenery is beautiful.
The Quepos airport is pretty cool. The terminal is an open-air building with a snack counter, some comfy couches and a couple of tables with activity info. It's heads and tails above the domestic airport in San Jose and that's a good thing because we'll be there a while - one of our bags didn't make the flight. It will be on the next flight in about 20 minutes, we're told. We wait and wait, but no plane. Finally we hear the other plane had engine problems and turned back. We should see our bag in an hour or two. While my mom and I wait, everyone else goes to get the rental cars. A guy working in the airport comes and whispers to me that Mel Gibson will be arriving at the airport in a few minutes. "I've got to get over there and sell him some property," he says.
Next: I Feel the Earth Move Under My Feet
Some of you know that once a year we rent some fabulous place with a group of friends and/or family. We only do it once a year because it takes that long for me to forget why, about two hours into each trip, I tell Rod to never let me do this again (see How I Lost My Parents in Spain). This year we decided to head to Costa Rica and rent this awesome hillside home at Manuel Antonio for Thanksgiving. We’d have the house for a week and then head up to Arenal volcano for two days and stay at Tabacon. There were 11 of us in all.
It was one strange trip – good, but strange.
The strangeness started the day of departure. The driver was picking us up at 5 p.m., yet by 4 p.m. no one in my family had even started packing. We didn’t do too badly though – I left behind my lipsticks; Zach left his swimsuit. As the driver arrived Zach jumped in the shower. Teenagers. Go figure. His Lateness met us five minutes later at the car.
At SFO, Rod, Zach and I finished checking in just in time to find my parents and my brother checking their bags despite that the agent was telling them he couldn’t guarantee their bags would arrive until the next day because there was an “embargo” on our LAX-Guatemala City segment. What are you doing? I ask. Get those bags off of there. We’re carrying them on. Little did I know that my mother, the traveling quilter, had a pair of scissors in every one of their bags. To stay within our one-plus-one carry-on limit, I took one of their small bags. Sure enough I get asked if I’ve packed scissors. Ummm, I may have. I, uh, don’t remember, I say. The security agent goes through the bag and finds a pair in the last pocket he checks. Meanwhile, other agents are searching the four bags my parents have between them. There’s a pair of scissors in each. I’m trying to disappear into the wall while the agent is very nice and patient with my parents. He’s apologizing repeatedly for taking my mom’s scissors, while my parents are being sports and laughing it off. Of course, my dad wouldn’t have been laughing if he knew what my mom spends on scissors. The five pair should fetch about $300 on eBay.
Our upgrades clear at the gate and we stop first at LAX and settle in at the RCC. The club’s pretty empty, but just over from us is Paris Hilton. She’s alone and reading (my big inside scoop: Ms. Hilton moves her lips while she reads
). My brother, who’s 34 going on 16, so wants to have his picture taken with her, but I hold him back. She leaves the club at the same time we do, but she’s headed for the East Coast. Security stops her in the jetway and searches her and her shopping bag. I wonder what the tabloids would have paid for that shot. The UA service to Guatemala pretty much stinks. We’re on a 757 that seems to have less legroom in F than E+ on any other plane. I sleep through dinner and the movie, and four hours later we make it to Guatemala, where they hold us in the gate area.
The segment to San Jose is beautiful and I keep my face stuck to the window for most of the flight. There are nothing but trees and volcanoes below. Over Nicaragua there are two volcanoes steaming.
In San Jose, we wait in a long line to clear immigration before being met by a driver who takes us to the domestic airport for out flight to Quepos.
It Takes A Thief
The domestic airport is a small building with a check-in counter and a waiting area with about 20 seats. There are no concessions - not even a vending machine. We check our rollaboards and then we all have to get on the scale. The Nature Air agent lets my brother hang out behind the counter so he can see everyone’s weights. Like I said, 34 going on 16.
At the waiting area, a woman sits behind my brother and keeps elbowing him in the back and asking him questions. She doesn’t speak English well and the whole thing is really odd. She’s asking questions about where the flights are going. After a couple minutes of this she and the guy she’s sitting with run out of the airport. It’s clear something just happened, but we all have our stuff so we don’t know what. About 15 minutes later a woman sitting nearby asks us if we’ve seen a black backpack. A-ha! While these two were distracting us, a third person made off with the backpack. Fortunately, it only had her kids’ games, but no passports or plane tickets. My brother mentioned this whole thing to the Nature Air agent. He wasn’t surprised. Happens several times a day he says. Clearly the local government doesn’t much care. They have about five cops in the tiny airport, but they spend their time chatting. There are no security cameras. The guidebooks all say to watch your stuff carefully anywhere in Costa Rica. Petty crime is rampant and this isn't our only brush with it.
We're the only ones flying on the eight-passenger Twin Otter, but security goes through all of our bags and gives us each a pass with the wand. I beep in a few spots, but the woman doesn't care what caused it. The plane's probably 20 years old and doesn't look real great, but Twin Otters are pretty reliable and, heck, it's only a 20-minute flight (versus a three-hour drive). The scenery is beautiful.
The Quepos airport is pretty cool. The terminal is an open-air building with a snack counter, some comfy couches and a couple of tables with activity info. It's heads and tails above the domestic airport in San Jose and that's a good thing because we'll be there a while - one of our bags didn't make the flight. It will be on the next flight in about 20 minutes, we're told. We wait and wait, but no plane. Finally we hear the other plane had engine problems and turned back. We should see our bag in an hour or two. While my mom and I wait, everyone else goes to get the rental cars. A guy working in the airport comes and whispers to me that Mel Gibson will be arriving at the airport in a few minutes. "I've got to get over there and sell him some property," he says.
Next: I Feel the Earth Move Under My Feet
Dec 1, 2004, 10:50 am
#3
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: Long Beach, CA, USA
Programs: DL, AA, US, UA, VX
Posts: 454
Wow! You were there for the quake?? Can't wait to hear all about it. I will be in CR in about 3 weeks and hope I don't, "feel the earth move under my feet"!!! But being a native from California, it wouldn't be the first time.
Waiting anxiously for more! ^
But being a native from California, it wouldn't be the first time. Waiting anxiously for more! ^
Dec 2, 2004, 2:44 pm
#7
Senior Moderator; Moderator, Eco-Conscious Travel, United and Flyertalk Cares
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 1999
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Posts: 17,831
catwood: I had read your Costa Rica reports before the trip and enjoyed them. I really scared myself with the Nature Air reservation. I didn't realize when I made it that they left out of the other airport and I wasn't sure I'd left us enough time to get between the two. Fortunately, it worked out, but we did come back on Sansa.
Waiting for Mr. Gibson
As we wait we meet a woman from San Diego who’s traveling alone and is stressed because she’s waiting to go out on the flight that was supposed to have arrived with our bag. She’s teary eyed and settles down with a beer. We start chatting and she seems to feel better, especially when I tell her Mel Gibson is on his way. “This will make it all worthwhile,” she says.
A few minutes later a chartered twin-engine lands on the runway and out pops about six guys. Gibson is pretty easy to spot. He’s wearing a white baseball cap, safari-type clothes and carrying long rubber boots, as are all the guys. I read later that he, one of his sons and some of his colleagues are in the area to scout movie locations. He walks from the runway to a waiting car, passing me, my mom and our new friend. At first he looks at us and sticks his tongue out. I don’t know if he was messing around or was more feeling like, geez is there not anywhere in the world I can go without people gawking, but he lightened up when our new friend asked for a picture. He stopped and smiled for us all and went on his way. Meanwhile, the local TV crew had shown up and put a camera in his face as his car was pulling out.
Not long after our bag showed up and so did the guys with the cars. My brother, who hangs out with Jim “Jesus” Caviezel’s brother Tim, is bummed he missed Mel. I’m thinking it’s really good he missed him because I know my brother and he probably would have said something really stupid, Like hey, you’ve been passing out diamond-studded Rolexes to all the Caviezels and I’m like one of their brothers, so how about passing one my way? Remember, 34 going on 16.
We rented a couple of small SUVs from Adobe, which were perfect for three per car. Several people who’d visited or lived in Costa Rica, including a few FTers, recommended SUVs because the roads often have deep potholes so it’s nice to have the clearance. They were definitely right on. Even though we have insurance coverage through our credit cards, the agencies there still stick you for an $18-a-day insurance fee (and the one that was less for insurance charged more for the car). In all, these tiny SUVs ran us about $500 each a week. The larger one we got later on was about $700 a week. After the office explained the insurance I would have just as soon had them take a deposit for the full cost of the car and been self-insured. Getting them to pay a claim didn’t seem easy. For any damage – even a small dent – you needed to call the police and get a report, submit to alcohol testing, then call the insurance company, then the agency, then the sister of the governor’s brother’s best friend and finally find a two-toed sloth to put his footprint on all the documents. So maybe that last part’s a slight exaggeration – they would have accepted a three-toed sloth as well – but getting a claim paid seemed like a real hassle. Fortunately we avoided the experience.
Our house in the hills above Manuel Antonio wasn’t quite ready when we arrived at the office so we went for lunch at Mar Luna, on the road between Quepos and Manuel Antonio Park. Though we’d heard this was one of the better restaurants around, lunch was just OK and the total bill came to $90 for six, including a round of margaritas. Most everything we found was priced in dollars.
Next: On to the house
Waiting for Mr. Gibson
As we wait we meet a woman from San Diego who’s traveling alone and is stressed because she’s waiting to go out on the flight that was supposed to have arrived with our bag. She’s teary eyed and settles down with a beer. We start chatting and she seems to feel better, especially when I tell her Mel Gibson is on his way. “This will make it all worthwhile,” she says.
A few minutes later a chartered twin-engine lands on the runway and out pops about six guys. Gibson is pretty easy to spot. He’s wearing a white baseball cap, safari-type clothes and carrying long rubber boots, as are all the guys. I read later that he, one of his sons and some of his colleagues are in the area to scout movie locations. He walks from the runway to a waiting car, passing me, my mom and our new friend. At first he looks at us and sticks his tongue out. I don’t know if he was messing around or was more feeling like, geez is there not anywhere in the world I can go without people gawking, but he lightened up when our new friend asked for a picture. He stopped and smiled for us all and went on his way. Meanwhile, the local TV crew had shown up and put a camera in his face as his car was pulling out.
Not long after our bag showed up and so did the guys with the cars. My brother, who hangs out with Jim “Jesus” Caviezel’s brother Tim, is bummed he missed Mel. I’m thinking it’s really good he missed him because I know my brother and he probably would have said something really stupid, Like hey, you’ve been passing out diamond-studded Rolexes to all the Caviezels and I’m like one of their brothers, so how about passing one my way? Remember, 34 going on 16.
We rented a couple of small SUVs from Adobe, which were perfect for three per car. Several people who’d visited or lived in Costa Rica, including a few FTers, recommended SUVs because the roads often have deep potholes so it’s nice to have the clearance. They were definitely right on. Even though we have insurance coverage through our credit cards, the agencies there still stick you for an $18-a-day insurance fee (and the one that was less for insurance charged more for the car). In all, these tiny SUVs ran us about $500 each a week. The larger one we got later on was about $700 a week. After the office explained the insurance I would have just as soon had them take a deposit for the full cost of the car and been self-insured. Getting them to pay a claim didn’t seem easy. For any damage – even a small dent – you needed to call the police and get a report, submit to alcohol testing, then call the insurance company, then the agency, then the sister of the governor’s brother’s best friend and finally find a two-toed sloth to put his footprint on all the documents. So maybe that last part’s a slight exaggeration – they would have accepted a three-toed sloth as well – but getting a claim paid seemed like a real hassle. Fortunately we avoided the experience.
Our house in the hills above Manuel Antonio wasn’t quite ready when we arrived at the office so we went for lunch at Mar Luna, on the road between Quepos and Manuel Antonio Park. Though we’d heard this was one of the better restaurants around, lunch was just OK and the total bill came to $90 for six, including a round of margaritas. Most everything we found was priced in dollars.
Next: On to the house
Dec 3, 2004, 10:41 am
#8
Senior Moderator; Moderator, Eco-Conscious Travel, United and Flyertalk Cares
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 1999
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Posts: 17,831
Our house was in a gated community (although the gate was usually open) overlooking Manuel Antonio Park and with sweeping views of the ocean. It clung to the hillside and you had to climb about two flights of stairs to reach the first level. The pool and one master was on the first floor, another master on the second, living area and bedroom on the third and a final bedroom on the forth. That high up we could see over the trees and easily enjoy the monkeys and birds. We had such incredible vistas that I really can’t imagine enjoying the beauty of the area from a hotel room. The house was open air, with there being no front wall, so the white-faced monkeys often joined us in the house each morning about 5:30 a.m. (It’s so noisy with animals – birds, howler monkeys, etc. - that once the sun comes up, it’s almost impossible to sleep beyond that.) The monkeys are mostly looking for any food left out, but they also take other things too, including bathing suits. A bathing suit left over a chair ended up hanging in a tree outside the house. We had a full-time maid who did all our laundry and was really terrific and we hired a cook for five of our dinners ($80 a dinner plus groceries). The cook’s meals were hit and miss. We also found two massage therapists to come to the house in the evenings. While most of the spas in the area were about $75 an hour, Itza and her partner were each $50 an hour and did a fabulous job (one of our friends with us is also a massage therapist and she agreed Itza was wonderful). Usually four of us got massages each night beside the pool. There was a guard posted outside the house 24 hours a day. A couple of others roamed the road. In San Jose and Quepos (the town closest to Manuel Antonio) all the homes and commercial buildings had bars surrounding them and razor wire over the top. It appears the crime there is not just aimed at tourists.
The quake
The 6.4 quake was one of the largest the area had suffered in years. It lasted about 25 seconds and was centered about 30 miles, I think, from where our house was. Most of the damage seemed pretty minor – some broken windows in other homes, a few cracks in the walls of our house, dishes falling out of cupboards (there were a couple of deaths though, one from a heartattack). The dog at the house management office, who I’m told is normally very social, stayed in the closet for days after the quake. Our friends who were supposed to meet us at the house on the first day of the rental were driving down from Arenal. They were told the phone lines and roads to Manuel Antonio were out because of the quake and that they would need to wait a day. None of that proved true. Having heard lots of horror stories about difficulties driving in Costa Rica, I figured when our friends didn’t show or call that something dreadful had happened. Fortunately, all was well and they turned up the next afternoon. For about three days after the major quake we had some pretty good aftershocks – one sharp jolt in the middle of the night sent us scrambling upstairs to check on everyone.
Activities
We did a lot of activities in the area – some great, some so-so. We saved quite a bit by booking directly with the operators and by perusing the ads in a local English-language newspaper that we found in town (that’s where we found Itza and also our surfing instructors). Companies that offered to book everything for us tacked on about $15 per person for each activity. Our river raft trip was $80, but would have been $95 had we not booked directly, for instance.
Activities we loved:
River rafting
We booked our river raft trip from the Rafiki Lodge. This lodge is about 90 minutes from Manuel Antonio and was built a few years ago by a South African family. I don’t think you can access it without a 4WD. The family built some lovely tent cabins away from everything that rent for about $200 a night with all meals. We would stay there for two nights or so on our next trip. The river has some class IV rapids on the upper section, but they only run those with lodge guests because they start that early in the morning. The section we ran was mostly IIIs. We saw quite a bit of life on the river, including a Jesus Christ lizard, so named because he walks on water. The guides are all friends of the owners who one of the sons met while at school in Montana. They split us up into an “athletic” boat and a “easy-going” boat. The easy-going folks took a tamer route through the river. What we didn’t know was that being on the “athletic” boat meant the guide’s goal was to flip us (he told us that while we were back at the lodge enjoying drinks). He only succeeded in throwing my brother out of the raft. If someone had to go, he made the right call.
Ziplines and rappelling down a waterfall
We booked a full day of riding the ziplines and doing a canyon tour with Dream Forest Canopy Tours for $90 per person, which included all transportation, lunch and drinks at the end. (It would have been $65 or so without the canyoning portion.) Six of us went on this trip so we had two drivers/guides. One of our guides, Eric, was a kick. Along the way to the zipline site, he stopped to introduce everyone to his family, to have us smell various plants and to show us some calves being branded. My dad jumped in the corral and tried unsuccessfully to lasso a calf. I’d never seen the whole branding and roping thing before. The calves squealed when being roped and thrown to the ground, but were strangely quiet when being branded.
We went on about 9 or 10 ziplines. You wear a rockclimbing harness and then clip into a cable that’s strung between two trees. You pretty much just sit back and enjoy the ride. (Later in the trip, half way between San Jose and Arenal, we went on a zipline that’s supposed to allow you to reach speeds of 80 kph. It’s a kick.)
We had lunch at the Bummpy (sic) Road Café (which is on the way to Rafiki). Lunch was very good and I’m guessing it wasn’t more than a couple dollars a person. A 6- or 7-foot-long crocodile hangs out in the river below the café.
The canyoning part involved a fairly steep hike along a river. At the end of the hike we crossed through the river and rappelled down the side of a waterfall and into a deep pool. From there, there were a series of pools we jumped off rocks into. On the way back, we stopped at a roadside bar and the guides bought us all a beer for about $1 each. They told us in Costa Rica it’s legal for everyone but the driver to drink in a moving vehicle. We had a blast and invited the guides to dinner. What’s two more when someone else is doing the cooking? (Truth, the cook seemed to think there was about 20 of us, as she always prepared way more food than we ate.)
Surfing
It was $10 an hour to rent a board on the beach near the park entrance, but in the local paper I found Manuel Antonio Surf Shop (MASS) offered a three-hour lesson for $45. About five of us booked the surf lesson. There was three instructors, so we got a lot of personal attention. My friend Xeno was the best on the board, and I can confidently say I was the worst. The most important thing I learned was not to surf in a strapless bathing suit.
Activities we didn’t love so much:
It’s $7 per person to get into Manuel Antonio Park and you can pay an additional $20 per person for a private guide with a high-powered telescope who will show you animals. We did the guide thing and, while we saw a lot of animals through a lens, over the course of a week in the area you’re going to see all those animals anyway and a whole lot closer.
Next: Leaving Manuel Antonio for Tabacon/Arenal
The quake
The 6.4 quake was one of the largest the area had suffered in years. It lasted about 25 seconds and was centered about 30 miles, I think, from where our house was. Most of the damage seemed pretty minor – some broken windows in other homes, a few cracks in the walls of our house, dishes falling out of cupboards (there were a couple of deaths though, one from a heartattack). The dog at the house management office, who I’m told is normally very social, stayed in the closet for days after the quake. Our friends who were supposed to meet us at the house on the first day of the rental were driving down from Arenal. They were told the phone lines and roads to Manuel Antonio were out because of the quake and that they would need to wait a day. None of that proved true. Having heard lots of horror stories about difficulties driving in Costa Rica, I figured when our friends didn’t show or call that something dreadful had happened. Fortunately, all was well and they turned up the next afternoon. For about three days after the major quake we had some pretty good aftershocks – one sharp jolt in the middle of the night sent us scrambling upstairs to check on everyone.
Activities
We did a lot of activities in the area – some great, some so-so. We saved quite a bit by booking directly with the operators and by perusing the ads in a local English-language newspaper that we found in town (that’s where we found Itza and also our surfing instructors). Companies that offered to book everything for us tacked on about $15 per person for each activity. Our river raft trip was $80, but would have been $95 had we not booked directly, for instance.
Activities we loved:
River rafting
We booked our river raft trip from the Rafiki Lodge. This lodge is about 90 minutes from Manuel Antonio and was built a few years ago by a South African family. I don’t think you can access it without a 4WD. The family built some lovely tent cabins away from everything that rent for about $200 a night with all meals. We would stay there for two nights or so on our next trip. The river has some class IV rapids on the upper section, but they only run those with lodge guests because they start that early in the morning. The section we ran was mostly IIIs. We saw quite a bit of life on the river, including a Jesus Christ lizard, so named because he walks on water. The guides are all friends of the owners who one of the sons met while at school in Montana. They split us up into an “athletic” boat and a “easy-going” boat. The easy-going folks took a tamer route through the river. What we didn’t know was that being on the “athletic” boat meant the guide’s goal was to flip us (he told us that while we were back at the lodge enjoying drinks). He only succeeded in throwing my brother out of the raft. If someone had to go, he made the right call.
Ziplines and rappelling down a waterfall
We booked a full day of riding the ziplines and doing a canyon tour with Dream Forest Canopy Tours for $90 per person, which included all transportation, lunch and drinks at the end. (It would have been $65 or so without the canyoning portion.) Six of us went on this trip so we had two drivers/guides. One of our guides, Eric, was a kick. Along the way to the zipline site, he stopped to introduce everyone to his family, to have us smell various plants and to show us some calves being branded. My dad jumped in the corral and tried unsuccessfully to lasso a calf. I’d never seen the whole branding and roping thing before. The calves squealed when being roped and thrown to the ground, but were strangely quiet when being branded.
We went on about 9 or 10 ziplines. You wear a rockclimbing harness and then clip into a cable that’s strung between two trees. You pretty much just sit back and enjoy the ride. (Later in the trip, half way between San Jose and Arenal, we went on a zipline that’s supposed to allow you to reach speeds of 80 kph. It’s a kick.)
We had lunch at the Bummpy (sic) Road Café (which is on the way to Rafiki). Lunch was very good and I’m guessing it wasn’t more than a couple dollars a person. A 6- or 7-foot-long crocodile hangs out in the river below the café.
The canyoning part involved a fairly steep hike along a river. At the end of the hike we crossed through the river and rappelled down the side of a waterfall and into a deep pool. From there, there were a series of pools we jumped off rocks into. On the way back, we stopped at a roadside bar and the guides bought us all a beer for about $1 each. They told us in Costa Rica it’s legal for everyone but the driver to drink in a moving vehicle. We had a blast and invited the guides to dinner. What’s two more when someone else is doing the cooking?
(Truth, the cook seemed to think there was about 20 of us, as she always prepared way more food than we ate.)Surfing
It was $10 an hour to rent a board on the beach near the park entrance, but in the local paper I found Manuel Antonio Surf Shop (MASS) offered a three-hour lesson for $45. About five of us booked the surf lesson. There was three instructors, so we got a lot of personal attention. My friend Xeno was the best on the board, and I can confidently say I was the worst. The most important thing I learned was not to surf in a strapless bathing suit.
Activities we didn’t love so much:
It’s $7 per person to get into Manuel Antonio Park and you can pay an additional $20 per person for a private guide with a high-powered telescope who will show you animals. We did the guide thing and, while we saw a lot of animals through a lens, over the course of a week in the area you’re going to see all those animals anyway and a whole lot closer.
Next: Leaving Manuel Antonio for Tabacon/Arenal
Dec 8, 2004, 8:54 am
#12
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Thanks for the comments. 
On our last night there was a nice heavy rain (our only real rain of the trip). I had found some mahogany and leather chairs I wanted in town and, as we had an early flight out of Quepos, this would be my only chance to buy them. I started to run down the stairs, fell and ended up bouncing down the rest of the way. So I not only bought four chairs, but a nice supply of Tylenol with codeine, which I’m still living on. (You can buy many drugs that require a prescription in the U.S. over the counter in Costa Rica. Most pharmacies have a doctor on staff who’s very helpful.)
That night we also went out to Bamboo Jam, a restaurant/club that had live jazz. The music was good and we saw pretty much everyone there who we'd met in the area during the last week.
I could have stayed at the house another week or two, but we were off in the morning for Arenal. Six of us and one woman who was separated from her boyfriend went on a Sansa Piper Navajo up to San Jose. The plane was much more attractive and newer looking than our Nature Air plane, but Rod puts a lot more trust in Twin Otters so he wasn’t too comfortable. The woman sat next to Zach and asked him if I was his sister. She’s my new very best friend though I didn’t catch her name. (Zach, of course, told me the woman knew I was his mother, but was only being polite. “She didn’t want to ask if you were my mother for the same reason you wouldn’t ask someone if she was pregnant,” he told me. Grrr. Teenagers.)
We squished into one SUV for the drive to Arenal. The drive there is very easy, with nicely paved roads and good signage. The drive back is another story.
About mid-way we stopped at a restaurant and had one of the better meals we’d had in Costa Rica. I don’t know the name, but a zipline concession is there too and they have dummies on ziplines dangling over the roadway. They offer a half-day thing on multiple lines, but we were interested in just doing their very long lone that supposedly gets you up to 80kph. That was only $10 and, they threw in their Tarzan swing (a long cable hooked to a tree in a clearing) and another zipline back to the restaurant. None of it was a big adrenaline rush, but it was fun and worth $10. The only downside was you had to climb up about eight to 10 flights of stairs to get to each of the two ziplines - not fun when your tailbone hurts like crazy.
When we got to Tabacon we immediately went to check out the thermal pools. A short walk (or shuttle ride) from the hotel is their spa and pool area. It’s open to the public at 10 a.m. for $29 a person (not worth it) or included for hotel guests. (It also opens to hotel guests at 8 a.m. – the only time really worth going if you like solitude). Apparently the pools are fed by thermal springs. All are at slightly different temperatures and are surrounded by lush landscaping. There are some waterfalls you can sit in and behind as well. There are two bars and one of them, the new one not in a pool, has happy hours twice a day, which we made good use of.
Every room and suite at the hotel has a view of Arenal, but Arenal is frequently covered by clouds. You can request that the hotel call your room at any hour of the day or night if the volcano becomes visible, which we did.
I fell asleep before dinner and Rod and Zach went to the hotel restaurant, which they said was awful. While they were there though, a hotel employee came in and said the clouds had cleared and the volcano was visible. The restaurant cleared out. Rod and Zach saw orange lava flowing down the left side of the volcano and some red and orange shooting out the top. Rod called me within a couple of minutes, but the volcano had already clouded over again.
The next morning I got up at 4:30 a.m. and the volcano was clear. While I didn’t get to see any colors, you could see steam pouring out side vents and from the cone. It clouded over again within an hour.
A buffet breakfast is included in the room rate and it was pretty good. They had cooked-to-order omelets, fresh-squeezed juices and other breakfast fare. Rod and I went back to the pools at 8 a.m. and pretty much had the place to ourselves (it was pretty crowded in the evening). Most of us had spa appointments that day too, including some manscaping for my brother and a manicure, pedicure and wax for me. I’m so wishing I’d tipped my brother’s attendant to let me slyly assist with his waxing. How often do opportunities like that come along - yet I blew it. Spa services were not as thorough as they should have been.
Others went to check out Arenal Observatory Lodge, which they thought was very cool and the place to stay in the area. We had tried to get in there but it was booked. Ironically, I met a man on the flight home who stayed there because Tabacon was booked.
Zach hung out at the hotel lobby and made use of the free WiFi. He picked up his email and got some really exciting news – he’s been named one of Teen People magazine’s 20 Teens Most Likely to Change the World or something like that (I just know it’s not the 20 Teens Most Likely to Clean Their Rooms). He’ll be in the April issue, feted at a luncheon in New York and get some scholarship money. This all goes back to FlyerTalk in a big way because that’s where the Wall Street Journal first learned of his airline water testing results, which led to the EPA action and so on. Thank you FlyerTalk!
We intended to drive back to San Jose during daylight, but that didn’t happen. There are some artsy stores in nearby La Fortuna so I had to check those out, and a friend recommended a restaurant there – Las Brasitas. It’s the first place on the left when entering Fortuna from Tabacon. Service and food were excellent.
Driving back to San Jose was a real challenge. It’s not well signed and people are walking or cycling in the middle of the roads. In the dark, they’re pretty tough to spot. It was a relief to finally make it to the Hampton Inn and Suites at the airport about 10 p.m. The hotel was exactly what a Hampton should be – no complaints.
Finally: An unusual flight home and a chance meeting with a FTer
On our last night there was a nice heavy rain (our only real rain of the trip). I had found some mahogany and leather chairs I wanted in town and, as we had an early flight out of Quepos, this would be my only chance to buy them. I started to run down the stairs, fell and ended up bouncing down the rest of the way. So I not only bought four chairs, but a nice supply of Tylenol with codeine, which I’m still living on. (You can buy many drugs that require a prescription in the U.S. over the counter in Costa Rica. Most pharmacies have a doctor on staff who’s very helpful.)
That night we also went out to Bamboo Jam, a restaurant/club that had live jazz. The music was good and we saw pretty much everyone there who we'd met in the area during the last week.
I could have stayed at the house another week or two, but we were off in the morning for Arenal. Six of us and one woman who was separated from her boyfriend went on a Sansa Piper Navajo up to San Jose. The plane was much more attractive and newer looking than our Nature Air plane, but Rod puts a lot more trust in Twin Otters so he wasn’t too comfortable. The woman sat next to Zach and asked him if I was his sister. She’s my new very best friend though I didn’t catch her name. (Zach, of course, told me the woman knew I was his mother, but was only being polite. “She didn’t want to ask if you were my mother for the same reason you wouldn’t ask someone if she was pregnant,” he told me. Grrr. Teenagers.)
We squished into one SUV for the drive to Arenal. The drive there is very easy, with nicely paved roads and good signage. The drive back is another story.
About mid-way we stopped at a restaurant and had one of the better meals we’d had in Costa Rica. I don’t know the name, but a zipline concession is there too and they have dummies on ziplines dangling over the roadway. They offer a half-day thing on multiple lines, but we were interested in just doing their very long lone that supposedly gets you up to 80kph. That was only $10 and, they threw in their Tarzan swing (a long cable hooked to a tree in a clearing) and another zipline back to the restaurant. None of it was a big adrenaline rush, but it was fun and worth $10. The only downside was you had to climb up about eight to 10 flights of stairs to get to each of the two ziplines - not fun when your tailbone hurts like crazy.
When we got to Tabacon we immediately went to check out the thermal pools. A short walk (or shuttle ride) from the hotel is their spa and pool area. It’s open to the public at 10 a.m. for $29 a person (not worth it) or included for hotel guests. (It also opens to hotel guests at 8 a.m. – the only time really worth going if you like solitude). Apparently the pools are fed by thermal springs. All are at slightly different temperatures and are surrounded by lush landscaping. There are some waterfalls you can sit in and behind as well. There are two bars and one of them, the new one not in a pool, has happy hours twice a day, which we made good use of.
Every room and suite at the hotel has a view of Arenal, but Arenal is frequently covered by clouds. You can request that the hotel call your room at any hour of the day or night if the volcano becomes visible, which we did.
I fell asleep before dinner and Rod and Zach went to the hotel restaurant, which they said was awful. While they were there though, a hotel employee came in and said the clouds had cleared and the volcano was visible. The restaurant cleared out. Rod and Zach saw orange lava flowing down the left side of the volcano and some red and orange shooting out the top. Rod called me within a couple of minutes, but the volcano had already clouded over again.
The next morning I got up at 4:30 a.m. and the volcano was clear. While I didn’t get to see any colors, you could see steam pouring out side vents and from the cone. It clouded over again within an hour.
A buffet breakfast is included in the room rate and it was pretty good. They had cooked-to-order omelets, fresh-squeezed juices and other breakfast fare. Rod and I went back to the pools at 8 a.m. and pretty much had the place to ourselves (it was pretty crowded in the evening). Most of us had spa appointments that day too, including some manscaping for my brother and a manicure, pedicure and wax for me. I’m so wishing I’d tipped my brother’s attendant to let me slyly assist with his waxing. How often do opportunities like that come along - yet I blew it. Spa services were not as thorough as they should have been.
Others went to check out Arenal Observatory Lodge, which they thought was very cool and the place to stay in the area. We had tried to get in there but it was booked. Ironically, I met a man on the flight home who stayed there because Tabacon was booked.
Zach hung out at the hotel lobby and made use of the free WiFi. He picked up his email and got some really exciting news – he’s been named one of Teen People magazine’s 20 Teens Most Likely to Change the World or something like that (I just know it’s not the 20 Teens Most Likely to Clean Their Rooms). He’ll be in the April issue, feted at a luncheon in New York and get some scholarship money. This all goes back to FlyerTalk in a big way because that’s where the Wall Street Journal first learned of his airline water testing results, which led to the EPA action and so on. Thank you FlyerTalk!
We intended to drive back to San Jose during daylight, but that didn’t happen. There are some artsy stores in nearby La Fortuna so I had to check those out, and a friend recommended a restaurant there – Las Brasitas. It’s the first place on the left when entering Fortuna from Tabacon. Service and food were excellent.
Driving back to San Jose was a real challenge. It’s not well signed and people are walking or cycling in the middle of the roads. In the dark, they’re pretty tough to spot. It was a relief to finally make it to the Hampton Inn and Suites at the airport about 10 p.m. The hotel was exactly what a Hampton should be – no complaints.
Finally: An unusual flight home and a chance meeting with a FTer
Last edited by l etoile; Dec 8, 2004 at 2:53 pm
Dec 8, 2004, 10:56 am
#14
Senior Moderator; Moderator, Eco-Conscious Travel, United and Flyertalk Cares
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 1999
Location: Fulltime travel/mostly Europe
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Posts: 17,831
Originally Posted by Sam - DFW
I'm so glad that you had such a wonderful trip.
Pura Vida
Sam
Pura Vida
Sam
Dec 8, 2004, 1:08 pm
#15
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Portland, OR
Programs: NW Plat (now they call it DL Diamond) 1MM, soon to be DL Plat, Hilton Diamond, SPG Gold, Dusit Gold
Posts: 2,706
Fortunately, your night-time return drive was on fairly good, but narrow roads. We got lost in the little town about half way from La Fortuna to the Pan Am highway in the middle of the day. As adventurous and aggressive a driver as I am, I would not relish driving back in the dark.
Glad you enjoyed your time in Costa Rica. We skipped the restaurant for dinner and went to a BBQ soda on the outskirts of La Fortuna. It was marginal, but the cowgirl waitresses were a kick.
Glad you enjoyed your time in Costa Rica. We skipped the restaurant for dinner and went to a BBQ soda on the outskirts of La Fortuna. It was marginal, but the cowgirl waitresses were a kick.