When I went to New Orleans, Mexico and Aruba I forced myself to pick one picture from each unique place. The trip to Costa Rica was so diverse that each location felt like it's own individual trip. I started out in a large, modern city, I was in the mountains, I was in the jungle, I was at volcanoes, I was at the beach....so diverse!! So, I am going to choose just one photo from each location. This might even be harder than the other trip!
The first stop was in the capital city of San Jose. The hotel was absolutely amazing and modern and it was directly across from a huge three story mall. We took a day trip to attempt to see a volcano. Trouble is that 70% of the time the volcano is fogged in and you can't see a thing. That was the case this day. However, on the way to the volcano we randomly drove past what ended up being the most special sight of the day for me. Before the trip I had read about the ox carts that are used in Costa Rica and how they brightly decorate them and that it was a fun souvenir item to pick up. I was amazed when we drove past this farmer, with his ox, on the side of the road collecting greens to feed the ox with his amazing brightly colored ox cart. The fact that this cart was being used in a daily mundane routine task blew my mind. Such beauty in the simplicity.
Here are two pictures which might be cheating but oh well:
After a two night stay in San Jose we boarded a boat to travel to our lodge in Tortugeuro. The lodge has no tv, air conditioning, telephone, sporadic Internet and a ton of wildlife. While here I took four river cruises, woke to the sounds of howler monkeys, swam in the turtle shaped pool and I got to see newly born turtles race for the water. It's almost impossible to pick one moment but I sort of fell in love with these monkeys. This guy looks so cool just laid back and relaxing.
After rustic Tortuguero it felt like Fortuna was a metropolitan city but it's actually a very small town right at the base of a volcano. It is here that I went zip lining. I spent several hours zipping across 13 lines including a Tarzan swing right in the middle. It was an amazing once in a life experience and it overshadows everything else that happened in Fortuna. Eco Glide
From Fortuna we headed to Guanacaste to the JW Marriott beach resort. I spent all day laying next to the pool and swimming in the ocean. The pool is the largest infinity pool in Central America and you stand at the edge and it looks like you could just step right into the ocean. I started drinking fruity drinks at 10 am and I sat in the sun until my body cried uncle. It was such a nice respite after long travel packed days. I don't have many pictures because I left my phone and camera in the room all day. It was one of those days to just live on the other side of the camera lens. Here is my hotel room and I will just share that after several days of not being able to flush toilet paper we all agreed that flushing was a highlight of this room! It's one of those "you had to be there to appreciate it " things!
From there it was time to head back to San Jose for one last night before leaving. At the hotel my dear Carlos kept popping up sort of like "Where's Waldo", Part of the joy of the trip was having Carlos Arredondo shadowing our group and sharing the experience with us. He photo bombed our group picture (he's the blue speck in the back with the bright light shining over him-coincidence?) and here is a better picture of this dear man.
I returned to the United States and I was really thrilled to be back on US soil even if it was Newark. I'm fortunate I got to experience this once in a life time trip and more fortunate that I had things at home to look forward to return to.
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