We arived at SJO airport around 6:30 in the morning. I was absolutely exhausted. The one thing that I forgot and kept kicking myself about was my pillow from home. It would have made the red eye much better. Plus, the pillows at almost all our hotels were the foam eggshell kind or they were really thin. It would have been worth dragging a pillow around.
Getting through the airport was pretty easy. We took only one backpack each and boy was I glad. This was the best decision we made. It made it easy to get around, fly and carry our stuff with us when we didn't want to leave it in the car. No problems taking them as carry on. If we had our luggage with us (moving from one location to the next) we would carry it with us into restaurants or on the ferry. We were a bit paranoid, but better safe than sorry.
We used TriColor and everything went smoothly. No hidden costs. We had a quote that inlcuded all insurances. We told them what our credit card covered and they deducted it right away from the total. When we got off the plane they had someone there with a sign for us. They tried to get us to do a cell phone plan, but when we said no thanks they didn't push at all. Everything was explained very clearly to us.
A little after eight we were on the road. The directions from the car rental with landmarks made the drive very easy.
ARENAL PARAISO
We arrived pretty early around 11. We checked in early (no previous arrangements) and they just asked us to give them until 12 to finish cleaning the room. I don't think check-in started for another couple hours so we were happy this was easy.
SODA DE LA PARADA
We went to lunch at SODA DE LA PARADA (I'll check on the name) right across from the church. One of my husband's favorite meals. Two casados and a huge coke was $6. Casados are a Costa Rican meal. Josh asked me what the word meant. When I told him "married" he looked at me puzzled. I don't know why they call it that either. But the casados were always very filling - a meat, rice, beans, plantains, salad and yuca or mashed potatoes.
We had a few minutes to spare after lunch, so we drove around town to get acclimated and went back to the hotel. The room was ready and we threw our stuff down before heading to skytrek.
The rooms were plenty nice enough for us. The AC kept it cool and we had a good view of the volcano from our standard room. I had heard this place was rustic, and I think I was expecting it to not be as nice as it was.
SKYTREK
The drive to SKYTREK took about 20 minutes. The 8 km dirt road was one of the worst roads we drove on our entire trip. I don't think there was any way we could have gotten there if we didn't have a high clearance.
Skytrek consisted of a 20 minute ride up into the jungle on the Skytram. We had a guide with us and one other couple. The other couple was local and didn't speak English so the guide would say everything twice. It was extremely quiet and peaceful. Once you are at the top, you have three choices to come back down. 1. Take the tram back 2. Take the hiking trails or 3. Ziplines. We opted for number 3.
The guide gave us plenty of time at the top to relax and take in the scenery. You can see 90% of the lake as well as the volcano. The guide gave me some background on the lake and the power sources in Costa Rica. This was only our first day and already we had realized how eco friendly this country was.
The canopy tour was amazing. So much fun. We saw an eruption while we were on the top. The volcano was clear for almost all our stay except at night. We saw a big puff of black smoke come out of the top, boulders going down the side and heard a huge rumbled. Even the guide got excited. Apparently, at night these same boulders are the red streaks. We never saw the lava at night, so I can't compare the two.
The zip lines were a blast and the view amazing. I took their instructions to hold your knees up as high as you could too seriously I guess. Apparently, I was going super fast and at the end I couldn't slow down enough. When they pulled me to a halt I bounced up and hit the line and got a burn on my knee. The guides kept teaching me how to stop better. I was trying so hard and I just wasn't strong enough to stop it quickly. I think they thought I was doing it on purpose.
My knee hurt for a while. Nothing horrible, but I learned my lesson.
EL NOVILLO & LA CHOZA DE LAUREL
We started out by going to El Novillo. On the way home from Skytrek, two locals that had done the tour with us asked for a lift. They suggested a few places and pointed out where El Novillo was. He suggested another steakhouse outside of town, but we couldn't figure out where it was. I had never heard of it before.
We went to El Novillo first. After reading all the reviews I was excited to try it. When we get there (it was still pretty early) we were the only people there. Neither of us was too thrilled at the menu so we had a drink and moved on. Our lunch had been so cheap, that I think we were a little taken back because it wasn't quite as cheap.
I will say that we didn't try the food and I'm sure it was probably very good. I think the fact that there were absolutely no other people there took away from the ambience for us. Had it been later with more people I'm sure we would have stayed.
We ended up eating dinner at La Choza de Laurel as recommended by our new friends. Very cool restaurant. Pretty rustic and open aired. Cool timber architecture. We both had the roasted chicken which is their specialty. For some reason my 1/4 plate was almost as much meat as his 1/2 plate.
The place was packed and some folks had to wait for tables. I loved the place. Josh liked the lunch food better, but we thought the atmosphere was great here.
The table behind us was trying to figure out what the catch of the day was. The waiter didn't know how to translate it into English so he just brought the whole fish out. We thought that was pretty neat.
This is the restaurant where we were introduced to this new way of drinking Coronas. When I ordered a Corona, the waiter said "con limon?". I said sure. They ended up squeezing fresh lemon juice into the bottom of the glass,pouring in a corona and then putting salt on the glass like a margarita. We've been drinking Coronas like this since we got back.
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