Costa Rica - Day 3 Montezuma

ARENAL PARAISO BREAKFASTS

The breakfast the first day was wonderful. The best breakfast we had our entire trip. Tons of food. The second day wasn't quite as good (they had different main dishes) but still tastey. I think the fact that we were stuffing our faces as quickly as possible may have made a difference. We were terrified of getting lost on the way to the ferry and missing it.

CHECKING OUT

Overall we were very disappointed with the staff at Arenal Paraiso.

I had asked them to make reservations at Eco Termales and they wouldn't.

I asked them to help me with the ferry times and they said they didn't know three was a ferry in Puntarenas. When I pressed they said oh yes it goes every 2 hours. The phones in the rooms weren't working so I asked if they would call and they told me that the ferries don't have offices. I told him they did. They refused to look it up and told me to bring them the number. I did and they finally agreed to call after some more hassling.

I had heard of other people being given the wrong rates during check out. Sure enough they did the same thing to me and seemed bothered by the fact that I made them correct it.

That being said the accomodations were quite nice and I was pleased with the hotel otherwise.

THE TRIP TO MONTEZUMA

Was pretty uneventful. We got a little lost in San Ramon coming back but I asked some folks for directions and they pointed me in the right direction. It is amazing how well I can speak Spanish when under pressure. I hate being lost. People were always willing to stop on the side of the road and point me in the right direction.

Our frive to Puntarenas only took about 2 1/2 hours so we were about an hour early for the ferry. That turned out fine because we got in line.

One of the funniest things of the trip happened while waiting in line for the ferry. I had left the car to go find out how to buy tickets. Josh stayed with the car because he doesn't speak a lick of Spanish. When I came back he was dozing in the driver's seat with the window rolled down. I saw that an elderly lady was stopped at the car in front of us talking to the driver. Then she started walking past our car. I looked up and noticed that she was coming back. She stops right by Josh's head and just talks to herself for a good minute. I had no idea what to do and had no clue what she was saying. Then she looks at Josh, grabs his arm and starts laughing hysterically. I think she might have been senile. She started making gun signs with her fingers and that is when Josh rolled the window up on her. That taught Josh not to sleep in public. I will never forget the look of shock on his face when he opened his eyes and saw this old toothless woman staring straight at him.

One tip for the ferry. If you don't want to sit in the sun, make sure the passenger gets on with all the other walk ons right away. I waited with my husband until the last minute and thre were no seats outside in the shade.

EL SANO BANANO

We checked into the hotel in the early afternoon. The hotel office is easy to find. They showed us where to park. They had a guy on a motorcycle move so that we could take his spot. They didn't want us to park under the palm tree and have coconuts fall on our car. I thought that was very kind of them.

We were picked up and driven along the beach to the resort.

This place is gorgeous. By far my favorite place we stayed. We had bungalow 4. My reservations were for number 2 but a couple getting married that night was in that one. I will say that in my opinion 4 and 1 are better. Only because they are on the ends. The path to get to the bungalows leads between 2 and 3. Number 2 is the least private, followed by 3. Just my opinion.

The pool was gorgeous. We loved listening to the waves and thunderstorm at night in bed. Extremely peacefu.

PLAYA GRANDE

After putting our stuff down we put on our suits and headed to Playa Grande. A bit of a hike. About 20 minutes. At first I wasn't sure how I would know when were there. We followed some paths through the jungle and I thought we were going astray. We then came to a rocky beach and I thought is this it? We decided to keep going because we saw footprints ahead and sure enough, we knew when we were there.

It was a huge beautiful beach. We heard the monkeys for the first time there. Only a couple other people there. Good beach to play in the water.

DINNER

We wanted to go to Playa de Los Artistes. However, it was very dark and we turned back before making it all the way there.

We ended up going to LAS GEMELAS. Nothing to write home about but cheap and a good vibe. Pretty good casados. Quite a few folks there that night. We had tried to go to Cocolores but they are closed on Mondays.