We flew out of Orlando on Thursday, October 11. Flights were not too expensive - $250/pp roundtrip! October is the slow time for Costa Rica and so prices are at its lowest. Also, it means that less people are around to crowd up all the tourist areas. The reason it is a slow time is because it is their rainy season. We were SO fortunate because this has been a really bad year for them in receiving rain. It really only rained while we were sleeping or driving from one city to another - we were so lucky!
We had a direct flight from Orlando through Jet Blue. I haven't flown with Jet Blue in so long and it was SO nice - they give you REAL snacks (not just a bag of 5 salty peanuts) and have free in flight entertainment - we watched Brave on the way there and I watched Rock of Ages and Omar watched Madagascar 3 on the flight back. There was actually foot space. We were not so fortunate to sit next to a girl that went to the bathroom 4 times on the 3 hour flight. She was at the window seat - you would have thought she would offer to sit at the end if she was going to go to the bathroom so much.
Customs took us 30 minutes to get through and then we walked outside to the madness. There were TONS of Costa Ricans holding up signs everywhere. We didn't know where to go to find our car rental place. Finally a guy helped us when we told him what we were looking for and hidden in the pack of 50 or more people was a guy with our name on his little peice of paper. We went to the car rental place where we were told we couldn't use the car insurance we purchased prior to coming because of laws regarding car rentals. We had to purchase their car insurance or they wouldn't rent us the car. Lesson learned for next time.
Our car was similar to what we know in the States as a Toyota Rav4 but is smaller and not as nice. Omar got the Standard because it is cheaper and figured he would be driving the whole time in CR. I have never been taught how to drive a standard. Thank goodness we got a GPS - it was so worth every penny - I have no idea how we would have found anything without it. The roads in general were not that bad at all - most were paved and in pretty good shape. It was much better than in Honduras.
It took us 3 hours to drive from San Jose to Manuel Antonio. Tolls cost us about $6. The distance between the 2 places is not very long mile wise but since we go through the mountains and there is often only one lane and semis on the roads as well, it takes so long to get anywhere.
We stopped at a Soda on the road. A Soda is like a little eatery place that a local owns and operates. They are usually pretty inexpensive - at least if you aren't near any tourist areas. Our first Soda was SO YUMMY! I got watermelon ceviche and fried fish. I loved it!
On the way to Manuel Antonio I thought we should stop through Jaco becuase I wasn't sure if we would pass it on the way to our next stop in Quepos. We went to the beach which the sand was almost black. It wasn't a beach that I would really want to spend much time at. We drove through the town area and it was pretty touristy with restaurants like Red Lobster and stuff.
There are some other beaches nearby that we didn't check out like Playa Hermosa. Maybe next time I would see those as well because I hear they are nicer.
We got to Manuel Antonio right as the sun was setting at 5:20pm. I convinced Omar to stop so I could try to get a shot of the beautiful sunset over the Pacific Ocean.
We checked into the Byblos Hotel and Casino. We stayed in a bungalow in the jungle - it was really nice. Monkeys frequent our hotel - so I thought it would be fun. Breakfast was included each morning as well (seems to be pretty traditional with the hotels to offer free breakfast). By 6pm it was completely pitch black outside.
We ate dinner at this restaurant that was made out of an old airplane. It has an incredible view of the water and mountains - since it was so dark we didn't really get to enjoy the view. That was one of our most expensive meals on the trip $40 basically. We learned that eating at restaurants in the tourist areas it is way over priced. We enjoyed the Soda restaurant food more anyhow.
When we got back to the hotel the only thing on was the Vice Presidential Debate in the States. I thought that was hilarious. I watched some of it before I fell completely asleep from exhaustion. I thought it was so ironic that you can't escape US politics anywhere you go.
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