Day 13 Barcelo Tambor

J awoke early (5 AM) to go check out the sunrise on the ocean. I elected to stay and sleep and judging by J’s review of the sunrise, I was happy to have slept. He said it was in the top 1,000 sunrises he had seen in his lifetime!

When I woke up it was 27 C and very humid outside. Just as I was leaving the room, Tanner from our group excitedly pointed out that we could watch monkeys from our patio facing the forest - so he took me out there to see them!  That is one of the bonuses of travelling in a group - sharing of information that you might not otherwise know about!

J returned from his outing and grabbed his camera to get pictures. I watched with my binoculars!  The howler monkeys were actively jumping from tree to tree. 

A howler monkey I captured with my phone. 

We ate breakfast then joined the group at the front desk at 8:30 AM where our guide Laura took us on a walk of the property.  We immediately saw a group of three howler monkeys in the trees. 

Laura showed us a cashew fruit (pictured above). Each fruit produces only one cashew (enclosed in the brown part below the yellow fruit). It helped me understand why cashews are so expensive if each fruit produces one single nut!

This was a photo I took from our patio of the cashew tree in our forest area. You can see the yellow and orange fruit hanging from the tree just about in the middle of the picture. 

Laura showed us leaf cutter ants, termites, ginger plants and all kinds of other Costa Rican native species. 

Here Laura is showing a fluff that comes off the kapok tree. It is kind of like a cotton fibre - though not used commercially. In her left hand she is showing the kapok seed - which had a very sticky residue inside, sometimes used for soap. 

After our 90 minute walk I was dripping with sweat and sought out the air conditioning of our room. J joined me, as did our Caravan friends Brenda and Ted, who were having their room cleaned when we returned. 

At lunch, I ventured into new territory and tried a green salad. Nobody seems to have gotten sick on this tour, so I have to think the fresh vegetables are safe. We still only drink bottled or filtered water - which is, surprisingly, a bit tough to find in the restaurant!

Directly after lunch J and I decided to go for a walk on the beach. The tide was out so we had about 4 km available to walk. I needed water before I got to the end of the beach but we still walked a good distance!

They have horses on the property that made these tracks in the sand. 

This is one of the buildings of our resort. Nobody occupied the chairs on the beach - they preferred the pool instead!

After I rehydrated and cooled off in the room, I went for a swim. I must take a picture of the main pool to post tomorrow. J went for another walk. He then joined me poolside for a lovely visit with Annemarie and Leonard. 

I enjoyed the coolness of the room again to write my blog and we are going back to the Italian restaurant tonight - where Nancy and Mark from New York State will join us!

I will be interested to hear how some of our fellow travellers made out this evening. They took a boat ride out for a bioluminescent tour, with the opportunity to snorkel - but that will be in the dark, so I hope it was a success. 

Day 12 La Fortuna to Tambor Beach

With bags out at 6:15 AM and departure at 7:15 AM we had an early alarm once again today. 

Before we leave the Magic Mountain Resort, I wanted to share the a photo that a member of our tour took of Arenal Volcano last night. We all had views of the volcano, but Puneet had a fabulous view, uninterrupted by trees. There was even more cloud cover at the top of the volcano this morning when we were pulling away. 

We drove for about 40 minutes where we stopped at a wonderful excursion called Mistico Park. It perhaps is more commonly known as the hanging bridges. 

Our guide Laura told us we had a selection of a 2 mile walk, a 1 mile walk, a 15 minute walk or a seat in the coffee shop!  J and I were in the largest group of 22 that walked 2 miles (3.2 km). We had a guide Edgar who pointed out wildlife for us to enjoy. 

We were in a rainforest with something to see every direction!  

These were some of the views we had from the hanging bridges!

And here we are on a hanging bridge!

Excursions like this are always a good opportunity to meet other people on the tour and hear more of their life stories!  And this 2 hour walk was hot!!  I was dripping with sweat between the 28 C temperature and the  high humidity!

This was our group posing for the whole group of 38 posing for a photo at the end of the walk, with Arenal Volcano in the background. 

We boarded the bus and started driving away from the northern province of Alajuela heading towards the Western province of Guanacaste.  

We drove for two hours (whereby I was tired enough to sleep but the roads are so curvy that a person kind of lurches in their seat).  We then stopped for lunch in a private dairy farm. Caravan helped support this family by building a facility overlooking the lowlands. This family is guaranteed business to provide lunch as Caravan brings in bus tours every day from mid December to late April. They had a souvenirs shop with well priced souvenirs too. 

Our lunch view!

You might see large windmills in the background. 12% of electricity in Costa Rica comes from wind power. 76% comes from hydroelectricity, 10% comes from geothermal and 2% comes from solar. 

After lunch we drove another couple of hours to a little pottery stop. We had a demonstration of traditionally made pottery using clay and sand and natural dyes. There was also the option to eat simple ice cream for $1. This was much appreciated as I realized I was dehydrated today after the hike in the heat. 

We then boarded the bus for our last drive of the day to Barcela Tambor on the Pacific Coast. We learned that this resort is all inclusive so people can drink alcohol for free as it is included in the cost of the room, paid for by Caravan. 

We were greeted by the team with a fruit drink. Something they do well in Costa Rica is to have fruit juice prepared to welcome you, but with the option to add in alcohol. That is much smarter than premixing everything with alcohol!

We were treated to a welcome dance!

It took us a while to find our rooms - this is a huge hotel. There are a number of buildings and we are the one furthest away from the centre. But rooms have air conditioning and are very comfortable. 

After a great meal of Italian food served at La Tratoria, we headed back to our room. 

Tomorrow we meet the group for a walking tour on the property!

Day 11 San Jose to La Fortuna

This morning we set an alarm for 5:50 AM. We had to have bags outside our room for pick up by 6:15 AM. We then headed down for breakfast and had to load the bus by 7:30 AM.  Traffic was quite heavy as we pulled out in this Mo day morning. 

Some details Laura shared with us about Costa Rica. 6% of Costa Ricans live in extreme poverty. These are the people building houses out of scrap metal and placing that structure in the ditch near a roadway. 26% of Costa Ricans have an income of 300,000 colones or $600 US per month. People don’t pay income tax until they earn at least $1,800 US per month. Above that a person pays 10% tax. Once a person earns a high middle income of more than $8,000 per month they pay 25% taxes. 

For property tax they pay 0.25 % per year. Homes worth more than $200,000 US have to pay 0.75 % property tax. There is a 13% sales tax on most everything. If you buy a drink or food in a restaurant you are taxed 23% and 10% is a gratuity. 

We stopped in a small town called Zarcero after about 1.5 hours of driving. We got to get out and visit a non touristy town!!  We saw the beautiful Catholic Church. 

San Rafael Arcangel pictured above. 

Cypress plants above smelled beautiful in the city centre!  We stopped in a supermarket and bought two small bags of cassava chips (like potato chips) and a chocolate bar just to try some local products. We then went to an ice cream shop and each bought a single scoop cone for $1 US. 

We then drove another two hours and learned more about the education system in Costa Rica. (It is free and required - and it includes a meal for kids ages 5 to 18). 

We had a buffet lunch at the sloth park which is situated near La Fortuna, a town of 15,000. La Fortuna is perhaps most well known for Arenal Volcano. It last erupted in 2010, coincidentally the year our family of four was visiting Costa Rica and we saw lava flowing from the volcano. 

After lunch we broke up into 3 smaller groups and had guides walk us through the wilderness area and use his scope to point out sloths in the trees.

Aitour Gonzalez was our tour guide and he was actually the controller of the whole park!

This is a sloth photo taken through our guide’s scope. Mama is evident on the left and baby is on the right side of the trunk. First time we have seen a sloth in the wild!!  Though this is called a sloth park - there are no cages holding them here - the vegetation is just desirable!

We learned that sloths stay up in trees for 6 to 10 days and the only thing that brings them down is the need to go to the bathroom!  They eat leaves up there!

We then boarded the bus and headed to Los Lobos Hotsprings. They had a number of different pools with temperatures varying from 84 F to 110 F to enjoy water naturally heated in the Arenal volcano. I indulged and drank a virgin pina colada from a pineapple!!  No pictures because I left my camera securely on the bus. 

We then drove to Magic Mountain Hotel - our accommodation for this evening. 

This is the wonderful view from our first floor hotel room. Pool on the right and Arenal volcano in the centre behind the palm trees!  Supper was delicious!

We have to have bags out at 6:15 AM again so will sign off!!

Day 10 San Jose Touring

Today we woke up in the Barcelo San Jose and will sleep again in the same hotel but we did a driving tour to see sights in and outside the city. Caravan is good about staying two nights in the first hotel. It allows guests to catch up with the tour in case they are delayed by flights. 

At 7:20 AM we met our guide Laura in the lobby with all the Caravan guests from our tour. She escorted us to our bus - a Mercedes and we all chose seats at random. After today, Laura will assign seats and we will move on a rotational basis to a new seat each day. 

Laura is an excellent tour guide who shared all kinds of detailed information about Costa Rica. The city of San Jose, Costa Rica is 44 square km and has a population of 350,000. Costa Rica got its independence from Spain in 1821. They celebrate Independence Day along with the rest of Central America on September 15. The population of the whole country is 5 million people. 

This building, yellow in colour, used to be a prison and then in the 1990’s it became a children’s hospital. 

Once we left the city of San Jose our first stop was at a small coffee plantation which we had stopped at for lunch when we toured Costa Rica in 2010. 

This is the view from the steep embankment where they are growing coffee!  Laura told us that Nicaraguans come and pick coffee in Costa Rica. For a basket of coffee beans picked that would weigh 20 pounds, they would earn $3 US. A really good, fast picker might be able to pick 8 to 10 baskets in a day in tough conditions. Nicaraguans then send much of that money home to their families. 

We then had the privilege of receiving a cup of coffee and a sweet bun. For people like me who do not drink coffee we received a hot drink made from sugar cane called Agua Dulce. It was flavourful but sweeter than I would have liked. Many people (J included) bought coffee to take home!

We then headed to Rescate, a wildlife rescue center. The main goal of Rescate is to heal wildlife and return them to the wild. For some animals that is not possible. 

We had about two hours to walk through the Rescate on our own. These were some of the animals we saw:

Green McCaw above. 

Scarlet McCaw above. 

Close up of iguana that just run wild in the Rescate. 

White faced spider monkey. 

Of the above cats we saw jaguar (first time ever!), puma (or cougar), a manigordo or ocelot and a caucel or margay. Pretty exciting because they were all awake and moving if not particularly active. 

We then went and enjoyed a buffet lunch at the Restaurant which was lovely. 

After lunch we went to an ox cart artisan workshop. They have been in existence for 102 years. 

A sample ox cart here with a mural of the original production centre depicting the set up a century ago. They still produce the wheels for the ox carts with simple technology and have artists paint the fancy designs. It takes 100 hours to make the cart and 120

hours to paint them. They sell for between $3,000 - $4,000 US. 

On the drive back to San Jose we saw fire in the ditch. Farmers burn sugar cane to get rid of the leaves and then it is easy to chop down the cane that is left. 

I guess a fire got out of control!

Back at the hotel I wrote this blog and J played games on his iPad. We will have supper shortly and pack our bags for tomorrow’s departure!

Day 9 San Jose, Costa Rica

Last night we arrived at the Barcelo San Jose in Costa Rica by midnight. When we checked in for our flight with Avianca they asked how long we would be staying in Costa Rica. We told them our departure date, twice, and then they asked for proof of our departing flight. Then we understood - our return home would be with United - and the only flight Avianca could see was our incoming flight from Guatemala!  They were just making sure we weren’t trying to plan an extended stay in this beautiful country!

Officially today is considered Day 1 of our Costa Rica tour with Caravan but in reality it is a relaxing day by the pool with only an organizational introductory meeting with Caravan participants at 8 pm tonight. 

It is currently 27 C and we have found a couple of hammocks in the shade by the pool to enjoy. 

J enjoying the relaxing hammock in the shade. 

Pool view. 

We did go for a walk right after breakfast in the beautiful gardens of the hotel. 

Doing a little bird watching. 

I was always planning to do a load of laundry today as the midway point of our trip and I knew I could have that done at the hotel. The hotel room cost is quite reasonable - $113 US per night. But the laundry cost was incredibly high. $4 for a pair of underwear!!  So I elected to hand wash my delicates and send only a few essentials off to be laundered by the hotel!

This is our tour planned with Caravan. 

In 2010 our family of four actually did a Caravan tour to Costa Rica that included a lot of these sights but it was two days longer in Tortugero National Park. I really enjoyed that component of the trip so I am sorry we didn’t think to incorporate an additional few days of this trip so we could visit Tortugero Park again. 

This is our day by day itinerary:

https://pdf.caravan/Caravan-Day-by-Day-Itinerary-Costa-Rica-2025a.pdf

We received a call from Laura at Caravan in our room around 5 pm advising us to go to the front desk to officially check in with the Caravan tour so we would receive wristbands to identify ourselves at the hotel. This would let the hotel know that our meals would be complimentary to us. 

So with green wristbands in tow and a complimentary drink ticket in hand we met the group for supper. We sat at table with Lisa from Boston and had a nice visit. 

We then moved to the lobby and listened to an accomplished pianist play a variety of songs. For sure he was a paid performer!!

We then went to our orientation meeting for the Caravan tour and found out the names of the 38 people on our tour!  Once again we were the only Canadians and the rest are Americans. It will take some time to get to know folks. The youngest is 15 I believe, travelling with his grandparents. 

We then headed back to our room to pack a day bag for our 7:20 AM departure. Lots to see tomorrow!

Day 8 Barcelo Guatemala City

Today we gathered for breakfast in the Barcelo Guatemala City restaurant for our final buffet breakfast on the tour. We enjoyed visiting with about 8 other people from our tour in the dining room. 

We then enjoyed our last few hours in our hotel room before having to check out at noon.  Then we moved down to the main lobby and had comfortable armchairs and a sofa to sit on. What made it a delightful afternoon was having the opportunity to visit with American friends Lynn and Alan (who were also waiting for a late flight) talking about a variety of interesting topics. 

Front lobby at Barcelo Guatemala City with piano player in the background. 

We were unwilling to pay $55 US for the buffet lunch, so instead J and I walked 100 m outside the hotel gates and bought lunch at McDonald’s!

Just beyond the auto detailing car wash (and a tent covered taco place) you can see McDonald’s!

Our Big Mac, cheeseburger and medium fry cost 72 Quetzales or $10 US. 

Then at 6 pm we boarded the free airport shuttle to take us to the airport. Our Avianca flight to San Jose Costa Rica doesn’t depart until 9:20 PM so we wanted to spend more time in the comfort of the hotel rather than at the airport!

The next time you might hear from me is when we are in Costa Rica early tomorrow morning!

Day 7 Antigua to Guatemala City

This is our last full day on the Guatemala bus tour. With a late departure of 11:45 AM we had a more relaxing morning. What is nice about Hotel Soleil is they had a coffee pot in the room - only the second time we have had that option in Guatemala. Of course I don’t want to drink coffee - but I appreciate the option to boil water so I can have a cup of tea using the tea I brought from home. Coffee and tea are more difficult to come by at dinner time and really not an option as we travel during the day so we have been drinking less tea. I am not  a tea addict - but as a person who doesn’t drink alcohol, tea just gives one more option to drink besides water. 

We had the usual buffet breakfast that included the option of having an omelette custom made for you. Then J went off to seek out the arch to get a picture of the volcano - about a 15 minute walk away, while I reorganized my suitcase. 

We met in the lobby and boarded the bus for our final drive. We drove about 30 minutes to Finco La Azotea, the same coffee plantation we visited two days ago. This time we heard a musical performance with three musicians who played traditional Guatemalan music. 

It is unusual to have a woman perform formal music - as traditionally it was the men who were the musicians. One of the songs they performed really replicated natural sounds - birds singing, rain falling etc.  J bought a clay whistle shaped like a bird - a replica that was similar to what the musicians used. 

We then spent 10 quetzales (about $1.40 US) to buy a six inches tostado with guacamol and sprinkled with cheese for a light lunch. I was still hungry so I bought a freshly made two black bean tortillas with guacamol and cheese to augment the meal!!

Then it was time for the final leg of driving back to Barcelo Guatemala City. We thanked our driver and gave him a tip for his amazing driving - managing to clear many a corner by just an inch or two! 

Our farewell dinner began at 6 pm with a video produced by Caravan, reviewing the places we visited (and some we did not) on this Guatemalan tour. 

Appropriately we said farewell to the new friends we made. We may see them at breakfast tomorrow , but many people leave for the airport at different times tomorrow!

We have plenty of hours to fill during the day tomorrow as our flight is after supper!

We are halfway through this wonderful trip! Tomorrow we fly to Costa Rica to continue the adventure.