Day 15 Return to San Jose

Today was our last full day in Costa Rica!  We needed to have bags outside our doors at 6:20 AM and board the bus by 7:45 AM.

We needed to catch a 9 AM ferry this morning across the Gulf of Nicoya.  This was a wonderful way to experience Costa Rica - to see it from the water!

Isla Cocos after our 80 minute ferry crossing.

We drove another 90 minutes on the road. 

Crossing over this river our guide told us to look into the river to spot the many crocodiles!  The look like logs in the water just beyond the railing. 

We travelled by boat on the Tarcoles River for an hour to spot some crocodiles close up!  The company name was called Jingle Crocodile Safari. 

We were lucky enough to have front seats in the boat. 

This was a female crocodile. Only 1 % of eggs make it to be a mature crocodile!

This was a brown basilisk on the river bank. 

This little bird is the prettiest bird in Costa Rica!  It is a motmot. 

When we returned to San Jose we checked into a Sheraton Four Points Hotel. Our guide Laura made a 15 minute video of photos and videos from our week in Costa Rica. It was great. 

We had our final farewell dinner tonight and said goodbye to our many new friends. 

We will catch the 10:15 AM shuttle to the airport tomorrow to fly to Houston.   It has been a wonderful week of touring Costa Rica!

 

Day 14 Barcelo Tambor

We had the entire day at the all inclusive resort today. Many people from our group took excursions off the property. We considered a few. By the time we enquired about joining the group to go ziplining, the excursion was full so we stayed and enjoyed the property. 

I promised a few pictures of the Barcelo Tambor property. 

J and I kept bumping into people all day and having better opportunities to visit with fellow Caravan travellers. 

This little gem of a pool was outside the spa and fitness area (where you won’t find me on vacation!). But in the afternoon it was totally in the shade and John and I cooled down for a swim here and watched scarlet mccaus fly overhead. 

Then we had a lovely visit first with Annemarie from Spokane, then Joyce from Ohio. And besides that, there was the occasional worker, but no other guests!  So it was kind of like a private pool. Most important, it was far cooler here than in the full sun of the main pool. People kind of treat pool lounge chairs in the shade just like cruisers treat poolside chairs on sea days - they throw a towel or a book on the chair to save it - preventing anybody else from using it, and only use it themselves for about an hour of the day!

J decided to go out and take pictures of the ocean and then was standing knee deep in the water taking pictures of the water. A staff member came over and  waved him to come in. The staffer asked if he spoke Spanish to which J replied no. The fellow typed something into his phone and google translated it to English. It read:  “There is a crocodile in the water!!” Yikes!!!!  😳 We had been talking earlier with Annemarie about this saying, surely they would have signs if there were crocodiles in the water!! I guess not!!  Glad I never had a desire to swim in the ocean!

We will be leaving this resort tomorrow morning so I repacked my suitcase in preparation for our departure tomorrow morning at 7:45 AM. 

We have a dinner reservation for our group at the steak and seafood restaurant tonight at 7 PM. But at least a few people will be missing, either choosing to eat at the Japanese restaurant or staying in the small town of Montezuma as an extension of their excursion today, soaking up all the Bohemian vibe of the place!

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!