14:43 |
Author: Michael and Lindsay Condie
As I've been planning our next trip (Portugal), I've realized I haven't blogged about Costa Rica yet, which is a shame since it was such an amazing trip.
We spent only 4 days there, including travel, which is WAY too short (although it felt way too long when we were in areas with no air conditioning), but it was the best we could do. I had to plan it out so carefully to make sure we would be able to do everything we wanted. It all worked out perfectly. Pictures are out of order... too lazy to arrange them.
Arriving into Drake Bay... you can pretty much only get there by plane. The airport is in the background. The runway began right at the water edge, so as we were landing it felt like we were going to land in the ocean... scary!
Checking in at the airport. We could not get over how third-world the airport was. The land surrounding it was all farm land with animals roaming around everywhere.
The dark sand beaches were absolutely stunning. Our camera didn't want to cooperate most of the trip since it is so hot and humid there, so we didn't get very many good pics of the beach, and the ones we did are pretty foggy.
Our hotel "Mirador" in Drake Bay. I don't even know if I would call it a hotel--I've had camping accomodations closer to a hotel than this was. This pic was taken at the bottom of the hill at the road. To get to the hotel you had to walk up this huge long, steep road which at some points could only be described as stairs. We had to haul all of our stuff up and then every time we went out to do anything it was up and down, up and down. The air is so heavy that it was hard to breathe while doing that.
This is Mike holding a type of scorpion. This was one of the coolest things we did down there--a night nature hike with a guide. There are so many things you could see at night that couldn't be seen during the day, we saw a ton of amazing insects, lots of stuff we'd only seen on the Discovery channel before. There were lots of frogs, amphibians, and we even saw a sloth way up in the tree. At one point they even took us in canoes to look at the fish. It was pitch black, so it was kind of scary in the boats!
The views were amazing! Pictures don't do justice. They also don't give you the feel of how crazy hot and humid it is there. This is a view from one of our "cabins" in Drake bay, it didn't have any air conditioning or a fan for that matter. You could not escape the heat... we realized how much we take for granted the things we have here! The people in Drake Bay don't even have electricity. As we'd walk down miles of dirt roads exploring, there would be houses made out of aluminum and inside they'd have these bluish lights that were powered by small generators. Some houses would have old TV's. The people there were very nice, but most didn't speak English in Drake Bay.
We spent only 4 days there, including travel, which is WAY too short (although it felt way too long when we were in areas with no air conditioning), but it was the best we could do. I had to plan it out so carefully to make sure we would be able to do everything we wanted. It all worked out perfectly. Pictures are out of order... too lazy to arrange them.
Mike at the San Jose zoo. There were just HUGE lizards wandering around everywhere! He loved them!
Arriving into Drake Bay... you can pretty much only get there by plane. The airport is in the background. The runway began right at the water edge, so as we were landing it felt like we were going to land in the ocean... scary!Checking in at the airport. We could not get over how third-world the airport was. The land surrounding it was all farm land with animals roaming around everywhere.
The dark sand beaches were absolutely stunning. Our camera didn't want to cooperate most of the trip since it is so hot and humid there, so we didn't get very many good pics of the beach, and the ones we did are pretty foggy.
Our hotel "Mirador" in Drake Bay. I don't even know if I would call it a hotel--I've had camping accomodations closer to a hotel than this was. This pic was taken at the bottom of the hill at the road. To get to the hotel you had to walk up this huge long, steep road which at some points could only be described as stairs. We had to haul all of our stuff up and then every time we went out to do anything it was up and down, up and down. The air is so heavy that it was hard to breathe while doing that.
This is Mike holding a type of scorpion. This was one of the coolest things we did down there--a night nature hike with a guide. There are so many things you could see at night that couldn't be seen during the day, we saw a ton of amazing insects, lots of stuff we'd only seen on the Discovery channel before. There were lots of frogs, amphibians, and we even saw a sloth way up in the tree. At one point they even took us in canoes to look at the fish. It was pitch black, so it was kind of scary in the boats!
The views were amazing! Pictures don't do justice. They also don't give you the feel of how crazy hot and humid it is there. This is a view from one of our "cabins" in Drake bay, it didn't have any air conditioning or a fan for that matter. You could not escape the heat... we realized how much we take for granted the things we have here! The people in Drake Bay don't even have electricity. As we'd walk down miles of dirt roads exploring, there would be houses made out of aluminum and inside they'd have these bluish lights that were powered by small generators. Some houses would have old TV's. The people there were very nice, but most didn't speak English in Drake Bay.
I love this picture because it has so much in it--the beauty of the hills and clouds in the background, as well as the plane we flew to Drake Bay. To this day, I cannot believe I got on that plane... I've never been so scared! They told me it was safer than a jet because if a jet's engines go out, it just falls. But if a propellor plane engine goes out, you can at least coast down and land.
This place was amazing, it is right outside of Arenal volcano, which is a very active volcano toward the north of Costa Rica. It is constantly erupting, but you really can only see it at night. It was a REALLY long bus ride to get there, I think about 3-4 hours to get there from San Jose. When we were planning the trip I wasn't sure if we'd want to travel all that way just for one night, but I'm so glad we did.
The view of Arenal volcano from our lodge room. It was amazing, the beds face the volcano so we just laid there for so long watching the lava spew out and the molten rocks fall down the side of the volcano. Never thought I'd see something like that!
Tons of hanging bridges everywhere, you'd walk over them and see so many animals and beautiful views of the jungle below them.
I can't even explain how beautiful the beaches are and how lush the jungle is!!
This was our biggest adventure for sure. We took a boat with two other couples from Europe and a guide to this island. I can't remember what it is called, but it took about an hour and a half to ride out there. We went snorkeling even though the waters were really rough and cloudy. The guide told us we would probably feel jellyfish stings, but that they weren't like normal ones, they were very small and not harmful. Sure enough, the whole time in the water you'd feel little stings all over your skin. On the island, you can hike to the top to see ancient artifacts left from thousands of years ago. Well, there had been a huge storm that had passed through a few days before, and had knocked over several HUGE trees at a really steep part of the trail. Our guide asked if we wanted to brave it, and we all did. So we ended up climbing through all the trees. It was super adventurous not only because we had to climb, but because it was a huge steep drop below us, and not to mention it was POURING rain so everything was very slippery. It was fun though, we all helped each other through and felt very brave. This is a picture of Mike climbing back down through one of the trees.
Exploring on the island
On the way back, the guide and boat captain were really laid back and let us stay out there for a really long time to watch for whales and dolphins. We saw a ton of dolphins and a couple whales. It was fun to be out there so close to them. The picture below is of Mike... he got REALLY sea sick and so while all of us were having a ball watching the whales, he moved to the back of the boat throwing up :(
I loved how the trees grew right up to the coast. I also loved those huge black rocks, they told us they were from volcanic eruptions. What a beautiful place it is!! Even though we were only there for a few days, I'll never forget all of our adventures!
This place was amazing, it is right outside of Arenal volcano, which is a very active volcano toward the north of Costa Rica. It is constantly erupting, but you really can only see it at night. It was a REALLY long bus ride to get there, I think about 3-4 hours to get there from San Jose. When we were planning the trip I wasn't sure if we'd want to travel all that way just for one night, but I'm so glad we did.
The view of Arenal volcano from our lodge room. It was amazing, the beds face the volcano so we just laid there for so long watching the lava spew out and the molten rocks fall down the side of the volcano. Never thought I'd see something like that!
Tons of hanging bridges everywhere, you'd walk over them and see so many animals and beautiful views of the jungle below them.
I can't even explain how beautiful the beaches are and how lush the jungle is!!
This was our biggest adventure for sure. We took a boat with two other couples from Europe and a guide to this island. I can't remember what it is called, but it took about an hour and a half to ride out there. We went snorkeling even though the waters were really rough and cloudy. The guide told us we would probably feel jellyfish stings, but that they weren't like normal ones, they were very small and not harmful. Sure enough, the whole time in the water you'd feel little stings all over your skin. On the island, you can hike to the top to see ancient artifacts left from thousands of years ago. Well, there had been a huge storm that had passed through a few days before, and had knocked over several HUGE trees at a really steep part of the trail. Our guide asked if we wanted to brave it, and we all did. So we ended up climbing through all the trees. It was super adventurous not only because we had to climb, but because it was a huge steep drop below us, and not to mention it was POURING rain so everything was very slippery. It was fun though, we all helped each other through and felt very brave. This is a picture of Mike climbing back down through one of the trees.
Exploring on the island
On the way back, the guide and boat captain were really laid back and let us stay out there for a really long time to watch for whales and dolphins. We saw a ton of dolphins and a couple whales. It was fun to be out there so close to them. The picture below is of Mike... he got REALLY sea sick and so while all of us were having a ball watching the whales, he moved to the back of the boat throwing up :(
I loved how the trees grew right up to the coast. I also loved those huge black rocks, they told us they were from volcanic eruptions. What a beautiful place it is!! Even though we were only there for a few days, I'll never forget all of our adventures!
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