Costa Rica is a small country in Central America – its land is marked by spectacular volcanoes, many of which are still active. There is very little flat land. The plains along the Pacific and Caribbean coasts are characterized by tropical forests and beautiful beaches. The middle of the country is quite mountainous. In mid-February 2008, we joined a group with Overseas Adventure Travel to spend a couple of weeks seeing some of the best parks and natural areas.
The notes and pictures below describe each day of our trip. At the end, there is a description of our hotels – each was unique in some way.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Day 1: Saturday, February 16
Left home about 4:45 AM to catch the 6:00 AM flight to Dallas; from there on to San Jose, Costa Rica. We made our way through Customs and were met by our driver, who got us to the Grand Hotel about 4:00 PM. We met Alex Castro Madrigal, our guide for the next two weeks; he gave us a quick overview and instructions for meeting up with our group in the morning.
We dumped our luggage, had a look at the National Theatre right outside our window and then headed out to see the city.
The hotel is in a good location for walking and getting a feel for this noisy and crowded city. We passed by the National Theatre and the Plaza de la Cultura, and then strolled down the Avenida Central to see an amazing assortment of American fast food restaurants – McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Burger King, and Kentucky Fried.
We bravely ventured into the Mercado Central (Central Market). It’s a pretty busy place on a Saturday afternoon, but it clearly was where the locals shopped. It was a dark place, with vendors packed along long halls that looked like tunnels.
We had a nice dinner at our hotel, on the patio watching all the people walk by. After one last look at the theater at night, our evening’s entertainment was repacking suitcases for the adventure ahead.
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We dumped our luggage, had a look at the National Theatre right outside our window and then headed out to see the city.
The hotel is in a good location for walking and getting a feel for this noisy and crowded city. We passed by the National Theatre and the Plaza de la Cultura, and then strolled down the Avenida Central to see an amazing assortment of American fast food restaurants – McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Burger King, and Kentucky Fried.
We bravely ventured into the Mercado Central (Central Market). It’s a pretty busy place on a Saturday afternoon, but it clearly was where the locals shopped. It was a dark place, with vendors packed along long halls that looked like tunnels.
We had a nice dinner at our hotel, on the patio watching all the people walk by. After one last look at the theater at night, our evening’s entertainment was repacking suitcases for the adventure ahead..
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