Costa Rica Part 1

I am back from my adventure vacation in Costa Rica and I had a great time!! I saw and did so much during my 2 1/2 week stay so I am going to share a little bit at a time. I arrived in San Jose with no complications and luckily my luggage!! I got settled into the hotel and met my group leader, Annika. She is originally from California, but married a Costa Rican man and has lived in the country for several years. She was a fantastic group leader and knew a lot about the country. My fellow group members were Monique (Netherlands), Magnus & Jannie (Denmark), and Ted & Daniel (New York City). We all got along great and had a lot of fun together.

Early on Day 2 we boarded a city bus to Puerto Viejo a small town along the Caribbean Ocean. The town is very laid back and has a Jamaican influence. The beaches were beautiful with black and white sand. Our hotel was so nice and we stayed in a little bungalow with a hammock on our porch. The main thing to do in Puerto Viejo is to rent a bike and ride around. Monique and I rode to Manzanillo about an hour away. We stopped along the way at some of the beaches which were practically empty! Once in Manzanillo there is another beach!! It was a very relaxing way to start off our trip.

Puerto Viejo

We left Puerto Viejo and drove to Moin where we boarded a boat for our trip to Tortuguero, which can only be reached by boat. The ride was awesome and we spotted some animals like the Jesus Christ lizzard, howler monkeys, birds, and sloths. Torguguero is another very small town which is known for the sea tutles that come along shore at night. Unfortunately we were ther a little too early in the season to see them. We had another nice hotel on the opposite side of the river from the town center. We only stayed here one night and then we were back on the river for another hour or so. Once we were back on land we drove through some farming communities and saw lots of cows and banana plantations. We even caught a gimpse of how they harvest bananas.

I attached a slideshow of pictures from this part of the trip.

Boat Ride to Tortuguero