Costa Rican Adventures

I'm flying over Cuba on my way home from the tropical paradise of Costa Rica. After 11 days of no service, I'm finding it rather difficult to use my blackberry, but I want to blog before I get back to the hustle and bustle of Nueva York. I love New York - nothing beats it, but vacationing is ALWAYS nice. Our flight is over an hour ahead of schedule, which is great considering I'm working tomorrow and then totally enjoying Turkey Day weekend.

Oh ye, so about Costa Rica...it was a vacation of many firsts, many extremes, many good people and many good times. I saw a volcano for the first time. Moreover, Volcano Arenal is active and although it was pretty hazy the two times we attempted to see it, we did see the lava flowing. We never made it to Paos because of the crazy rain and wind knocking down trees and blocking the road, but there's always google. We survived a mild earthquake which supposedly rippled all the way from Panama and measured 2 on the Richter scale. We white-water rafted and ziplined (I almost peed my pants, but had a blast). I woke up with a fever of 101.1 my first night in CR and drank Theraflu religiously for the first half of my trip.

I realize that I'm jumping all over the place (as usual), but the last 10 days have flown by and I'm just trying to recollect the details. Issimo Suites was amazing - I've never received such courteous, wonderful and with a sense of humor service as - did there! As with everything there were a few glitches (a toilet that didn't always flush, a mouse that beat me down the stairs), but from the welcome Mojito to the departure chocolates, everything was beyond great - a 10 meter view of the jungle and ocean, a two-floor jacuzzi (not that I'd ever get into one) suite, amazing food and a truly wonderful staff. The owner, Timothy was cool too - he introduced himself, talked with us for a few minutes and went to work along with the construction crew renovating his hotel. Whenever we saw him, he chatted with us, gave us some advice about what to do in the area and proceeded to work. Although, we never saw the monkeys that he promised, we know they were there :). Nothing beats boutique service! Oh and we met some really interesting couples - around mid 40s from New Orleans - the girls are all friends from high school, one of which now lives in CR (for the last two years) because her husband is a developer - the other two couples (one of which are also contractors) came to visit and white-water raft. They were all obviously well off, but very down-to-earth athletic and just all around great. So after Issimo and Manuel Antonio, the attempt to see Poas, we arrived at the all-inclusive Papagayo Hilton.

I don't know what was in the water, but I had the runs, so my all inclusive alcohol option was pretty much a waste after the first day of pineapple malibus and rums. By the way, the pineapple in CR is AMAZING as are the bananas, I swear that's all I ate! So at the Hilton we met more really cool people - a bunch of guys working for the US Coast Guard fixing planes, a couple from Chicago where he sells nuclear medicing and she is a tri-athlete (aka stay at home mom), a couple from Vancouver, traveling with their very adorable kids, where he just created the company that allows hotels to make travel reservations (earning $10 Mil a year in revenues) and she was a really cool Kiwi that hugged the porcelain after one to many shots of tequila (but really clarified the difference between Aussies and Kiwis: Kiwi girls put out, Aussies don't). Oh and Taylor, the 4.5 year old adorable son is "pretty sure that you don't have to pay for a babysitter", every fruit is his favorite and "they travel quiet a bit". As for the Coast Guard, Speedy was hysterical and Nate was a really cool suite mate that missed his photographer wife after being away from home for almost a month (isn't everyone a photographer these days?). It seemed that we were the only ones actually paying for our room at the Hilton, but regardless it was totally worth it - the black sand beach, the volley-ball game that made my necklace snap, the kayaking, the safari of bugs I've never seen before outside my room, the frog in the bathtub and the grasshopper the size of my thumb (I'm NOT exaggerating) on the bed, the hike to the food area on a 33 acre property. Oh and there was Rod the Continental steward that promised me buddy airfares to Paris for $300...a girl can dream, right? And it just hit me, Nate looks like Matt Damon - I couldn't quiet place it
before...anyway they just served airplane food that I won't eat, but I wanna catch some zzz's before work tomorrow...more to come, especially after I go through the 2000 pictures I think we took - the monkeys having sex, the crocodiles, the beautiful scenery and the only other thing that I forgot to mention (well, not the only, I'm sure), colones are worth nothing - all prices are in USD and they prefer taking $ to their own currency and you get a better rate using $ then colones -
weird...oh and we had to pay airport taxes at the airport (in addition to taxes paid when purchasing an airline tickets), my ATM card stopped working (I think they saw way too many transactions in CR and tried calling me to verify, but given the fact that I was actually in CR and with no service (Verizon lying bastards), they probably put a hold on my account - oh well, I guess ill deal with that in NY...and now I actually am flying over Havanna, Cuba and I could see it from the left side window, too bad, I'm sitting on the right. :)

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