I'm gonna start with a pic of the venerable Mitsubishi Montero that transported us Americans from the hotel and all around San Jose for dinner after a hard day's work. The dirt parking lot pictured above took quite a drive to get to and it involved a hand drawn map (from our local friends at work), a twisty mountain road and an incredible amount of faith...
But pretty damn worthwhile if you ask me. A view of San Jose at night from the Tiquicia restaurant in Escazu. Amazing view, great food. I'd recommend checking this place out.
Fried yucca balls stuffed with cheese, the appetizer platter and, my personal favourite, patacones (friend, green plantains - savoury tasting rather than sweet).
Ah, my dinner: casado con lomito (beef tenderloin). The specialty at this restaurant is local cuisine and the casado is the quintessential example of a common meal: meat + beans + rice + salad + sweet plantains. Yum, yum, yum.
The dinner crew: Jeremy (our American liaison from the company we were working with), Donielle, me, Emma, Howie, Bob and his wife Mo. On the wall above Donielle and I, there was a large spider that you thankfully can't see in the picture.
The work crew that Emma & I trained to build AccessClosure's subassembly: Edelma, Jennifer, Idaly, Marlon and Marta. See my snazzy Mynx scrubs?
Beef, Tomato/Basil and Cheese/Onion Empanadas from El Novillo Alegre (the happy calf). Delish! By the way, this place is an Argentinian steakhouse. Just wanted to mention that before I post this next pic...
I got the most massive steak wrapped in bacon and smothered in a very flavorful, semi-sweet red wine sauce (and look, a denim placemat). This thing tasted so amazingly rich and, despite the ridiculous size, I made myself finish the whole thing (I can't bring myself about to waste good food).
Somehow, we had room for a bit of postres (dessert): figs in simple syrup, dulce de leche crepe and pears in red wine sauce all served ala mode with vanilla ice cream.
As a gift to our Costa Rican friends at ATEK Medical, Howie brought them each a San Jose Sharks (hockey) team shirt. What made this awesome was the fact that the day before we learned that the Detroit Red Wings (Jeremy's team) was going to play against the Sharks (our team). Jeremy got quite a shock when we surprised him! From left to right: Bob, Me, Yesi, Lidi, Harold, Irene, Brians, Donielle & Howie.
And continuing my tradition of business-trip teppanyaki dinners, we all went out to eat at Sakura on the last night of the work portion of the trip. We all look so happy because we all had a great time, a great dinner and have had so much fun working together.
And with that, I got to enjoy some vacation time at the tail end of the trip. Bob, Mo, Howie and I hit the road and drove to the coast; Manuel Antonio to be exact. On the way, we had to make the obligatory stop at Rio Tarcoles to see the crocodiles. We saw this sight as we parked at the side of the road: a police officer staring into the trees...
And the Scarlet Macaws he was looking up into the tree at. We were blessed with this amazing encounter and I'm glad we had this opportunity as I didn't get to see the macaws the last time I drove through this area. Sweeeeeet!
And, as previously mentioned, the obligatory crocodiles. We saw some stupid turistas walked down to the riverbank and they got pretty damn close before they got spotted by the police officers. Fools...
We drove into the Manuel Antonio town area just after sunset and dropped Bob & Mo off at their hotel (Gaia). After Howie and I settled into our accommodations (more on that later), we joined Bob & Mo at their hotel restaurant (La Luna).
Maracuya (passionfruit) juice. These agua naturales drinks are amazing...
My panko crusted, seared ahi tuna with saffron risotto. Fresh fish and amazing flavour.
The four travelers at dinner. We even got some lovely, live music playing in the background too (on a little stage behind where Bob & Mo sat).
And on the way back to Bob & Mo's hotel room, we spotted this massive spider. Howie got close, but I don't think the pic does a good enough job of showing the true size of that spider.
The next day, the four of us headed into Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio, home to Costa Rica's smallest, most bio-diverse national park. Yeah, that's a three-toed sloth we saw chilling in the tree. Many of the following pics were taken through the lens of our guide, William's scope.
An iguana hanging out in the morning sun and getting warm.
White-faced capuchin monkey. A bunch of them were jumping around in the trees as we walked by. So amazingly close.
One of the four (I think?) species of toucans living in Costa Rica. Fruit loops?
A well camouflaged frog. We saw a few but this was the only one who I was able to get a pic of its red eyes. I guess the others were sleeping.
Another three-toed sloth with a baby hanging out on its back. Cute little guy eh?
Fruit bat. I could barely see this guy from far away but we got an amazing view through William's scope. I'm glad the camera could capture some of that.
A male Jesus Christ lizard. You know, the ones that can run on water.
Me, William and the park sign.
Yeah, Manuel Antonio has an amazing beach within the park boundaries. After all that animal/creature watching, we took a well deserved break and hopped into the warm Pacific Ocean.
Arguably, this is one of the best beaches I've been to in Costa Rica. Simply beautiful.
At the park exit, the tide comes in and floods the path back into town. Bob & Mo took the ferry (run by some opportunistic locals with a rowboat) whereas Howie & I took the tidal crossing.
While Howie (smartly) took off his footwear and walked through the water, I wanted to test my skills and Gore-tex shoes. I hopped my way over and around some of the water but got the left shoe a wee bit wet. That kinda sucked.
So, Howie and I stayed at a hotel called Costa Verde and here you can see the brilliant view we had from the balcony of our room (the bay/beach area on the left of the picture is one part of the park where we were just a few minutes earlier).
All of us enjoying the view and a cool breeze after a lot of walking.
An even better view of Manuel Antonio in my humble opinion. This vista, from the restaurant of La Mariposa hotel, is listed somewhere as one of the thousand places in the world you must see before you die (or so I read in the Lonely Planet).
The local, red snapper sandwich I enjoyed at the restaurant. No, the tasty food parade isn't ending any time soon...
Nothing like great company, delicious food and a stunning view to round out an awesome morning/afternoon.
We did a bit of souvenir shopping and took a nap back at our respective hotels before reconvening at La Mariposa for a drink and to watch the sunset. On the left, Howie's "coco loco" (cacique - local liquor made from sugar cane - with coconut milk and condensed milk) and on the right, my Bavaria dark beer (best Costa Rican beer I've had yet).
The sunset view was obscured a bit by the clouds hovering over the horizon, but we still enjoyed our drinks before heading off to dinner at El Avion (the plane). This 1950's era cargo plane of US origin originally destined for Nicaragua in the 80's found its way to Manuel Antonio after some entrepreneurs decided it'd make a great themed restaurant. See Bob above in the cockpit?
Mo, Bob & Howie in the bar area within the fuselage of the plane.
Another restaurant, another group food shot.
As I read in the Lonely Planet, the proprietors of El Avion also owned our hotel, Costa Verde. Sticking with the plane theme, the preeminent suite of our hotel is built into the B727 you see above. I would've loved to go inside for a peek, but there were guests staying in there…
Croissant french toast from La Luna, where Howie & I met Bob & Mo for our final breakfast together in Costa Rica.
Then we hit the trail for some hiking in Gaia's private reserve.
After a long, grueling hill climb, we made it to the end of the trail near the top of the hill on the other side of the valley of the hotel.
So we basically started near the white buildings over yonder (the Gaia hotel).
The highlight of our hike was spending about 15 minutes watching squirrel monkeys hop about in the trees near the trail. This one (center of the pic, you can see its legs and tail dangling) laid down on the branch and peered back curiously at us strange humans.
And why not enjoy a relaxing dip in the Gaia pool afterwards?! What an amazing after hike activity!
Howie and I drove back to San Jose to meet up with Lidi for some dinner and we narrowly missed out on receiving Kevin's email to join him for a Costa Rican soccer match. Instead, we had to entertain ourselves with a bit of excitement by driving down the freeway in the wrong direction.
We were initially confused, but after seeing everyone else fly down the left side of the road, we joined in on the action. Apparently they make the freeway one way at certain times and we were able to enjoy the speed benefits of that.
A painted cow sculpture in the shopping plaza in San Antonio de Belen where we stopped for a short break.
Alajuela (the suburb nearest to the San Jose airport) where we stayed at a backpacker's hotel. Apparently not a very exciting neighborhood according to Lidi, but it was good enough for us. Well, with the exception of the traffic noise that woke us in the morning.
Banana pancakes for breakfast from the restaurant in the lobby of the backpacker's hotel. Great first meal of the day and a good bit of food before our long drive to Bijagua.
Nothing too exciting on the way out, other than this stop off at the Rincon Corobici restaurant for lunch. The restaurant looks out onto the beautiful Rio Corobici, which is a popular spot to white water raft.
Once we turned off the relatively boring Interamericana Highway and headed north towards Bijagua, we caught this sight of Volcan Miravalles on the left and Volcan Tenorio on the right. In the valley between the two volcanoes is the amazing town of Bijagua where my good friend Ryan spent his time while serving in the Peace Corp. Those of you who remember my first trip to Costa Rica, will know I came here previously to visit Ryan.
Baby birds in a small nest outside the Tenorio Lodge where we stayed while in Bijagua.
Half meat lover's and half veggie pizza from the local Pizzeria (definitely as good as I remembered). Awesome food which Howie and I shared with two other guests at the lodge who we gave a ride into town.
The view out of our lodge. Pretty nice accommodations for sure. Beyond the clouds and bright light, you could actually see the Tenorio volcano.
While not in the same class as the Montero, this Kia Rio did a commendable job of transporting us all around Costa Rica. It also gets bonus points for being a manual transmission car!
Through a friend of Ryan's we arranged a tour guide to take us around the parks near Bijagua. By luck, our guide Kim happened to be the granddaughter of Ryan's host mom. Really, what are the odds?! Actually, Bijagua isn't that big of a town… Anyways, here's Kim showing us this lizard she pulled off a tree. The little guy wasn't too happy about being picked up and decided to bite Kim's thumb. When she finally pulled the little guy off, it immediately played dead. Interesting survival behavior…
In doing my research for this trip to Costa Rica, I wanted most to visit the Rio Celeste (found in the Tenorio National Park). While I saw this beautiful river in many pictures prior to the trip, nothing could prepare me for the amazing experience of seeing this in person for the first time.
You can see here how two rivers come together to create the Rio Celeste. The color actually comes from a chemical mixing of the different mineral compositions of the two rivers. The local legend says that after God painted the sky, he washed his brushes in the Rio Celeste. Pretty good legend I'd say.
Along the way, we hopped into the hot springs to rest a bit. Here we met a couple of other (Spanish speaking) travelers. Kim decided to take a quicker pace on the trail so that we could try to cover as much ground as possible during our last full day in Costa Rica.
We looped back around from the hot springs to the Rio Celeste waterfall and we had to cross the river in order to rejoin the main trail. As you can see, this time I did remove my shoes.
No commentary necessary.
We rushed through the Rio Celeste hike a bit because Kim wanted to take us across the valley to see the Bijagua waterfalls (on the Miravalles side of the valley). Here we are at the first waterfall. I'd like to just briefly comment that on the hike to the Bijagua waterfalls, we saw no other people on the trail. Just the three of us and nature. Wow.
The second of the waterfalls. I'd argue that the hike to these waterfalls was longer and more grueling than the Rio Celeste one. With that said, it's absolutely worth it.
After enjoying some pineapple and mango that Kim brought, we hopped in for a refreshing dip. A stark contrast to the warm hot springs we were lounging in just a few hours prior, this water was pretty damn cold. Amazing how we could be in two different places separated by relatively minimal distance and time.
A tasty snack at the La Casita de Maiz restaurant in Bijagua which had a menu focused on corn. Kim took us here before saying goodbye to us for the day. Corn pancake on the left and a pork tamale on the right (incidentally, wrapped in a banana leaf). So good…particularly that tamale.
My favorite dish by far…chorreada de elote (kinda like a sweet corn pancake) served with some homemade natilla (sour cream) and cheese. I don't know why but this tasted so damn good. I will absolutely be trying to make these sometime this summer.
On our last day in Costa Rica, we left Bijagua having seen an incredible amount in a relatively short period of time. As a bit of a parting gift, Kim offered to show us one more amazing sight… the Cataratas llanos de Cortes (Cortes waterfall). Another unbelievable spectacle to add to the list of all the beautiful things we saw this trip. And, uh, yeah…we swam in that water (how could we not). Thanks so much for taking us here to this beautiful oasis.
After that somewhat lengthy detour (we didn't originally plan on the swim), we had to drive quickly back to San Jose so that we wouldn't miss our flight. That necessitated eating lunch in the car. So, we stopped at Tres Hermanas (3 sisters) which has a reputation for tasty barbecue. That reputation for good food, I must say, is well earned. Above, we got pork ribs and homemade sausage.
Complemented nicely with a separate plate of barbecue beef brisket. Delicious. I just wish we could've had a bit more time to sit down and enjoy the food rather than being forced to quickly down the food while driving back to San Jose.
And finally back at SJO (San Jose, Costa Rica Airport) awaiting our flight on TACA airlines to San Salvador where we connected back to SFO and thus bringing us to the end of our week (and a half) long journey through the land of the Ticos (as Costa Ricans refer to themselves).
I find that Costa Rica endears itself to me more and more with each trip I take. Its amazing natural beauty and gracious, welcoming people make it one of the most brilliant places in the world. I hope that someday more of my friends and family will have an opportunity to see and experience all the joy and wonder that Costa Rica has to offer the world. I don't know when I'll be back but, unfortunately, I reckon it won't be as soon as I would like. I hope you all enjoyed the pics!
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1 comment:
I cant be able to start to tell you how amazing those pictures are. You dont even know how unbelievably lucky you are to be able to go to costa rica. The food looked delicous and the sceanery impecable.
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