Well, I’m writing this at 5:25 am Monday morning. I believe today is a make or break day for the trip. The last few days have been very frustrating with the rain. So, with the canopy tour/zip lines this morning, either the trip clearly veers completely off track, or it rights itself. We’ve had great family trips – Spain in 2001, London/Ireland in 2003, Hawaii in 2005, and Italy in 2007. This one, because of the rain, is unlikely to join that list.
Hmmm. . .how hard would it have been for our travel agent, apparently an expert on Costa Rica, to have said – “hey, August is the rainy season, you might want to go somewhere else.” But he skipped that. Other options we were considering included Scandinavia and St. Petersburg, Germany/Austria/Switzerland, or the American West (Yellowstone, Jackson Hole, etc.). Turns out we made the wrong choice. The first couple of days here were good, but the rain comes earlier and more often each day. When I checked the weather for Costa Rica on the internet, all I did was look at the average temperature per month. Bad move. . .should have look at monthly rainfalls.
Take yesterday, for instance. We got up to pouring rain at Punta Islita. During breakfast, the rain came even harder. The folks working at the resort assumed the flight was going to be delayed or cancelled. Around 8:40, they came and said that it was on schedule. So we piled into the van (just the Bolger family – no others were leaving on that flight) and were driven to the airport. Three times we drove through major streams crossing the road. They made for great looking waterfalls above us, but it was slightly harrowing crossing the rushing water.
There were two men dropped off for the flight as well, so we didn’t have the plane to ourselves. The plane was on time. The rain had lightened up a bit, although I still had visions of Roberto Clemente in my mind. But, as we flew from the peninsula we were on toward San Jose, the skies cleared. Bright sunshine in San Jose, where we waited an hour and twenty minutes for our next flight to Quepos. The girls hung out patiently, playing their Game Boys or reading until it was time to go.
After Samarra and Punta Islita airstrips, Quepos is huge. It is asphalted, and even has a hut where they sell food and souvenirs. The flight itself had eleven of the twelve seats filled.
Quepos is much more built up that the area around Punta Islita (very small town). There are many hotels, homes, and adventure activities. The Manuel Antonio National Park greater region combines nearly all of Costa Rica for the traveler – zip lines, diving, sportfishing, kayaking, rafting, hiking, mountain biking, snorkeling, horse back riding, and more.
On the 15 minute shuttle ride to our final resort (Si Como No), I saw an older fellow on a broken down bike wearing a Hooters t-shirt. I doubt he’s been there. We passed a Chinese Restaurant. I immediately made plans to not go there. We passed some casinos, and there are realty signs everywhere.
Like in the Central Valley towns we went through the first few days of the trip, all of the houses and businesses in this area have metal bars on their windows and protective metal screens in front of the doors. It’s unusual to see the more than a one story building.
Carol has been using her Spanish more here, talking with the drivers and other workers.
So, we get to Si Como No (which means, “sure, why not?”). It’s very pretty, overlooking the ocean from halfway up the hillside (like Punta Islita). The only downside is that there is no direct route to the beach, so we either take the shuttle or I’m thinking about renting a car to make it easier to get around.
As we were finishing our lunch around 2pm, it (of course) started raining. Thus, we skipped the beach and the girls went to the pool for a while, until the lightning started around 3pm. It was pouring (surprise!). So we hung in the room for a few hours, napping or reading. Eventually, when the rain weakened (temporarily), I got the girls and we went to the Gift Shop to get Carol a couple of small birthday presents. Fortunately, we found a cool glass frog Christmas ornament, so it served as a two-fer – both a birthday present (we also got her something else) and a tree ornament, as we like to have one from every trip we take.
Dinner was good, as we went off-property to Marlins, a vibrant seafood restaurant with a bar above that had live music. I grossed the girls out by getting a whole fish (red snapper) and offered them the opportunity to eat the fish head. They, shockingly, declined.
The vibe at the restaurant helped revive us. We’ve actually considered breaking the trip off early (Mrs. Tourist is more willing to do that than I am – I hate admitting defeat). You’ll note that our big trips all come in odd numbered years – that’s because election years are too busy for any kind of lengthy trip. That’s why this is disappointing – it will be two years before the next big trip, and we’ve had to waste a bunch of time waiting out seemingly never ending rain. Fortunately, right now at 6am it is sunny, so today hopefully will be a good one. If the rain holds off till 4pm, then it’s a good day. I took no pictures yesterday – why bother in the rain?
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