Planning and preparation

Costa Rica appeared on our horizon due to a trip taken there by friends of our daughter.  They talked about how great the trip was and it peaked our interest.  My husband wanted to go because of the opportunity to scuba dive there and he also wanted to do white water rafting.  My husband is much more adventurous than I am so I told him if he wants to do a trip full of adventures we should do it now before we get any older!  When we decided to go to Costa Rica I went to the book store and bought some guide books.  Found out that Costa Rica has rainforests, beaches, volcanoes, mangrove swamps and much more.  It has a huge variety of wildlife and natural beauty.  I started to get excited about this trip.  The next step was to decide how long, where in the country would we go-so many details to work out.  Since I'm doing this blog 11 years after our trip I honestly don't remember how we decided to go with the travel specialist that put this trip together for us.

Guide books I bought

Map

CentralAmerica.com focuses mainly on countries in central America.  We had had a great experience back in 2007 working with China Spree which at that time did tours of China.  Marlen Rojas was the agent I communicated with and she was always quick to respond to my questions.  I think I had filled out a form on line where I gave the number of nights in each area that we wanted, that we wanted a rental car, and what excursions we wanted to do.  Several quotes and changes later we had our final itinerary and cost.  Besides everything for the land portion of our trip the final cost also included our round trip airfare from Buffalo to San Jose, Costa Rica and return.  Dates settled on were 3/12/2009-4/5/2009.  Destinations:  San Jose, Tortuguero, Puerto Viejo, Arenal, Monteverde, Ocotal, Manuel Antonio, Corcovado.  Excursions:  Butterfly farm & coffee tour, Cahuita snorkeling, Arenal volcano hike/Tabacon hot springs/dinner, zip lining with sky tram & sky trek, zip lining with canopy tour & walkways, Ocotal scuba diving, hiking tour Manuel Antonio Park, Manuel Antonio scuba diving, Calypso catamaran island cruise, Corcovado scuba diving, Pacuare River white water rafting.  Our rental car would be a Susuky Jimny with GPS.  We would fly Buffalo-Newark-San Jose with Continental Airlines on 3/12/2009 and San Jose-Newark-Buffalo with Continental Airlines on 4/5/2009.  Also included would be airport-hotel transfers.  The package for Tortuguero includes accommodation for 3 days/2 nights, all meals, all excursions, transfer by A/C bus from San Jose to Cano Blanco and then by boat from Cano Blanco to Laguana Lodge and return.  The package for Corcovado includes accommodation for 3 nights, all meals, all excursions, transfer flight from Quepos Airport to Palma Sur, ground transportation from Palma Sur to Sierpe, then boat from Sierpe to Casa Corcovado and return but flight would be from Palma Sur to San Jose.  Price for everything listed was $9194.36 and that was for both of us.  Basically the planning was done February 2009.

I also had to do preparation for this trip as had been done on prior trips.  I assembled a first aid kit which included bandaids, neosporin, tylenol, and more.  Also dental items such as toothbrush, toothpaste...  Basic make up for me.  Travel clock.  Personal hygiene such as disposable razors, shaving cream.  Eye glass repair kit, sewing kit.  Sunscreen and insect repellant.  Clothing for my husband was a couple pair lightweight slacks, shorts, bathing suits, collar short sleeve shirts, T shirts, underwear, pjs, waterproof hiking shoes, sandals, rain poncho/jacket, hat, scuba gear.  Clothing for me was a couple skirts, few dressy tops, casual tops, shorts, slacks that I had used on our Africa trip, bathing suits and beach cover ups, underwear, sleeping attire, waterproof hiking shoes, sandals, flip flops, rain poncho/jacket, hat.  I'm sure I've left off some things as I'm writing this blog 11 years after our trip.




My husband and I are excited about exploring the wonders of Costa Rica.

3/12/2009 Flight Buffalo to San Jose/Costa Rica, San Jose, Grano de Oro

We had arranged for our brother-in-law Dan to take us to the airport.  We are up at 5:00 am to shower, dress, get luggage out by the garage door.  Dan picked us up at 6:30 am.  We got to the airport in a bit less than 1 hour.  We check in with no problem.  No charge for our bags.  We each have 1 bag to check in.  We are allowed a maximum of 50 lbs. per bag.  Our first flight is Continental Airlines/CO3404 which departs Buffalo at 8:40 am.  Arrives Newark at 9:58 am.  We have a long layover in Newark so we had decided to have breakfast when we arrived in Newark.  At the Garden State Diner we have breakfast.  For me it's 2 eggs over easy, ham, home fries, rye toast, coffee.  Richard has 2 eggs over easy, corned beef hash, home fries, wheat toast, coffee.  While we have breakfast 50s/60s music plays.  Cost without tip was $20.29.  Before we know it we are ready to board.

Flight Buffalo to Newark

Flight Newark to San Jose

We arrive San Jose 1 hour late-instead of scheduled 9:30 pm it's 10:30 pm.  I exchanged $140 USD and got 71540 colones which is the currency of the country.  At this time $1=511 colones.  Our trip included our transfers and Janet was waiting for us.  She drove us to our hotel Grano de Oro.  We check in to this beautiful hotel and are in Room 18.  I made arrangements for a wake up call at 6:15 am.  It's late, we're tired so we decide to call it a night as we have a day of sightseeing tomorrow.

Grano de Oro-postcard

3/13/2009 San Jose, Butterfly Farm, Britt Coffee, dinner Machu Picchu

We are up 5:30 am, way before our wake up call!  I take some pictures of our room.  We shower, get dressed, and go to have breakfast at our hotel.  We both have toast and coffee.  Cost without tip was $11.62 USD.

We are picked up in our hotel lobby at 7:40 am by Butterfly Farm tours.  Our driver is Jorge.  Today we are visiting the Butterfly Farm and Cafe Britt.


First stop is the Butterfly Farm.  Our guide is Heather.  There's just us and another couple.  First is a welcome cup of coffee.  Then a documentary film about butterflies showing the various stages and process of the butterfly life cycle.  Export office where the sorting, packing and export of the pupae can be seen but only on export days. We learned about the natural history of butterflies and the industry of butterfly farming.  The Butterfly Farm is a working farm which raises live butterflies/pupae for export.  We have a guided walk through the butterfly garden.  The Butterfly Garden is enclosed where over 1000 butterflies live their lives, feeding, mating, and laying eggs.  The caterpillar and pupae room.  Once the eggs are laid, the larvae (caterpillars) emerge and need to be reared on specific host plants.  We view the metamorphosis of the caterpillar forming the pupae where their bodies change from a caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly.  The tour is around 2 hours.  At the gift shop I bought some postcards for 400 colones.

Butterfly Garden

Mariposa Morpho/Blue morpho butterfly-postcards

Mariposa Caligo/Caligo butterfly-postcard

Caterpillar and pupae room

Next is the Britt coffee tour which I'm looking forward to as Costa Rican coffee is highly regarded.  The coffee tour was informative and enjoyable.  We walk through some coffee bushes and learn about the picking of the beans.  In a building we see a play of sorts that describes the steps from plantation to roasters.  In conclusion we visit the coffee and gift store.  I placed an order for coffee and candies.  Total $115.00 USD.  We put the order date 4/6/2009 so it will arrive when we are back home.  (This coffee was so good that even today in 2020 we have been ordering coffee from Cafe Britt)  In addition to the coffee and candies which will be delivered I also bought a Costa Rica coffee mug, a Costa Rica magnet, 3 small bottles of Cafe Britt coffee liquor, and 4 boxes of chocolate covered candy.  Cost of these souvenirs was $65.73 USD.  Then I spot some more stuff to buy-3 postcards, 3 stamps for the postcards, a tan Save the Rain Forest cap, and a child's blue gecko cap.  That set me back $27.98 USD. This tour is around 3-4 hours.  

Brochure

Coffee mug

My Cafe Britt order

Postcard

Buffet lunch here was included in our excursion.  There was chicken, rice with vegetables, cold salads of cucumber/carrots/tomatoes, chilled beets, spicy tomato base soup, watermelon.  It was very good.

Lunch

We are back at our hotel around 3:00 pm.  The rooftop of the hotel has a jacuzzi and sun loungers.  We spend time here just relaxing, soaking up the Costa Rican sun.  I also wrote some postcards to mail to family.

Hotel jacuzzi

Relaxing

For dinner we have decided to go to Machu Picchu which is walking distance from our hotel.  I have a pisco sour and Richard has his first Costa Rican beer-Imperial.  I have a filet mignon cooked perfectly medium with a yummy sauce, mashed potatoes, vegetable medley of cauliflower/green beans/carrots/broccoli.  Richard ordered a fish dish in a tomato based sauce which came with rice.  He said the fish was cooked just right.  He does not like his fish overcooked.  Dessert was flan with raisins and lime ice cream.  We are pleased with our choices.  Food was incredible with great service.  Cost without tip was 22689.00 colones

Pisco sour

Yummy!

Delicious

Walking back to our hotel

KFC in Costa Rica!