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.
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Guide books I bought
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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.
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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.
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