Costa Rica - Part 1

SATURDAY

After an extremely quiet wedding barefoot on the beach, we headed out for the 'honeymoon'. Below are a couple of shots of the peninsula from the air.

Seine Bight as seen from the air. If you look closely, you will see Elvis' new store.

The Placencia Hotel and surrounding area.

Our plane left Placencia airstrip with a stop in Dangriga before arriving in Belize City. From Belize City, our next flight took us to San Salvador and then we continued on to San Jose, Costa Rica. Our flight arrived at about 9 pm and it had been a very long day for us. We were exhausted and very happy to see a pleasant looking gentleman holding a card with our name on it. He directed us to the next man who took us to a private van and drove us to the hotel. The Irazu Hotel & Casino was a very nice Best Western. We went for a late dinner and headed back to the room as we were tired.

SUNDAY

We were up and had a light breakfast of fruit and yogurt as we didn't know if we would be stopping along the way. At 9:00 we were picked up and after picking up some other people at their hotels, we were on our way to the Arenal Volcano located in the northern part of Costa Rica. We went to the town of Sarchi, for a rest stop and were able to shop in one of the shops there. Sarchi is famous and has earned the name "Birthplace of Costa Rica's Artisans". We didn't buy anything although there were some very nice carvings, but we were only allowed 25 lbs luggage on one of the next tours. As we continued on our way, we passed through coffee plantations and pineapple plantations. They grow many ornamental plants for export in this area. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant in La Fortuna which is right in front of the volcano. Next stop was at the Tabacon Grand Spa & Thermal Resort, where there are thirteen pools and we think we made it to eleven of them.

Sharyn all squinty-eyed.

A nice private pool.

Bob in a calm pool.

Bob under a waterfall. It was all good. After we were finished in the pools, we showered and had pre dinner cocktails around the swimming pool. Then we had a great buffet dinner in the hotel dining room which faces the volcano. On clear nights you can see the volcanic activity which is supposed to be like fireworks. The weather did not cooperate for us and we never saw any volcanic activity, but the trip to the thermal springs alone more than made up for it.

It was a long day, thirteen hours, but more than worth it. We got back to the hotel Irazu about 10:00. Early to bed as we had an early morning coming up.