This post is a couple days late, but the wife and I just returned from our 11 day (10 nights) honeymoon/ 20th anniversary trip to Costa Rica last Wednesday. I was hoping to do some posts during our trip, but I had forgotten to temporarily lower the security level of the site so I could actually post from on the road. Both Jonianne and I agree that it was probably the best trip we've ever had - and one that will be hard to beat in the future. It was the end of their rainy season, so it was overcast pretty much the whole time we were there, but, gauging by the last day (which was sunny), I think that was a good thing as it kept the humidity down which allowed us to have a more enjoyable time.

We started our adventure on Nov. 15th with a drive to San Francisco where we caught a red eye flight to Los Angeles and from there it was another 5.5 hour flight to San Jose, Costa Rica. From the airport, we had a private driver to take us to the first resort we would be staying at, The Peace Lodge in Vara Blanca, about an hours drive from the airport. Of the three places we stayed, this one had the nicest rooms, but the least exciting food - with nothing else close by where we could eat (especially without our own car). The primary reason I had picked this resort was because they keep rescued animals, indigenous to Costa Rica, on the property. This way we were able to see many of the animals native to Costa Rica that we would probably not see in the wild during the rest of our trip. This ended up being a good plan because about all we saw during the rest of our trip were monkeys, hummingbirds and butterfly's - no exotic birds, snakes, frogs or big cats (though we did hear some of them). Another enjoyable experience, was being able to hand feed the hummingbirds. We also visited the Poas Volcano and one of the Doka coffee plantations.

After two nights at the Peace Lodge, the same driver that had picked us up from the airport arrived to take us to our next destination, The Lost Iguana, near the Arenal Volcano. This was the most exciting part of our stay in Costa Rica. Besides hiking within the 120 acres of the resort property, we enjoyed the Hanging Bridges, a Canyoning tour where we did five repels - four of which were within waterfalls and a Zip Line tour where you fly above the jungle strapped to a pulley on a cable strung from mountain to mountain - a hella rush!!! The last night there we (actually I, as Jonianne was enjoying a massage at the time) were treated to a small eruption of the Arenal Volcano. Though we did not get a direct view of the lava flow, at the end of the eruption the top of the volcano started to glow bright orange and then exploded, sending molten lava and rocks high into the air and tumbling down the side of the volcano that we could see - definitely a once in a life time experience!!!

We spent three nights at the Lost Iguana and then it was off to our final destination, the Issimo Suites in Manuel Antonio, a very nice hotel on the Pacific coast of CR. To get to Manuel Antonio we decided to fly instead of spending our time driving (it's a six hour drive from Arenal to Manuel Antonio). This was Joniannes first time in a prop plane and probably not an experience she'll soon forget as the first half of the trip was a little turbulent. The primary goal of this part of our trip was relax and recuperate from the activities we did while in Arenal. This was very easy to do from our penthouse suite that overlooked both the jungle and the Pacific ocean. Though we caught a slight cold, or a 'Gripe' as the Ticos call it, we were still able to enjoy the beach, take a hiking tour of Manuel Antonio national park as well as a kayaking tour of the mangrove forests within the park. One of our favorite things about this part of our trip was the monkeys, they were everywhere. We were even woken up, at 3am in the morning, by a howler sitting in a tree just 15 feet from our balcony.

All in all, it was an educational, fun and relaxing trip, that we hope to do again. All the people we met were very friendly and had a lot of pride in their lives and their country - something lacking in the people here at home.

I've posted pics in the gallery as well as created flash videos of each of the places we visited.