21st day - Thur

Took Easyride bus from Dominical to the airport. Made good time - almost exactly 4 hours and that included a 10 minute rest stop.
Now waiting in the airport for hours until plane arrives!

20th day - Wed

Last full day here and it's a party. Spent the day preparing food for pot luck party. There were 13 people all together. The 5 of us at the house and 8 neighbours. Lots of food! Robert & Teresa, Rudy, Igor & Svetlana, Rick & Clara, and Manny.

Robert's ribs in a crock-pot - great. Igor brought a pizzaria pizza - very good. Rudy brought a cheese and cracker platter with some really good sausage bought at a local butcher. Rick brought a vegetable platter. Iliana made a vegetable combination served on a tortilla. I made stuffed mushrooms (with the prosciutto bought at Pizzarie Restaurante Liliana) and potted shrimp served with sliced baguette.

19th day - Tues

All of us out in the morning to San Vito. The beautiful drive past and crossing many rivers and driving across the ridge of vast valleys.

In San Vito, ate lunch at Pizzeria Restaurante Liliana. We all enjoyed the antipasto of pickled heart of palm, pickled eggplant, olives and their own prosciutto. Delicious! Then two pizzas: anchovie and all dressed, both great.
Drove to the coast following the river, then to Dominical and back home. A long day of driving.

18th day - Mon

Relaxing day at home. Went shopping early in town then back for lunch. Prepared a dish for party this coming Wednesday.

17th day - Sun

Drove to Quepos to pick up Phil and Iliana and for a quick visit to the public beach which was very crowded. Stopped to look at the avion bar which contains within it an old complete airplane — a large 50s era cargo plane that has been converted into a bar.
Stopped at POPS for some nieve — a sorbet-like cold treat ("Nieve" is Spanish for snow.) I had the mango. Great!
All commented on how the area had been built up so much in a few years. Now Quepos was very touristy.

Stopped for lunch at Los Chorros restaurant with its spectacular view of the valley. Returned home.

Marlene's selfie with all of us enjoying POPS

16th day - Sat

Relaxing day at house. Breakfast then helped John align table saw then finish building equipment stand. Mounted drill press on the new stand.

15th day - Fri

Relaxing day at home. Went shopping after a great lunch. Spend a few hours in the evening helping John assemble table saw.

14th day - Thur

Helped John re-assemble table saw. Got mostly done when finished discovered a missing nut. So of to the city tomorrow to the hardware store.

Tonight is cards night at Robert and Teresa's.
Robert's orchard is so varied:

Cinnamon

Orange

Mandarin orange

Orange

Mulberry

Cashew - just starting to fruit

Pomegranate - just starting to fruit

Cocoa tree

He also has guava, coffee, banana and the unusual jabuticaba (or Brazilian grapetree) that grows its fruit on the trunk and branches.

13th day - Wed

Fixed TV antenna, then visited neighbours Robert and Teresa for a couple of hours in their house in the jungle. Had a visit from neighbour Rudy for a few hours. Nice chatting on the terrace in perfect weather.
Went shopping then out for dinner.

12th day - Tues

Relax at home after hectic, busy days. Had lots of laundry to do and house cleaning. Went shopping in San Isidro.

11th day - Mon

Drove back from San Jose. Unpack, eat and relax.

10th day - Sun

Early in the morning drove to San Jose. Left from there to drive to San Isidro de Heredia for wedding. It was in the mountains and much cooler, probably about 17-18°C! Very nice outdoor wedding despite cool temperature and a slight misty rain.

9th day - Sat

Went 4-wheeling in Uvita. 14 ATVs in the tour, 8 singles and 6 doubles. A four hour tour to the highest view where you could see the whale tail spit on the Pacific coast. Then to a small cascading waterfall (about 5m high) for a lunch break of fresh fruit: mango, pineapple and watermelon. Very tasty!
By Jungle ATV Tours, Uvita. (506) 2743-8281

8th day - Fri

Went to Hacienda Baru near the coast close to Uvita to go on a nature hike and do some zip-lining. Went on 8 zips, one was a two stage, stopping at a platform on a tree about 100' off the ground. Real fun!

7th day - Thur

Went in town to shop. Hung souvenir masks on the wall. Installed weather center. Had a nice dinner of tomatoes and had neighbours over for cards.

6th day - Wed

Relaxed and went shopping in the town. Had a great dinner at the neighbour's house.

5th day - Tues

Left Arenal and La Fortuna. Stopped at Nuevo Arenal to visit the famous Tom's Pan German Bakery (map). Delicious peach pastry and their version of a pizza are great. The cinnamon and the raisin buns were very good too. (Surprisingly, for a German bakery, their apple strudel was not good at all — some odd spicing in it. Definitely avoid.)

Drove on to Monte Verde and to the coast to Quepo, then down to Dominical then finally home to near  to San Isedro.

4th day - Monday

While staying in Arenal, went on canopy walk and visited waterfall.
The canopy tour was at Mistico Park.

The screenshot above is their view seen here. You can do the walk on your own, but we chose the Natural History Guided Tour. Our guide, Kenia, was very informative and fun.


The waterfall was at Catarata La Fortuna. (506) 2479-9515. It looked great, but the water was cold.

3rd day - Sunday

Drove to La Fortuna and Arenal.

2nd day - Sat

Went to 80th birthday party at ranchero.

1st day - Fri

Spent the day with friends touring San Jose. Walked a lot seeing the sites of the city. Visited the gold and numismatic museum. An unbelievable amount of pre-Columbian gold—proably 600-700 pieces!
Had a nice lunch at a "soda"—basically meaning popular diner. Very good meal with delicious fruit smoothie called "?".

In Costa Rica

Arrived late Thursday night, picked up by friends and straight to my hotel for the first night. Much needed sleep after being up since 5:00am.

Last minute recommendations on what to see and do (and eat).
1. Visit Teleron Mountain
2. Monte Verdi cloud forest zip lining
3. Try a tartella - delicious