My First Day in Costa Rica

This Easter weekend Tara and I took our first trip to Costa Rica. I am on a plane right now returning to the U.S. tired, soar, sunburned and very happy. I have been fortunate enough to travel to quite a few places in my life, but none of them were like Costa Rica. We experience a lot in a few short days. I am going to break up the trip into a series of posts so you don’t fall asleep.

Day One

We began our journey with a short 3 hour flight from Orlando to San Jose on Jet Blue. The second we hit the ground it was clear we were no longer in the U.S. The first thing we did was rent a car. The rental car employee explained to us that it was common for locals to booby trap the roads by throwing nails and glass in the path of unsuspecting tourists. “Booby traps,” I thought to myself. “I wanted to go to a tropical paradise, not a war zone.”

He instructed us to check the tires on our vehicle before we left the rental facility and make sure that the car jack was in good working order. The employee then rattled off a list of emergency instructions and phone numbers, smiled and said “have fun.”

When we arrived at the car rental pick up building it was clear to me that the employee was not kidding. Every vehicle in the facility lacked hub caps and were outfitted with inexpensive, almost disposable tires. All the buildings in the area were fortified with tall fences, razor wire and bars on their windows. It made me a bit nervous but Tara and I piled into our little SUV, punched our hotel into the GPS and set off on a tour of the Costa Rican country side.

While the scenery was beautiful I dreaded every second of our drive from San Jose. We encountered traffic, cows, washed out roads, clouds and many one-way bridges. While all of these were genuine hazards the biggest hazard of all was the people. There were people standing and walking on the highway at every turn. I didn’t understand what was going on. Are these people going to throw glass in the road? Are they going to jump out in front of my car? Is this a booby trap? Are they going to try and rob me? I was incredibly tense.

Five hours later we arrived at outside our hotel La Mansion in Nuevo Arenal. Tara and I were both exhausted. My hands hurt from gripping the steering wheel so hard, my shirt was soaked with sweat. Yeahhh! We are here. We didn’t die!

La Mansion is a small hotel on Arenal’s north shore that features 17 small cottages. We walked into the lobby/restaurant/bar and were greeted by the owner’s daughter Peggy and their dog April. Peggy explained to me that her father Leo built the hotel 17 years ago. She and her father manage day to day operations and her daughter cooks breakfast and dinner. Tara and I enjoyed a glass of wine and later noshed on homemade beef goulash and broiled sea bass.

We called it a night around 8:30 Costa Rica time and crashed out in our private villa. Day one was filled with travel and stress… but all that changed the next morning… : )