Off the Beaten Path – Costa Rica
Kay and I recently spent a week in the Central American country of Costa Rica. Per our usual travel arraignments, we “winged it” on this trip. Our only reservations were our airline flights and a car rental reservation. We had a general idea of where we wanted to visit, but no firm hotel reservations or places to visit.
Like is often the case, the first night “in country” we were questioning this decision. We had yet to learn the laid back “Costa Rica way”. Nothing happens very fast here. The language barrier wasn’t all that difficult, since quite a few Costa Rican’s speak English, especially in the coastal areas where the tourists visit. After a couple of days and a few misadventures, we found our groove and enjoyed our stay. We like to travel to out-of-the-way places so chose to drive a lot of dirt roads and visit lesser-known destinations along the Pacific coast. Luckily we rented a 4WD Suzuki SUV and were glad to have it as we rattled along unimproved dirt roads and over low water crossings. In these more remote areas, Spanish was the preferred language, yet we were able to navigate and find where we wanted to go without too much drama.
Kay was very excited about doing a zip line tour in Costa Rica. She had heard that these were spectacular. I wasn’t that wild about the idea – not because I am scared of heights – I am not. More that I am not a fan of organized activities. But I was wrong on this one. We had a fantastic time and a really fun day riding the zip lines, plodding along on horses, and tubing down a cold swollen river.
We spent many hours on the beautiful beaches. Our morning routine was to run along the beach first thing in the morning, eat breakfast, take a nap, then spend the rest of the day exploring.
Below are pictures from our week in Costa Rica.
