Costa Rica

Costa Rica is a very beautiful country,full of diversity. There one can see untouched forests, wild life, active volcanos,both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and so many other things. I was lucky enough to be able to go there on vacation and enjoy that wonderful place with my husband and a couple of friends of mine.
We were there for a total of 7 days, and, believe me, a month would not be enough. There is just so much to see and do there, that we need to go back someday. We went there during May, which is the low and rainy season. The advantage of that is only a few tourists are there and we could have places almost completely to ourselves.
We left Chicago early morning, stopped in Charlotte and about 7 and 1/2 hours later we were in Costa Rica. When we landed it was raining a lot and we all thought that was not such a good idea to go there during the raining season. But soon we learned that it rains almost every day, but not for long and that the sun will shine right after the rain.



Despite the advice of some travel books we decided to rent a car, that way we would have freedom to go anywhere and besides, we had no hotel reservations, Costa Rica was there to be explored... We aren't the resort kind of travelers, we like to appreciate the culture and somewhat live like the locals during the trip. The advice not to rent a car was because supposely the roads were bad and dangerous. That wasn't true, they were in pretty good conditions, but very curvy up the mountains and very often not well signed, so it was easy to get lost. Luckily our Spanish was passable, so early in the trip we learned that when arriving in a village we should stop someone and ask where the next town was to make sure we didn't end up losing too much time.
We got lost the very first day, trying to get to Arenal we ended up going to Jaco and had to stay the night. Our plan was to go see the Volcano and hot springs first, but those places had to wait a bit more. From San Jose, the capital, we drove up north passing to cities like Grecia, were we had a quick bite to eat and a fell for how the ticos (locals) live.
Jaco, our first destination, is a popular beach for Surfers, and they have great seafood for cheap! the water was nice and warm and the people so friendly, that was when we started thinking about changing our flight back to Chicago for a latter date. There we went to Corcovado National park, a good place to spot the red-eyed tree frog, and to see all kinds of trees and animals. This park is one of the few untouched forests of Central America and it will be like that forever since it is a preserved area.
We left Jaco and headed towards Manoel Antonio, another spectacular place, with Forests, beach, fairs. We went on an ATV tour inside a forest, incredible, all I could think was, man I'm in the middle of wild life, no one around, waterfalls, flowers, trees, beautiful views, just amazing!
The last stop was finally at Arenal, where the Active volcano and hot springs are. This was so relaxing and peaceful. We stayed at the Tabacon Hotel, where the hot springs are. The temperature of the water can be as hot as 152 F. Just perfect.
All of that makes Costa Rica a must to see place. For me, a must to go back destination. Please fell free to send me e-mails if you want to know more about my vacation and I may be able to help you...
That is all for now!