The Carr Show

Our Costa Rican Honeymoon

June 11, 2006

1^st day of our honeymoon

Matt and I were up really early to meet my GREAT parents who both drove us to the airport.  We were checking in by 4:00 AM.  BWI has some new technology, namely the “blow machine.”  This machine puffs air at your entire body and registers any gases that could be explosive.  And having my luck, I set the machine off.  Yes, I set of the explosive gas machine.  This resulted in a 15 minute full body pat down and a full carry on luggage check with magic chemical sensing wands.  Obviously, I was not attempting to blow up a plane, only go on a honeymoon. 

Matt and I boarded our first plane to Texas.  Low and behold, directly behind us was a man who is from a vendor that Matt uses at his work.  Such a small, small world.  After a long flight and going on little sleep, Matt and I were dropped off into a World full of Spanish speaking chaos.  I will admit, we were both scared to death.  We figured out how to rent our Jeep Wrangler and we were off for our first destination: THE VOLCANO! 

The ride was adventurous to say the least.  I have never in all my years seen such small, pot-hole filled, windy, and steep roads in my life.  At one point, as we were closer to the town, we had to go over this bridge.  The bridge was about 150 ft. off the ground and was over a river bed.  This is fine and dandy until we were half way on the bridge and realized that a huge section of it had been taken out at some point.  To fix this problem, they had simply laid steel runners across where your tires should be.  So, for those who can’t pull into a car wash, you would have been SOL.  Luckily, my husband CAN DRIVE and may I brag, very well.  He handled the situation like a champ as I was whimpering and holding my breath the entire time. After going up and down many mountain hills, we came to it: Arenal Volcano, the presence was astounding.  Arenal Volcano was in our view and what a sight to behold. It is impressive and very hard to describe.  I am not sure if our pictures can describe it. http://www.arenal.net/   I can’t wait to see it erupt a little. 

Finally, after about 3 hours on the crazy roads of Costa Rica, we found our hotel.  This place is heaven on earth.  I will not attempt to describe this place either as I am sure that the pictures will do it some justice.  http://www.lamansionarenal.com/

We ate a superb shrimp dinner and walked to our villa.  On the way, we found the World’s biggest beetle.  See the pictures of this little guy that Matt actually put in his palm.  This place is filled with life that both of us have never seen.  For now, we are off to get some much need rest.  Tomorrow, adventures begin!!!!

June 12^th

Today, we started the day off with an amazing breakfast of bacon and egg omelets.  We then headed to our first adventure in CR.  We went on the Arenal Suspension Bridge Tour. http://www.arenal.net/tour/hanging-bridges/  This tour was a 2 mile hike into the deep lush rainforest.  IT WAS AMAZING.  As far as we could tell, we were the only humans on the trial.  There were about 10 suspension bridges that were about 100 ft to 350 ft long and about 100 ft high.  The bridges looked down on rainforest and waterfalls and it was beautiful.  We saw a ton of lizards and leaf cutter ants.  We also saw a snake, a toucan, many birds, a pecori (we think), some kind of rainforest squirrel, and many other bugs.  Throughout the tour, we would get to areas where the rainforest would break a little and you had amazing views of the Arenal Volcano. 

After this trip, we ate lunch: 2 sandwiches, fries, and soda.  Then off to our next trip.  This trip was an open air gondola ride into the rainforest.  The gondola ride seemed impressive until we got to the real point of our trip here, ZIP LINES.  http://www.arenal.net/tour/skytram-skytrek/ We went down about 6 zip lines, most of which were about 600 to 700 feet high.  So, we went flying over the rainforest high, high, in the sky.  It was an incredible rush that I would do again in a heart beat. 

After that adrenaline rush, we came home to eat.  Sadly, the clouds were really thick tonight and we were unable to see any of the volcano, let alone and red lava.  I hope we will get to see that at some point.

Tomorrow, Monteverde: Costa Rica’s most famous cloud rainforest. 

June 13^th

Today was Monteverde day! http://www.elpanorama.net/index.php?id=138 We headed to the cloud rainforest.  It was very pretty.  We did not see much wildlife aside from some splendid birds and lots of plants and trees.  After a tour of the forest, it was time for some more zip lines (canopy tours).  This tour was a little lower to the ground than yesterday’s tour, but we got to zip through some really neat canopy tops of the rainforest.  At the end of the canopy tour, there was a swing that they had made so you could fly through the jungle like Tarazan.  The catch: the swing involved jumping off a ledge about 30 feet off the ground, so you did a freefall before the swing caught you.  It was a little scary, but oh so fun!

For dinner, we headed to one of the most amazing spots in Costa Rica.  http://www.hotelarenalkioro.com/photo-gallery-the-hotel.htm There is a restaurant on a hill facing the volcano.  You feel like you are at the bottom of the volcano looking up.  The restaurant is a five star, very fine dining.  They seat you in front of these huge windows looking at the volcano.  The windows all open up and you get a view that is out of this World and a breeze that is amazing.  We had a bottle of wine, great food, and banana’s foster, all while watching lava run down the volcano.  It was a night that very few will ever get to do. 

June 14^th

Today, we started off with a La Mariposario (aka: a butterfly garden).  It was very neat to be in a room with tons of beautiful butterflies swarming about.  We caught a really good day with lots of heat.  The butterflies like that kind of weather and they were very active.  Hard for pictures, great for being there. 

Next was the Rio Fortuna waterfall.  After a very long, bumpy road, we got to the entrance.  You could hear the water from the entrance.  There was an overlook towards the water.  When we climbed the overlook, the view took my breath away.  The falls was huge and the sound was deafening.  It was the most gorgeous thing I have ever seen.  We took a 15 minute walk down some very treacherous rock stairs and finally came to the base of the waterfalls.  It was even more beautiful down the canyon of the waterfalls.  We were able to swim around the area of the falls.  The aqua blue, clean water backed up to a lush jungle forest with rocks covered in moss.  It was probably the most beautiful sight yet.  Matt and I spent about 2 hours just staring at the falls and playing in the water.  Again, at one point there was no one there but us.  I love Costa Rica during the rainy season.  Everyone thinks it pours all day long, but it doesn’t.  As a result the people aren’t around and we got to do so much alone. 

After this sight, we headed out to this little craft shop called Toad Hall.  Here, there are some of the prettiest wood creations.  The wood here in Costa Rica is this beautiful multi-shade wood.  After a huge burrito meal, we skipped dinner altogether.

For a night time adventure, we went to the local hot springs resort: La Tabacon.  Water that travels within the volcano comes down the streams and about 2 miles from the inside of the volcano, the water is very warm just like a hot tub.  The locals took a section of these streams, complete with waterfalls and made it a hot springs resort.  Literally, you are at the base of the volcano though, so close that the Smithsonian advised travelers that a pyroclastic flow could easily wipe the resort out.  After all the other death defying adventures we took, what is a volcano? So, we went.  It was very relaxing, but we didn’t get the great views of the volcano that I thought we would.  The palm trees obstructed our view.  After leaving here, we found an area along the road to pull over and watch the volcano which was amazingly clear.  We had just pulled in and the volcano’s top starting glowing red, then it let out this roar that was enough to shut up Matt and I both and the local frogs.  After that roar, lava came flowing out of the top.  I was more impressed by the sound which I wasn’t quick enough to record.  Arenal did not disappoint us though; she got fired back up again and let out a second roar.  The second one wasn’t as long or impressive, but just after it there was this sound that I caught on videotape.  The sound was unlike anything you’ve ever heard.  It sounded like an eerie locomotive that a giant would use.  It was most likely the result of some very hot gas being squeezed through the top of the volcano.  For as long as I live, I will never forget the sound of the volcano. 

June 15^th

Today, we left Arenal and headed for the Pacific Coast.  Manuel Antonio was our destination point.  Manuel Antonio is a unique beach town in that it is jungle right up to the beach.  After our 5 hour trek across Costa Rica (the roads were so much nicer this way), we arrive at La Mansion Inn – Manuel Antonio. http://lamansioninn.com/   The hotel is nestled along the jungle mountain side with one amazing view of the blue crystal beach waters.  Our room here is AMAZING.  We are on the top of the hotel (Penthouse room) with beautiful views from our sunbathing deck.  Tomorrow, we will check out the beach!

June 16^th

After a wonderful breakfast, Matt and I headed to one of Manuel Antonio’s beaches.  The waves were pretty impressive and fun.  Matt and I spent most the day playing in the water, walking the beach, and trying to find neat beach life.  There are a lot of crabs in Costa Rica, but not Maryland crabs, they are much smaller and faster.  There were millions of hermit crabs. 

Afterwards, we cleaned up and headed to dinner.  We had dinner at the El Avion.  The restaurant is open-air as most of Costa Rica’s beach restaurants are.  The place is based around this cargo plane that sits in the middle of the restaurant and has a bar inside of it.

June 17^th

Today, Matt and I did a wave runner safari tour.  We each had jet skis that we toured the coast of Quepos with.  In the middle of the tour, we got to snorkel for a while.  We saw a few neat little fish, including a beautiful black and blue angel fish.  The jet skis were a blast.  After this adventure, we spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach.  We had dinner at the Sunset Bar and Grill.  The food wasn’t that great, but there was live entertainment from the local dog and kitten who were fighting over the affection of the patrons.

June 18^th

Another lazy day at the beach….Lazy in the sense that is all we did, but those waves are HUGE.  Hanging out in that water is quite the workout.  Dinner at Barba Rojo (the Red Beard), a pirate themed restaurant.  The place was really neat and tonight our entertainment came from the local geicos who would sit by the lights and eat all moths coming to the light.  On our way out, we spotted a hugely boa constrictor curled up in the ceiling of the restaurant. 

June 19^th

We spent the morning at Quepos doing some of the beach shopping thing.  We looked at more wood things that are everywhere here in Costa Rica.  We ended up buying these cool wood wine holders for the top of our wine hutch.  They are so neat and if you are ever at the house, I will show them to you.  I was excited because one of them has a strip of the purple wood in it.  I mean the wood is purple.  One day, I would love to have a room with purple wood floors.  The rest of the day, we walked down the beach and finally we saw a few of these squirrel monkeys that everyone keeps saying are everywhere.  This was our first spotting and they sure are cute! We ate dinner at a downtown Quepos restaurant: El Gran Escape with two of the local dogs.  I think animals are attracted to us. 

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