Costa Rica March 2006


Our trip was 8 days, 7 nights in March, the tail end of the dry season in Costa Rica.  Our hotel itinerary was:
There are plenty of tours available to Costa Rica, but we wanted the flexibility and fun of traveling independantly.  We booked directly with the above hotels, except for the Best Western, which we booked through Travelocity.  Except for airfare, the trip was less expensive than resort travel in the US.

The roads in Costa Rica can be rough, and not always well marked.  A GPS with pre plotted way points and a good map were a big help.  We bought an excellent road atlas from www.mapcr.com/CostaRicaMaps.html as a PDF download, and then printed it off on a color laser printer. At only $5 for a download, it was a real bargain.

Plan on driving taking 2 - 4 times as long as you expect based on the mileage.  But its worth it to get to see the countryside and see the small towns off the beaten path. I wouldn't recommend staying less than 2 nights at any given location, otherwise you'll feel too rushed. 3 nights per location would have been better for us if we had the time.

For a detailed travelogue, see Sandy's page here

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Our Daihatsu Terios. It may be a cheap, unrefined mini SUV, but it stood up to a heck of a beating during our drives.
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A one-lane bridge over a gorge on the way to La Fortuna.
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Our room at theTabacon Lodge. A really welcome sight at the end of a very long day.
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Thick jungle vegetation just off our patio at the Tabacon.
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Fern fiddlehead
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Lush vegitation at the Tabacon
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Couldn't get over how stunning these flowers were.
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Open air restaurant at the Tabacon. Great breakfast buffet here.
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Breakfast at the Tabacon. Loved the great coffee brought to your table with a french press.
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We had lots of great fruit for breakfast. Then there was this. Passion fruit did not become our new favorite fruit
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Pool at Tabacon Lodge
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Tabacon grounds
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Along the walk between Tabacon Lodge and the Hot Springs
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Hot Springs waterfall. you could sit in it and have the water pound you, sit behind it and it was like a sauna.. Very strong waterflow. It felt great.
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One of the many places you can get in the water at the Tabacon Hot Springs
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Meditation room on the Hot Springs grounds
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Sign near the entrance of Arenal Park
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"In case of eruption, get away" Sounds reasonable to me.
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Arenal volcano. Sounded like gunshots as giant bolders were expelled, like thunder as they bounced down the sides of the cone.
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Sandy and The Fearless Daihatsu in front of Arenal Volcano
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Vents and Lava Flow at Arenal
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Impact marks from boulders bouncing down the slope.
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Lava field at Arenal
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Lake Arenal