Costa Rica

Our Ohio State friends wanted to see Costa Rica, where our friend, Marco was from. Ed McGlumphy planned the trip, using Gabriela Mairena at Horizontes Nature Tours, who did a great job. Wanting to see as much as possible, it was a packed trip. Except for our flights, all went according to plan.

A big storm caused our flight to Miami to be cancelled, so we were a day late getting there. We drove to Richmond the next day, flew to Dallas/Ft. Worth, then to San Jose, Costa Rica where Horizontes picked us up and drove us to Atenas.

Ed had rented a friend’s house outside of Atenas, a cute little town. I did not realize there were so many mountains in Costa Rica, some of which are very big. It wasn’t till the end of the trip when our driver to the airport told us it was the tail end of the Rockies. Mount Chirripo in Chirripo National Park is the tallest at 3,727 m, or 12,228′. Picture from Wikipedia.

Miguel’s house sits on a mountain with great views and a beautiful pool.

At 6:00 Saturday morning, we were driven to Puntarenas on the west coast, and then took a party boat ride to Isla Tortuga for a day at the beach. I hadn’t connected that it was a big holiday week of Easter and spring break. It was nice, but too many people in one place for me. Then we retraced our steps back to Miguel’s house.

We were picked up at 5:00 on Sunday morning driving southwest to La Pavona. Then a boat ride to Mawamba Lodge for two nights and three days. With the river on one side and the ocean on the other, it is a beautiful site surrounded by jungle. Parrots were squawking all around as they went into their unique, hanging nests. Unique flowers and plants were beautifully placed around the grounds. It took us a while to learn our way around. The rooms were grouped in cabins of 4-6 rooms. We changed to bathing suits and found our way to the swimming pool and bar. Everything was open-air with no air conditioning. It was a hot day, so that was a bit concerning, but turned out to be fine.

We took a guided nature tour of the grounds with a very nice young lady. Amazing what we found right on the grounds, flowers, a sloth or two, parrots, a Toucan, spiders, ants, bats and a termite nest.