Behind the Scenes of My Costa Rica Holiday

We work to pay bills and live our lives. When we’re lucky, there’s extra money left to buy new clothes, furniture, homes, cars, or whatever you like spending money on.

I live a simple, no frills life, so I spend my money on traveling when I can.

After vaccinations became available and a majority of Americans protected themselves against the Covid-19 pandemic (before the Omicron strain stressed us out), I jetted off to Greece for my birthday in October 2021. It was amazing, even without seeing the gorgeous beaches (I’ll have to watch “Mamma Mia” again for that!)

Once I got back, a great deal on a trip to Costa Rica presented itself, so I booked it.

I didn’t get to mark another continent off my list since Costa Rica is in Central America. As for continents, four down (North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa) and three to go (Australia, Antarctica, and South America). For the record, Antarctica won’t happen and the other two are unlikely!

A couple of weeks ago, I added that new stamp to my passport!

While you may have seen some of the pictures, here are some stories behind those photos — one is scary (and hilarious) from my last night in the country!!!! 🙂

The Wikipedia page on Costa Rica perfectly sums up the country in a soundbite: “Costa Rica is a rugged, rainforested Central American country with coastlines on the Caribbean and Pacific. Though its capital, San Jose, is home to cultural institutions like the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum, Costa Rica is known for its beaches, volcanoes, and biodiversity. Roughly a quarter of its area is made up of protected jungle, teeming with wildlife including spider monkeys and quetzal birds.”

Surprisingly, because some people are loud when they should be quiet in nature, I did snap a few pictures of spider monkeys in the wild in the Arenal Volcano National Park…

and a cute little White-Nosed Coatimundi.

I posted that description of Costa Rica because it plays a big role in the beauty, yet the frustration of traveling there.

My Gate 1 Travel trip was the “9 Day Kaleidoscope of Costa Rica with Guanacaste”, which was a step up from the “7 Day Classic Costa Rica”. And, I’m so glad I did that because the two days in Guanacaste (Tamarindo) was definitely worth it for the gorgeous hotel, my room and balcony, and the Pacific Ocean sunsets.

However, of that “9 Day” trip, two were travel days, which were exhausting. Heading there, I drove an hour from Decatur to the airport in Bloomington, Illinois, for the first of three flights! It was a short flight to Chicago, three hours of sit time, then a three-hour flight to Miami, sitting three more hours, and then the final three hour flight to San Jose, Costa Rica.

The return trip was just as long: driving to the airport in San Jose, sitting three hours, a three-hour flight to Miami, trying to get through U.S. Customs in less than two hours to catch a three-plus-hour flight to Dallas. Once there, five hours of sitting before the flight to Bloomington, Illinois, and then the one hour drive home!

But, it was worth it to see Costa Rica. Here’s some of that biodiversity!

I absolutely love taking photos and the one below is one of my favorites. While the church in Zarcero was gorgeous, this is what captured my eye and my imagination!

In my travels, I’ve often talked about how much I love, love, love Mediterranean food and, especially, Mediterranean breakfasts.

This one is from Tel Aviv, Israel…

and, this one is from Greece.

Well, Costa Rican breakfasts are much simpler. One interesting staple of the diet there, even at breakfast, is beans and rice!

While I love beans and I love rice, I don’t eat them too often at home. But, since it’s part of the diet in Costa Rica, I had beans and rice each morning with my eggs. Also, the papaya was incredible!

My favorite meal there was a sea bass, which was preceded by a delicious shrimp and lobster bisque, and followed by pineapple cheesecake.

My favorite dessert was raspberry panna cotta, which came after a tasty Greek salad, and salmon with pesto linguine, my second favorite meal.

Costa Rica was my sixth trip with Gate 1 Travel. The other five were a Danube River cruise (2013), Scandinavia (2017), Morocco (2018), Bangkok, Thailand (2019), and Greece (2021). (My 2016 China trip was through another company and my 50th birthday excursion to Paris, France, and Tel Aviv, Israel was a trip I planned on my own.)

On many of these trips, I meet people that I’ve kept in touch with over the years! Hi Barbara, Maureen, Izzy, Katrina, Marcellus, Matt, Cortney, Shirley, and Robert.

In Costa Rica, I met four amazing people that I’ll be keeping in touch with from southern California. I spent most of my time socializing with Bill and Sandi…

and Kathy and Tim.

An interesting side note is that the four of them live within thirty miles of each other and Costa Rica brought them together!

The most scenic experience was the Arenal Volcano National Park, where I took this selfie.

One of coolest adventures was walking across eight hanging bridges, some of which were hundreds of feet long and hundreds of feet over the vast forest of trees.

Sadly, I was most disappointed with the Rio Frio River Boat Tour because of not seeing too many reptiles and creatures. We did see some small crocodiles, “Jesus Christ” lizards, birds, a sleeping sloth, and a few howler monkeys.

But, a stop for a bathroom break gave me the opportunity to see this beautiful macaw!

And, the flowers and plants were stunning. This was my favorite!

And, this one was the most intruiging!

One of the negatives to the trip was the horrible infrastructure. It took many hours to travel just a distance of 60-100 miles, and even longer in a large tour bus!

If you added up all the hours on the bus from one stop to another, we probably lost two to three days. But, we did see gorgeous landscapes along the way and sadly, forest fires that were burning up parts of Coast Rica.

One shocking (and interesting) thing I learned visiting the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum in San Jose on my last night in town was back in 1944, due to the fear of contagion from tuberculosis and leprosy, special currency was minted or pierced for internal use inside sanatoriums and leper asylums!

That’s just crazy!

But, there’s some justification to this paranoia. Almost a century before, in 1856, Costa Rica was under attack by a group of mercenaries led by American William Walker. Walker ended up dumping bodies into the wells which polluted the water supply. This caused a cholera outbreak that killed almost 10% of Costa Rica’s population (nearly 10,000 people)!

And, now that scary and funny story!

My trip started and ended in San Jose, the capital and most populous city (2.1 million of the country’s 5.1 million residents).

Since I had to get up at 2:30 a.m. for my return trip home, I went to bed around 9 p.m. While this may be TMI, it’s important to the story and adds the humor to it.

I sleep naked and usually I have my lounge wear on the bed with me. But, since it was a very early wake-up call, I had the clothes I was wearing home sitting out — across the room.

At 10:30 p.m., I woke up and I thought I heard a noise. I listened for a bit longer and I realized that someone had opened my door! In hotels, I always put the safety lock across the door and I’m so glad I did.

With the new visitors arriving at the hotel that evening, the reception desk must have programmed my room number onto the magnetic key for someone else.

Since I couldn’t reach my clothes, I yelled out, “Hello”, and I heard someone say, “There’s someone in there!”.

I’m totally convinced that it was a mistake downstairs and it scared them as much as it did me. If it had been burglars, I don’t think they would have responded and just left.

So, I almost had someone in my room, but not in the way I wanted! 🙂

Thank you for coming along to Costa Rica with me through this travelogue!

If you ever get a chance to visit the country, the people are very nice and it’ll make you appreciate all that you have even more.

Anthony

Traveling Got Me Thinking

Social media is a great thing.  We can reach out to people across town or across the world.  It’s an interesting avenue for information and the catalysts for much misinformation.

It’s true, Ray and I are fortunate enough to travel — some for his work and some just for fun.  And, it seems that much of our yearly travel is done toward the last part of the year and people think we travel all the time.  How do I know that?  I read it on Facebook. 🙂

The first week of December, we took Tammy, my sister to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and it was fantastic.  If you ever get a chance to go, you have to do it.  We has mostly sunny skies all week with highs in the 80s.

This trip came just two months after I spent almost two weeks combined in San Francisco, California, and Anchorage, Alaska, tagging along with Ray on conferences he was attending.

I know some of my friends may never get to go on exotic vacations or even fun getaways and that’s a bummer.  Life is too short not to get to do exciting things.

My sister, who’s a server at a local restaurant, stuck to a budget to afford the trip.  And, contrary to misconceptions, I don’t get rich from my job as a morning meteorologist!

The secret to our traveling is an interest-free credit card for a year, so we’d buy our trips and pay on them for a year!

But, that’s not the point of this blog.  That was to clarify that while we travel a lot, we also live on budget like the next man and woman.

Last December, Tammy and Gretel went on an eastern Caribbean cruise with us.

It was amazing.  Both trips, the cruise and trip to Puerto Vallarta, were all inclusive (alcohol with the Mexican trip).  We ate and drank all that we wanted and definitely more than we should.

And, we took along $200 for additional tipping.  While it’s not required, what’s a few dollars for your server that keeps your table clean, the bartender filling your drinks, and the maid that makes your room spotless every day?

Here’s what I learned on those trips.  On the cruises, these hard-working people sign on to work these ships every day of the ten-month contract — every day!  (Now, I’m just speaking of this one cruise line that we were on and the employees we talked to.)

Ten months of being away from their families to earn whatever pay they make and to watch us — appearing like we have no worries in the world — eat and drink (and waste) like gluttonous fools.

While in Mexico, we learned that the servers and bartenders work six twelve-hour days each week.  They come into work in the morning and take a break in the afternoon and then come back to work in the evening for a few more hours.

Honestly, I cannot image that.  I go into work and when my one shift is over, I’m ready to go home to relax and spend the rest of the day with my family.  During severe weather, I obviously have to work extra and go back in on my own time.

Again, I have friends that work multiple jobs and still can’t make ends meet and they can feel the pain I’m describing with the men and women who work on the cruise ships and resorts we visit.

In a perfect world, I wish we could all go on vacations and never have to struggle financially.

While that is a fantasy, I’ll strive to feel less guilty when I get to do these things and make sure that I tip generously when I’m at an all-inclusive resort or on a cruise ship to say an extra “thank you”.

And, when at home, I’ll continue making donations to local charities and do fundraisers to help others.

Reaching out to other and never taking anything for granted isn’t just for the holidays.  It’s my year-long goal.

Anthony