Charles' February 2012, Trip to Costa Rica

WoW! What a GREAT trip this was! I had a bit of a problem getting tickets for the trip to Costa Rica When I first checked, the pricing was reasonable, however, I was at a JEDEC meeting and could not purchase my tickets. When I got home, I went to purchase the tickets and the price had increased by $350. I decided not to go. However, a week before Dee Dee and Jeff were heading down, I checked again and discovered I could use frequent flyer miles. Unfortunately, when I tried to purchase the tickets, the website said there was a problem and to try again later. I tried again, and there were no available seats when using frequent flyer miles. Hmmmm, this is strange, so I called United, explained what had happened and the agent did some checking. She was able to book my flight and I was all set to go! Yea!

The flight down was uneventful. I flew on Continental (this was a couple of weeks before United and Continental completed the final steps of their merger) to Houston (3.5 hours) and then on to Liberia, Costa Rica (3 hours). I was upgraded to first class on the the last leg of this trip. It has been many years since I qualified for an upgrade and first class was very enjoyable.

This is a brand new terminal. It opened in February 2012 and was only open for a week or two when we arrived.

The terminal is very modern and state-of-the-art. This terminal is fully enclosed whereas the old terminal was more an open air terminal, similar to Maui's Kahalui airport terminal.

Villa Costa Mar
Playa Hermosa, Guanacaste, Costa Rica

Upon arrival in Costa Rica, I was met by Noel, the manager of Villa Costa Mar. The trip from the airport to the Villa was about 20 to 25 minutes. As we were approaching the Villa, there was a troop of wild monkeys in the trees along the road. They were taking a siesta as it was around 2 PM. Noel said these monkeys were vegetarians and did not bother with the fruit trees at the Villa. They even ignored the bananas!

We actually arrived one day before our time share in Coco would be available for us. We knew Herb, the owner of the company where Jeff and Dee Dee's daughter, Jenny, works, spends a lot of time in Costa Rica. We figured he would have some ideas of inexpensive places to stay for our first night. He suggested we stay at his villa for our first night in Costa Rica. Little did we know his "villa" is actually a resort!

The villa has three permanent staff members and several temporary staff, depending on how many guests are in residence. The permanent staff were Noel, the house manager, driver and tour guide; Ruth, the cook and head housekeeper; And, Noel's older brother Olman, who was the concierge, bartender and server during the meals. These three made us feel very welcome and tended to our every need.

For more information on this magnificient villa, check out the following links:

Herb's villa is very luxurious.

The villa is more like a resort than a home.

There is a bocce ball court...

... and two putting greens with special areas in "the rough" to practice on.

There is also a small casita on the property which adds one more bedroom to the villa.

The veiw from the yard is goregous! BTW, the bocce ball court and the putting greens are just below the edge of the grass. The drop-off is about 20 feet.

Ahhhh, the life of luxury!

The views from this villa are outstanding!

The infinity pool looks like it drops off at the edge. In reality, there is a 3 or 4 foot wide walkway about 4 feet below the edge of the pool. Isn't this a gorgeous pool?

Dee Dee is enjoying the warm sun and the cool water. This was a very relaxing day in Costa Rica!

Jeff and I don't enjoy the water as much as Dee Dee, so we are relaxing at the edge of the pool. The big advantage of this location, as we had a continuous flow of drinks, delivered to us by Olman, the concierge/barkeeper.

Jeff is relaxing. From time-to-time he looks up from the book he is reading to see what is going on around him (or to take a sip of his drink ;-)).

When not relaxing by the pool, Jeff was playing either bocce ball or teaching Noel and Olman the secrets of golf. He has a killer eye when it comes to bocce ball and both Noel and Olman were thrilled at his knowledge of golf!

The bedrooms were all made up with various animals made from the towels. Ruth knows the art of making this animals. From the master bedroom, the views were magnificient! Two of the walls were windows and you can get a hint of the view from this picture.

Even the bathrooms sport the latest in interior design. Dee Dee was thrilled with "her" bathroom!

Sitting around the kitchen counter while listening to Olman as he gave us hints on what to see during the coming week.

Ruth is a GREAT cook and we sure enjoyed the meals she prepared for us.

Enjoying an outdoor breakfast. What food! What a view!

Lunch was also enjoyed outdoors. It sure is nice Costa Rican weather allows eating outdoors.

Lunch at Villa del Mar was exquisitely prepared! Thank you Ruth!

Playas de la Palmas
Coco, Guanacaste, Costa Rica

On Thursday afternoon, Noel drove us to the time share we were to stay for the next week. Needless to say, the condo was not nearly as nice as Herb's place. This was like going from first class to economy. I fear we may have judged the condo much more harshly after our one day being in the lap of luxury!

The condo did have some problems. Most notably, there was only a very weak stream of water the first three days were in the unit. On Sunday, there was no water. After a lengthy negotiation, they moved us to another building that had plenty of water.

Another issue we had with the condo was the lack of amenities. No Internet access, no tissues, no paper towels, no filter for the coffee maker, etc. The physical building was nice, the airconditioner worked and the beds were comfortable. Fortunately, we were so busy we did not hang around the condo. The only time we spent there was for sleeping.

This is the entrance to the square where the condo office was located. There were also numerous shops and a cafe on the square.

The Italian restaurant had tables set up in the square.

There was a fountain in the square...

...and more tables for the restaurant.

I spent many an hour sitting in these chairs. This was the only place where Internet access was available. It was free to time share residents and was provided by the local travel agency. The access was slow and was not entirely reliable. It would go up and down several times during each session I used it.

Here is the entrance to the time share office.

The pool for the building were in was very nice. Dee Dee enjoyed laying by the pool, though she only had time for two pool sessions.

The sliding glass door was the only entrance to our unit.

After entering the unit, you would get a view of the dining area and the kitchen.

This view is from the kitchen, you can see the dining area and living room.

The unit had two bedrooms, a master bedroom with bath and a guest bedroom. This is the guest bedroom and the one I occupied.

Zip Line Tour

Costa Rica is known for it's zip line tours. This was my first time on a zip line. Dee Dee and Jeff had taken a tour once before when they were vacationing in Mexico. I enjoyed the tour and was surprised at how physically tiring it was. The tour consisted of 11 zip lines and took about an hour from start to finish.

Our tour group had 7 members plus 2 tour guides. One guide would go to the other end of the zip line to catch the person on the zip line, if they were going too fast as they approached the end of the zip line. The other guide would help each participant to get connected to the zip line and would make sure there was no one on the zip line before they would release you.

The zip lines all went down hill. The shorter lines were a hundred feet or so. The longer lines were as long as a football field. Since the lines were all down hill, after a few lines, we had to hike up a hill to get to the next set of lines.

Left to right: Dee Dee, Jeff and Charles (me). We are standing on one of the bridges between zip lines.

I'm coming in for a landing on the platform.

Jeff is in the middle of a zip line run.

Jeff is coming in for a landing on a platform.

Left to right: Jeff, Dee Dee and me.

This is our group. We traversed the entire course together.

A Beautiful Beach

After the zip line tour, we wondered over to a beach which Noel had suggested we visit. It was a very isolated beach with only one resort. We enjoyed lunch sitting at a table which was just beyond the high tide mark on the beach. It was under some trees and very pleasant. We spent two or three hours at the beach.