Costa Rica – Day 1 – And Away We Go!!

Okay, so I took nearly 500 pictures during my week in Costa Rica. That’s right. I’m a photo whore.

Ever since I arrived home, I have been asking myself “How in the world am I going to fit all of my great Costa Rica stories and photos into one blog post?” How? The task seemed so daunting, so massive. Nigh unto impossible.

So, as somewhat of a solution, I have decided to give each day in Costa Rica its own separate blog post - for my sanity and yours, lest you are all forced to endure one single post longer than the King James version of the Bible.

Perhaps this is not the best solution. I may end up boring you all to tears, and cause a disinterest in all things Central America in the process. Oh, well . I don't care. This blog is really more of a journal anyway.

And on that note, here we go……….

So, a few months back, my friend Mark decided that he wanted to have one last blow-out trip before he left LA to move to Salt Lake City. And he chose Costa Rica as the destination. So, he sent out an email with all the details, and when all was said and done, 16 of us had committed to go. That’s right. Mormons always travel in packs. A couple of weeks later, 4 more people decided to join the fray (though they had to make separate travel and lodging arrangements), bringing the grand total to 20 people – 12 girls, and 8 boys.

Our flight to Costa Rica was a red-eye flight on the Fourth of July. We literally went from watching fireworks on a friend's rooftop to the airport.

Leanne and I freezing our buns off on the roof

LAX was a madhouse! I would have never imagined that there could be that many people at the airport at such an insane hour of the morning.

Finally, at 1:45 am, we boarded the plane.

(Side note: We flew TACA, which is a Central American airline. Having never visited Central/South America before, this was not an airline I was familiar with. But airlines are all pretty much the same, right? Uh, yeah.......Word to the wise - NEVER fly TACA. I feared for my life on more than one occasion, including a 5 second engine failure/nose dive on the return flight, whilst I was sleeping, no less. Talk about a rude awakening! Also, I'm pretty sure I got food poisoning from one of their meals. Upon returning to LA, one of my Hispanic co-workers informed me that not even the Central Americans fly TACA because of its reputation. Great.)

We had a 5 hour flight ahead of us, and luckily most of the group was pretty exhausted by the time our plane took off (and those who weren't exhausted quickly dosed themselves with Tylenol PM).

My row-mates, Jonathan and Austen, and I decided that we weren't quite ready to catch some Zs, so we opted to play a friendly game of UNO.

Jonathan, however, quickly lost interest in the card game, and passed out under his blanky.

After our 5 hour flight, we had an hour layover in El Salvador. And seeing as it was now 7:00 in the morning, and all we had eaten was some stale plane crackers and some very questionable plane pancakes, we decided to get some breakfast at the airport. We bought some pupusas in a little cafe - and they were delicious!

And then we were off on our connecting flight to San Jose, Costa Rica, which was another hour away.

“Pura Vida!” We finally made it!

Going through customs

Our class picture. Aren’t we all such well behaved little children?

Because there were 16 of us, we needed 4 rental cars. After haggling with the car company about some weird insurance they said we needed, but we had never heard of, we finally set out for our first destination, Manuel Antonio - which was a 3-hour car ride away (this was a veeeery long first day, by the way).

We were quick to learn that roads in Costa Rica - yeah, not so simple. First of all, there is an extreme lack of road-signage in general. One must be vigilant, and pay very close attention to road maps and landmarks, lest one ends up in Panama.

Second of all, several of these so-called "highways" go from two-lane to one-lane without any warning. That's one lane TOTAL. Yeah, we had to take turns sharing the road with the oncoming traffic. Weird, and somewhat aggravating.

This is one example of this strange phenomenon. P.S., this suspension bridge was so old and rickety, it looked like it belonged in an “Indiana Jones” movie. Yet another instance where Costa Rica made me take my life in my hands…….

Third of all, apparently the Costa Rican government doesn't believe in paving all of its major roads (?). Not only was this extremely bumpy, but very carsick-making. It also made sleeping through the car ride completely impossible.

Anyway, because of the above driving factors, my car (I was NOT the driver) made a wrong turn about 10 minutes into the trip. Yeah, we're smart. But we did figure out that we had made that wrong turn after about another 5 minutes, so I guess we're not complete idiots. At that point, though, we were completely separated from the other three cars - left to fend for ourselves in the Costa Rican outback. Somehow, though, we managed to make it to Manuel Antonio - and what's more, we were the first carload to arrive!!

This was our Manuel Antonio housing - Tanager Villa at Manuel Antonio Estates.

This four-story villa had 8 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms, a kitchen, a pool, a balcony - and was pure heaven. This was our gorgeous view from the balcony.

Delicious, if you ask me.

Okay, so now we've arrived. It's 85 degrees out and really humid. We're hot, sweaty, and really want to get out of our traveling clothes and into our bathing suits. Just one problem. Our suitcases are in another one of the cars!!!!

Are you freaking kidding me? I knew I shouldn't have worn workout pants on the plane!!

The only good thing about this whole situation was that we got first dibs on choosing our rooms, so I guess that kind of made up for the ridiculously hot wardrobe.

And, at least we had arranged to have dinner waiting for us when we arrived. We were starving, so we absolutely gorged ourselves on the wonderful food, and that seemed to pass the time a little.

Finally, TWO HOURS later, the other cars showed up. Apparently, they made a really wrong turn.

Now that we had our luggage back, it was time to bring on the swimming pool!! And the silliness.

Yes, we’re all adults. Why do you ask?

And what LDS single adult gathering would be complete without a rousing game of full-contact Nertz?

All in all, it was a really wonderful first day in Costa Rica. But boy were we tired by the end of it!