Chapter 8Costa RicaYour Easiest Choice
COSTA RICA HAS A VERY SPECIAL PLACE in our hearts. In 1997, having never been there before, we flew off on somewhat of a whim to be married at the Don Carlos Hotel in San José. It’s nothing fancy, and the “ceremony” itself was laid back and casual, just like Costa Rica itself.
From San José, with a map but no itinerary, we headed north in a rented Suzuki Samurai on our two-week honeymoon. At the time we didn’t know that “one of us” wasn’t completely comfortable traveling without at least an idea of where he would lay his head or take his meal that night. If we don’t have a plan, how will we know where we are going? What if there are no hotels with vacancies? What if we get lost?
Needless to say, we learned a lot about each other on that trip. And we did get lost . . . more than once. We also had the time of our lives.
We spent the night in a little hotel on the south side of the Arenal Volcano where we awoke in the night to see the majestic volcano spouting great red spurts of lava. We drove the “Monkey Road” between Playas del Coco and Playa Flamingo where we did, indeed, find monkeys at play. We visited the beach towns of Samará, Jacó, Quepos, Dominical, and the gorgeous Manuel Antonio National Park.
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