MyParknSpot

Ok I am a typical man, when it comes to vacation my wife does all the research and planning. I mean she does months of planning and checking, contacts people from every government agency you can think of and then add two more. My part of the vacation planning is nodding my head and pretending to listen when she reads what others have written, once In a while she will quiz me on the last thing she said. That’s my part other than showing up for the flight.

Maria convinced me to get a few shots and pills to be on the safe side before we headed to Costa Rica. We flew into a small airport by the name of Liberia. Liberia is a city in Guanacaste, Costa Rica located roughly four hours from San José by bus. About 35,000 people live in the city. This is fairly small by my standards but large in comparison to its neighbors Guanacaste. Liberia is also home to an expo that takes place in the month July, celebrating the Annexation of Guanacaste on July 25, 1824.

We landed and took a short drive by bus to very small rental car location. I picked the vehicle a 4×4 jeep. Good thing I went with the four wheel drive, it was the rainy season and we were headed to Monteverde.

We had a free map from the rental jeep place and a full tank of gas that’s all we needed. Towards dark we got lost a few times but were pointed in the right direction by some nice residents that only spoke Spanish. We ended up going through a neighborhood and catching a dirt road that turned to mud when the rain began. This was shaping up to be a real adventure, pitch black muddy winding mountain road with about 10 foot visibility due to heavy fog. That is what I call GOOD TIMES! We passed a few open air bars that were about 10 foot by 10 foot. The bars had people dancing kids playing under tables and one had a pay phone outside on a pole with the only electric light we saw that night.

We made it into our hotel in Monteverde late that night. The hotel room was very small, and had hard wood on the floors the wall and the ceiling. The room was clean and basic no TV or phone. The next morning a new world unfolded as the sun came up. We were in the middle of a jungle and free to explore it. We toured a few things then headed up to the Sky Adventure zip line tours. The Sky Adventure zip lines tours at the time were the highest the fastest and the longest. We had a short bit of instruction were given a harness and started the long hike through the forest to the top of the mountain to start the zip line fun. The length and speed of this was incredible the cables started in the canopy and went through the branches then opened up between the mountains to exposé the incredible view between the mountains. This was by far the most exciting thing I did in Costa Rica.

I think the funest part of this trip was the sense of adventure when four wheeling in foreign country, we felt safe yet were exploring the unknown by ourselves. The only thing we encountered that may seem out of the ordinary was on a muddy road through the jungle we came upon a closed gate where a man armed with an AK47 stopped us. The man looked in the jeep and opened the gate and let us go, we were near the border of Nicaragua so maybe that was border patrol?

We stayed at a resort near a volcano that had hot mineral pools and mud baths. Normally I am not up for that sort of thing but there was no extra charge and it was quite the experience. Click here to see more photos of Monkeys; pot holes the size of a truck and much more!

Would I go back there for another vacation you bet! That’s an Adventure Baby.

Photos from this Adventure

Myparknspot.com

Brian Gray Adventurer