Costa Rica Honymoon - del Sol Photography

[Matt Adcock]

I wanted to post details from our honeymoon amigos... We went in August, 2008.... I wrote all this info and just never posted it.

 

SO, if you want to follow along with our amazing adventure, watch the videos and read about the locations we visited.

 

FOR a photo slideshow, check this out: Here are a few photos http://delsolphotography.com/blog/content/galleries/?gal=46


Ok, here is my take on Costa Rica.  We traveled there in the first few weeks of August, considered HIGH SEASON FOR RAIN.  

First, we made video documentary of our entire experience, so you can follow along with how amazing what we saw was all about

We were there for 16 days and covered quite a bit of the country, but there are TONS of places we didnt get to visit, but those that we did get to see...totally awesome.  

We flew Delta one way from Atlanta GA to San Jose.  We stayed one night there before the adventure began.  There is a small airport where we puddle jumped on a 30 or 45 minute flight south to the Osa Peninsula. We stayed here for 4 nights and extended our stay for 2 more  nights, being blown away by a place that National Geographic labels "one of the most biological diverse / intense locations on the planet"

We went on both tours to the Corcovado park....  The video documents ALL of it.   Mind blowing WOW!
http://www.aguiladeosainn.com/tours/corcovado/index.html

We also went to Cano Island: http://www.aguiladeosainn.com/tours/cano_island/index.html
We enjoyed the island for a quick lunch, and feeding the millions of hermit crabs... we snorkeled for a short time, sol got stung by jelly fish...so we got on the boat and did LOTS AND LOTS of whale watching....awesome.  not sure about the seasons for whales, they were mating in August when were there.

We also did the canopy tour at http://www.aguiladeosainn.com/tours/canopy/index.html.  This was ok...the canopy tour is over 2 parts of the forest.  The primary (old jungle) and the secondary (jungle thats been replanted...   This tour was okish....just something fun to do in one afternoon.  

We also kyaked up a little river near the INN... saw alligators, lots of wildlife, and other amazing sites.   The LOUD LOUD howler monkies will BLOW your mind, just unbelievable.   My video shows all the wildlife we saw just everywhere... mindblowing wowser!

Here is our video from Corcovado:



For the 2nd part of our trip, we took the boat up the River Sierpe (serpent) on the way out of corcovado (there are 2 ways in and out, explained in this link)  http://www.aguiladeosainn.com/directions/index.html

We went back to San Jose and stayed there for another night where we met up with a photographer friend of ours for an afternoon.  Then, the next day, found a taxi / private transportation to take us from San Jose to Arenal (the town of La Fortuna).   Arenal is the super active Volcano in Costa Rica.   The private taxi was about 3-5 hours but we stopped in La Paz waterfall gardens along the way.  I think we paid $150-200ish for this taxi.  It was a passenger van type bus that could have had 5 or 6 people, but we were the only 2 in the van.  This was SUPER nice to be chauffeured.   LOVED the LaPaz water gardens.  We spent about 2 hours at the gardens...this place is friggen WOW... My video shows it all.  Its like an animal sanctuary because they have lots of rescued animals there, and a major butterfly terrarium as well as an awesome path with MAJOR huge waterfalls.   I was super nervous about our camera gear, computers, and other stuff left in the car...but it was all safe while we made our 1-2 hour visit tour of the gardens.  Then we took off for the rest of the drive to the town of La Fortuna.   Sol doesnt want to recommend the hotel we stayed at in LaFortuna....so your own your own if you want to go there.   She somehow remembers this place, so its her  recommendation: http://www.arenallodge.com/navegadores/rooms.html

The tours we did there were all arranged through http://www.desafiocostarica.com/
We did the Rio Celeste, highlighted in our video... Well, I think seeing that is worth a million words...just unbelievable.  The tour is hardly requested by tourists because the ride is 1.5 hrs away, but the scenery there is SO worth going.  We lucked out and had a personal driver and 2 guides.  One who even narrated on our video around the "Arbol de la Paz" (tree of peace).   The 2nd guide was a training guide...They spoke english.

We also took the Lost Canyon repelling tour which was friggen WOW!: http://www.desafiocostarica.com/index.php?lang=en&opt=tour&id=21&cat=f#top2

Watch this video of Arenal and Rio Celeste:




We left Arenal on this transfer: http://www.desafiocostarica.com/index.php?lang=en&opt=transportation&id=10&cat=f#top2

YOu can see the lake in my video plus the busted dirt road with the man on the wagon, pigs on the road...totally beautiful scenery.  The taxi took us to Monteverde.

We recommend BOTH zip line tours in Monteverde...also the cloud forest reserve: http://www.monteverdeinfo.com/monteverde.htm

We stayed at http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g951347-d1010604-Reviews-Mariposa_Bed_Breakfast-Monteverde_Province_of_Puntarenas.html.   We got the suite seen in the photo on trip advisor.

We left the rain forest and headed to the north west coast and went to Flamingo Beach and Tamarindo Costa Rica.   We really planned going here to leave out of the regional airport Libera.   We had no plans here and drove around until we found a place to stay.... we experienced LOTS of rain on our trip, just about the entire trip....Mostly in the afternoon though.   When we got the the LIbera area, this was the only place we rented a car.    I probably enjoyed this part of our trip the least...although the sailboat charter we setup was pretty fun

Video seen here:

 

Enjoy