By this Author: vagabondvoyager

A more adventurous, and slightly more exotic version of Hawaii - after two weeks of traipsing around Costa Rica, I can't think of a more apt descriptor of this country. It's perhaps a bit of a backhanded compliment, but one that isn't intentional - really, it's the truth, since the two places share so many similarities. Beaches, coffee plantations, tropical rainforests, volcanoes ... both are tropical paradises, with all that brings to the table.

Even the activities offered by both are nearly the same - diving, horseback riding, snorkeling, surfing, zip lining ... while I'd still give the nod to Costa Rica in terms of the overall quality, value, and variety of these activities, you can really have a nearly identical vacation in either locale. I'd even go so far as to suggest that you can have almost the same cultural experience in either place, since the North American influence is so heavy here in Costa Rica. Tico culture does exist, but a tourist must work pretty hard to find even a shred of it here.

If you take Hawaii's Asian and Polynesian influences out of the equation, there isn't much that separates it from Costa Rica, other than perhaps there being more creature comforts available in Hawaii, and the general overall ease with which you can get around there. In theory, things are a bit more adventurous in Costa Rica, since many of its most beautiful spots are difficult to get to, and can involve many an uncomfortable journey if you choose to travel as most Ticos do.

Costa Rica is a bit of an oxymoron - for a place billed as an adventure destination, it really isn't all that adventurous - but perhaps that really depends on the individual's perspective. To me, Costa Rica is more a place where you can do some adventure activities, without having to be all that adventurous in the process. That's probably the reason it is such an appealing destinations for tourists, as it's a bit of a best-of-both-Worlds scenario here. But for all our fears of Costa Rica being trapped in a giant tourist bubble that is completely overrun by North Americans, in the end, none of that mattered - it's still a pretty awesome place to visit, and far exceeded our initial expectations. Like most places we've been, we'd highly recommend a visit to Costa Rica, and would definitely consider a return trip - though, with so many amazing destinations yet to be discovered, and so many other incredible locales that we want to return to, the chances of coming back to Costa Rica are slim, at best.

This trip was all about the highlights - with so many cool activities and experiences on offer, it was seemingly one giant highlight reel of memories. Flying over Costa Rica's Pacific Coast in a little prop plane, feeling like we were swimming inside of an aquarium at Caño Island, gawking at a permasmiling sloth in Manuel Antonio, soaking in the luxurious Tabacon hot springs ... at times, it felt like we were constantly crossing items off of the bucket list, in a non-stop parade of greatest hits in life.

But for all the fun of our Costa Rican adventures, they paled in comparison to the biggest development to come out of this trip - Lil Buddha and I finally repairing our fractured relationship, after all these months. It's so good to see him happy and smiling again, that I've decided to dedicate the theme song of this trip to him - it's gotta be Apologize by OneRepublic featuring Timbaland. I'm sorry Lil Buddha, I'll never forget to take you on a trip ever again!!!

Pappadeaux's Oyster Bar

Everything's Bigger in Texas ...

Lucky Thirteen ...

Lobster and Shirmp Salad ...

Crab Cake and Seafood Skewer ...

Stowaways in My Backpack

Last full day of the trip - always a depressing proposition, but perhaps even more so in this case, since the only planned activity was a long, depressing drive to an even more depressing location - the Hilton Hotel at the Liberia airport. Sure, according to the reviews, the hotel is nice with a decent pool, but come on - staying out by the airport? Is that ever fun? Unfortunately, there wasn't much choice in this case, since we have an early morning flight back to Calgary tomorrow ...

Liberia city itself isn't too far away from the airport, but by most accounts, the city is a pretty depressing place - a bigger Costa Rican city without much of interest to tourists - so there was no real incentive to stay there either, as at least staying close to the airport offered the advantage of grabbing a few more minutes of sleep before dragging our sorry sleepy asses out of bed in the morning. That ended up being the only advantage to staying here, as we didn't even get to enjoy the pool, since it was unseasonably cool and rainy today in Liberia!

What we did get to do, however, was head to the coast for one last sunset, at Playa Hermosa, one of the more popular beach resort areas in the entire country. In a way, it was actually even more depressing, because it wasn't exactly what you would call a pretty beach, with its dull, grey sand. Add the fact that the beach is completely crowded with hotels and busy bars, and it makes for a less than inviting locale ...

But there was one great thing about tonight - the fact that Playa Hermosa was a spot we had originally considered for spending the last few nights of the trip, but ultimately decided against. When we saw what Playa Hermosa was all about, it made us long for the beautiful seclusion of Playa Carrillo, which proved to be the better choice, by far. So while it was a bit of a depressing day, at least it allowed us to feel even more grateful for the last bit of time that we had in Costa Rica, lounging on beautiful Carrillo ...

Last Costa Rican Sunset at Playa Hermosa ...

Pancakes at Hotel Leyenda

Typical Costa Rican Breakfast ...

The Last Guanabana Juice of the Trip at Ozaki ...

Benita Imitating Buddha

Pedestrian Sushi ...

Ceviche Overload ...

The Last Pineapple Smoothies of the Trip

Roberto's Restaurant On Playa Hermosa

Pasta with Calamari, Shrimp, and Snapper ...

Fried Whole Garlic Snapper ...

Scientific fact - colourful little paper umbrellas make tropical drinks taste better when in paradise. It's something we've proven over and over the past few days in the laid back areas of Playa Carrillo and Playa Samara, where we are finishing up our last bit of beach time in Costa Rica. There's probably no better place to wind down this trip, since tomorrow night will be spent at a hotel near the Liberia airport, a location that was chosen solely because of the fact that we have an early flight back home.

Carrillo ended up being a great choice, with the prettiest beach we've seen so far in Costa Rica, and one that was nearly empty every day that we were there. Even better was the fact that our hotel maintains a small kiosk at the beach, with toilet, showers, lounge chairs, and a cart where we could buy drinks. It was a perfect spot for a few days of R&R, to recover from a very hectic Costa Rican getaway, one that was full of the typical activities that tourists do here.

The routine ended up being pretty much identical for the two full days we had in Carrillo - have a late breakfast, have a beer on the beach, catch up on some reading, take a dip when we got too hot, go for a nice seafood-based lunch somewhere, and then hide from the hottest part of the day back at the Hotel Leyenda's pool. Oh, such a tough life that we lead here, on the beaches of Costa Rica ... Of course, if there was one complaint about Playa Carrillo, it was that the waves can be a bit strong for casual swimmers, and is probably more suitable for beginner surfers. I always wear my sunglasses into the water with never a problem, except for today - the waves were extra strong, and I was about chest deep in the water, when a wave started to break a good couple of feet above my head ...

I tried to jump high enough to keep my head above water while simultaneously grabbing at my sunglasses, but to no avail - the wave nailed me good, and tumbled me end over end ... and when I emerged from the surf, my sunglasses were nowhere to be found. Now, this wasn't the first time I'd lost a pair of glasses while traveling, but this was the least traumatic of the two - the other time was when we were mugged at knife point in Thailand, so I'm not really complaining this time around!

Even though we do have one more night in Costa Rica, tonight really felt as if it was the last. Staying at an airport hotel doesn't feel like traveling to me in any way, so we were both a bit sad tonight, knowing that our Costa Rican adventures were pretty much over. So to celebrate, we hoped to have one final nice dinner in the area, though some of our previous culinary misadventures made us briefly consider a return to the dive beach bar Lo Que Hay instead, because we knew the food was good there.

Things always have a way of working out, and we finally managed to have a killer dinner in the area, at El Colibri, an Argentinean steakhouse. In fact, the food was so good, that the lack of colourful little paper umbrellas didn't even matter ...

Beautiful Playa Cariillo ...

Guanabana and Blackberry ...

House Salad ...

Garlic Bread ...

Ceviche ...

Warm Rolls and Garlic Oil at El Colibri ...

Rib-Eye ...

Pork Ribs ...

Streetwalker Hanging Around El Colibri

Perhaps the most beautiful aspect of Costa Ricans is the passion and love they have of wildlife - there's a certain appreciation and respect they have for animals, and it's something that isn't all that common in other parts of the World. So what we experienced tonight, when that respect turned into complete and utter contempt, made us sick to our stomachs, both figuratively and literally. The level of cruelty inflicted upon poor Costa Rican animals tonight was incomprehensible; how could one living thing have so little regard for the well-being of another?

Tonight, we witnessed the end result of the most brutal torture and murder of a squid - now, of course, we didn't actually witness the torture and murder, but in another nod to the wisdom of the great Spock (BTW - shout out to Leonard Nimoy, who passed away today - RIP), we deduced that it must have been the most excruciating death. The poor little squid was slowly stuffed up its butt with a mixture of bread, herbs, and way too much salt, until it was so constipated that it finally succumbed to its anguish, exploding all over our dinner plate at El Sueno Tropical, a highly-rated restaurant on Tripadvisor, though we have no idea why that would be the case.

Internet reviews are sketchy, since you never know if they were written by a satisfied customer, or by a buddy of the owner of the establishment. There were only twenty reviews online, but they were so good that it convinced us to try it out, and we were quite confident in our choice when we had seen that some of the reviewers had posted dozens of reviews on Tripadvisor. That couldn't possibly be faked! But perhaps there is another El Sueno Tropical in an alternate universe that dishes out delicious fusion cuisine, because while it was named "The Tropical Dream" in English, it was more of a Tropical Nightmare, surpassing our previous worst dinner ever! But it didn't end with the suffering of that poor little squid, as some unknown fish suffered an equally-horrific fate, tortured to the extent that we could not even recognize what species it was! Our best guess was that it had been brutally kept in a hot room for hours and hours, because that is the only way that the beautiful fresh fish of Costa Rica could wind up being so tough and chewy, something that our culinary experiences here so far, had suggested was an impossibility. It could have also been due to the fact that the fish appeared to have been dunked repeatedly over those hours into a vat of soy sauce, which would also explain why it was so damned salty and discoloured.

At least the torturers had the decency to artistically display the squid and fish carcasses on the plates, with random blobs of sauce and shreds of greenery scattered about, resembling a disjointed Picasso painting. Alright, so it wasn't really all that artistic, but I guess that's what passes for fusion food in these parts, and explains why our food took so long, despite the fact that everybody else in the restaurant had long been served their carcasses ... uh ... I mean food. But that didn't explain some of the other oddities of the night ...

The fact that the fish wasn't served with any starch was odd, since the squid was essentially served with two starches, counting both the rice and the enema that was its bread stuffing. And there wasn't a shred of vegetable to be found with the squid, though there was some type of vegetable medley accompanying the fish, whose individual components were rendered indiscernible by the excessive amounts of soy sauce. Dinner was quite a letdown compared to our simple little lunch earlier at Lo Que Hay, a dive beach bar in Playa Samara,

It's funny how a simple meal can sometimes blow away one that attempts to be fancy - some fish and chorizo tacos, and an incredible dish of grilled local cheese with watermelon were all that we had for lunch, but it was all very well-prepared, delicious, and cheap. It was very memorable, the quintessential beach bum lunch you dream of having in a tropical locale, cold beer in hand and feet in the sand. Unfortunately, dinner tonight was equally memorable - too bad it was for all the wrong reasons ...

Red Snapper With Volcano Sauce ...

Stuffed Calamari ...

Redeeming Dessert ...

Tres Leches ...

Little known fact about the Nicoya peninsula, our home for the next three days - it's home to the most exotic wildlife anywhere in Costa Rica - vampires! Of course, nobody has told us that nor have we verified that fact on the internet, but it was quite obvious to us tonight, since that was the only possible way of explaining our dinner at Casa Esmeralda, a meal that was the equivalent of a Vampire Weapon of Mass Destruction! We may both love garlic, but even we have limits!

It was a truly sad thing, because Casa Esmeralda is actually very highly-rated on Tripadvisor, and our food was quite well-prepared ... but the garlic ... it was just mind-boggling, the amount that the chef had used on the garlic bread and fish. You could almost see a first-time chef using that much of the stuff, but how could a chef that had the skill to turn out a beatifully-caramelized and perfectly-cooked fish filet, think that much garlic would be good? It wasn't only the amount of garlic, but the fact that it was RAW garlic, obliterating the dish with a spicy horseradish-like feel.

It was truly sad, as there must have been at least four or five cloves worth of minced garlic on the fish alone, which rendered the meal more vampire repellant than anything edible. At first glance, I was shocked at the amount of garlic atop of the filet, but shrugged my shoulders and dug in, assuming that the chef knew what they were doing. After a few bites, however, I absolutely had to scrap off the garlic, at least three cloves worth, if not more. Perhaps the saving graces were the delicious crispy fries and decent vegetables for sides, that were somewhat helpful in diluting the pungent garlic. In hindsight, I should've requested a side dish of a tongue scraper!

It was baffling, as our other main dish of seafood pasta with avocado was actually very tasty, not polluted with garlic, and full of chunks of rich avocado and fresh seafood, all placed atop some al dente pasta. How do you go from that dish to this garlic abomination??!?!? It defies logic! So, borrowing some deductive reasoning from one of the greatest minds ever, Mr. Spock, we deduced that such heavy-handed use of garlic must be to repel vampires. Because if you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. Am I right? Is Spock right? Of course!

Arid Landscapes ...

Wicked Smoothies at the Hotel Leyenda ...

Garlic Bread to Start Lunch

Decent Caprese ...

Tuna Tartare ...

Guac On the Half Shell

Frog Hanging Out Outside of Our Hotel Room

Casa Esmeralda ...

Way Too Much Garlic ...

I Scraped Off At Least Three Cloves Worth