One of my favorite parts from any trip is the final descent into our destination airport, especially if it's in daylight. I love having my face smashed against the window glass to catch a first peek at our newest adventure. (By the way, I'm not a window hog. It's just that Sam always needs to aisle to stretch out his granddaddy long legs.)
Our flight into Liberia International was easy as pie, and after standing in line at customs for an hour, we were so happy to see Julio waiting for us with a sign for Issys Tours. When I frantically emailed around for tour recommendations and real weather conditions, I came across Issys on TripAdvisor. They had great reviews and their prices for transfers seemed reasonable, so we set up our transportation and a tour with them. So within minutes, we had our luggage and were in an air conditioned vehicle with cold bottled water on our way to the Occidental Grand Papagayo Resort.
I'm a little bit of a (calculated) risk taker when it comes to vacation, and this one wasn't any different. I actually booked our hotel through Hotwire, so all I knew about it prior to handing over our payment info was that we were staying in a four star all inclusive beachfront resort. That's really all you need to know, right? We aren't loyal to any one brand when it comes to accommodations, so it was fun to roll the dice and see where we would be staying.
This getaway was planned more for relaxation and adventure than for traditional touristy sightseeing, so we didn't mind a bit that the Grand Papagayo is a secluded resort. And as much as it felt like blasphemy to our two sweet girlies at home, we loooooooved that it was adults only. Sorry, babes! We kept saying how much the girls would love it and we'd love to take them to Costa Rica sometime. It just won't be here.
As thrilled as we were to see this amazing view, we were most excited about the fact that it was 85 degrees. And not a rain cloud in sight. Yay for horrible meteorologists!
After resting up and getting settled after our first full day in Costa Rica, we were up early on Thursday morning for our private "Adventure Multi-Tour" with Issys. Julio was at our resort bright and early to pick us up for a day of fun. In our minds, Costa Rica and ziplining have always been synonymous, so as soon as we pulled the trigger on this last minute trip, I made sure we'd have to opportunity to try it out.
The adventure park was about an hour from our hotel, and we enjoyed seeing the small towns as we worked our way out of the more tourist-saturated areas. It was easy to tell when we were outside the scope of local transit because the roads became bumpier and bumpier. As Julio said, we were getting the "Costa Rica back massage." :) Small price to pay for all the fun that lay ahead.
We checked in with a few other folks, and got to meet some of the guides. One asked if we spoke Spanish, and Sam said, "pequeno." Those that speak Spanish just started laughing, because instead of saying "poco" meaning "a little," he literally just said "small." It was even funnier when the guide said, "no, you're not small." I can understand a bit of Spanish, but I wasn't admitting that for fear that they would only give safety instructions and precautions in Spanish. I didn't want my life to depend on my meager high school Spanish skills. After they fussed about us coming to Costa Rica and not speaking Spanish (noted. Fair point.), I think they were somewhat excited that they could totally make fun of us and we would be none the wiser.
First up, horseback riding! Somehow I ended up with the biggest, feistiest horse (I'm trying not to take that as an insult.), and Sam's....was not. He said he felt like an elephant riding an ant. Ha! Sam grew up riding horses (his parents still have one), and I took horseback riding lessons as a child, so it was fun to ride again. Even if it did sound like Sam was slowly murdering his poor, much too small horse. Still, it made for an enjoyable way to get up the mountain, and the twenty minute ride was much easier than a walk would've been.
And now for the main event... the ziplining canopy tour. We were handed
some leather gloves and some brief instruction on how to hold our hands
and brake ourselves. Yes, we were fully in charge of stopping
ourselves from slamming into a tree. At first that had me a bit
panicked, but it was really quite simple. We'd have the next hour to
work our way through ten platforms with ziplines up to a half mile long,
traveling at speeds up to 50 mph
Though there were five other people ziplining with us, Sam was the first down the line for the majority of the rides. I think so that he wouldn't tip the line if he went after someone since he was by far the biggest of the group. Because of that, there were a few rides that I was a couple people behind him, and he'd wait for me on the next platform. After a few times, I felt like I was getting the hang of it. Sam had already taken off on one of the longer lines when one of the guides asked the other gentleman in our group if he'd like to go upside down. He quickly answered, "Absolutely not." And then for some ridiculous reason, I volunteered to try it. In shock, they let me do it. And one of the guides quickly hopped on the line ahead of me so that he could hear Sam's reaction when he saw me flying in upside down.
Sam said he was just waiting at the next platform for everyone else when he looked and thought, "Holy cow, someone's upside down. Who had on the blue shirt? Wait a minute. Is that my wife?" Bahahahaha. He couldn't believe I did it, much less to be the first one. I'm still kind of shocked, too. Let me just say that I did momentarily think I was going to die. Soaring through a canyon with the weight of your body resting on the harness around your hips is a bit terrifying, but it was nothing short of a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Of course, not to be outdone, Sam did it on the next line. :)
We hated for our ziplining time to come to an end because it was just that fun. I would do it again in a heartbeat, and would easily say it's a must-do if you're visiting CR. (Update: It was actually so fun that we bought a Groupon to zipline in North Carolina and do a horseback trail ride this Spring. Why not be tourists here, too?)
The water slide was next, and it was fun, but more painful than the ziplining. Cement water slides aren't for the faint of heart, as you can hear.
To warm up after the freezing cold water slide, we went to the hot springs for a mud bath. I can smell the sulfur again just typing that. Our guide told us all about the healing and anti-aging benefits of this particular mud, but I kept wondering if they are secretly laughing that we are there smearing the bottom of a river all over ourselves. Either way, we rinsed off and laid in the crystal clear hot springs for thirty minutes, just relaxing and enjoying the scenery.
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| Lunch under the lanai |
I'm not sure that I would've picked to do our big excursion on the first full day we were in Costa Rica, but it was fun to start the trip off on such a high, and we could not have had any better weather. It was sunny and beautiful the entire time we were on the mountain, and as soon as we left, we saw an afternoon storm roll in, but we never felt a drop. Plus, we were left with three days to recover. :)
A day packed full of fun, and still back to the resort in time for dinner. High five.
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