After days of planning we, Sameer (Bhaiya) and I, decided on two main
locations, Arenal volcano and Manuel Antonio National Park. Monteverde is also
supposed to be a good destination but somehow it got lost in the planning.
Our flight is on 24th Dec (Monday) at 11 pm from
Ft. Lauderdale. Coming back is also on Monday but 2 am, so we will be back by 6
am. They are both night flights so we will not lose much day time traveling.
Flights are on Spirit, which would charge for oxygen if it could, but it does
have the cheapest fares. The flight itself is also not very long, 3 hrs only!
I had gotten about $300 worth of colone (CR money
– 164,000 to a $). Although CR takes dollars and credit cards, it is still good to
have local cash. (On a side note: I got
the money from Bank of America. They have the ability to get you foreign money
and they charge $7 for it. But where they really make money is in the exchange
rate, so they gave me a 0.0016 rate instead of 0.0017 which left me $22 short!
So it was kind of like taking money from an ATM. But since we did not have much
choice, it was the cost we pay for convenience).
Bhaiya made the bookings for San Jose hotel and
suggested the other two to our tour operator (Pacific Trade Winds) and the rest
of the transportation was set by them. We got an okay rate. CR in general is
not expensive but for tourists like us, who have short time there, it can be a
little expensive. Also, there were five of us, so transportation and hotel
would be accordingly.
So with all this planning and packing we are ready to go. I know it's going to be hot there and we definitely need swim suits for there!
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