Holly and I didn’t decide where to go on our honeymoon until after our wedding. It was cool in the mountains of North Carolina when we got married, so we wanted to go somewhere warm.
We looked at a ton of different options—some in Caribbean and others options in Mexico. Costa Rica stood out though. There were so many glowing reviews. Plus we liked the idea of hiking and getting to see a bunch of wildlife.
A couple weeks later we were on a plane—off on an adventure to befriend the sloths of Costa Rica.
Monday
The trip had a bit of a rough start.
We landed in Liberia, Costa Rica early in the afternoon. It’s not a large airport and it took us about 2 hours to get through customs.
Worse, the bag we checked wasn’t at the carousel. I had put an air tag in bag. I opened my phone to see where it was—still at our departure gate back in Atlanta. Not ideal.
Delta said it would be on the next flight the following day and they would have it delivered. I was furious.
There was a silver lining to our arrival. Our resort, Secrets Papagayo, had recently been purchased by Hyatt. As the new owner, Hyatt was making a few changes to the place, including changing the names of the rooms.
Since they no longer had the room type we booked, they upgraded us to a room worth a couple grand more than we paid. It was a small bungalow perched on top of a hill overlooking the bay. We probably had the best view in the entire resort.
Tuesday
We had scheduled three excursions to go on while in Costa Rica. We had planned to visit Hacienda el Viejo—a historic house and rum distillery—on our first day in Costa Rica. Luckily, there weren’t enough people interested in the excursion. So they canceled it and rescheduled it for Friday.
We were still missing our bag—so the cancelation was for the best. Instead we spent Tuesday relaxing and exploring the resort.
After headed to see the black sand beaches, we returned to our room to find a complementary bottle of champagne. It was an excellent surprise!
To our relief, Holly’s bag did arrive Tuesday evening. A day later.
I was pretty unhappy with Delta at the time. But to their credit, they refunded our bag fee as well as gave us an additional $150 flight credit—about what we spent on clothes and items we needed from that bag.
That evening we made reservations for a private Hibachi dinner at one of the resort restaurants. It had slight Costa Rican accents. They did a pepper volcano filled with tequila. Both the meal and show were fantastic.
Oh and we found these cool bouncy egg chairs!
Wednesday
We departed on our first excursion early Wednesday. We hopped in a van and were off to meet our guide, Harold with Frank the Tank tours.
Harold was both knowledgeable and super-entertaining. Both great attributes for a guide.
Llanos de Cortés Waterfall
The itinerary was packed. We saw an incredible amount in a short period of time. For our first stop, we took a short hike to the Llanos de Cortés waterfall.
Just imagine a swimming hole from your childhood. It was just like that, but with an enormous waterfall.
It was cool, but we didn’t stay too long. It was crowded and there was still a ton more to see.
Bijauga Café & Cacao
It’s no secret that Costa Rica is known for coffee, chocolate and sugar—its part of the culture.
At Bijauga Café & Cacao we got to see coffee, cacao and bananas. Honestly, the plants in Costa Rica are pretty wild. Bananas, especially, look like some sort of alien plant.
If you open cacao fruit you’ll find a bunch of beans covered in a white pulp. That white pulp has a sweet citrus flavor.
We got a demonstration showing how coffee beans are selected, separated, roasted and brewed. Then they are ground and poured over a sock-like filter.
We also got to try the coffee with raw sugar cane. Not bad!
Sloth’s Ecological Farm
Once we booked the trip, Holly told me that wanted a photo with a sloth. I thought we might have a chance—but never imagined we’d get a photo like this!
The Sloth’s Ecological Farm—a kind of sloth sanctuary—was one of the best parts of the entire trip. We saw a dozen sloths and were able to get close to a few.
On our way back to the van we spotted this guy coming down to the forest floor. I am not sure if Harold was pulling my leg, but when I asked why he was coming down he told me that they come down once a week to take a dump.
They are very careful to go away from the tree they are staying in so predators don’t know where they live. So they go several trees over, climb down, do their thing and go home.
I thought we’d be able to see if Harold was lying, but at his current pace our sloth friend was probably another hour from pooping. So we continued on our tour.
We also saw tons of other frogs, snakes and other wildlife.
Heliconias Rainforest Hanging Bridges
Our next stop was the trailhead near the Heliconias Lodge for a hike in the rainforest. The hike was particularly cool, because a large portion of the hike was on these hanging bridges—sometimes 100ft above the rainforest floor.
As you might expect, the rainforest is incredibly thick with vegetation. Both that and the swaying bridges made it difficult to get many pictures. It took a decent amount of concentration to stay balanced on the bridges.
We saw several Monkeys on the hike. Sadly, I never got a decent picture.
One wild, and terrifying plant we learned about while in Costa Rica are Strangler Figs. These plants seeds are usually dispersed by birds in the tops of trees. They grow vine-like appendages both downwards wrapping the trunk host tree and upwards to get light.
Often the host tree dies and over time can result in these hollow strangler fig trees with a tunnel going towards the canopy. The Strangler Fig gains nutrients from the decaying host tree while that happens.
Equally terrifying and fascinating.
Soda El Sabor de Doña Carmen
Our final stop on our tour with Harold was a late lunch at Soda El Sabor de Doña Carmen.
It was a interesting place—part restaurant and part butterfly house—it had fantastic food and a beautiful garden full of butterflies.
When resting the butterflies were hard to see—kind of a brownish camouflage. When they flew the inside of their wings were a beautiful bright blue.
Lunch was a traditional Costa Rican meal—beans, rice, plantains and Turrialba—a salty pan cheese with a similar consistency to paneer. I had tilapia with mine, but grilled chicken or beef were also options.
As a side note, I didn’t see ground beef once while I was in Costa Rica. I immediately associate beef options with ground beef, but here beef always meant high quality steak.
Back at the Resort
That was it. We got back to the resort right at sunset. We were going to grab a drink from the bar in the lobby and sit on the patio for a bit. Unfortunately, it was closed for the evening.
The weather was fantastic though and we still had this gorgeous view!
Thursday
Thursday we went on an excursion different tour group. We were off to Buena Vista Del Rincon Eco Adventure Park. Unlike yesterday where we were driving all over the country
It was not easy to get to it took several hours on a winding unpaved road in steep terrain to get there.
HorSeback Riding
Horseback riding was our fist activity of the day.
I’ve never ridden a horse before. But I suppose this trip was as good of a time as any to learn.
Culture Center
Then we stopped at the Buena Vista Del Rincon cultural center. They had a few live demonstrations and samples.
As before the stars of the show were coffee and sugar cane. This time we got to try freshly processed sugar cane juice. A large ox turns a press that squeezes the sugar cane, turning it into a sweet liquid.
We also watched a local artisan make pots. The pots had wildly intricate patterns painted on. These designs were created with a simple metal rod that he used to steady his hand while painting the pots.
We were very close to purchasing a mug he made. Unfortunately, the wares weren’t dishwasher safe. So we decided against it.
Finally we wrapped up our visit to the cultural center with some freshly baked breads and pastries—with coffee—of course.
Zip line
I had no idea what I signed up for. When we arrived at the first of the seven staggered zip lines, you couldn’t see much. We had hiked—maybe—a little more than a mile to get to the first line.
When you step onto the platform, you still can’t see much. There’s probably 500ft of woods. It looks like you’re in the forest and then there’s a clearing, but you can’t see anything else other than you’re above the canopy.
That line comes out about 400ft above a gorge. It was wild—and I had no idea. Every zipline I’ve ever done is like 100ft through some woods in north Georgia. You’re barely off the ground.
This was such an order of a magnitude different, it’s difficult to associate them as the same thing. Some of these lines were 2,000 feet long and hundreds of feet in the air. Zig zagging across this gorge.
https://youtu.be/wIiyPpD7ijo?si=K7NXFVNwaqKiF1-o
I was told bringing my phone on this event was a bad idea. So sadly, I’ve got no photos from the adventure. I found this video on YouTube that shows the course. If you skip the downtime, it does an excellent job showing the experience.
Waterfall Hike, Mud Bath and Spa
Next we took a tractor ride to the bottom of the gorge. Our last destination was the natural hot springs spa where we could take a mud bath.
On our decent down we spotted a group of monkeys swinging through the trees!
After about 20 minutes we stopped and took a short hike to a hidden waterfall. The hike was mostly a walk through the woods and when we got to the destination there was a small platform those in our group took turns standing on.
The waterfall itself was pretty interesting. It looked like it was coming out of a cave. If you look closer, you can see that it’s worn down the rock, but not a cave. There’s just an extremely thick rainforest canopy above it.
We hiked back to the tractor and continued the journey to the spa.
The spa was interesting. You cover your self in it this viscous mud and lay out to bake in the sun until it’s dry. I felt like a pot baking in a kiln. It was hot!
Then you take this ice-cold shower and take a dunk in the hot springs. I’m not sure how effective the mud bath was. Oh well, when in Rome!
Tractors
On our way back to the resort we had to switch vans. Where we stopped we got a chance to see sugar cane being harvested.
It would get to one end, turn around and then the tractors taking the harvested sugar cane would swap. Then the harvester would go back to the other side.
In many ways I’m still a little kid—absolutely fascinated by machines. I could have watched this harvester go back and fourth across the entire field. However, our van was waiting. It was a long day and we were ready to get back.
Lizards everywhere
It seems silly to write this down. But the wildlife is very different than back in Atlanta. I don’t mean the sloths and monkeys—Costa Rica has rainforests and is known for their exotic plants and animals.
But it is funny—instead of squirrels roaming around everywhere you’ve got iguanas and other lizards. They are everywhere, just like I’d expect to find squirrels or chipmunks back home.
Anyways we found this guy just catching some last minute rays just off of our balcony when we got home.
I don’t know how many times I took some version of this picture—from the walkway to just outside our little bungalow. It really was—at all hours of the day—so spectacular. I couldn’t help but take another every time we went by.
Friday
Our final excursion was set for Friday—to learn about rum making at Hacienda el Viejo. Then we were scheduled for a wildlife boat tour.
When we stepped onto our tour van we couldn’t help but laugh. Predictably we were the youngest people on the tour by about 30 years. Nobody in this crew was going zip lining.
Hacienda el Viejo
Hacienda el Viejo is a gorgeous 100-year-old home that has been converted into a restaurant. It sits on a hill in the middle of the Viejo Wetlands, wildlife preserve.
When we arrived they greeted us with coffee and juice. We got to walk around and explore the place a bit.
Rum Making Tour
The rum making tour was one of the things I was most curious about. Rum is the liquor of choice in Costa Rica—and that’s not surprising given the agricultural focus on sugar cane.
I’ve never really been a fan of rum though. In any form—light, dark, spiced—I’ll take about any other option before landing on rum. I was more interested in the process and culture around the beverage.
After walking through the basics of distilling rum and getting the mash right, our guide poured me a shot of clear, single distilled rum, called Guaro.
I took the shot, expecting something terrible. It wasn’t though. It was smooth and tasteless without any sort of bite—almost like a decent vodka. Apparently distilling it more times and aging it is what gives rum it’s unique flavor.
Infuse Your Own Rum
The best part of the day was when we got to experiment with infusing our own rum. We had about a dozen different ingredients—mostly spices and dried fruit—to experiment with.
We each picked a few, mixed them in with the rum and let it sit for a few minutes before sampling. I thought something bright and citrusy might make sense with the sweetness of the rum. So I chose oranges, cinnamon and dried cherries. It was—not great. Definately, not something I could drink a bottle of.
Holly’s infusion was better than mine—much better. She chose, coffee, bananas, coconut and cinnamon. It was sweet, but in a different way than rum is sweet. It kind of tasted like a coffee liquor.
Anyways, Holly’s blend is what we decided to bottle. We decided to name it Coati blend after the cute, raccoon-like animals we’d seen all over Costa Rica.
Sugar Cane Juice
We got to see more about the traditional sugar making process and try more sugar cane juice. This time we got to feed the ox the spent pieces of sugar cane from the press. He loves them!
I wasn’t exactly sure how well these animals were being treated. Our guide also assured us that this is a great retirement job. He works about 10 minutes a day showing the old press and spends the rest of the day lounging in the shade.
Sure enough when we were leaving later that day he was resting in one of the few shady spots under a tree in front of the house.
Lunch was up next for us. On our walk back to the main house we saw this guy in a tree—the biggest iguana we saw during the trip.
When we got back to the main house we sat down for lunch with a nice couple from California. They asked us a ton of questions about the south. They were planing to leave the state when they retired and were considering towards Chattanooga, Tennessee.
tortilla Making
Next we got to see how traditional corn tortillas were made and then take a shot a making them. They were really good, but not what I would think of as a tortilla. They were a little bit thicker—with a similar taste and texture to cornbread.
We ate it with a bunch of different cheeses. It was a fantastic snack!
Wetland Boat Tour
The last event of the day was a wetland bout tour to see the various types of wildlife that live along the river. We saw plenty of birds and crocodiles.
Apparently, crocodiles lay around with their mouths open to help regulate their temperature. There are tiny little birds that peck scraps from crocodile teeth when they are doing that. It’s a symbiotic relationship. I thought for sure those little birds would be a snack.
The best part was when we came across a group of White-faced Capuchin
monkeys playing. I actually got a decent video of one of them making a tackle! He could make a decent pro wrestler.
Fancy dinner
That night we went to dinner at the fancy Italian place at the resort. We looked cute. I wish I would have asked the hostess to take a picture of us. Unfortunately, the only one I took came out pretty blurry.
Saturday
Saturday was our last full day in Costa Rica. In the late morning we rented a kayak and paddled to the other side of the bay. When we landed we were greeted by somebody’s dog. He seemed nice and after smelling us thoroughly, he left to go find his owner.
When we got back we spent time walking along the beach at the resort. The beaches are interesting. We read review of people talking about black beaches.
As a whole they aren’t really black as you can see in the pictures. But there are large stretches of that have this fine black sediment in them. If you watch the waves, it’s kind of mesmerizing to watch the sand move.
It’s probably a good then the beach isn’t entirely black. The sand was hot enough on our feet.
Sunday
We left to head back to Atlanta on Sunday. The trip was wonderful. We got to experience so much. Before we left we did take one more trip to the beach.
One last time we got to watch the mesmerizing black sand move in-and-out with the waves.