It’s December; so that means it’s time for another pre-Christmas trip! With COVID in mind, we kept it easy this year with a week planned in Costa Rica! I use the word “planned” loosely as up until a week ago we had nothing planned at all except for our flights, rental cars, and accommodations.
We actually left yesterday afternoon and spent the night in Denver for an easy direct flight from Denver to Liberia this morning. The plan worked out great, getting to have all morning to get ready and not have to leave until the afternoon. The Hyatt House Denver Airport is a convenient location for our overnights both ways and was a fine little hotel minus one fatal flaw. Upon landing in Denver we went straight to the ticket counter to get our passports and documents validated so we could get our boarding passes and not have to deal with that in the morning (pro tip – always do this when you are splitting up a layover!). The Uber drive to the hotel was wretched with the smell of smoke and I couldn’t wait to spill out of the car the moment we pulled up.
With my Hyatt Globalist status, the front desk informed me that they upgraded us to the best available room on the property. We laughed as we headed to the elevator thinking that all the rooms were basically the same so what does best mean? As soon as we opened the door we swallowed our laughter as we stepped into a massive suite; entering in a living room with a full kitchen and dining area, one king bedroom with an en-suite bath, and one double queen bedroom with an en-suite bath. This room could have easily slept 8 people and here it was, just the two of us, checking in at 8pm and leaving at 6:30am. It all sounds great, right? But the fatal flaw? They had not honored my reservation requirement for feather-free pillows to accommodate my allergy; and informed me that they had NO FEATHER FREE pillows anywhere on the property!!! WTF?! I ended up stuffing the couch pillows into pillow cases and, well, they were actually quite comfortable.
The 5:45am alarm came way too early but we both tried not to be too cranky as we pulled ourselves together and packed back up to catch our 6:30am airport shuttle. Brandon was nice and toasty in the 20* Denver air thanks to the super fuzzy warm jacket he’d bought at SMF when he realized he’d forgotten a sweater. And I was freezing in my light Lululemon jacket over my tank top. I bought a fuzzy sweater as soon as we got to the airport because I knew the 5 hour flight to Costa Rica would also be freezing. The Amex Centurion Lounge had great coffee/tea and a nice place to relax but their breakfast was pretty crappy; definitely the worst Amex lounge food I’ve had.
Our flight was uneventful and 5 hours later we touched down in Liberia, Costa Rica. We were both pleasantly surprised by how modern, clean, fresh, and relatively efficient the airport experience was. The whole terminal felt shiny and new, it even smelled good. We had a bit of a wait to get through customs but nothing crazy and once we got to the counter, prepared with our passports, health passes (that we’d completed in advance), and return flight/accommodations info we skated through easy as could be. The two agents manning the X-ray machine were deep in their own conversation and never even looked at the screen as our bags were scanned through.
The National rental car folks were waiting for us, expecting us by name, and quickly whisked us into a shuttle for a three minute drive to their modern, clean, and bright rental car center. The service was friendly and efficient and our little RAV 4 rental is adorable.
This was just the first part of our journey for the day; we still had a 2.5 hour drive to the La Fortuna area to stay at Tabacon Thermal Resort & Spa, at the base of Arenal volcano. Dogs occasionally ran near the road as we drove, one little dog even chasing after our car and barking at us! The Ticos (Costa Ricans) have such a sense of community; on one part of the road we came upon a car in front of us driving very slow with their hazards on. We passed them to realize that they were driving behind another local who was riding a bike on the narrow road, protecting them as they made it through the winding little passage.
Just as we made it to the western side of Lake Arenal and the drive started to get more interesting, the sunlight left us and we found ourselves in the pitch dark on the windy mountain road. Occasionally, we’d come up on a Tico casually strolling down the side of the road. I was so glad Brandon was the one driving! It seemed like the scenery was really cool but we couldn’t see any of it in the dark.
We drove across a damn that turned out to be a locals hangout spot. As in multiple cars had blocked one of the narrow two lanes setting out in lounge chairs or the back of their cars enjoying beverages and picnicking.
Our resort seems like it’s absolutely lovely, but hard to tell in the dark so we are excited to see it in the morning. We finally got in about 7pm and were welcomed by friendly and enthusiastic staff. We had a little SNAFU not being able to find our room but eventually went back to the front and asked a bellman to take us. We were not yet prepared with tip money yet nor had we spent time figuring out the local currency. So that bellman had a great little trip with us when I didn’t realize, in my haste to get tip money out before we had time to settle down and look at it in the light, that the bill I’d pulled out for him was the equivalent of over $30 USD.
We quickly changed and went to the nicer restaurant on property, Tucanes, for our first proper meal of the day. Tabacon is known for their gastronomy program and they did not disappoint! My Morpho Tonic was beautiful, crisp, light, and scrumptious. We filled our bellies with patacones and chicharron, local trout, and ribs, Everything from the amuse bouche, to the bread and butter, to our appetizer, entrees, and cocktails were all a culinary delight. The chicharrones were unlike any pork I’ve had before, definitely not your gas station packaged chicharrones! They were perfectly crispy yet light and balanced. I want to eat those again.
Our resort is known for their magnificent thermal hot springs so we rushed to change after dinner and go check them out before closing time. There were only a few other people there and we explored the best we could but in the dark it was confusing and hard to get our bearings. We did spend some time soaking in a warm spring before they closed and we are both eager and anxious to explore them in the daylight.
We are hitting the ground running tomorrow morning with a reservation for a hanging bridge jungle exploration in the morning and a horseback ride to the Arenal Volcano in the afternoon. We’re both excited to really get this adventure started!
Taking On the World 
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