See me travel: Costa Rica, Journey to Drakes Bay

Costa Rica fulfilled a couple firsts for me,1. It was the first time I ever left the US.
2. It was the first time I ever traveled with the fiance. Like, on a plane, outside of our my comfort zone.

We traveled to Costa Rica for our winter holiday in 2007 (which just reminded me how fast time speeds along, whether we like it or not).

After a lot of research we decided to spend most of our time in the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica, in the main city of Drakes Bay.

Since our flight landed in the capital, San Jose, in the middle of the afternoon, the fiance and I decided it would be best to spend our first night there, recharge and get a good nights sleep.

[for some reason, I remember this being one of the best nights sleep of my life]

Anyway, the plane landed, we grabbed a taxi and gave him the name and directions to our hotel. However, rather than drop us off at our hotel, he dropped us off at the end of a blocked off street, and directed us to walk down the street, explaining our hotel was “right over there, right over there”.

He lied.

We did, however, walk down the street. A street packed with horses and people drinking, eating and having a great afternoon.

I would be lying if I said I wasn’t about to poop my pants I was so nervous. I was a blonde, silly girl from southern california with no travel experience…and, this, THIS is where cabby decides to drop us off!

 

I do like horses though, so this part was pretty cool with me.

Somehow, after about and hour and a half, we made it to our hotel in one piece and with ALL our belongings. I still don’t know how Aaron found it. He was reading a map, but I mean really, who knows how to read a map (that’s what I was thinking then. Now, I can read maps sometimes). We took a glorious shower, ate some food and passed out by 5:30pm.

The following morning we had our flight to Drakes Bay. I am not a fan of flying, so when I saw that we would be getting on this tiny plane, I was wishing I had a Xanax (or tranquilizer) to knock me out take the edge off.

We got lucky, though, because the plane did not crash. And we didn’t end up on some deserted island. Instead, the plane landed here…

the middle of no where.

We noticed ALL the other passengers had cars or jeeps waiting for them. We had no hotel reservations (thanks, fiance) and no hotel names. We had no idea which “hotels” had availability and which were booked. Basically, we had no plan and no idea what we were doing.

I wanted to ask one of the car drivers to take us to town, or at least to a hotel.

However, the fiance wanted to WALK.

Walk where? He didn’t know. He just wanted to WALK. I mean, really! REALLY?!?!

I didn’t know what to do. I was a virgin traveler. I had no idea what I was doing. All I knew was, this was not at all what I had in mind.

I wanted relaxation. service. information. and at the moment, breakfast. I was flippin hungry!

But, the fiance wanted to walk, and since I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, I just started walking. Along this road…

the water you see, is actually more like a river. It only went to our knees, but we later learned that it is home to  crocodiles. Lovely.

After about two hours I had done enough walking. By this point, the fiance had already asked several hotels if they had availability. They were full. We were no longer speaking to each other. So, I did the most emotional logical thing possible. I sat down at a little table on the side of the road and told him to figure it out. And not to come back until he did.

to be continued…