Costa Rica fulfilled all of our expectations in every way.  First of all, traveling to Costa Rica is very convenient from the West Coast (and Santa Barbara where I live) via US Airways, though not one of my favorite airlines, with flights to Phoenix and then directly into San Jose.  Within minutes of arriving into Costa Rica, we were greeted with the warmth and friendliness as families traveling with young children were whisked past hundred of tourists waiting in the custom lines.  A private line was opened for families.  Within an hour we had found our hotel where the boys soon indulged in a complimentary platter of mango, pineapple, and melon in our adorable room at the Hotel Grand d’Oro decorated with fountains and a profusion of bright red, yellow and orange bromeliads and birds of paradise.

The next morning after a hearty breakfast and my favorite Café Con Leche we left to experience the sights of Costa Rica’s capitol. We walked more than 12 blocks past small shops selling clothes, food and especially soccer gear with Sopresa team shirts and Umbro soccer shoes.  The boys were thrilled with the profusion of soccer paraphernalia.  We continued on to the Teatro Nationale to see the grand stage, velvet seats and golden chandeliers.  If only we have time to see a performance. Not wanting to overdo the boys, I requested only one other museum, The Gold Museum, which tied in perfectly and inconspicuously to my son’s fourth grade curriculum and the study of California and the gold rush.  The museum was very child friendly with a rainforest mural with frogs, snakes, birds, monkeys all illuminated with buttons tied to similar gold images. 

Instead of searching for a random restaurant for lunch, we decided the garden patio and the ambience back at our hotel would offer a relaxing setting and a perfect Costa Rican cuisine.  After lunch we hired a taxi to drive us twenty minutes to the outskirts of the city to the Simon Bolivar National Zoo and then onto the Airport Marriott Hotel.  What were we doing going to a zoo when the very next day we would be on the Osa Peninsula, surrounded by hundreds of species of birds, sloths, cotamundis, and four species of monkeys, and poison dark frogs?  All in all, it was worth a walk through the grounds especially to see the fabulous peacocks as they presented a fashion show as they fanned their feather bouquet in our honor. The boys knew about the howler, spider, squirrel and white faced capuchin monkeys, but they would soon be able to identify them not only by their looks, but also by their sounds.  We also hoped that we might glimpse the mysterious puma that also roams the floors of the rain forest.

We completed our first full and exhausting day in Costa Rica with dinner at La Isabella in an old world Spanish charm restaurant at the hotel.  The tapas, Flamenco music, and delightful service offered a perfect end to our day of sightseeing. I wanted to make sure that we would be ready for our 4:15am wake up call for our flight to the most Southern point in Costa Rica, Puerto Jimenez.  I originally chose the Marriott, thinking that we were flying out of the international airport, which later proved incorrect.

Although earlier than any of us would have liked, the morning was peaceful with a light breakfast of café con leche, some more exotic fruit and croissants.  That was enough to give all of us some sustenance before our “real” breakfast later that morning at Lapa Rios.  We were all a little hesitant about the small plane we would fly down to Puerto Jimenez.  We didn’t want to reveal any of our hesitations to the boys so we stood tall and put on our stoic faces.  Would the boys sense my fear?  Then the airline representative walked over to us and told us that we would be having a private plane for the 45 minute flight south to the Osa Peninsula.  Our younger son definitely sensed our fear.  I could see it in his face and then a request for a pit stop to the bathroom  when the pilot and flight attendant were ready for us to board.  “Hurry, “ the pilot requested.  Why hurry, I wondered.  We were the only passengers.  What was the rush?  Weren’t we on Central American time? No hurries, no worries.

What is magic? Let me tell you.  When we were finally settled and flying over the city of San Jose, it wasn’t long before we were looking down at the steep mountainous rain forests with the coast of the Pacific Ocean out my right side window.  The tributaries had cut two magical hearts into the swampy lands.  I could only imagine crocodiles and poisonous snakes.  For the entire 45 minute flight we flew over lush rain forests and the Pacific Ocean with sights of Panama in the distance.  No built up cities. No freeways.  This was pure, undisturbed country.  Passing over Golfito, we turned east to Puerto Jimenez and the smallest runway I had ever approached only to land on an even smaller runway in Punta Islita a week later.

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