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Betsi predicted two weeks before our vacation to Costa
Rica that we'd get snow the day before our trip. She was right.
Our flight was canceled and we made it out 24 hours later. See
other snow photos in this photo
album. |
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Betsi and Jeff took a one week vacation
to Costa Rica without the kids. I highlighted the places we
visited. The maps are courtesy of Lonely
Planet. |
Our first hotel was in Arenal by an active volcano. The photo on
the left shows an eruption the day before we arrived
(photo courtesy of Arenal.net).
The photo on the right is the most we ever saw of the alleged volcano
The clouds rolled in and it rained all three days we were there.
Can you believe it actually rains in a rain forest?
Our first evening in Costa Rica (Monday) was spent at the Tabacon Hot
Springs. There were about a dozen pools surrounded by lush vegetation
and walkways. We hopped from pool to pool and enjoyed the 103 degree
Fahrenheit (39C) water. It was too dark to take our own photos.
These are courtesy of Arenal.net.
A 1968 eruption destroyed the town of Tabacon and killed 78 people.
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Despite the rain, our tours continued. Tuesday
was spent at SkyTrek
where we traveled up the mountain in an open air cable car to view
the rain forest canopy. Our guides pointed out things of interest
and would stop the cable car from time to time. We took zip
lines all of the way down. The highest was 60 stories above
the ground and the longest took over one minute to complete. |
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After the zip lines, we headed for La Fortuna, the main
town about 10 minutes from our hotel, for a late lunch. We crossed
this intersection several times and had no idea the volcano could
be seen this well. We couldn't even see the edge of town because
of the fog and rain let alone something further away. |
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Our third day, Wednesday, was spent driving 5.5 hours
to the Pacific coast. This used to be the Chiquita banana railroad
bridge. The asphalt is 95% missing which reveals the railroad
tracks that were recycled to use as an understructure. The locals
call these kinds of bridges the "Oh My God" bridges.
We never would have seen this if we flew from town to town. |
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A view from our hotel balcony. |
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El Avion is plane
surrounded by a two story restaurant and bar. This is one of
two Fairchild C-123s that was a part of the Iran-Contra scandal of
the 1980s. The scandal started to unravel when the other plane
was shot down in 1986 by the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. C.I.A.
operative Eugene Hasenfus parachuted safely to the ground, but was
captured. His existence on that flight started a long history
of cover ups and made Oliver North a household name. |
We spent some time enjoying the hotel's pool bar. A white-faced
Capuchin monkey appeared each morning for breakfast of fruit from the
unattended bar.
We joined about 18 other people on Friday for an afternoon and evening
on a large catamaran. We saw dolphins, went snorkeling, ate dinner
and enjoyed the sunset.
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From the safety of a bridge, we viewed about two dozen
crocodiles enjoying the morning sun. See about 170 more photos of
Costa Rica in this photo
album. |
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