Montana's On Fire!!!

[SAWCE]

Just got back from five days (two of those were travel days) in Costa Rica.

Really great trip. Would definitely recommend to anyone who hasn't experienced it.

To get it out of the way, and for those who are going to ask, the total cost of the trip was probably about $1300 per person, but I'll have to add stuff up to get a more accurate price.

Flying in from San Diego, and even my friends from Seattle who came, we had a connecting flight in Houston. I imagine this is one of the main hubs for flying down there, along which Orlando which is where we flew into coming home.

We got into the airport in San Jose, CR at 7:45pm local time. We had cars booked through enterprise. We thought we'd be picking the cars up at the airport, but instead we had to get shuttled to the car rental place. The cost of the car itself each day was cheap, $9, but as DGriff warned me, where they get you is with the insurance. Insurance was mandatory, and you had two options: basic insurance for $29/day, or full coverage for $52/day. If you get the basic coverage, you have to pay a $1000 deposit up front. Those are the list prices anyways. Our guy ended up upgrading us to a CUV for free for getting the full coverage, so we ended up out the door at $58/day after all of the taxes and fees and insurances. The car itself sucked, if you think low-mid end German cars have troubles with rattles, try driving a Daihatsu over dirt and rock roads.. the noise was unreal. It had no guts either. Any hill we encountered I had to downshift to second or third gear depending on the grade and how much speed I had going into the hill. The car situation was the only real negative of the trip I'd say. And even that wasn't that bad in the grand scheme of things. My buddy split the cost of the car with me, so I paid $145.

So that first night, Wednesday, we finally get into our resort, Montaña de Fuego, about midnight, check into our rooms real quick and pass out. Somehow we woke up pretty early the next morning and went down to hit our complimentary breakfast at 7:30 or 8.. breakfast at the resort was typical American food: eggs, pancakes, fruit, bread and butter, cereal.. but also had some traditional Costa Rican dishes as well like fried plantains. We spent an hour or so at breakfast just shooting the shit and catching up with everyone, I hadn't seen my friends from Seattle in about 8 months, and Michelle had never met them. After breakfast the clouds started rolling in and we weren't sure what we wanted to do that day, but we had decided to start with just relaxing by the pool and then decide what to do based on the weather. About five minutes after getting into our room, my buddy Nate came and knocked on the door and asked if we wanted to go hiking instead of chilling. I'd been looking forward to that, so we said yes, got dressed and all loaded up into one of the rentals. Theirs was a Suzuki and a bit better built and more powerful than our Daihatsu, but still only sat five and we had six. I volunteered to just ride in the trunk area so we didn't have to take two cars. The place for the hike was about an hour away, and halfway through the drive it started dumping rain. We decided to keep going, and we were glad we did, becuase it stopped raining 20 minutes later and cleared up really nicely for the hike. We paid $12 to get into the national park where the waterfall was, and the hike was really quick and easy. Gorgeous views and lookout points along the way where you could see over the tops of all the trees. Hit the waterfall and then hiked down to this lagoon area where these two rivers meet. Each of the rivers carries a different mineral, and when they meet and the minerals mix the water forms a really cool turquoise color. I imagine one of the minerals is sulfer based on the smell, but you adapted to the smell really quickly and it wasn't a deterent from haning out there and taking pictures and enjoying the view for a while. After the hike we ate at a small soda at the trailhead. Holy shit, the best empanadas ever. IIRC they were 1500 Colones (exchange rate while we were there was 579 Colones per USD). So for less than $3 you go a huge empanada stuffed with your choice of shredded beef, chicken, or cheese and beans. I got one beef and one bean and cheese and was full for most of the rest of the day. On our way back to the resort we stopped at a gorcery store to get some snacks for the trip and alcohol. We got back and mixed up some drinks and grabbed some beers and went down to the pool area and got in these hot springs and drank for a while before we started getting tired and went up to sleep.

Friday morning we did breakfast again, all the same foods offered, but they had sausages this time too. After breakfast we loaded up into a car again and drove a few hours to get to an area where we went zip lining. At $81/person, it seemed steep at first, but there were 8 different zip lines, and then you rappel down from the landing of the last one. All in all it was about two hours of activity and the views when you're up there 100'+ above the tops of the tallest trees definitely made it worth it. Drove back to the resort and went down to the hot springs again to hang out for a bit.. I don't remember what we did for food that day, but after being in the spings for a bit and drinking the rest of our alcohol from the night before, we got a taxi down to the closest town and hit a few bars. The first one was cool, but definitely a tourist bar. More white people than locals. Drinks were good and cheap though. Everyone was getting good sized blended/mixed drinks for about $6 each.. I'd expect to spend $12-15 on similar drinks here in the states. I started with a Tokyo Tea and got good and drunk off that, then got a margarita on the rocks, but swapped with my buddy's wife since she didn't care for the drink that she got. After that bar we wanted to find something more authentic, so we walked around until we found their version of a club. Walked in and grabbed beers, and then we basically just watched the people dance. It was unreal how good they were. Felt like we were in the audience for dancing with the stars or something. Stayed there for a few drinks and made fools of ourselves on the dancefloor for a while before heading in for the night.

Breakfast again on Saturday, and then hit the pool for a bit with everyone before they all took off to go to their next resort. Michelle and I went back to the room and showered up, then decided to just drive around and explore. Drove through the town, saw a bunch of cool rivers and found a spot where all the locals were jumping off rocks and rope swings into the river. Was wishing I'd left my boardshorts on or brought them with me so I could jump in with them. Hit another soda and got their empanadas. Not quite as good as the first place, but a little cheaper, and they came with a homemade "chili" that was really tasty. Drove around a bit more, popped into a few little shops, but didn't find anything too interesting since we were still in a popular tourist area. Got back to the resort around 5 that night and then I just relaxed and read for a bit while Michelle napped, then we packed up since we had to leave at 1am Sunday to get to the airport for our first flight home.

Overall the trip was 5/7. Good food, good company with some of my closest friends, good alcohols, and amazing views. If I were to do the trip again, I'd do what DGriff did for his and get AirBNBs instead of staying at a resort to get a more authentic experience and experience more of their culture. I'll post up some pics. I transferred some from my camera to my phone with a bluetooth adaptor thing, but I'm not sure if they lose some of their resolution doing that, so I'll post a few now and then dump them all onto my computer tonight and then upload more.

[SAWCE]

One of the first views as we started the hike.

[SAWCE]

First lookout point on the hike.

[SAWCE]

All of us at the waterfall..



Rio Celeste waterfall.

[SAWCE]

Walking back up the stairs from the waterfall.

[SAWCE]

Another group shot with that lagoon this time. You can see the cool water color.

[SAWCE]

The volcano near our resort was covered by clouds the whole trip except for this three minute window right when Michelle and I got back Saturday evening.

[goIftdibrad]

nice

[SixSpeeder]

[razr390]

5/7

[Desertbreh]

Broham that beard is Kris Kringleesque.

[wap]

Looks like a 5/7 awesome trip, !

[Tar]

Looks like a 5/7 awesome trip, !

, pics and write up. I really want to go, mostly to meet locals. They sound 5/7

[SAWCE]

Broham that beard is Kris Kringleesque.

It should be even more so come Christmas time.. I'm not planning on cutting it at all between now and then other than minor touch ups and shaping it a bit.

[SAWCE]

Looks like a 5/7 awesome trip, !

, pics and write up. I really want to go, mostly to meet locals. They sound 5/7

They were all super friendly. Really accomodating too.. if we said "gracias" they'd respond with "bien", or if we used english and said "thank you" they'd respond with "you're welcome". Didn't ever seem annoyed that we'd switch back and forth even if we used both with the same waiter over the course of the meal.

[max225]

Awesome pics !

[SAWCE]

Awesome pics !

Thanks dude! I don't have those Zilhugezillaxon editing skills, but most of those are just raw images dumped off my camera and I think they look pretty decent as is.

[wap]

This is a

https://www.gate1travel.com/thedeal/170 ... 9bebe08e6c

8 Day Tuscany Fly & Drive with Milan
Includes airfare, car rental, 5 nights Tuscany Region & 1 night Milan - from $599*

Package Includes
Round trip flights New York-Milan Malpensa, Milan Malpensa-New York
Other departure cities available.
Airline taxes & fuel surcharges
6 nights accommodations
5 nights Montecatini
1 night Milan Malpensa
7 day car rental: Economy Manual (Fiat Panda or similar). Upgrade to other categories available
Car rental includes: Unlimited mileage, Third Party Liability Insurance (RCA), Collision Damage Waiver Reduction (C.D.R.), Theft Protection Reduction (T.P.R.), Airport charges, local taxes (VAT)
Breakfast daily


Somebody

[troyguitar]

This is a

https://www.gate1travel.com/thedeal/170 ... 9bebe08e6c

8 Day Tuscany Fly & Drive with Milan
Includes airfare, car rental, 5 nights Tuscany Region & 1 night Milan - from $599*

Package Includes
Round trip flights New York-Milan Malpensa, Milan Malpensa-New York
Other departure cities available.
Airline taxes & fuel surcharges
6 nights accommodations
5 nights Montecatini
1 night Milan Malpensa
7 day car rental: Economy Manual (Fiat Panda or similar). Upgrade to other categories available
Car rental includes: Unlimited mileage, Third Party Liability Insurance (RCA), Collision Damage Waiver Reduction (C.D.R.), Theft Protection Reduction (T.P.R.), Airport charges, local taxes (VAT)
Breakfast daily


Somebody

Linky no worky. Fake news.

[wap]

This is a

https://www.gate1travel.com/thedeal/170 ... 9bebe08e6c

8 Day Tuscany Fly & Drive with Milan
Includes airfare, car rental, 5 nights Tuscany Region & 1 night Milan - from $599*

Package Includes
Round trip flights New York-Milan Malpensa, Milan Malpensa-New York
Other departure cities available.
Airline taxes & fuel surcharges
6 nights accommodations
5 nights Montecatini
1 night Milan Malpensa
7 day car rental: Economy Manual (Fiat Panda or similar). Upgrade to other categories available
Car rental includes: Unlimited mileage, Third Party Liability Insurance (RCA), Collision Damage Waiver Reduction (C.D.R.), Theft Protection Reduction (T.P.R.), Airport charges, local taxes (VAT)
Breakfast daily


Somebody

Linky no worky. Fake news.

Shit. I meant to post this in the travel s thread. I'll repost it and see if I can get the link to work there.

[D Griff]

First lookout point on the hike.

I'm glad you guys liked it as much as we did, such an awesome place.

[MexicanYarisTK]

I just came to this thread. So you rented this??


I rented that as well when I went there in 2014. That was an epic POS, I couldn't get that fucker up a 60% grade, cause that thing is sooooo gutless.

[SAWCE]

I just came to this thread. So you rented this??


I rented that as well when I went there in 2014. That was an epic POS, I couldn't get that fucker up a 60% grade, cause that thing is sooooo gutless.

Yup. It was the least powerful car I've ever driven. I had to drop down into 2nd or 1st to go up any significant hill.

[SAWCE]

First lookout point on the hike.

I'm glad you guys liked it as much as we did, such an awesome place.

Yeah man it was a blast. Would definitley go back, but airBNB like you did.

[D Griff]

I just came to this thread. So you rented this??


I rented that as well when I went there in 2014. That was an epic POS, I couldn't get that fucker up a 60% grade, cause that thing is sooooo gutless.

Yup. It was the least powerful car I've ever driven. I had to drop down into 2nd or 1st to go up any significant hill.

Was it ?