Cindy Southgate's Travels

Sunday, February 27 – 28

Today was our last full day in Costa Rica. We decided to have our breakfast delivered to our room to enjoy on our deck.

This morning we went kayaking. Our guide picked us up and drove us to a small river where their tour company was located. Once again we were lucky to have a great guide and we ended up having a private tour. Tulemar arranged our tours and they always use certified guides which is very important. Certified guides give better tours and are more responsible with the treatment of animals and the environment. Oscar Herrera, from Nacarcosta tours, got us settled in our kayaks and we started paddling toward the ocean.

Oscar told us about the life along the river and in the mangroves. We stopped a few times to have a closer look at some of the plant and wildlife. This included some Iguanas, bats and birds.

We saw a few boats go by that we wished weren’t there. Some of them were expelling strong fumes. One larger tour boat backed up to the river bank and took out food to lure the monkeys onto the boat so that the tourists could get better pictures. This is a very bad thing to do as it becomes necessary in the future to keep feeding them. They are wild animals and unpredictable and should be respected. Oscar shared with us his attempts at stopping these practices but he had been unsuccessful so far.

When we got close to the ocean we turned around to return to our starting point. There was a nice snack waiting for us. We enjoyed some sandwiches and fresh fruit. After we ate Oscar drove us back to Tulemar.

For the rest of the afternoon we wandered around the resort property and enjoyed watching the Squirrel Monkeys by the pool.

We also saw a couple of Capuchin Monkeys enjoying a snack.

For our last dinner we made reservations at Victoria’s. This Italian restaurant is just across the street and is owned by Tulemar. We recognized some of the staff from TuleCafe.

Mike chose the avocado pizza and I had spaghetti and meatballs. Both were very good. It was followed by sharing a yummy dessert!

The following morning we packed up our things and headed to TuleCafe for our last breakfast. We told the waiter about our favourite breakfast, huevos rancheros, from our last visit that was no longer on the menu. He went and talked to the chef and he was able to make it for us!

We drove ourselves to the car rental office in San Jose. We stopped on the way at a large souvenir shop and bought some wooden coasters. Using waze for directions brought us to the airport instead. Eventually we found the right place, dropped the car off and were driven to the airport. We got there about 2 and a half hours before our flight and needed all that time. There was an enormous and unorganized line to get through customs and then security. We didn’t even have time to look in the shops. We boarded our plane and then sat on the runway for almost 2 hours. It was very hot as they couldn’t turn on the air-conditioning. We were worried about missing our next flight but when we arrived back in Toronto they were holding the plane for us and the other 8 people booked on the same flight. A few days later we received a coupon for $200 each off our next flight. Guess what we used it for……