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Sunday, October 18, 2009

Puerto Rico...Costa Rica...Boston

When we first heard about the Jet Blue All You Can Jet Pass, we didn't really consider it until... we found out they fly to Costa Rica. I have been wanting to go to Costa Rica for years. This seemed like the perfect opportunity. Jet Blue has some crazy flight schedules so staying in Costa Rica the whole time wasn't an option. Instead we went to Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, and Boston and all our other little trips for the price of one. We tried to make plans before the trip, but it just got too hard. We decided to book our first night in Puerto Rico and wing it the rest of the time. It worked out really well. The trip was amazing! We had so much fun.

Day #1 in Puerto Rico-After a long night and day of travel we finally got to Puerto Rico. We got the rental car and headed towards our hotel. We had a little trouble finding it when the iphone almost sent us off a cliff. We finally found the Gran Melia. It was a great place. We spent the first day hanging out at the pool. The beach/ocean ended up being kind of gross right there. We wanted to find somewhat of an authentic place for dinner, but all we could find was fast food and Chilis so we ended up at Chilis.

Day #2 in Puerto Rico-We took a ferry to Culebra island. The island is amazing. The beach is postcard perfect. The sand is white and the water is clear. Since it's the rainy season, there weren't many people on the beach. It was a nice relaxing day on the beach. We took the last ferry back to Fajardo and raced to the biobay tour. We barely made it. When we finally got back to the hotel that night we were all exhausted from our day of fun and not too excited for the next day of travel.

on the ferry to Culebra

in the ocean

traditional jumping picture on the beach. finally gave up and took a standing shot

bioilluminescent bay with glowing algae. we kayaked through a mangrove to get to this amazing bay. we had a full moon so we had to see the glowing water under a tarp.

Day #1 in Costa Rica-We had a 6:00am flight out of Puerto Rico. With the advantage of the time change we arrived in Costa Rica around noon. We got our rental car and drove to Arenal. On the way we stopped at a soda (cafe) for an authentic lunch. We heard about Tabacon from a friend and decided to stay there. It was a nice resort and included the hot springs.

Tabacon-after checking in we were greeted with drinks and cool towels. we rested then hit the hot springs. we played in the water, relaxed, and took the traditional jumping picture.
outside our hotel balcony. arenal volcano-one of world's most active volcanoes

Day #2-We drove to Monteverde to the rainforest/cloud forest. The drive was one of the greenest places I have ever seen. It was so pretty. Once we got there we raced to find a place to stay for the night and sign up for our afternoon adventures. Carrie was really nice and stayed behind with me while the others did a zipline. We decided we needed to do something so we did the suspension bridges tour-basically a guided tour of all the plants and animals in the rainforest. We saw a grey fox, black squirrel, sloth, tarantula, and probably some other bugs but sadly no monkeys.

suspension bridge tour
our hostile. it slept all 5 of us plus the buffet breakfast for $35 per person.

Our last day we drove to Jaco, the beach town. It was the most touristy of all the places we went, but it was still different than I expected. It's the rainy season so there weren't many people. The ocean had good waves, but the beach was pretty rocky.

everyone else rented surf boards and did pretty well in the waves

Jaco-beach/surf town


some pictures from all the driving we did

thanks to the GPS narrator we stopped at this bridge to see tons of crocodiles

The last stop on our trip was a day in Boston. With Jet Blue's flight schedule we couldn't get from Orlando to Salt Lake so we stopped off in Boston on our way home. We were there long enough to walk the freedom trail and meet up with a friend for lunch.
Bunker Hill-we walked up all 294 steps and wanted to die. my legs hurt for 3 days.

walking the freedom trail

lunch with BYU library friend, Tara

8 comments:

  1. OHHH all three of those places are on my list. Jeff has been to Costa Rica, but I have not been to any of those places. I am glad you are have some world traveling fun! I think you should quit your job and become a travel writer. It worked for Rick Steves. :)

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  2. Looks like so much fun!!! So they gym we are at is Anytime fitness. They don't have a Gold's anywhere around here :( But, yes, we do need to get together. For sure!

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  3. Wow!!! What an amazing adventure!! That is so cool that you were able to go and experience such cool places! And I just have to laugh cause Roman looks like a pimp in all the pictures! :) All the pictures are so cool of you guys!!!

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  4. What did you do with your first weekend home in over a month? Looks like the pass was all worth it:)

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  5. So fun!!! Love the pics. Next time I want to come!!!

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  6. I'm glad you had such a great trip! It looks like it would be so much fun.

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  7. That really makes me want to go back to Puerto Rico!!! Or Costa Rica! Actually...I want to go to ALL of the fun places you went last month!

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