The Hampton Inn is perfect and reliable. The people are nice and the place is clean. A+ all the way around for that place.  The next day we were picked up by Frank Chicas. That guy is good!! He also drove us from Puerto Viejo to San Jose and from the Hampton Inn to the airport the last day.  He gets you wherever you’re going in the least amount of time without ever scaring the hell out of you. I’m sure it’s hard to do both! He pays attention to his driving but he is also attentive and friendly to the passengers. That guy could drive us anywhere!! I’m not sure how or how much he gets paid but we tipped him well. He really seemed to appreciate it.

The Nature Air flight was perfect. I would fly them again. It was a no hassle check in, the Twin Otter is an awesome bird and the flight was quite enjoyable. We could have done without the long and obligatory stop in Sierpe on the way to Drake Bay. It might just have been because the Drake boat was broken down and they had to get someone else.

The Drake Bay resort is nice. We were about the only ones there. Herbert is a cool old dude and his wife and the rest of the staff is very nice too. The rooms were clean, the food was good and the tours offered were very reasonable, if not included. It’s a bit treacherous getting up their “dock”, but I guess there is nothing they can do about that. Victor, the boat driver, is a top notch boatman and very good fisherman as well. If you have anyone who wants to fish there, send them to Victor. (he is on staff at the resort) We fished in some seas that I never dreamt possible. Since we were wet all the time, the FREE laundry and boot drying service was very nice. We look forward to staying there again.

The rafting trip was fun and the crew from Exploradores is fantastic. They wear so many hats and do it quite well. They have fun joking with each other and the customers and really make it an enjoyable experience. The beach lunch they made for us atop one of the rafts was excellent. I would do that again with that group for sure. They were also very safety conscious and we never felt in danger. Their transportation/drivers were very good too.

Also while in Puerto Viejo, we went fishing on the Geronimo with a French guy who owns the boat. He isn’t much of a fisherman but we did see some Dolphins and his boat is nice. I’m not sure that I’d go back to PV other than to visit “my” sloth but Mike and Rich seemed to have a good time on rented bicycles, stopping at the chocolate places, then swimming off the calories (yeah, right). They said the National Park in Cahuita was somewhat underwhelming and that the trails were closed.

Sue Kempf(Oct 6-18,2008)

A lady at Azania was familiar with Aviarios del Caribe. That is the sloth rescue place. (Their address says it’s in Cahuita but it’s really in Penshurt.) We took a taxi there after we dropped our friends off at the National Park. The tour is $25 and includes a canoe ride around the grounds where we saw some wild sloths plus lots of other birds and reptiles. Once inside you see a video then go on a tour of adults and babies with a guide.

at the Sloth Rescue The guides are very informative, and while I thought I knew a lot about sloths, I found out a lot of what I know isn’t so. Even the guides at Corcovado gave us misinformation about them. One told us that over 200 species of insects live in their hair.  Not true, only the Sloth Moth lives in their hair. They eat the moss that grows in their hair. None of the sloths at the rescue center had moss or bugs in their hair. I’m not sure what I expected but I was pleasantly surprised by the facility. It is BIG and very clean. You’d expect a stinky place, at least, but there was absolutely no odors anywhere. All the cages and enclosures are spotless and the sloths seem very content to be there. We were able to meet the owners, Luis and Judy Arroyo. They are incredibly pleasant and dedicated folks. They were very appreciative when we adopted a sloth. You’d think we gave them a million dollars.

Three of their grandsons work there and it’s really neat to see a family work together like that. There are quite a few volunteers but they employee 14 people full time. If you ever have a chance, you should visit the place. I know you would enjoy it and learn a lot too. It’s SO cute when they take the babies out to poop.From what I understand, they have rooms available on the premises too.

A great experience!

Sue Kempf

The hotel is very nice.The tours were great. Jim and I thank you very for the swinging bridges on Friday. The canopy tour was incredible!

Yes, we will be back again for sure. Our wedding was great and the people at the Nayara could not have been better. This was their first wedding there and they did everything possible to make it wonderful.

It would be a pleasure to be a reference for your company. I have attached some photos for you also if you care to use them on your website. We would like you to include the following comments about the Nayara and our stay there:

“We have traveled around the world and stayed at many excellent hotels. However, the Hotel Arenal Nayara was truly a unique and wonderful experience. Each of the individual bungalos are just beautiful with hardwood floors and balconies facing the awesome Arenal volcano. The housecleaning does an immaculate job of cleaning each day. The grounds are so attractive with the wide variety of folliage and flowers that Jim and I decided this is where we got married on August 12, 2008. The staff of the Nayara were just terrific and did everything possible to make our wedding an incredibly memorable event. They set a lovely table and served us excellent food and wine. We will definitely return there in the future. We also recommend it as a destination wedding location for other couples interested in marrying in Costa Rica. We also thank Jason Bateman for recommending the Hotel Nayara to us and all of his attention to detail when making our arrangements for the hotel and other activities.”

We will recommend you to anyone we meet who wants to go to Costa Rica. We shall return!

Pura vida.

Patricia and Jim Ross Wedding (Aug 9-16, 2008)
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Costa Rica is beautiful and so are the people!

your company’s arrangements were excellent and we were timely picked up and all the hotel reservations were made; no complications or hassles;

the Arenal Nayara is a gorgeous place, straight out of architectural digest!

a state of the art hotel with all the modern amenities;

La Mariposa is lovely and the view is breathtaking;

really, no complaints about anything and we would definitely use your company again!

Aneeta Jamal & Family (July 31st – August 11th, 2008)

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WOW!! Despite the delay of our plane (which can never be predicted) and sleeping through our rafting, the trip was amazing.

Thank you so much for putting everything together the way I wanted it. The lodging was exceptional as was the scenery. The transfers and drivers were wonderful, it was a great time to unwind and enjoy the view and I had a good time chatting with the drivers and asking questions.

They were all very friendly. I loved using my tiny bit of spanish to help me communicate in the small towns. We all enjoyed walking around the towns and taking it all in. The activities were fun, fun, fun. All the boys jumped head first into the pool at the Bungee place and agreed that it was the most scary, ie.. the most fun. I and my husband liked the rocket launcher.

You should try it, it’s really not that scary and a whole lot of fun. The repelling and zip lines were awesome too. The food was delicious, we usually went for the typical foods in the small Soda’s. We got to see many animals in Manuel Antonio, including a sloth that had taken up residence it a small tree right next to the resturaunt at Tulemar Bungalows, so we had close up views and pictures of her. The beach was warm, the waves were good enough for body surfing and bogie boarding, and we ended up staying in the water for hours.

The topography is truly beautiful and exercise is automatically built into the vacation because of all the steep hills while walking. We all agree that this trip is at the top of our lists of trips we’ve taken. I will recommend you to anyone interested in going and your supporting staff is excellent too. I can’t wait to print out all of our pictures and put them in an album for this year’s family vacation. Thanks again, and if we do go back to catch that rafting trip sometime, I will definately go through you. Sincerely, Dorothy Evans

P.S. My husband had been looking forward to the Sansa flight all through the trip and was very excited. He loves small planes.

Dorothy, David, Austin, Jared, Ryan Evans ( July 8th – 15th, 2008)
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Josh and I had a really great trip!! Thanks so much for your help planning everything.

We were really impressed by how well organized all of the transportation was - we quickly found our drivers at the airports and were always picked up on time at our hotels for our excursions. All the drivers were helpful and accommodating.

We were happy with all of your hotel recommendations - each was ideally located and offered spacious, nice accommodations. Also, having breakfast included at each hotel was a nice bonus. It saved us the hassle of having to find a place to eat each morning…especially considering how remote some of the locations are. La Mariposa in Manuel Antonio was our absolute favorite! The view was amazing and we really loved the style of the hotel/room.

We had such a blast on all of our excursions and even added a horseback ride that wasn’t planned at the start of the trip. I’d highly recommend the horseback riding, waterfall rappelling, ATV tour and Zip Lining to any other adventurous and/or thrill seeking visitors. Our time in Arenal was great!.

thanks again for your assistance, we had a fabulous time in Costa Rica!!

Monica Ankenbrand ( July 5th – 12th, 2008)

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I wanted to drop you a email to let you and everyone at My Costa Rica know what a great job you did in putting together our trip to Costa Rica. Everything went off without a hitch and we had the time of our life. We will definitely use your services again. The Arenal Paraiso was a wonder place to stay. The service and hospitality was wonderful and our rooms were great. The view of the volcano was amazing from our patio and from the restaurant while we enjoyed the wonderful food served there.

The tours you arranged, were great and my wife and children thoroughly enjoyed all of them. My kid’s favorite was the Canyoning arranged through Pure Trek. The rapelling part of this adventure was amazing through the water falls. The Canopy tour was a wonderful experience that we won’t soon forget. The 980 foot cable number 7, that was 400 feet above the Arenal River and beside the Arenal Falls, was a breathtaking ride through the tree top canopy. The rafting on the Balsa River was made both exciting and fun due to the experience and fun loving guides we had and the Costa Rican locally made lunch was amazing.

I can’t say enough about the service from all the people we dealt with. Costa Rica is truly a very tourist friendly country.
My family and I had a wonder time we will more then likely plan another trip in the future and use the services of My Costa Rica again.
Sincerely,

Rick & Renee Barrentine ( July 5th – 10th, 2008)

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