We had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed our activities and accommodations. Everyone was very helpful and friendly. Abel, our driver from San Jose to Costa Verde was so gracious and stopped many times to break up the trip and offer mini highlights. Casa Conde was a lovely quiet hotel with great outdoor plantings offering our group a chance to see bananas, coffee, and other interesting native plants. Our breakfasts were great, especially for our always hungry 14 year old boy, Jack.
Our accommodations at Coste Verde were everything we expected in terms of environment and general comfort. We got a packet of coffee every day, which was nice, but there wasn't so much as salt and pepper to allow us to prepare a home cooked meal. I never paid less than $70 for lunch for us five. We loved our swimming pool and the monkeys who joined us there. It was clean and secluded and so close to our cottage! We got some great pictures, even underwater movies!
It was good that we started with the tour of Manuel Antonio Park. We learned a lot and it provided a good base for the rest of our adventures:
(1) The white water rafting was totally awesome. Our guides were both excellent guides and knew how to make it fun for all of us from the oldest (me at 76) to the youngest (Elise at 8). Their use of English directions was helpful and polite and they had great senses of humor. We particularly liked that we were not part of a humungous group. Rather, it almost seemed like we had the river to ourselves, even though there were other rafters and kayakers.
(2) When the guide hooked me into my harness for zip lining I said "Remember-- I am old, deaf, and left-handed!" and they were very watchful for me without making me feel feeble. I'm glad I didn't back out at the last minute (which was definitely on my mind!). We felt both safe and adventurous. I can hardly wait to tell my book group all about it!
(3) The catamaran/dolphin spotting/snorkeling adventure was not up to what we expected. The group was larger than I expected (over 50 people, and the captain said the boat accommodated 100+ so we were lucky not to be so crowded!). We did get to see dolphins, which our group enjoyed. When we anchored for snorkeling we were bunched up with other boats so there were at least 100 snorkelers competing for water space and underwater sights. If I were a fish, I would have gotten out of there fast, it was so busy and crowded. I never saw a single fish through the murky water. The lunch they served was very tasty and abundant. Oddly, there was free hard liquor but you had to pay for beer and pop.
I guess in my final analysis I would say we had a great adventure overall. We even got to see wonderful flora and fauna, even an anteater (tamandua?) our last night! (Also a 6-inch brown shiny scorpion in our cottage--that freaked us out but will make a great story!)
Overall, we loved the country and its friendly people, we feel great that we got to do such adventurous things, and it truly was an experience of a lifetime!
Thanks again for your help in setting this up.
Mary