Trip to Costa Rica

February 18, 2022

Day 2 - Friday, January 7, 2022 - San Jose to Arenal

We were up at 6, luggage out by 6:30, breakfast eaten and ready for our orientation meeting at 7:30. We did introductions and enjoyed fruit punch before heading out at 8:30. Our first stop was the village of Sarchi, famous for the world's largest oxcart. There was a souvenir shop with all kinds of wood crafted and Costa Rican items. From there our next stop was Zarcero, a small town famous for its' church which is graced by topiary in front. The town also had cheese shop of some note. But Ron, the old cheese maker, said it wasn't as good as Kutter's. We bought some palmito cheese (which was like a cross between cheese curd and string cheese). We walked around the church and had some churros. Our next stop was Ciudad Costado. We had 1 1/2 hours for lunch and to explore. We had our cheese already so we went to the market and bought some bananas. Then we went to a soda (a diner in CR) and ordered empanadas to round off lunch. We walked around a bit and got an ice cream before going back to the bus. There was a little old lady in front of the church that was very happy when Ron gave her the rest of our cheese. Then it was on to our hotel Tilajari. We arrived about 2:30 and they had a welcome drink ready for us. We had about an hour and a half to clean up before leaving for La Fortuna for dinner. We had 1 1/2 hours to explore before eating. We walked the small town and stopped for a drink. Ron tried the local beer and I had a $3 mango margarita - yum! Dinner was at a lovely restaurant called Inspira. We got to know a little more about some of our traveling companions- a couple from Orange County and a young couple from Pittsburgh. Most of the meal was good but Rafael didn't tell us the beef was free range so it was very tough due to the cows having to traverse steep mountains. Marvin, our bus driver did a good job of getting us back to the hotel safely on the dark, windy, narrow roads. Early night to bed at 9:30.