Altought we have set three alarm clocks to 5:00 a.m., we don’t need any of them. Oir internal clock wakes us up much earlier.
Driving time to the airport is just 15 minutes. Normally that’s no problem at all, but unfortunately we miss the exit leading to Adobe Car Rental and remain on the 4-lane road to San Jose. The guard rail in the middle of the street doesn’t allow us to make a turn. After a few miles we take the next exit and luckily we find a bridge bringing us to the other side of the road where we can drive back towards the airport. Formalities at Adobe are done quickly this time, and they drives to the airport in a private shuttle bus.
Before we can check in we have to pay an airport fee of 26$ per person. Our return journey takes us non stop to Newark, from there to Munich and finally to Duesseldorf. After a trip of almost 24 hours we are back to Germany which suffers from an extremely snowy winter. A long distance flight with Continetal Airlines is not really recommendable. Lufthansa on our outward trip was by far better.
Conclusion:
We liked Costa Rica as a travel destination very much. The people are extremely friendly and we felt always very safe. Road conditions can be very bad, but anticipatory driving helps to cope with that. Nature is stunning, although with the exception of Manuel Antonio National Park we haven’t seen much wildlife. We were also not very lucky with the volcanos Poas and Arenal which didn’t show up. Weather definitely could have been better. We didn’t expect so much rain at the end of the rainy season. Highlights of our trip were Monteverde and — despite the crowds – Manuel Antonio.
Travelogue Costa Rica — Day 19, Monday, 6th Dezember 2010