Hola Costa Rica!

We were all excited about our family trip to Costa Rica, colored with a bit of nervousness about what to expect, and weary in advance about the long two days of travel we had ahead of us in order to get to our first true destination in country. Luckily, our travel down to San Jose was perfectly smooth and we arrived at the most amazing mansion we’ve ever stayed in for our first night in Costa Rica without any issues. This house was freaking amazing! It is owned by a Canadian Football League player and is probably the nicest house we have ever stayed in. We were kinda sad that we only had one night in this amazing home, but we knew that our Costa Rican adventure held so much more in store for us, so we quickly embarked the next morning for our first full day in country. Here's a sampling of the house:

Equipped with a 4x4 vehicle (crammed to the roof with luggage and family members), a GPS, rudimentary Spanish skills, and a rough outline of directions to a home that has no address and is at the end of a steep dirt road, we set off. Not knowing what to expect, or if we’d get there safely. Our GPS was a bit confusing on the first few turns inside San Jose and we ended up having to go through the middle of the capital city during morning rush hour and it added at least 30-45 minutes to our trip, but we were exposed immediately to urban Costa Rica life, so we took it in stride and absorbed our surroundings.

On the way to our rainforest home on the Southeast Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, we started to wonder where we could stop for lunch. We drove on for hours and all got very hungry, but never saw a single place that advertised “restaurant” or “cafe” or any franchise business name that we recognized. Unlike the big city of San Jose where we saw McDonald’s, Chile’s, Subway, and all the American franchises that we recognized, we were out in rural Costa Rica now and there was not a single business that had a modern or professional sign on it. They were all hand painted and rustic. We did notice that everybody seemed to love “Soda”, though. Because every 100 meters or so, there was a little roadside stand with the word “Soda” on it. We just thought they were really into their Coca-Cola.

We had assumed that the major port city of Límon was going to be a great stop for us to have lunch, but when we arrived we saw nothing but an industrial shipping port full of 18 wheelers grabbing shipping containers off of boats and run down businesses and houses covered in barbed wire and steel barred windows. The town reminded us of a ghetto in the US. A place that we would make sure our doors were locked and hope we didn’t get caught at a red light, because we were afraid to be there too long. Luckily, it was midday and despite the warning signs of it being a poverty stricken town, there were people walking the streets everywhere that were well dressed and did not seem threatening at all. Nonetheless we decided to keep on moving and find lunch elsewhere.

Fast forward to 30 minutes down the road and we have an entire family of starving people who are crammed in an SUV that’s barely big enough to fit a family of 6 much less all our luggage for a two week vacation, and you’ve got a Clark Griswold adventure boiling up nicely! We are all so desperate for food that we’re looking for any signs of life, anywhere along the road. We start to notice simple beer signs are posted on home fronts along with smoke rising from small outdoor chimneys near those signs. After frantic Googling for “restaurants” we are coming up dry and wondering if we’ll ever eat again. Finally, we drive by this one small smoking chimney that has a “Carnitas” sign next to it and what appears to be a small bar with a few locals watching the World Cup. Rebecca said we should eat there, but Clint was hesitant, as we didn’t know anything about this little roadside stand in the middle of nowhere and we spoke barely any Spanish and didn’t even know if it was a safe area. After a little discussion a little ways down the road, we turned around and went back to what is now known by the entire family as “Carnitas Lady”, for the best meal of our lives! At least we considered it to be such at the time. It was amazing food, served up fresh like the locals eat it.

Unbeknownst to us, what we had stumbled upon was a Costa Rican local customary dining destination called a “Soda”. No, they aren’t referring to the Coca-Cola that they sell at every place you can imagine in Costa Rica. A “Soda” refers to a little Mom-and-Pop dining spot which almost anyone along a major road can host. We Austinites relate these to food trucks. Holy Cow had we accidentally unlocked one of Costa Ricas best hidden gems! When you have someone that could be any one of our grandmas working over an open charcoal pit, slow smoking perfectly seasoned pork and serving it with all the fixins, for about $4 a plate…how can you ask for more?

With satisfied bellies, we continued our journey through the heavy downpour wondering why we ever decided to book an open format rainforest house on a distant Southeast coast of Costa Rica if we were just going to be trapped inside by monsoon rains the whole time. In true Clark Griswold style, we trudged on, fully expecting to see a Moose near our Homeaway rental telling us the rainforest was closed.

Eventually, after a weary day of travel, we arrived in the quaint and touristy (in a beatnik kinda way) small town of Puerto Viejo and our hopes began to rise. The steady onslaught of rain that had haunted us all day was beginning to wane and this little village and all its street vendors and beachfront bars and grills began to restore our faith in our travel plans. With the final concern being only whether our 4x4 SUV would be able to handle the steep and muddy uphill climb into the rainforest on an unmarked, rain soaked road to our rustic home where people had reported getting stuck, we continued on.

Long story short, the road to the house wasn't as bad as we feared and we arrived safe and sound at our little piece of the rainforest and could feel the stress bleeding off the family and turning instead to pure, unadulterated joy as soon as we began to explore the house and property. More about that house in an upcoming blog entry.