Costa Rica - Day 1

Well we made it back from our family vacation in Costa Rica and now Rick and I are ready for another one so we can relax and get rested up.

We had a great time. The kids loved it and over all it was successful and very memorable. However, I am not saying it was always easy, but the good times did make up for the hard ones.

Our flight left San Fransisco at 6:00am. They told us we needed to be at the airport 3 hours before our flight since it was an international flight, so we were up very early. After the airport parking, shuttle ride to the airport we didn't end up getting there 3 hours before the flight which was good because the airport security didn't even open until 5:15 so we had to wait around before we could even get through security. Of course nothing else was open so we couldn't even get breakfast - so lame. Why would they tell us to get there that early when the airport wasn't even open yet.

Here we are on the shuttle from the parking to the airport.

Anyway, we spent many hours finding the best flight to Costa Rica. Most of the flights were 18-22 hours with over night lay overs. We learned our lesson last year when we did a red eye with Athen to St. Lucia and had an 18 hour travel time. This time around we found the only flight that was 8 hours there and 8 hours back and during the day time so it doesn't mess up their sleep schedule. We flew directly to El Salvador which was a 5 1/2 hour flight, and then quickly switched planes and had a hour flight to Costa Rica - not too bad. The flight went well. The kids were great. Crew took a good long nap on the floor and Athen was entertained the whole way. We took Taca airlines (which we had never heard of before) and it was great. The seats were all leather seats with plenty of extra leg room even for Rick. They were much more spacious then typical American airlines. They also had individual TV's for each chair which included free movies, TV, music and video games for the kids. This was a nice bonus and kept Athen entertained. We also brought little toys wrapped up in streamers along with wrapped up treats for the kids to open and play with along the way. Our day was easier then a typical day at church. Another great thing about this airline is they gave us meals without charging us. We got 2 meals each way and they pretty good for airline food.
 

This was our hour leg to Costa Rica so we got a smaller plane which wasn't as roomy.
 
We got there around 4:00 in the afternoon and headed over to pick up our rental car. This was a long frustrating process. Although we brought a letter from our insurance that we were covered in Costa Rica (which was required on their website) they still charged us for liability insurance which was about 90% of the rental car fee. So frustrating, it cost us double what we were quoted on line to rent the car - it's typical for rental car places in Costa Rica to do this because of their laws.

Anyway, this got us started a little later then expected to our first destination which was Manuel Antonio. With it now being night time and the country not very good with street signs we got lost a few times trying to get there. Thrify, the rental car place did not have updated maps because they built a new highway so the maps we did have weren't all that accurate. We arrived at our hotel Mono Azul around 10:00 at night.