Chilling at the Grand Papagayo

The weather has been fantastic.....sun, sun and well...more sun. How can you go wrong with that? The resort is also fantastic. The staff are very friendly and pretty attentive. The wildlife at the resort is incredible. Each morning we are woken up to the sweet sound of birds chirping. The temperature has been hot... highs of 33-36C and lows of 25C. Even first thing in the morning (ie 6am) there is no need for anything more than a tank top and shorts. There are plenty of activities to participate in if you want to keep yourself busy or relaxing on the beach or poolside. Playa Buena is the beach by the resort. All beaches in Costa Rica are public beaches. The tides vary each day and if you want to sit on the beach you have to be there during low tide otherwise the high tide covers all this beach's area. The sand is very compact and wet given the tide movements and at the water's edge you can find beautiful shells and unique small rocks.

With the resort being an all-inclusive you have access to free water activities such as stand up paddle boarding and kayaking. On our first day here Z went SUPing and had a great time until a boat pulling a banana boat created a large wake....needless to say Z ended up in the water and unfortunately also lost a very good pair of sunglasses to boot. Another benefit of staying at the resort is they have beach bar service delivered right to your beach chair, and the drinks here are poured quite generously.

There is some pretty awesome snorkelling right off the beach. During low tide, the water isn't that deep and you can get pretty far out and still stand up on the ocean bottom. Being in a bay the water is quite calm. We saw some pretty cool fish, including rainbow fish, puffer fish, and a water snake (and I didn't even freak out). The water isn't as crystal clear as you would find in other places but visibility was still pretty good. The water was amazing, bath water warm and there were several pockets pretty far off the beach that had quite hot water; we weren't sure if there were natural hot springs in these spots or what caused these pockets. It was strange because you could swim just a few feet over and the water was back to warm.

We enjoyed a sunset walk one evening to a look out point located about a 15 minute walk off the resort property. This vantage point provided the ideal spot to watch an incredible sunset with the ocean as the backdrop.

The serene setting of the resort leaves you with no cares in the world, only complete relaxation.

The Journey to the Occidental Grand Papagayo

What a journey to get here...no weather delays but our flight out of Toronto was delayed by an hour apparently because of an air traffic control staffing shortage in Cuba...at least that is what our pilot told us. After an hour delay as we were all already boarded on the crammed Rogue flight, the pilot comes on again to say we had to have the computer system rebooted after a mechanical issue. What I couldn't understand is our plane was at the airport long before our flight was originally scheduled to leave so why could they not have fixed the problem long before we boarded and not caused a further delay? Oh, Air Canada....you are a necessary evil and can get away with it!!

Our flight to Liberia, Costa Rica was pleasant. Not sure I like the Rogue flights....the seats have 2 inches less space so any tall person has a very uncomfortable time and the seats themselves have no cushioning in them so you can end up getting an unwanted "massage" if the person behind you is rather restless. The pitch of the seat also force you to sit with your neck pitched forward which is really uncomfortable. The worst part of this journey was the inability to sleep despite having some very comfy seats on the leg to Toronto. Needless to say I was quite exhausted when we arrived.

Oh the warm tropical weather was just what Z and I needed. Stepping off the plane you could just feel the welcoming warmth of the sun! The immigration process was a breeze and our luggage was out pretty quick too. I can now say that I've been to all Americas!!!! We booked through Air Canada vacations so our ground transportation to the hotel was taken care of. We are staying at the Occidental Grand Papagayo all-inclusive adults only resort. The drive from the airport was about 25 minutes. We got to the report around 5pm....there were about 20 people from our flight that were staying here and the check-in process was a little chaotic but in the end it all was fine. They gave us a tasty tropical fruit juice drink as we waited to check in. The resort is built on a hillside and so we were driven to our room which is located at one of the furthest buildings from the lobby. We have a fantastic ocean view room on the the top floor...it's only a 2 storey building. The resort property is situated amongst a tropical jungle and on the Gulf of Papagayo....the best of both worlds. We choose (let me be honest Z choose) this resort because of this feature. He read that we'd be able to see a bunch of wild life and so far we haven 't been disappointed. So far we've seen a bunch of different birds, a white-nosed coati aka pizote, a member of the lizard family, and howler monkeys. A couple pictures below, with more to come...

The vegetation around the resort is so lush. There are plenty of palms trees, bamboo trees, and hibiscus flowers to name a few. The dry season has just started so the greenery will soon turn desert brown and come mid May to early June be back to its marvellous green once the rainy season starts.

The Great Escape to Costa Rica

Next stop....Costa Rica. While a lot of people's focus today was Boxing Day deals, we were busy packing and organizing for our great escape from this dreary cold weather. Admittedly there was a quick Boxing Day sale that we went to that got me a new pair of running shoes and a new running gadget (definitely no excuses now), but our focus was packing and organizing for this trip. Normally I'm packed well in advance and don't leave to the actual travel day, but we were on a red eye to Toronto so there was plenty of time without panic kicking in.

Travelling during the Christmas holidays and over New Years is a new experience. The roads were quiet getting to the airport and the airport itself is like a ghost town....the fact that our flight is a red eye probably contributes a little to this. The airport is decked out with some Christmas decor.

With no direct flight to our final destination, we're traveling through Toronto, which has been experiencing some unusually warm weather for the season. Thankfully we shouldn't experience any weather related delays.

Why Costa Rica? Well neither Z nor I have been there before and we thought why not head somewhere tropical where we'll have a chance to soak up some vitamin D, experience a new culture, enjoy some great coffee and most importantly just relax and forget about real life for awhile.