Costa Rica 2024: Road Trip - Costa Rica Style
Now, we're all ready for the 5-hour drive to the Manuel Antonia NP area. Our hotel is a stone's throw away from the park. Truth be told, I love long drives and I was waiting for this, altho' in the end I didn't realize how long a 5-hour drive really is. And since I'm not the one that can easily sleep on drives, I took a snapshots of things that caught my attention.
Fascinated by the lack of leaves and the beauty of this tree.
The beauty lies in the verdant landscape.
We hit a traffic jam. The jam happened to be a parade for the Feast Day of St. Joseph, which comes every 19th of March. But this day was March 17th, and back home we would be celebrating St. Patrick's Day. They probably had the parade today since it was a weekend.
For a large stretch, we traversed a curvy country lane road, one lane each way that climbed up and went down. While I'm saying country lane here, it's more like residential since there are houses on one side and hills on the other. We were going from one residential area to the next, all the while we could spot the freeway or highway, but Google was not taking us there.
Eventually, we finally got onto the highway and saw they were conducting control burn.
We stopped at a convenience store for a bathroom break and get some snacks. We were also not just driving towards our hotel for the next nights, but trying to get to what is called the Crocodile Bridge.
We arrived at the town of Tarcoles, the site of the Crocodile Bridge. The Tarcoles River is known for its high population of American crocodiles, and the bridge is a popular spot for observing them. Just park on the side of the bridge and walk to watch them. The traffic stops for you when you want to cross the road to see the other side of the road. Also, there's a traffic policeman that makes sure you are safe in crossing the very busy street.
Here's one of the bigger towns we passed that had something going on in their town square.
We arrived in our hotel past 6 pm, but it was quite dark already. After setting down our luggage in the room, we set out to find dinner. Not planning on spending our first dinner in the hotel, we walked along the length of the road, but many of the restaurants were either closed or were more fine dining than we liked. Finally we settled on this Hotel Costa Linda Bar and Restaurant. There were quite a few diners who looked happy.
I finally got my fish and chips. Can you believe they gave 2 whole fish in a serving?
My husband had this chicken in mushroom sauce.
Fascinated by the lack of leaves and the beauty of this tree.
The beauty lies in the verdant landscape.
We hit a traffic jam. The jam happened to be a parade for the Feast Day of St. Joseph, which comes every 19th of March. But this day was March 17th, and back home we would be celebrating St. Patrick's Day. They probably had the parade today since it was a weekend.
For a large stretch, we traversed a curvy country lane road, one lane each way that climbed up and went down. While I'm saying country lane here, it's more like residential since there are houses on one side and hills on the other. We were going from one residential area to the next, all the while we could spot the freeway or highway, but Google was not taking us there.
Eventually, we finally got onto the highway and saw they were conducting control burn.
We stopped at a convenience store for a bathroom break and get some snacks. We were also not just driving towards our hotel for the next nights, but trying to get to what is called the Crocodile Bridge.
We arrived at the town of Tarcoles, the site of the Crocodile Bridge. The Tarcoles River is known for its high population of American crocodiles, and the bridge is a popular spot for observing them. Just park on the side of the bridge and walk to watch them. The traffic stops for you when you want to cross the road to see the other side of the road. Also, there's a traffic policeman that makes sure you are safe in crossing the very busy street.
Here's one of the bigger towns we passed that had something going on in their town square.
We arrived in our hotel past 6 pm, but it was quite dark already. After setting down our luggage in the room, we set out to find dinner. Not planning on spending our first dinner in the hotel, we walked along the length of the road, but many of the restaurants were either closed or were more fine dining than we liked. Finally we settled on this Hotel Costa Linda Bar and Restaurant. There were quite a few diners who looked happy.
I finally got my fish and chips. Can you believe they gave 2 whole fish in a serving?
My husband had this chicken in mushroom sauce.
Beautiful photos of your drive. Back roads are always much more interesting than the boring highways. Good that you got to witness the lovely parade!
ReplyDeleteyes a camera helps pass the time on the long drive. I loved the colour and flair of the girls in their gorgeous dresses. We had crocodiles on our recent trip too - salt-water crocodiles - you don't want to mess with those guys. Enjoy your trip, have a grat week. I am joining you on image-in-ing linkup.
ReplyDeleteGreat.
ReplyDeleteThem crocs look kind of fearsome!! I loved the women dancing. Their dresses are so colorful.
ReplyDelete