We seem to be off to a slow start with our Costa Rica plans and I am not sure why. Sure, we have our flights and hotels. We have generally planned where we want to be and when, but no real firm plans. Perhaps this week we will get down to brass tacks and figure it out.
Day 1. We know it is all about getting there. It seems like we will be travelling all day. Our flight is from Chicago to San Jose, with a stop in Fort Lauderdale. I think we arrive early evening. We are renting a car and driving to a coffee plantation.
Day 2. An early (9 a.m. I think –maybe a bit later) tour of the coffee plantation then a drive for a few hours (3? 4? more? who knows) to our hotel in the west coast town of Quepos that is right near the Manuel Antonio National Park (I always think that I am missing one of the names for the park….I feel like there should be a middle name in there–but perhaps that is just me). No, I keep calling Manuel San Antonio. I expect we will just look around, settle in –maybe take a quick trip to the beach to see the Pacific Ocean (Yup…that’s the Pacific. Yup…it is wet. Yup…it has waves) and unwind a bit.
Days 3 & 4 & 5. We know we are going to go rafting one day. I have done some inquiries and found a 1/2 day trip on the Upper Naranjo river, I will probably book that this weekend. The other days will likely be hiking in the park (the one that is missing one name), visiting the beach, maybe a kayaking trip and seeing what other types of trouble we can get into. But we have no set plans –yet.
Day 6. We are going to drive up to the Arenal Volanco. (By the way did you know that Costa Rica has 200 volcano formations, 100 that show some signs of activity and 5 that are classified as active?) Once again, I have no real idea how long the drive is, but I assume it can’t be more than 2-3 hours. That should leave us with 1/2 a day or so to visit places on the way or find something to do once we are there.
Days 7 & 8. We have not made any plans. There seems to be a bunch of places to hike with hanging bridges (you all know how much I love heights), I found a link to a route that goes to a waterfall (only 16,000 steps & up both ways!), and who knows what else. Apparently tossing your hiking partner into the volcano is frowned upon (perhaps less so if they are a virgin?) so I guess I am pretty safe from that. Anyway, you can assume that Sue will run me ragged climbing up and down things for both days.
Day 9. We fly home.
I know! I know! We are way far behind in the planning process and I must admit–it is all my fault–I haven’t created the spreadsheet… and as we all know…nothing ever gets done in this world without a good spreadsheet. I am not a spreadsheet convert, yet, but I know Steven can’t live without them.
Even if the sunrise had been perfect, I think the best part would have been the bike ride down. I was still bundled up in two fleeces and Under Armour winter pants, but cruising down a volcano on a mountain bike is FUN. You can see for yourself on the video. We did the whole 22.5 miles by 9:30 am just because going fast feels great. Then, we went to 
Steven’s lunatic thought of the day: Maui is at 20.7984° N latitude. The diameter of the earth at that point is 7,923.054 miles (Google it!), which means that the circumference is about 24,891.01 miles (using excel which does π to 15 decimal places). Last year we saw the sunrise over the Sahara, just outside Merzouga Morocco (31.0802° N latitude). The distance between the two is 8,400 miles and 12 time zones. Maybe for our next trip we will try and figure out what is equidistant of the remaining 16,000 miles and watch the sun rise there…. I think it’s the middle of the ocean …so maybe we will bobbing on the water somewhere.
Doing It On The Road 