Pura Vida Costa Rica

They have a SLOTH on their money! And their currency is called a Colón

I'M IN ANOTHER COUNTRY!
I haven't done a lot of foreign travel. But I always jump at the opportunity! Which is why when my partner was invited to a coworkers' wedding in Costa Rica, I jumped at the chance to go along as his "plus one." Despite having never met the bride nor the groom, I bought a plane ticket and cashed in all my vacation days, and here we are! Ashlyn, professional wedding date to the rescue.



After a relatively short three hour flight to San Jose, Costa Rica, we made it! We cleared customs relatively quickly but renting a car took upwards of two hours even though we reserved one in advance. (US citizens do not need a visa.) The rental place (a US chain) also took a $2k deposit, crazy! Be prepared for the surprise and have the space on your CC.

Google Maps does NOT WORK in Central America so you have to use another navigation system called Waze. Pick the craziest person in your group to be the driver because you will be driving in haphazard traffic, on curves and cliffs.

Upon our arrival our first destination was the Manuel Antonia National Park. It's a Rainforest Preserve on the Pacific side of the country. We stayed at a hotel right near the entrance of the park so we could get there early and spend an entire day!
It took most of the day to drive from the airport to our hotel in the National Park. When we arrived we met up with other wedding guests from the US at this really awesome restaurant with amazing views of the ocean and rainforest. We also probably had the best food of our whole trip here! The restaurant, El Avion, is built around a C-123 Cargo plane that has a really interesting history you can read about here.