Jana and I woke up early at the Hampton Inn in San Jose, Costa Rica to catch our next flight to Puerto Jimenez, on the Osa Peninsula. Osa is down near Panama on the Pacific Ocean side of Costa Rica. It would be a quick 50-minute flight on a prop plane with Sansa Air, my favorite local regional airline in Costa Rica. This would only be my second prop plane experience. Coincidentally, my first was with Jana when we flew up to Denali National Park with Talkeetna Air!
As we were flying above this tropical rainforest, I took about 100 pictures and video. You could see the rain falling down in the early morning hours. Once we hit the ocean, the plane made a slight left and flew down the coastline for the rest of the flight. It was a very beautiful and relaxing flight!
The view flying into Puerto Jimenez yesterday. Beautiful!! #CostaRica #puertojiminez #puravida #travel #gotravel #travelblogger A photo posted by Kristi Trimmer (@kristitrimmer) on
We touched down on a one runway airport in a small coastal town in Costa Rica. The resort we were staying at was a 10-minute drive down a dirt road. They had a driver waiting for us at the airport who took our luggage and helped us into the 4×4. The first animals we saw in Costa Rica were these weird looking cows that were being herded down the road.
Cows = Vacas in Spanish
Mooooove over! And my fascination with cows continues. Doesn’t that one on the far left look weird though? #costarica #cows #youdontseethateveryday #traveling #gotravel A video posted by Kristi Trimmer (@kristitrimmer) on
When we stepped out of the truck we were met with a warm smile and fresh fruit smoothies. They were delicious and quite refreshing as the humidity was on its way up.
Esteffenia with delicious fruit smoothies to welcome us to the Iguana Lodge!
Esteffenia is one of the super cheerful and helpful Guest Relations staff at Iguana Lodge. She checked us in and walked us up to our casita. She answered all of our questions about possible excursions we could take and really made us feel right at home.
We walked along a short jungle path to our casita. I made it slowly up the stairs as my left leg had been killing me lately. As I stepped onto the balcony though, I caught my breathe at the view. Big, humungous trees with birds calling out to each other, rolling waves hitting the beach making a thunderous sound, and a crystal blue sky that made me so incredibly grateful to be there.
We walked into the screened-in casita and saw the queen and twin beds with mosquito netting over them. I chose the twin bed as I wanted to be able to lay on my side and watch the jungle outside. The room was spacious, had a bamboo closet, and a very large bathroom. The shower had a rain shower head on it and the floor was made from rocks collected on the grounds. It was the most luxurious casita I had ever been in!
There is a safe in your room where we stashed our wallets and passports – I never think of that stuff. I have learned so much by traveling with Jana as she thinks of things that don’t even go through my mind. We then grabbed our laptops and headed over to The Pearl, the resort’s bar and restaurant. We needed to work on our posts for Southwest Airlines plus enjoy a little island drink-y drinks! We started out with the daily special which was the White Sangria for $5.
Oh, the way it works at The Iguana Lodge is that you charge everything to your room during your stay and take care of the bill at the end. That way, you don’t have to carry money around. Bartenders and waiters receive a mandatory 10% of each bill and there is a 13% tax added on as well. If you receive good service, add on an additional tip, usually 10%. All prices listed are in US dollars, which we found to be typical throughout Costa Rica.
We decided to spend the first day working so we could take time off the rest of the time we were at the resort. We knew we would still be working, but hopefully not chained to our laptops the whole time! This was our office view… terrible, right?
On Friday nights there is the epic Pasta Night! Not only is there fresh salad, roasted vegetables, but also a Costa Rican lasagna, homemade to-die for spaghetti and meatballs, plus eggplant parmesan! There was so much food… There was also a DJ who Jana befriended so she could sing a little karaoke.
We had a dolphin and snorkeling excursion setup for bright and early the next morning. We called it an early night as I was still pretty exhausted from flying 36 hours to get to Costa Rica from Alaska. I crawled into my incredibly soft cotton sheets and said a small prayer and counted my blessings before I drifted off to sleep. The rolling waves and the torrential downpour helped to keep me in a very deep slumber until a coconut fell onto the roof of our casita waking us up just after midnight. Ahhhh… beach-y jungle life! 🙂
Read more about Iguana Lodge on TripAdvisor. Check out their specials on Expedia and get your butt down here!
the food looks really good! what a cool place
wow. costa rica!