For our last 2 nights we stayed about an hour from the airport in Grecia. We drove there through the same mountains and cloud forest that we did to get to Arenal but luckily it was a little less foggy than on the drive there.
Once you cross over the mountains the change in weather is dramatic. It was warm and sunny! It was only a few hour drive from Arenal but for some reason the air conditioner decided it didn't want to work so the car was stuffy and I was worried if the insurance covers the AC but luckily the next time we got in the car it magically worked again.
Our hotel, which was really just a bunch of small cabins, overlooked a valley with coffee bushes in it. The view was absolutely beautiful and seeing all the clouds and rain over the mountains was a friendly reminder of where we came from. A rainbow formed over the mountains every day around 5pm. The afternoon we got there we spent a few hours by the pool then got dinner at a small restaurant that had a pretty impressive karaoke set up. Somehow I only took pictures of the view and didn't take any of the cabins but you can check out the hotel's website if you're interested.
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| The pool at Mango Valley |
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| View with a rainbow! |
Day 10
This was really our only day in the area to do anything since we had to leave for the airport the next day. We were hoping to go to see the Poas Volcano especially since we couldn't see Arenal but the owner told us it was too cloudy and the volcano would be closed. We decided to go on a tour of the Doka Coffee Estate. The GPS took us a strange back way but we eventually ended up in the right place. The tour was interesting but I guess it was the end of harvesting season so there wasn't anyone doing anything. I would have liked to see the different machines at work but I guess it was interesting hear the guide talk about what everything did.
The landscaping at Doka was especially beautiful so that was nice.
On the way back from Doka the GPS led us astray (the one time!) and we were going down a dirt road with a steep drop off that just dead ended with no notice. Eventually we made it out the correct way. We tried to find a market the hotel owner told us about but the directions were super vague ("turn left at the soccer field after the church" - I think those are the two most common landmarks in Costa Rica!) so we never found it. We spent a few hours by the pool, saw a beautiful sunset and then went to get what we thought would be burritos. Our burritos turned out the be chimichangas covered in french fries with ketchup and mustard. They were.... interesting and certainly an unintentionally adventurous last dinner!
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| Our last sunset in Costa Rica! |
Our trip to the airport was kind of a fiasco so I'll make a totally separate entry for that soon.
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