It’s our last day in Costa Rica. Our flight doesn’t leave until 11:20 pm so we slept in and had a slow start to the day. During breakfast at our Airbnb we met our new neighbour, a guy from Switzerland who has been in Costa Rica since November learning Spanish.
After breakfast we drove into Dominical to enjoy the beach one last time. We stopped back in at Fuego and I got a latte. It was fantastic; I’m very happy that I’m bringing some of their coffee beans home with me.
I’ve been feeling as though I might be getting sick so I wasn’t up for a long swim. I went in for a quick dip to cool off and then made my way to the Del Mar Taco shop; my friend is a bit of a fish, so she stayed out longer. It was nice to get out of the sun but it was still hot. I had the cappuccino ice cream (I think that all their ice creams are vegan). It had cinnamon on top and smelled amazing! It took a little while for it to soften up enough to eat and then it melted slowly so I was able to savour it over a long time as I enjoyed the view from the taco shop.
We did a little last minute souvenir shopping in Dominical before heading back to our Airbnb. We stopped at Mama Toucans and I got a Fuego beer for my husband. It was one of the ones that my friend liked from her sampler the night before. The artwork on it is of a howler monkey and I got the same artwork the night before at the gift shop on a carved ornament. We have heard the howler monkeys in the jungle surrounding our Airbnb several times over our stay; it sounds really spooky, almost as if the jungle is haunted!
The hosts of our Airbnb allowed us to check out late so we could keep our luggage there during the day and shower one last time before setting our course for San Jose, a three hour drive, followed by our 13.5 hours of air travel.
Over breakfast this morning Caroline, our host, and the other guest suggested we stop at the crocodile bridge on our way to San Jose. We added it as a stop on our way to return the car to the rental agency. We didn’t know what to expect but we knew that by the time we reached the crocodile bridge, it would probably be dark.
We did get to see one last, gorgeous sunset before leaving Costa Rica. We pulled off the highway and watched as the glowing pink orb quickly descended over the horizon.
Sure enough, it was dark by the time we got to the crocodile bridge. It looked like someone was looking over the edge so we pulled over and hopped out to see if we could add one more animal to the list of wildlife we’d seen on our trip. As we approached the bridge we realized the sidewalk was blocked and the guy who we thought was checking out crocs was actually making sure no one stepped on the fresh concrete. He must have taken pity on us because he motioned for us to follow him and he walked us along the side of the traffic lane until we reached the point where the wet concrete ended and we could step back onto the sidewalk. We looked out but couldn’t see much at first, then my friend saw a shadow gliding along the water and we realized it must be from a crocodile.
Our next stop was the Avis to drop off the car. We had to take a bit of a detour after Google got confused about where we were (it was as if it didn’t know if we were on the correct road or an adjacent one and it kept flipping back and forth between different directions). We got our course corrected and turned around so we were going the right direction. My friend, who was driving at that time, commented that it was difficult to see the lines on the road. I was just about to say that as long as we’re following the car in front, it’s probably okay when the car in front of us hit a sloped gravel shoulder and looked like they just about lost control of their vehicle! Thankfully, my friend noticed it just before the other car hit the shoulder and she managed to correct our course so we barely hit the gravel.
Needless to say, I think we were relieved to drop off the car by that point. We found the place easily once we got Google maps reset. The car rental agency had a shuttle that took us to the airport. We had a bit of time to kill at the airport and now we’re on the first of three flights to get home.
It’s been an amazing trip! It feels like we had a really good taste of both the mountainous region and the coast. We had lots of interesting adventures, saw a huge variety of vegetation, met loads of friendly people, saw lots of wildlife, and ate lots of great food. In some ways, it feels like it’s been a long time since we left home and yet it also feels as if the last nine days have flown by. I’m definitely interested in returning to Costa Rica again sometime to experience more Pura Vida.
Sarah Frumento 