Photos By Sandy

Day 1 – Arriving

In the early hours of December 25th we headed to Toronto Pearson airport to catch our Air Canada Rouge flight to Liberia, Costa Rica. Our flight was fairly uneventful. The flight had very basic ammenities and no included meals but the flight was just under 5 hours so we just passed the time by reading and sleeping.

We had made a car reservation with Hertz weeks prior and when we arrived in Liberia we were greeted by a Hertz representative who told us there was ‘good news and bad news’. Apparently they had overbooked their cars and had no car available to us but they were able to ‘negotiate the same pricing’ with a local company so we could get a car. We were told that all companies were in the same situation and it was very difficult to get a rental car at the peak season (Christmas). Not knowing what other choice we had we went with them and got a car. For anyone reading this, I do not recommend travelling to Costa Rica on Christmas unless you want to pay 3x as much for a vehicle.

Our first stop was at a local Walmart where we picked up some supplies like a large jug of water, bread, peanut butter, jam, some fruit and beach towels.. and of course a SIM card for our phone so we could use google maps. It was the first Walmart we had been to where the parking lot was patrolled by armed guards (with “K9” written on their vests but no dogs in sight)

We traveled about 2.5 hours to the area of Tenorio Volcano National Park, Rio Celeste at a hotel called Posada Rio Celeste La Amistad. We had a late lunch/early dinner in the town of Bijagua before we went to our hotel.