Wedding Anniversary Getaway

Click on images to enlarge.

On February 12, 1982, we were married at the courthouse in Vancouver, British Columbia.

So, forty two (!) years later …. we decided on a little getaway to explore an area of Costa Rica that we had not yet seen. We chose Hacienda La Isla (on this link you can select your language preference on the top right bar), a unique lodge in the foothills of the Braulio Carrillo National Park.

We decided to rent a vehicle from Adobe Car Rental here in Grecia as our Subaru needs the front brakes worked on and we are waiting for the parts to arrive from Japan.

Here is our driving route (in blue) with the red pin being Hacienda La Isla. 

Although this is a road with lots of tight turns (some of them hairpin) it is a well paved and marked route. It straightens out more after La Virgen. Beautiful scenery. When we stopped to change drivers, we saw these fantastic plants - Gunnera, or “poor man’s umbrella”.

We were using WAZE (free navigational app) but it let us down towards the end of our trip. It told us to turn into a laneway that supposedly led to our lodge but this was wrong. The road was terrible and led to nowhere. Back to the highway and we made a few more wrong moves. Finally I saw a sign that read “Hacienda La Isla Restaurante” so we decided to try this road. The sign was not large and was easy to miss, which we had done a couple of times.

It’s a dirt road and very narrow. I’m glad we didn’t meet a vehicle coming towards us - there was only one area to pull over and let a car pass. 

Hacienda La Isla is a unique place with beautiful gardens and walking trails. There is a swimming pool. The buildings are traditional Spanish colonial style. Our room had a king bed. There is no air conditioning and I thought that would be a problem but the large ceiling fan made it more than comfortable and at times almost too cool at night. We could sit outside on the two chairs provided with a table. There was a small safe in a cabinet. Good internet. Bring your own shampoo/conditioner.

Outside our room:

We met the people next to us … they were from Holland.

Temperatures: we were in the rain forest. The first day seemed quite humid. After that we were more comfortable. But it does rain and moisture drips from the trees. Many trees and plants we had never seen before. Same with the bird calls. What I believe was a gray-necked wood-rail strolled by one morning. 

Restaurant: breakfast is included and is a typical Costa Rican meal. Food service starts at 7:00 am. There is no menu - but you are asked how you want your eggs prepared. The coffee was terrific … strong! The fresh fruit drink was amazing … made from their own fruits. Dinner starts at 7pm.

The owner of Hacienda La Isla is on site (he is from Belgium) and we met him during breakfast. He greets everyone who arrives using any number of different languages. This is a popular place for European travellers.

Photos from our stay here:

The open air dining area.

The lagoon beside the restaurant.

Ceiling patterns in our room.

Up top there is a room with a balcony.

The lush growth.

On our last day here, we were treated to the appearance of a howler monkey and I was able to make a video:

For our trip home from Hacienda La Isla we decided to plot a different route as shown on the following map:

Coincidentally, and despite a significantly shorter driving distance, the driving time indicated on the route shown is precisely the same (2 hr 23 min) as that indicated for our trip to Hacienda La Isla. This is because much of the trip was through heavily populated areas including the cities of Heredia and Alajuela. However, our actual driving time was substantially greater. We ran into bad traffic conditions, bad weather conditions and bad WAZE conditions.

We chose the route shown because we understood that it would include some spectacular mountain scenery on a part of National Route 32 which is the main highway between the capital city of San José and the port city of Limón on the Caribbean coast. However, almost immediately after we turned onto Route 32 we came to a dead stop at a bottleneck (B1 on the map) which seemed to include more semi-trailers, buses and other large vehicles than it did automobiles. There we sat for 15 to 20 minutes.

When we began to move, traffic was very slow at first but eventually separated and began to speed up and reach normal speeds. But, this did not last long. Roughly within the circled region on the map there was a dramatic change in the weather. As we climbed up into the mountains it became cloudy, then it became foggy, then it began to rain within the fog - and at times it began to fog up within our car. So much for spectacular scenery - everybody had to slow down.

The next dead stop (B2 on the map) came about 100 meters after we exited the Zurqui Tunnel. There we sat for at least a half hour. There was no oncoming traffic. I have no doubt that traffic behind was backed up not only through the 600 meter length of the tunnel but well further on the other side of the tunnel before the entrance.  The reason for the bottleneck never became clear - road maintenance, a traffic accident or whatever.

Ultimately, we exited Route 32, the skies opened up, and the road ahead was clear - or so we thought. Trouble is that my Smartphone pooped out. Somehow, it failed to become fully charged despite having been plugged in all night the night before. Consequence: no connection with WAZE and no ability to navigate through unfamiliar territory. Solution: Park, charge the Smartphone from our vehicle power outlet to get more directions from WAZE and repeat as necessary. We had to repeat 3 or 4 times before we entered familiar territory near the city of Alajuela. We then required no more directions from WAZE to get home.

LESSON: If you are going to go on a trip which relies on WAZE (despite the various foibles that it has), make sure you include your Smartphone (or iPhone) charger within your luggage and that it can be usefully plugged into a compatible power outlet provided by the vehicle you are driving.