meliss35

Thanks for all the help in planning our trip to Costa Rica. My husband and I and two kids (11 and 14 years old) had a great time. The following was our itinerary:
Day 1 : San Jose - Hotel Don Carlos
Day 2: Tortuguero - Mawamba Lodge
night turtle tour
Day 3: San Jose- Hotel Don Carlos
Day 4-6: Arenal - Lost Iguana Hotel
Hanging bridges, Pure trek canyoning, went to the old lava trail, Tabacon Hot Springs, Cano Negro trip with sunset tours
Day 7-8: Monteverde-Arco Iris
Childrens rain forest, Monteverde cloud forest, the original canopy tour
Day 9-10: Playa Hermosa-Hotel El Velero
Playa Tamarindo, Playa Brasilito, Playa Flamingo and Sugar beach
Day 11-13: Manuel Antonio- Tulemar Bungelaws
Manuel Antonio National park, and white water rafting with Iguana tours
Day 14: Fly home to Newark Airport
Only exchanged some money for colones once otherwise used dollars the whole time. Never had a problam using dollars. It was the rainy season but didn't really rain much. We had one day with rain in Arenal but we left the area to go on the Cano Negro trip and it wasn't raining.

Things I didn't use on the trip:
Rain poncho, umbrella, spanish english dictionary, suntan lotion with sealice and jellyfish protection and flashlights.

Things disappointed with:
Saw no lava from Arenal Volcano. Knew that this would be a possiblity. Didn't see as many monkeys as I thought. Didn't see much wildlife at the Monteverde Cloud forest. We even hired a guide and saw nothing but a bird and coati. But still would recommend a guide. Still had a good time at Monteverde. Saw no monkeys at Manuel Antonio National park and hired a guide. Thought we would see alot at Manuel Antonio. Loved Manuel Antonio and glad I took a guide. We saw alot of other animals and birds.

Day 1
We flew on US Airways on August 1st and arrived in San Jose around 1:15pm. The pilot wished our son a Happy Birthday on the loud speaker. It was his birthday the day before we left. The flight attendants and pilot on US Air were very nice. We had pre-booked our taxi thru Hotel Don Carlos and they had a sign with our name on it at the taxi stand. We got to the hotel around 2:30pm. San Jose was very run down. The only reason for staying there was because we had an early tour to Tortuguero the next day. The staff at Hotel Don Carlos was very nice. We checked in and put our bags into our room. For some reason our room had 1 double bed and a sofa. Before I could say anything, they moved us into a room with 2 double beds. The only thing was that the room faced the street and was noisy. They made a mistake with what size room we should get so we paid less than we were supposed to. We decided to walk around San Jose. We passed the Jade musuem but didnt go in and walked along Avenadas Central. We had some ice cream which was less than $3 for 4 cones. We then walked around Mercado Central (Latin American market). I wouldn't recommend staying too long in San Jose. We then went to dinner at Cafe Mundo which is near Hotel Don Carlos. The food was very good. The restaurant is in an old mansion. We all had pizza. It wasn't expensive. We ate outside near the garden. We went back to the hotel and used the internet and got our free complimentary drink. I liked Hotel Don Carlos. I especially liked the decor. It had a great gift shop and the area around the hotel was nice. We went to bed early because we were tired.
Day 2: Tortuguero
We couldn't eat the hotels breakfast because we were leaving for Tortuguero very early. We were picked up by Mawamba Lodge at 6:50am at Hotel Don Carlos. We drove thru Barillo Carillo National Park (?). It was beautiful. The tour guide stopped the bus to see a two toed sloth. We then stopped for breakfast at Rio Dante Restaurant. The food was very good and the grounds of the restaurant was beautiful. After breakfast we hiked on a trail around the restaurant and saw a blue morpho butterfly and a magnificient owl butterfly. We then drove to the boat. We ate some fruit before loading into the boat for the 2 hour boat ride to Mawamba Lodge. We saw some animals on the boat ride. I thought we would see more but I guess it was mainly transportation to the hotel. We saw a Caiman and some birds. One was a Roseate Spoonbill. We arrived at Mawamba Lodge at 1:15pm and were greeted to a welcome drink. We took our bags to our room and then went to eat our lunch. The grounds of the hotel was really nice and the pool was nice too. The pool has a bridge and a waterfall and the grounds was beautifully landscaped. The room was a nice cabin. The food was very good. Our tour guide was Anselmo. He was very good. After lunch we signed up for the night turtle tour. We were told that we should wear dark long sleeve and long pants before we arrived. It was really hot so I asked Anselmo if we had to wear long sleeves. He said that what I was wearing right now was fine. I was wearing shorts and short sleeve shirt that was not even dark. We decided to wear black shorts and black short sleeves. We couldn't pick the time of our tour. Of course we got the latest one at 9:45pm. We then went to the beach which you can't swim in because of the rip tides and sharks. We then met Anselmo for the boat ride to the village. He told us all about the area and then we had some free time in the village. We watched a soccer game for a little while. My family is very involved with soccer at home so it was nice watching the game. We then walked back to the hotel on the beach while Anselmo talked about the turtles laying there eggs. He pointed out a area where a turtle layed their eggs. When we got back to the hotel, my daughter had her hair braided. We booked this thru the hotel. We then went swimming in the pool. The pool was very refreshing. My family liked sitting in the hammocks at the hotel. We went to dinner at 7pm. The food was very good. We went on the turtle tour which cost $25 per person at 9:45pm. There was a person on another tour that was wearing a light colored shirt. We were told that we might have to wait awhile before a park ranger finds a turtle laying its eggs. So we waited in a specific location. We only waited for 10 minutes and walked to the location. We saw 3 turtles. One was walking back to the ocean, the other was laying its eggs and the third was covering its eggs. It was amazing seeing the turtles. The turtles were so big. It was a great experience. We went back to the room around 11pm.
Day 3: Tortuguero and San Jose
We went on the 6am boat ride in the Tortuguero canals. We had to pay an extra $7 per person for the national park. We saw alot of animals and birds. We saw spider monkeys, white capuchin monkeys, iguana, greenback heron bird, tiger heron, black river turtle, eyelash palm pitviper snake, leaf cutter ants, crocodiles, caiman and jesus christ lizard. When we saw the white capuchin monkeys the tour guide let us go out of the boat onto the island. We then saw tons of monkeys. That was amazing. They were moving from tree to tree. We also saw the eyelash palm pitviper snake. The canals were beautiful. We went back to Mawamba lodge for breakfast at 8am. We then had to board our boat at 9am for the return trip. If I did it over again, I would of flown home. It is a long trip back to San Jose. Before we left we were looking at the poison dart exhibit and a man showed us a gaudy leaf frog. My son got to hold it. It then jumped on his head. The frog was really pretty. While on the boat, the boat with our luggage broke down. I thought we would be delayed but they fixed it and caught up with us. When we got off the boat we had more fruit and got on a bus. We took the bus to the Rio Dante Restaurant for lunch. We arrived back to San Jose around 3:30pm. We got dropped off at Hotel Don Carlos. A man standing outside of the hotel grabbed my kids luggage. I thought he was working at the hotel. He brought them in. My husband was behind him. He brought the luggage to me at the reception. While I was checking in a women using the internet had her knapsack stolen. That guy who helped my kids and another man stole her bag with her passports and money in it. The guy used my kids bags to get into the hotel. We decided not to go out for dinner and ate at the hotel. Before we had dinner Tricolor car rental dropped the rental car off out the hotel. We parked our SUV in the hotels parking lot. We booked the car rental thru Hotel Don Carlos. We then used the internet and shopped at the gift shop.

I will continue with the trip report tomorrow. Sorry if it is long.

dina4

thanks, meliss35!
I'm really looking forward to reading the rest of your report! don't keep us waiting to long.

by the way, hat did you mean you would have flown home? did you mean take a small plane back to San Jose or directly to your next destination--Arenal?

faithie

Hi Meliss, can't wait for the rest!

shillmac

The luggage scam was interesting. Amazing how those people operate. It was Juan Carlos (at the Hotel Don Carlos) who first hooked us up with Tricolor. We've been using them ever since. We really enjoyed that hotel and used to always stay there. Then we decided we'd spent enough time in the city (although I really enjoy walking around in the morning) and started staying near the airport. So glad you had a great time. Anxious to hear more! Thanks for taking the time to share. . .

meliss35

Dina4: I would have flown back to San Jose instead of taking the long trip back or Mawamba Lodge mentioned before I left that I could stop at the Rio Dante Restaurant and they would arrange a rental car. The price was more expensive for the rental car and the trip was supposedly longer to Arenal from there so I didn't do that. I don't know if they fly from Tortuguero to Arenal.

Day 4:
We left Hotel Don Carlos around 6:30am because we didn't want to get stuck in traffic in San Jose. On the map it looked easy to find Route 1. The only problem is that alot of streets don't have street names. We couldn't find the street to turn on but some how we found 1. We were on 1 for a little while before we were sure that we were on the right road. We followed the directions from the Lost Iguana website. I highly recommend those directions even if you are not staying at that hotel. On the directions it says there is a short cut that is optional and quicker. I don't know if that was quicker but the road was really bad with alot of potholes. It only took us about 3 hours to get to the Lost Iguana. We loved the Lost Iguana. The rooms was really nice with a balcony looking right at the volcano. Unfortunately we only saw the volcano clear once on the first day. After arriving at the hotel, we bought tickets for the Hanging Bridges. You get a $5 discount by buying the tickets from the Lost Iguana. We decided to hike to the Hanging Bridges from the hotel. It took about 20 minutes to get there. It was really cool and scary walking on the bridges. We didn't see any wildlife except seeing a bird and some butterflies. It took us about 2 hours to walk the trails. We did see the leaf cutter ants. We ate lunch at the hanging bridges. It had a nice view of the volcano even though it had clouds covering the top. The food was good. When we got back to the room, my son noticed that the clouds disappeared. It was great seeing the volcano even for a little bit. We did hear the volcano which was cool. We decided to swim at the pool at the Lost Iguana. It has a really nice pool. One on the bottom is cooler and the top one is very warm. We had drinks at the swim up bar. The pool has a nice view of the volcano. We then went to dinner at Lava Rock Cafe. It took us about 30 minutes to drive to La Fortuna. The food was good and inexpensive. We walked around town and souvenir shopped. We drove back to the hotel in the dark. It was fine driving at night in Arenal. I asked the hotel to call me if the lava should clear in the middle of the night but it never cleared. I woke up around 3am to the sound of pouring rain and thunder.

Day 5:
When we woke up it was still raining hard. We were leaving early for the Cano Negro tour thru sunset tours. We couldn't eat the breakfast because we were leaving too early in the morning. You would think they would start breakfast early since alot of people take early tours. The hotel has a computer you can use so my husband and daughter went on the internet while waiting to leave. Our guide was really good and nice. We stopped at a restaurant and gift shop on the way. Outside along the bridge were tons of iguanas in the trees. I couldn't believe how many there were. We then drove and stopped once more at another restaurant where the guide picked up our lunch. While waiting, we had a great ice cream. It was shaped like a donut with hard chocolate on the outside and chocolate inside. It was soooo good. If you go into a store with a ice cream cooler, try it. It wasn't raining and the weather was really nice out. I don't know if it cleared in Arenal. We got on the boat and saw alot of wildlife. We saw alot of birds, howler monkeys, 2 toed sloths, long nose bats, jesus christ lizard, iguana and caiman. We stopped on the side of the river Frio for lunch. The food was good. They rent the land from the neighbor next door. We got back to the hotel around 5pm. We decided to have dinner at the Blue Hisbiscus at the Lost Iguana. The food was good but the most expensive for the entire trip. It was raining so we could not see the volcano.

Day 6:
I got a box breakfast delievered to our room the night before since we would be leaving before breakfast opened. We were picked up by Pure Trek Canyoning. This is waterfall rappelling. This was the best thing we did on the trip. The kids absolutely loved it. I was really scared especially when my kids went over the first waterfall. We took a 4X4 truck up a bumpy road to the spot where we put on our gear. They checked to make sure that everything was on right. They gave us 2 dry bags for my video camera and digital camera. It hooked on our harness. The first rappelling was the highest. It was next to the waterfall. I think my family thought I was crazy signing up for this before we left. But they loved it. We went rappeling on 4 waterfalls and one dry wall. At one point my water shoes was falling off my feet and I was trying to grab them so I had trouble getting down. Luckily it wasn't too high. After the rappelling we ate lunch back by the office. My daughter didn't like the food. So she didn't eat anything. Afterwards we got in our car and drove to the ARenal National Park. It was a bumpy road to the entrance. I think just beyond the national park is the road to the Arenal Observatory Lodge. I was originally going to stay there but when the lava changed directions I decided to stay at the Lost Iguana. Even though I never saw the lava I am glad that I didn't stay there. The road is too bumpy and we probably would of stayed at the hotel for dinner each night instead of going out. We hiked to the old lava field. When you get to the lava, hike to the top and you will get a great view of Lake Arenal. We heard the volcano but couldn't see most of it. Since my daughter didn't eat lunch, we drove to La Fortuna to have a snack. We ate at Pizza Luigi's. The kids had pizza which was very good. We were going to wait till 7pm to go to the Tabacon Hot springs but we didn't have anything to do. We didn't want to go back to the hotel. I wanted to go to the Fortuna waterfall but it was closed. So we decided to pay the full price and go early to Tabacon. I am really glad that we went during the day. It was so beautiful and you appreciate it more during the day. You still enjoy it at night. We swam in the hot springs. I thought I packed my black bathing suit but took my black shirt instead. So I didn't have a bathing suit. My daughter had a extra bikini top so I wore it with my shorts. My daughter was not happy so I wore my husbands shirt. We couldn't stay in the springs too long because it was very hot. We swam in the a pool that was cooler. It had a cool slide in that pool. We stayed for a few hours and then went to dinner at El Novillo. It was the best dinner we had the entire trip. I had an amazing steak with onions. The restaurant supposedly had a great view of the volano but we couldn't see it. It is hard to find the restaurant. The sign is hard to find and the restaurant doesn't look like much. But it was the best steak I ever had. When we got back to the hotel, I thought the volcano was trying to clear but no such luck.
Day 7 will have to wait to tommorrow.

meliss35

Day 7:
Today we were able to eat the buffet breakfast at the Lost Iguana. It was very good. It was raining a little bit when we started our drive to Monteverde. We drove around Lake Arenal. The lake is beautiful. We stopped at Toad Hall to look at the souvenirs and then stopped at a lookout. The lookout was beautifully landscaped and the view was great. The road to Tilaran was mostly paved except sometimes the road had rocks and pot holes. We also stopped at the German bakery and bought some baked goods which was very good but expensive. When we got on the other side of the lake we stopped once again for a great view and a guy was selling souvenirs. I bought some handmade souvenirs and then continued to the town of Tilaran. After that the road was really bad. It was mostly little rocks and big rocks with some potholes. The ride was very bumpy. Just like everyone said a young guy stopped us and said that we missed the turn for Monteverde/Santa Elena. He said that we had to turn around and make a right turn at the green house. He also showed us a map for $4 which the money would go to building a soccer field. He also said that he was licensed. The map looked confusing which we paid for so I decided to drive so my husband could direct. I am not good with reading maps. Well the rest of the way there were signs pointing the way to Monterverde/Santa Elena. So we didnt need the map afterall. The guy just took down one sign so we would buy the map. So if that happens and the guy says to turn around and make a right at green house, you don't have to get the map cause there are signs the rest of the way. The scenery was gorgeous so eventhough the ride was bumpy it was worth it. It took us 3 1/2 hours to get to Santa Elena. That doesn't include our stops so it took longer. We were staying at the Arco Iris Lodge. The room wasn't ready when we arrived so we left our bags in the reception and went for lunch at D'Pepe pizza place in Santa Elena. Arco Iris is in a good location cause you can walk to town cause it is in town. The place was very nice but I booked the budget room which isn't with the rest of the place. The other cabins looked really cute. Our room was nice but I would of rather stayed at the other rooms. I tried to change our room but they were booked. We had reservations for the night tour at the Children's Eternal Forest. We got there before the tour started so we walked on the trail on our own. We didn't see any animals so my family didn't want to do the night tour. We left and went to dinner at the Treehouse cafe. We also stopped at Stella's Bakery for pastries for breakfast the next day. The food at Treehouse cafe was okay but the atmosphere was great. There is a tree right in the restaurant. We got an hour of internet free for eating dinner at the restaurant. Because there wasn't alot of things to do at night our family played alot of card games like spit and uno. It was great bonding experience.

Day 8:
We met our tour guide (Adrian Mendez) which we booked thru Arco Iris Lodge. Alot of people recommended him. He told us about the Monteverde Cloud forest. He told us about the plants and showed us some interesting things. the only thing is we didn't really see any animals. We only saw an Emerald Toucanet which I found and a Coati that was outside the park. He definitely made it interesting even though we didn't see any animals. But he didn't really seem to be looking for any animals though. I definitely recommend taking a guide. It would of been boring if we didn't have a guide like when we went in the Childrens Eternal Forest. He did find a plant that he got ink and made a pen and then drew on the kids hands like a tatoo. My kids liked that. He took us to the Hummingbird Gallery where we saw alot of hummingbirds. They were beautiful. We left the park when our tour was over and tried to eat lunch at Pizzeria Johnny but they weren't opened yet. So we ate lunch at Morpho's in Santa Elena. The restaurant has alot of butterflies on the walls. The food was okay. Around 2pm we were picked up by the Original Canopy tour. The guides were really helpful and made sure that we were all hooked up correctly. Two of the guides took our cameras to take pictures of us. We got some great shots. It was a blast zipping thru the trees. We did 6 zips and 2 rappels. My son did it on his own. He loved it. The weather in Monteverde was great. Blue skies and sun. For dinner we ate at Pizzeria Johnny which was very good. We went back to the hotel and played cards outside. The owner's son played with my kids. He was very cute and friendly. I had my laundry done by the hotel which was very convenient.

Day 9
We left early in the morning and drove to Playa Hermosa in the pacific side in Guancaste. The road was bumpy again but the scenery was beautiful. When we got to Rt 1 the road was smooth. Thank god cause we were tired of the bumpiness. We stopped at a small place to get breakfast to go. The women didn't speak english but had a menu. I ordered food but my daughter didn't want anything. When she saw a piece of bread in my son's breakfast she wanted a whole loaf of bread. I went back to the women and tried to explain what I wanted but she didn't understand. I could of used my dictionary but I went back to the car and got a piece of my son's bread and showed her. Then she understood. This was the only time I had trouble commincating. Shortly after I was stopped by 2 policemen on the side of the road. They pointed at us to pull over. I knew that I wasn't speeding because a slow truck was in front of us. He said that he was giving us a ticket because my husband wasn't wearing a seatbelt. He said that I could save 30% by paying now. Since I knew from past posts not to pay them, I said that I would rather pay it at the rental car place. He said okay but we never had to pay for the ticket afterall. It took us 3 1/2 hours to get to our hotel. We stayed at the Hotel El Velero. The grounds of the hotel is beautifully landscaped with a restaurant and a very small pool and is right on the beach with lounge chairs. The room was nothing special and did smell alittle musty but once the AC was on we never smelled that again. For the price of the room it was a great deal. The beach was very nice and quiet with very little waves. My kids weren't in love with the beach. They wanted waves. We ate lunch at the hotel and it started to rain. After lunch it stopped but was cloudy. We went to the beach and relaxed. There was someone getting a massage at the beach. I was going to get one but never did it. I should of gotten one. It was inexpensive. We saw a great sunset at the beach. We went to dinner at the Monkey bar. It is a treehouse. The food was good.

Day 10
We drove to Playa Tamarindo in the morning. We got lost and ended up seeing a cowboy on a horse with cows following. That was a great thing to see. My family loved Playa Tamarindo. The waves were great and it wasn't too high. There were no riptides. We should of stayed there. There were alot of shops and restaurants. We ate subway for lunch on the beach. My kids wished we stayed here. We stayed for a couple of hours and drove by Playa Brasalito. This was very nice but we stopped at Playa Flamingo for a while. The waves were bigger here. This was my favorite beach that I saw in Guancaste. I was originally going to stay at the Flamingo Marina Resort but alot of people didn't recommend it. I should of payed the extra money and stayed at Flamingo beach resort. It looked really nice and was across from the beach. It is quiet beach but close to Playa Tamarindo. There were alot of expensive homes here. When we were leaving we were trying to find an ice cream place which we couldn't find. We ended up driving up by the homes and saw great views of the beach. We then drove to sugar beach which is a very bumpy and bad road. We walked thru Hotel Sugar beach to get to the beach. The beach was nice but the waves seemed stronger there. The hotel was very nice and secluded. Didn't seem like there was alot of restaurants around and the road was so bad so we would of probably stayed at the hotel for meals. After that my husband tried to drive on the backroads instead of going the correct way. I wasn't very happy. The road was so bad and we had to go thru some rivers. Eventually we got to a point that the river looked so strong and the road across the river didn't look good. My husband thankfully decided to turn around. There was a car with a man stuck in the river. He must of tried to cross the river and failed. While we turned around about 4 cars came by. They must of crossed that river. They must of been crazy. We went back and decided to find a place for dinner. We stopped at Restaurant Cameron Dorado in Playa Brasilito. The restaurant is right on the beach. We saw alittle sunset cause it was cloudy but saw a great lightning show. The food was good and the service and atmosphere was very good. They came with a bowl of flowers and water and had us wash our hands. They also gave my daughter and I flower for our ear. On the way back to the hotel we had drive in the dark. There were alot of people, dogs and cows on the road. We almost hit a dog. I was glad when we got back to our hotel.

It's getting late so I will finish tomorrow.

shillmac

meliss35,
I am enjoying your report so much I think because you liked the same places we have enjoyed so much. Playa Flamingo, (yes, Flamingo Beach Resort is an excellent place to stay--location and value), Restaurant Camaron Dorado to name a few. . .

I think you must have had Sunset Tours for the Cano Negro tour at Arenal--your lunch stop sounds just like ours with the rented land from the people next door. . .also, yes that road from the park entrance continues up to Arenal Observatory Lodge. We stayed there (booked it before the lava flow changed directions), and the road IS just awful! But we really liked it there--the grounds are lovely and they were good enough to open the restaurant early to serve those leaving for tours. I thought this was a most courteous thing to do--all hotels should be so thoughtful!

meliss35

Shillmac
We did take sunset tours for the Cano Negro tour. All hotels should have early breakfast to accommodate people taking early tours. Thanks for your nice comments.

Day 11
We left early to drive to Manuel Antonio. The roads were good. We crossed the Friendship Bridge and then stopped at the Rio Tarcoles to see the crocodiles. We had to go over some bad bridges to get to our hotel. I heard about the bridges but couldn't believe it until we went over them. Thank god it didn't break. One day it will break. It took us about 5 hours to get to Manuel Antonio. We were staying at Tulemar Bungalows. This hotel was my favorite hotel on the trip. We had a great view of the ocean and the bungalow had a room with 2 beds and a living room with kitchen. The hotel had an infinity pool overlooking the ocean and a restaurant with the same view. We ate lunch at their restuarant called Tulecafe. The food was okay but the views were great. We then went down to the private beach. I am glad that we picked Tulemar because of the beach. We kayaked and boogie board at the beach and ordered snack and drinks. They also had snorkel equipment but we didn't use it. We also used the lounge chairs. It was a nice beach but the beaches inside the National park are nicer. We swam in the pool after we left the beach. We ate dinner at the El Avion. This is the restaurant with the plane in it. There is also supposed to be a nice view of the ocean but we arrived when it was dark. The food was very good and they had great slushes that the kids enjoyed. There was a supermarket near our hotel so we got some snacks and lunch for the next day.

Day 12
I packed our lunch for Manuel Antonio National Park since there are no food in the park. When we arrived a guide stopped us to join his tour. My family didn't want to take a guide but I did. But we decided to use this guide and I was glad. He only charged us $15 per person. We parked our car and then had to either walk across the water or walk across 3 boats to the other side. The kids and I walked thru the boats and I gave a tip but my husband walked thru the water. The guide was very good. We saw long nosed bats, alot of 3 toed sloths, Jesus Christ Lizard, black iguana, mud turtle, grasshoppers, heron, parrot, caiman and a white orbed spider. The 3 toed slot was really close to us and was moving. It was moving really slow. It looked almost mechanical. We never saw any monkeys eventhough there are signs everywhere not to feed the monkeys. I thought that we would see alot of monkeys in Manuel Antonio. The beaches were beautiful. The guide took the white orbed spider and put it in his mouth and he blew on a snail and it came out of its shell. He also showed us a plant that when you touch it it closes up. When the tour was over he took us out of the park so we had to go back into the park. This time there wasn't much water and there was only 2 boats. We just crossed it on foot. We went to Playa Manuel Antonio and hung out. We had lunch and swam. We saw some more 3 toed slots and saw a racoon with only 3 legs and an iguana and a coati. We hiked the Punta Catedral trail which was steep but the view was really nice. We left the park and we bought some souvenirs and my husband and daughter went on the internet. We drove back to the hotel and went swimming in the pool. For dinner we ate at Ronnie's Place. The road to the restaurant is very bumpy. It has a nice view of the ocean. The food hear was very good. It started to rain while we ate. In our room we had a vcr and the hotel has movies you can borrow. We watched Jumanji when we got back.

Day 13-Our last full day
I forgot to mention that the hotel has a great buffet breakfast included. They make eggs to order and have other great stuff. We were meeting Iguana Tours for our full day family white water rafting trip. They were meeting us at the pool at 8am. I booked this trip in February. 8am passed and then it was 8:10am and no Iguana tours. I called them up and they didn't have any record of my reservation. They came to pick us up about 10 minutes later. I showed them my email confirmation. They didn't tell me that the full day tours were cancelled. We found out on the rafting that we were taking the 1/2 day tour. The whitewater rafting trip was amazing. I was alittle nervous because I was afraid that my kids would fall out of the raft. I thought we were going on a family rafting trip but it was a regular rafting trip. There were no other kids on the trip. Our rafting guide was very good. We had to listen to the rules and instructions and then we got into the raft. It was alot of fun. We went down 6 rapids. A guy took pictures of us which I bought. The pictures came out amazing. It cost us $35 for a family of 4. None of us fell out of the raft but I fell in the boat. I also got stung by a bee on the raft. We stopped for a break and had some juice and fruit and then went back in the raft. One person on another raft fell out but got right back in. When it was over we went to lunch across from our hotel called New York Pizza. The pizza was good. My husband and son went to see a soccer game down the road and my daughter and I went to the private beach. They met us later at the beach. We watched the sunset at the pool area and then went to dinner at Barba Roja. It is right near our hotel. The food was good and had a great view of the ocean. We watched "You got mail" and packed to leave the next day. The trip went to fast.

Day 14
We ate breakfast at Tulemar and then drove to the airport. The drive was beautiful. It took us about 3 hours to get to the airport. The roads were good. We dropped our car at the rental place and we never had to pay for the ticket. They shuttled us to the airport and I paid the departure tax. We only waited in line for 10 minutes. We were very nervous about flying because of the high alert. We couldn't bring any liquids. They really checked our bags. The women had trouble closing my bag. When we got on the plane, there was a young guy that looked like a terroist. My daughter started to cry because she thought the guy was a terroist. We had to calm her down but I was nervous too. Nothing happened and we arrived back at Newark airport around 11:30pm.
We had a great time on the trip. Sorry it is over. It went by soooo fast. Thanks for everyone who helped me with my planning. Hope this helps other people.