Tiskita is one of the more remote lodges in Costa Rica. It's almost on the border with Panama and just across the Golfo Dulce from the Osa Peninsula. To get there, we had to take a flight into San Jose, Costa Rica's capital city and the location of its international airport. Then, we had to take another flight to the small town of Golfito. The last leg of the trip was a 2-hour taxi ride, although for large enough groups, Tiskita will charter a plane from Golfito to their own private landing strip.
Because of the logistics involved with getting to Tiskita, and the desire tor educe the possibility of missed connections, it was recommended that we arrive in Costa Rica the day before our flight to Golfito and fly back to America the day after leaving Tiskita. This is what we did.
Our flight to Costa Rica left very early in the morning, and my dad was generous enough to volunteer to take us to the airport, even though that meant getting up at 3 in the morning! The flight, with one connection, was uneventful, and we landed in San Jose mid-morning. We took a taxi to the hotel where we'd be spending our first and last nights in Costa Rica: La Rosa de America. It's in Alajuela, a suburb of San Jose.
Here's the outside of the room we were staying in:
The inside of the room:
The bathroom:
View of the property from our room:
We were met by Robert, the owner of the hotel. He was very friendly and recommended a local bar for lunch. We went, but didn't take any pictures!
After returning to the hotel, we went swimming in the hotel's pool -- it was very relaxing and exactly what we needed after travelling.
We took a walk around the grounds; here is a citrus tree in bloom:
We ate dinner at a small local restaurant a few blocks away from our hotel. This area was not touristy at all, so we had the challenge of putting our meager Spanish to the test at the restaurants.
Here's Brian, relaxing by the pool before dinner:
We had a very early morning flight out the next morning (the taxi was picking us up at 4 in the morning) so we went to bed shortly after dinner as we didn't want to be tired at Tiskita!
Luckily the taxi arrived on time. We were the first people to arrive at the airport. When I tried to open the door, it was locked. A maintenance worker heard me try to open the door and he came down to let us in to sit in the chairs.
Waiting for the plane:
Our flight to Golfito was on a very small plane. I think there were 12 seats, although only 7 passengers. We had to step on a scale before boarding -- the first time I've had to do that! After reviewing our passports, we were instructed to wait in this room until the pilots arrived. You can see the small plane through the glass doors.
An aerial view of the land we were flying over:
The flight was rather short, and we were met at the airport by a taxi that Tiskita had arranged for us. The roads were quite rustic and the driver went very fast! On several occasions, we worried that he might hit people, dogs, chickens, goats, cows, and other animals along the road, but there were no casualties! Also, whenever we'd approach a car from behind, he'd beep and then pass them. We were surprised at one point to see him do this to a police officer (and then proceed to go about twice as fast as him!) It was quite an adventure and made me happy that we weren't driving!Along the way, we had to take a ferry. I didn't want to be conspicuous, so I couldn't get a real picture. There has been talk for several decades of replacing this ferry with a bridge. If that happens, they suspect that there will be more traffic coming down towards Tiskita.
The trip from Golfito to Tiskita was supposed to take around 2 hours, but, thanks to our fast driver, we got there much quicker; around 90 minutes.Instead of doing this blog on a day-by-day basis, as I have in the past, I've decided to collate all of the Tiskita adventures in one entry. The days weren't clearly defined as they have been on our other vacations, and this will allow me to present our trip thematically instead, which I think will make more sense.
2 comments:
Oh, man, I would have been so freaked out by that tiny plane!
I thought of you when we were on the plane. The lady behind us was moaning and screaming the entire flight about how scared she was. I knew you would have been able to control yourself even though it wouldn't have been fun!
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