My trip began at Oakland Airport where I met a woman with her four-year-old daughter. She whispered to me, "We're going to a magical place in Anaheim, but she (points to daughter) doesn't know yet." How do you beat that?
My 1.5 hour plane ride to Ontario consisted of two flamboyant men and a cup of spilled ice water everywhere -_-. Exciting, yes.
The plane landed at around 6:30, Rayland was late, and Southwest presented me with a slightly damaged suitcase.
Ojiya was our dinner destination! I was too excited to take pictures, but it's nothing you haven't seen before :). This restaurant is probably the best thing about Chino Hills.
There was a lot of rushing and packing for his family after that, a 2 hour nap, and off to the airport at 3AM. By the way, LA is freezing at this hour.
There was some sitting, a stop in Houston, and BAM! Welcome to San Jose, Costa Rica. We went to grab the rental.
Even though we were all exhausted, his father was ready to take on 50 adventures lol. He really wanted to see this volcano, so we began the drive (on many unpaved roads). The city is really poor, the streets barely paved, and it resembled something like the streets of China.
After 2 hours of driving, we arrive at a locked gate with a local trying really hard to tell us it will open manana. So we drove another 2 hours to the hotel, had dinner, and called it a night. The next day, we made the trek again. It was decided that Volcano Arenal would be the new destination.
For lunch, we stopped by a small town for lunch. This is volcano rice and it's served with a salad and fries haha.
Let me tell you something about both Costa Rica AND Panama... their beef is the best meat EVER and their vegetables are so bad (not fresh, not tasty, etc.) that you are crawling back to the states begging for some broccoli.
Another long car ride and $10/person later, we arrived to the observation point faced with this fabulous view of the volcano:
LOL. The weather is apparently crazy unpredictable over there (so says the guard at the watch point), and they never talk about it.
After, we got on our way to the fabulous Riu Guanacaste. The majority of this trip revolves around sitting in the car lol.
We finally arrive at the wonderful Riu Guanacaste after what seems like an eternity!
Calling the hotel amazing is a HUGE understatement. See for yourself here. The beach was amazing, except the sand is a tad on the dirty side.
I think the calming breezes of Hawaii is a good comparison :). It was pretty awesome. There was food all day long. When you get tired of the sand, you can hang by the pool or dip into the jacuzzi. All inclusive also means open bar all day long and a whole bunch of water activities (Rayland and I kayaked... well... I kayaked (I know... amazing!) and he enjoyed the ride). The only downside really is that there's nothing to do at night unless you want to "disco" with the old people or drop some dollars in the casino.
So after my suitcase got tossed around through several airports, it was pretty much destroyed. Right before we flew to Panama, I had it plastic wrapped.
It was pretty whacked -__-. I mean, it was $12 to throw my suitcase on a machine to get plastic wrapped. On top of that, there was a tax for tourists to leave the country.
Anyway, we flew first class to Panama and it was only an hour, but they served what they called a snack anyway. Voila! Check out the smoked salmon salad with refreshing orange juice :).
Here's the view from my hotel room at the Sheraton in Panama.
We arrived at night and pretty much just knocked out.
The next day we went to the Panama Canal and paid $5/person to pretty much stand for 30 minutes waiting for a boat to go through locks and then watch water drain slowly for another 30 minutes.
The rest of the trip consisted of a lot more sightseeing that isn't all that interesting. We did go to this mini zoo in a crater at the bottom of a volcano, but you all know how I feel about animals and nature... I was clearly too preoccupied with not touching anything to take pictures. :)
Panama is pretty much this tiny little country with nothing to see but the canal. They did have an enormous mall with every brand you can name. I was not allowed to buy anything because Rayland was convinced that all the products were questionable (he saw some special on TV about the sale of fake Bulgari jewelry (in supposedly legit Bulgari stores in several countries).
It was all relaxing and tiring. His mother claims that only vacations planned by his dad are so exhausting haha.
Love Always,
Me
No comments:
Post a Comment