Costa Rica and Panama, Post #1

I figure with the some 900 pictures I have from the trip, I will have to break it up into several separate posts. You'll have to forgive me for going into such detail, but we really wanted to use the blog as our "travel journal." I won't be offended if you just skim through the pictures, I probably would too! As a matter of fact, I should just make a slideshow and make it easy!

We started our trip in Denver where we all flew to San Jose, Costa Rica together on a 12:00 AM flight. We landed in San Jose around 6:30 AM and for the most part, were fairly well rested from sleeping on the plane. I'm sure the Dramamine and the Tylenol PM helped a few of us, but that's besides the point :) 

So, after going through customs, we finally caught a taxi to the Holiday Inn Aurola in the middle of downtown. Since they didn't have our rooms ready, we walked around to check out the city. And, by about 11:00 we had seen plenty and started drinking Imperial, Costa Rica's AWESOME local beer, and eating fried plantains in a small cafe.

After we checked into our hotel and showered, we all walked to a nearby restaurant that my parents had found earlier.  It had decent food, and little did my dad know, it would be the closest thing he would get to his craving of South American black beans and rice for the rest of the trip.

After a great mahi mahi dinner, Chris started to notice a small problem in his throat. Apparently he had somehow lodged a fish bone into his tonsil.  After much gargling and coughing, Nurse Lindsay pulled it out with her trusty hemostat.  Good thing she brings an oversized first-aid kit with her everywhere she goes.  Chris honestly thought he was going to have to deal with the bone for the rest of the trip, kinda funny!

The next day, we flew on a TINY plane, first to a small airport in Limon, Costa Rica to go through customs, then another 30 minutes on to Bocas del Toro, Panama.  We were greeted by Jack, the owner of our bed-and-breakfast.  He gave us a quick tour of the town (one main road) before heading to the house. For the rest of the day, we relaxed on the patio, played cards and discussed the goals for the rest of the week.  That night we ate dinner at Lemongrass, a Thai restaurant with a second-level deck over the water, facing the bay.