Costa Rica Day 3: Better Driving and More Xandari

On the morning of Day 3 we enjoyed one final breakfast at Gaia. Another nice meal, including fresh local fruit. I thought the croissant french toast was better the day before, but it was still good.

Before breakfast we checked out Gaia's nature trail. We only got a little way in and decided it was too challenging. It did look quite beautiful though.

After breakfast we set out for the drive back to Alajuela and Xandari. This points to one downside of Costa Rica. There's a park on the way but we decided not to stop there. We had our luggage in the SUV, and the advice is not to leave anything in your car when you park somewhere. If we go to CR in the future, we will rent a sedan so any luggage will be hidden in the trunk.

The drive went well this time. It was a Monday, so the weekend beach traffic wasn't there. We did get lost again in Alajuela, due to the lack of road signage. Thanks to another gas station attendant, we did find our way back to Xandari. The resort has some things to do. First, there's a great trail. It's challenging, but at the bottom you get to see some nice waterfalls. Picture of the biggest one below:

It's a lot of steps going down, plus a lot of downhill terrain with no steps and mushy ground. Some spots are not good for those with a fear of heights. But we made down and back up.

Xandari also has two pools, one with a jacuzzi. It wasn't nearly as warm as Gaia (still pleasant) so we did the jacuzzi instead of the pool. My pool pictures didn't come out that good, but they were nice, though not elaborate like the one at Gaia.

After the pool we had a nice dinner, goofed around on my laptop on the lobby Wi-Fi, and had a nice dinner. Note that the TruPhone app on my iPhone no longer worked on the Wi-Fi at Xandari. Not sure what the problem was. I just tested it now at home and it works here. Heather's iPhone e-mail app did work on the Wi-Fi too.

After our experiences getting lost in Alajuela, we had Dollar come pick up our car and Xandari drove us to the airport the next morning. Had a very nice conversation about the local economy, mostly in Spanish, with our driver. It was a good trip.

In the next couple days I'll post some final thoughts about our Costa Rica trip. It sure was an adventure, and I'm glad we went. It was also nice to come home. I'd like to say our kids missed us as much as we missed them, but they had a great time with their wonderful grandparents.