As I promised last week, I’ve got more travel posts coming – Fridays will be for travel for the foreseeable future, actually – and now that we’ve said goodbye to the deserts of Utah and Colorado, it’s time for something completely different: the rainforest!

Longtime readers may recall a dropped hint or two about a major adventure that Steve and I had planned for February to March of 2022. This is not that trip. We had big plans to hike in Patagonia and then kayak in Antarctica. The research was done, the trip was selected, booked, and fully paid for – and then it got postponed, thanks to COVID. We spent a few weeks trying to figure out a way to salvage our Antarctica trip, but in the end the trip the company was able to offer as a replacement was so radically different from what we had planned that we decided it made more sense to postpone it for a year and get the trip we dreamed of, just twelve months later. So Antarctica will still happen, but not until 2023, and to assuage our disappointment (fully recognizing that we are extremely privileged to be able to go on that trip at all, let alone to pivot so quickly to a different adventure when plans changed) we started talking about a “consolation trip” somewhere else. I tossed out the idea of Costa Rica, and after researching a few other possibilities (Botswana and Thailand, primarily) we decided that Costa Rica made the most sense.

Costa Rica is an incredibly beautiful country with a huge variety of landscapes and wildlife, so we planned a trip that would allow us to fully experience its biodiversity. Our first stop was to be the Osa Peninsula – a spot that National Geographic has called “the most biologically intense place on Earth.” Because Osa is quite remote – definitely the most “off the beaten path” part of Costa Rica – we discovered that the best way to get there would be to fly into the capital city of San Jose, spend a night, and then shove off early via a domestic flight. It ended up being perfect. We spent an afternoon enjoying poolside cocktails and this stunning view (above!) from our hotel room, and then the next day it was back to the airport – this time to the domestic terminal.

Now the adventure really begins!

The domestic terminal was tiny! The boarding passes were laminated slips of paper showing our destination and boarding order. While other travelers boarded their flights to Tamarindo and Liberia, we waited our turn and eventually crossed the tarmac to the tiny plane that would take us to Drake Bay Airport.

Steve and I had boarding passes numbers one and two, so we got the money seats – right behind the pilots! Watching them go through their pre-flight checks and fire up all of their instruments was fascinating.

Not going to lie: although the pilots were clearly extremely competent and experienced, flying in a tiny prop is always going to be a bit of an adventure. We took off and I crossed my fingers that no birds flew into our propellers. (Spoiler: no birds, all good.) I was expecting major turbulence as we flew over the mountains, but the flight was surprisingly smooth. And the views were staggering.

It’s a short flight to Osa – just a hop, skip and a jump over the mountains, and before I knew it we were cruising over crystal blue seas and past white sand beaches. The flight itself felt like part of the adventure, and I was almost sorry when we touched down at Drake Bay Airport.

Our hotel – Aguila de Osa Rainforest and Marine Adventure Lodge – had a car waiting for us. We tossed our luggage in the back and soon were bumping along the dirt roads in town, through stream crossings, and all the way to the beach for the next part of our ride.

Like many of the hotels and lodges on Osa, ours was not accessible by road. It’s possible to hike in, but when you are toting big backpacks full of clothes and gear, boat is much nicer. Along with a few other carloads of travelers, we were dropped off on a pristine beach, where a line of boats waited to take everyone to their respective destinations. These guys were our ride.

Ready for wind and waves!

Like the flight, the boat ride was over almost too soon! After two long days of travel, I was enjoying the clear blue water and the refreshing breeze and was almost sorry when we pulled off the main bay into a little cove. But then this loomed up in front of us:

Gorgeous! One of the concierges was waiting on the dock to welcome us. She guided us up to the dining pavilion, handed us welcome drinks, and settled in to chat with us about Osa, the wildlife we would see, and our plans for the next few days.

The property was beautiful – all open-air except for the hotel rooms, with mosaics lining the walkways and warm wooden buildings. I explored the whole place over the next few days, and every detail charmed me.

Of course, there were two spots that we spent most of our time on shore: the PADI dive center, and… the bar. More to come on both counts!

Next week: we waste no time getting paddles into Drake Bay!