The morning packing also involved some screeching as we uncovered some cockroaches that had been hiding in our things. We carefully re-deposited the lovely bugs in the jungle and kept on packing. We had a leisurely breakfast and then headed out to the airport, a tiny strip of asphalt right next to the town cemetery.
This flight was hairy as we flew into blinding rain and bumpy weather. I was biting my nails when the pilot told us the main airport was closed due to a plane disabled on the runway, so we were diverted to the other San Jose airport. CostaRican Trails found us there and then took us to Villa Blanca, our last lodging. This is normally about an hour’s drive north of San Jose. It was pouring rain, huge gulleys of water ran along side the roads and our drive was about as hairy as our flight. We were stopped under several underpasses where the water was quite deep. Our driver said he hadn’t seen anything like it before! Phew.
We stopped along the way to get some food – we got our lunch around 3:30 – after having breakfast at 630am. We were all starving and not in a great mood. Once satiated, we got on the road again and finally arrived at Villablanca about an hour later. This was a beautiful resort (formally was home to a Costa Rican President) and we had our own little casita. We were delighted to find a fireplace and a huge spa tub. This lodge is located in a small cloud forest and was much cooler than the Osa Peninsula that we had just left. We immediately lit the fire and filled the tub with warm water. Natalie enjoyed her first bath in Costa Rica and Chris and I took turns taking very non-environmental hot showers.
This lodge was very different to El Remanso. Despite being in a rainforest we didn’t exactly feel we were in the wild. The trails were paved in gravel, and descriptive signs were posted near the interesting vegetation. We had fun feeding the hummingbirds, and managed to stumble across a couple of wild pigs near our casita. As we had grown accustomed, this resort was also deserted and we had the dining room to ourselves for a quiet last meal in Costa Rica.
After quiet night’s sleep (no howler monkeys!) and a quick breakfast we were off to the airport. And just like that, our vacation was over. Back to the real world we headed.
See more photos of our last day in Costa Rica!
The Whole Trip: Costa Rica: The Summary