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GUEST REPORT

Kristin Reimer
Trip Report
May 20th-27th, 2006

Costa Rica , a precious gem that is situated between the Caribbean Sea and the North Pacific Ocean is also tucked between Nicaragua to the North and Panama to the South. I had heard many wonderful things about Costa Rica in passing but it wasn't until we spent 7 days and 6 nights there that I could truly appreciate the magic and wonder of this country.

My fiancé and I had been looking for a vacation that would be romantic, adventurous, relaxing and exotic. We found all of this in Costa Rica . Being a certified AOW scuba diver for 6+ years now, it was also my intention to bring my fiancé "into the fold" so to speak. I had promised to give him his Open Water Certification course as a birthday present. I began to do some digging on the internet to see what our best options would be for our trip. We didn't have much time to plan as we decided last minute to make this happen.

As one can imagine, the information highway is just bursting to the seams these days with facts, tips, advice and everything else under the sun about trip planning in Costa Rica . One forum in particular that I found useful information was the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree Forum

This forum provided me with a beginning point of helping us decide where in Costa Rica we wanted to go. We chose to break our trip up into two segments, the ocean and scuba diving leg would be in Playa Ocotal along the Pacific and the land based leg would be in the rainforest section of Arenal. I ran into one small snag, it was fast approaching wedding season and I needed help organizing our trip. I run a successful photography company called Photomuse ( www.photomuse.com ) which specializes in wedding photojournalism as well as environmental portraiture. With my season quickly gathering momentum I decided to enlist in what was to become our lifeline to Costa Rica , Costa Rica Dive which is fronted by the ever talented and supremely efficient and friendly host Rolando Arburola .

Rolando kicked into action right away planning our itinerary down to the last moment. He was thorough and accommodating and from day one to this very day of waiting for a trip report, he was one of the most patient people I have ever met. Rolando is a person who seems like he was born into business and the service industry. He made it look easy!

Our vacation was quickly planned and arranged and all we had left to do was pack our bags and board our plane!

It was an early start of the day, that Saturday, 5:00 am wake up to be exact. After a painless and direct flight out of Newark Airport , we touched down in Liberia , Costa Rica at approximately 12:30pm Costa Rica time. After baggage claim we were greeted by representatives from Costa Rica Dive who escorted us to their private shuttle to take us to our hotel for the next four days. It was at our hotel that I received the first of what will turn into 2 surprises on our trip.

To save money, we had originally had Rolando book us in a small B&B that was near the dive shop. Imagine my surprise when our shuttle instead dropped us off at the beautiful Resort situated on top of the mountain overlooking the beach of Playa Ocotal and the home to Costa Rica Dive 's base of operations. Joe was in on the surprise and relayed to me how Rolando called him in the US to say he had managed to upgrade our accommodations and to keep it a surprise.

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