Costa Rica Day 1 (May 15) - Settling In

After getting a grand total of 4 hours of sleep, Carolyn and I pulled ourselves out of bed at 5:30 AM to prepare for our 7:00 AM flight from Montgomery Regional Airport to Dallas/Fort Worth. Carolyn's mom, Margaret, was gracious enough to be our driver, even after the festivities from the previous evening (God bless that woman!). We were successfully dropped off and began the first leg of our journey to Costa Rica!

We landed in Dallas/Fort Worth without incident, switched planes, and within one hour, we were airborne to Liberia International Airport. The flight was on-time and uneventful, so I don't remember much, except that (a) we had the entire row to ourselves, (b) The Tourist was a terrible movie, and (c) our food was served to us completely frozen (we could see ice crystals on the meat and bread).

Our flight touched down in Liberia at 1:00 PM local time*. We were able to get through Customs, locate our baggage (thankfully our bags made it too!), and find our transport without any trouble.

Our driver greeted us with a nice welcome packet...

...including snazzy new hats

After a quick one hour drive, we finally arrived at our home for the next 6 nights - The Westin Playa Conchal Resort!

First look at our temporary home

Villas

Royal Service Area (where we stayed)

Ohhhh...fancy...

Closer look at the Royal Service pool area

Open-air atrium (outside the door to our suite)

Overhead view of the resort

We were greeted at check-in with big smiles and C's favorite drink, BELLINIS! Our check-in specialist, Victoria, gave us the rundown and layout of the resort. Every single staff person we encountered could not have been friendlier, which made for a very pleasant check-in experience. After our bags were dropped off in the room, we decided it was time to grab some grub and explore our new surroundings.

Beach front

En route to our first dip in the Pacific Ocean

Our new friend, Walter

We made reservations to eat at one of the resort restaurants, Faisanela, after exploring and a brief nap. It was an Italian joint, and it turned out to be very tasty. I had a delicious fettuccine pasta dish and Carolyn ordered the lasagna, which turned out to be the best item on the menu. Of course, we also ordered dessert - tiramisu and chocolate banana pudding.

Enjoying our dinner on the outside patio

Chocolate banana pudding on the left; tiramisu on the right

After dinner, we went back to the room to rest a bit before the evening festivities. As soon as we walked in the door, I suddenly remembered the surprise I had waiting for C - champagne, chocolate, and fresh strawberries! Since we had just stuffed ourselves at dinner, we decided to save the treats for later in the week.

The Presentation

Chocolate and strawberries

Champagne

Later in the evening, we were entertained by the resort staff with a dance show. The name of the show was "One World, One Night" and featured dances from various countries around the world (including the United States). The dancers were not only talented, but also very athletic and in shape.  

Hula dancers

Russian tumbling

Italy

Spain

Belly dancing

COSTA RICA!

...and Cotton Eye Joe...

It was a fun ending to our first evening in Costa Rica, but it was time to get some rest. We had many more adventures ahead of us, and we would need our full strength to get through them all.

GOOD NIGHT COSTA RICA - night view from our balcony

*While Costa Rica is located in the Central Time Zone, they do not observe daylight saving time, so we were an hour behind most of our family and friends back in the U.S.