Day 1: Bienvenidos a Costa Rica

We landed in Liberia (in the Guanacaste region, one of 11 provinces in Costa Rica) around 12:00pm, stepped off the plane onto the runway and were met with the brute force of steamy Costa Rican winds & heat. Ahh, paradise at last.

After an hour long shuttle ride from the airport to our resort, in which Andrew began smoothing out the wrinkles in his Spanish converational skills, we finally tossed our bags down (in our free upgraded room, thanks to Kelly batting her eyes at the hot Latin bellboy) and headed out to check out Paradisus Playa Conchal. We had lunch by the pool - "intercontinental buffet" - went for a long walk - and ended up napping the rest of the afternoon.

In the evening, we went out for tapas & a few beers, followed by a traditional Costa Rican show in the (outdoor) Paradisus Theater, where they produce a variety of shows...more on that later.

We were delighted to find out on our first night that there is a live house band that plays at the bar nightly, churning out some of the finest hip-shakin' salsa & merengue music out there. Plus they threw in a couple of choice covers of classic songs, including "How Deep is Your Love?" by the Bee Gees and "Hello" by Lionel Richie. And what salsa show wouldn't be complete without a rousing rendition of "Yesterday" by The Beatles? Sweet.

After some time we called it a night and headed home...click link below for a photo slideshow. Nothing too interesting, mostly pictures of our room and a few of us...

http://s296.photobucket.com/albums/mm181/zenderpuravida/?action=view&current=25ac8371.pbw