Before we went on George's Retirement Tour we took a couple of day tours with Gray Line Tours.
The first was Gray Line's "Sarapiqui and Canopy Day Tour". I have a mixed review on this one, but could not recommend it. With that said...the tour bus was very nice and clean. The driver was excellent, and we never felt uncomfortable on the narrow winding roads. Not even when we got stuck behind an entire herd of cows being moved right down the middle of the road from one pasture to another! The boat ride up the Sarapiqui River was a little over an hour and never boring. Happily we were entertained by our tour guide who knew every inch of the river. We saw crocodiles, red toucans, holler monkeys, a huge iguana on a limb hanging over the water, and all sorts of birds. The boat took us to the place we would have lunch (that turned into dinner) and do the zip lining. This is the part I would never recommend to anyone. Yes, the zip lining itself was fun, but getting from platform to platform was a nightmare. You did not simply zip line from platform to platform like other zip lines in Costa Rica. This one had 10', 20', and 30' ladders you had to climb to get to the next platform. The zip line is in the Rain Forest, but you are at a low sea level and there is no air movement and hot as hell. They had no water on any of the 11 platforms, and many people were very weak, shaky, and over heated when we were finished. They then served the food which was hard to enjoy after the exhausting zip line climbs. After dinner we were back on the boat, down the Sarapiqui River, to the bus for the 1 1/2 hour ride back to San Jose.
The second day tour was the "San Jose City Explorer Day Tour". This was fantastic! I wish I knew our guides name. She was wonderful. She had to speak to the group in English and Spanish. She was very knowledgeable, personable, and kept it moving. We were driven in a very nice tour van all around the city as she taught us about the history of San Jose and took us to the Gold Museum and The National Theater. Both were interesting and the theater was one of the most beautiful I've ever seen. We were then treated to a delicious lunch in a wonderful restaurant. Our guide then surprised us with a trip to an Emerald and Diamond store which was tucked in the middle of a residential neighborhood. They had copies of the ancient gold jewelry that was in the museum. And yes, we did treat ourselves to a few pieces. We were then returned to our pick up locations in San Jose. A very entertaining and interesting tour.
Pura Vida...
