Airplanes: Michael flew unaccompanied from Las Vegas to Atlanta. We left Atlanta in a Boeing 737-300. Natureair flys De Haviland Twin to 17 eco tourism destinations (Drake Bay). We returned in a Cessna 208B that could take 12 passengers. The Cessna did not even have a partition between the passengers and the pilots.
Trains, escalators, service cart: Both Houston and Atlanta airports use trains and escalators to move between terminals. There was a gate change in Houston. After calling the cell phone to locate Michael and Grandmother, customer service took the golf cart to pick them up
Minivans: This was the prime transportation during our trip. All were air conditioned, but the locals prefer to have the windows down. We did not rent a car as this gave us more flexibility. As we got further from the main roads we observed vehicles stop on the road to pickup passengers. Road work does not have warning signs, bridges can be one way, passing over the yellow line on curves and hills is done regularly. Our driver was afraid we would use up all the air and keep his windows open with the air conditioner on.
Buses: An air conditioned tourist bus took us across the continental divide to the Pacuare River office. The local buses are a very important means of transportation. They cost about 2 colones. A mini bus covered with a rain forest painting took visitors to Selvatura. The painting covered the windows, but you could see through it from the inside.
Wagon: At the Pacuare River we were transferred by a tractor-drawn wagon down the very steep mountain road to the put in.
Rafts: On the river we got to use both a paddle raft and an oar raft for our trip. We even swam in the river, intentionally and unintentionally.
Taxi: As we did not have a rental car, we hired a taxi for half a day to tour around Arenal Volcano. Because of the heavy rain we used a taxi to return to our hotel from a butterfly garden in Monteverde.
Boats: An outboard ferry took us across Arenal Lake. We left from a dock and arrived at a dirt bank.
Walking: We walked a lot, exploring as we went. We hiked through the woods to the Butterfly Gardens and used flashlights in the rain. In Selvatura we hiked quietly through the woods looking for birds and insects with a guide. He could use his spotting scope to show us the birds he found. We stopped for lunch in Montverde and then walked back to the hotel in the road. There is not room to walk on the side with the mountains and trees. The locals walk in the same direction that cars travel. At Drake Bay it rained so much we slogged about looking at the many layers of canopy and birds in the area.
Zip lines: In Selvatura we crossed through and over the canopy on 1.8 miles of cable between 14 platforms. We even got to try a Tarzan swing through the trees . Michael also did a small zip line on the Pacuare River trip.
4-Wheel drive: In the Monteverde area we were transported in a 4 wheel drive Toyota Rave and a Nissan SUV. The drivers engaged 4 wheel drive several times on the steep gravel roads, even during the 33 km back to the main Pan American Highway that took 1.5 hours.
Drake Bay: The next travel was to the remote area of Drake bay. The small plane arrive on an air strip surround on three sides by mountains and the bay. The rugged van was set high and our luggage was placed in a rack on top. We pull into a river then back across, so as not to flood the engine. We by pass the stream by using two separate parallel logs. We arrive at the beach where a boat with on outboard waits for us. We had to wade in the ocean to get in the boat. The next morning we are picked up by a catamaran dive boat for a trip to Caño Island. Here we use fins to snorkel and watch the fish. The return trip is in two sections as the tide is now out and we anchor the larger dive boat and transfer to an outboard to get to our dock. That afternoon we are able to kayak in the river and bay. Because of the continuing rain we we transferred by outboard to an airstrip at higher elevation. Here caught an even smaller plane back to San Jose.