Review/Report of ABD Costa Rica June 19, 2024 trip

[Eastridge]

Chocolate, part 2

Guests then had a chance to pound the beans, and then try grinding them:



From the powder, they make Xocolatl, an Aztec drink made from cacao and other things like chili. I don't think it had sugar. We got to try this:





Finally, we get to try real chocolate, where the cacao is mixed with sugar. Chapo Guapo offered various toppings. Tip: If your stomach is sensitive, don't eat too much of this because right after this the bus starts going through winding roads.






At the end, there is a gift shop (of course there is a gift shop). This sells bars from small producers in Costa Rica:



Finally, we received the Day 5 pin:

 

[pjacobi]

After a chocolate tour on Hawaii, I decided to make my own chocolate at home. This required purchasing a melanger from Amazon for about $250. My melanger is a crock-pot-sized device with a motor that grind 1-2 lbs. of chocolate beans between granite rollers. Grinding the beans in the melanger, known as "conching", requires approximate 24 or more hours.

The most difficult part, which required lots of practice, is tempering the chocolate. This involves precise temperature control to create the exact condition necessary for the chocolate to set into a specific monocrystalline form. Yes. chocolate is a crystal! That is why it snaps when you break it.

The white boom on the surface is chocolate does not mean the chocolate is bad, it means that it has lost temper. The chocolate bar has probably been exposed to heat which breaks the crystals and allow the cocoa butter to rise to the surface in tiny droplets.


-Paul

 

[Eastridge]

The most difficult part, which required lots of practice, is tempering the chocolate.

Thanks for the additional info. This chocolate tour focused on what chocolate is and processing the cacao beans. They didn't discuss further steps like tempering.

 

[Eastridge]

Rest stop

If you didn't take a Dramamine before the chocolate tour, it's a good idea to do so before getting back on the bus. Immediately after the chocolate tour, the bus begins the second section of the trip that has a very winding road.

To get to the hotel, we take a route just north of Lake Arenal:





It gets, uh, interesting when a bus comes the opposite way:



Eventually we get to a rest stop for a bathroom break and a drink. ABD provided smoothies for everyone, and there is a photo op in the back with nice scenery. The smoothies were good and were welcome refreshment on a hot day.

We weren't the only tour group there. The Tauck bus was there too. It turned out they were going to the same hotel we were.





This rest stop had macadamia nut shells covering the entire floor.





And this rest stop wasn't just for tour groups.

Cats need siestas also​

 

[aggiedog]

Wow, my dd has an anaphylactic nut allergy and is contact sensitive. Those pictures are giving me hives just looking at that floor. Nut allergies are not that uncommon. I wonder what they do if they have someone allergic on the tour? Use a different rest stop I'd hope.

Thanks for the TR. Other than the nuts, it's been very enjoyable.

 

[Eastridge]

I don't know what the guides would have done in this case for a guest with a nut allergy.

I have noticed that ABD is good about noting allergies and accommodating them.

 

[Eastridge]

Lunch

After the rest stop, we had lunch at Rincon Corobici. The restaurant was open air and next to a river. Most of the kids went down to the river.





This lunch was not a buffet. We received a pre-selected choice of entree. Lunch was pretty good.



We arrived after 1pm and left around 2:30pm. After lunch, the road was not curvy anymore. It took another 1.5 hours to reach the last hotel, the El Mangroove.

 

[Eastridge]

El Mangroove hotel (rooms)

This hotel is at a beach. But the buildings and rooms are not right next to the beach. They are back a bit, behind trees. From the water, it's hard to see the hotel because it blends into the environment.

The rooms are in individual buildings, without notable views.



The rooms are suites. The living area includes a hammock. This is the first hotel room I've stayed in that had a hammock. This area was not air conditioned.



The rest of the room is behind a locking, sliding glass door that requires a different key than the key that opens the room from the hallway. The bedroom, bath and other sections are air conditioned.














It's a little quirky, but the room is very nice. I forgot to mention that in the Arenal hotel, the bathroom sink lacked a stopper, making it difficult to fill the basin to rinse your swimsuit or clean anything that you didn't want falling down the drain. This hotel has the same problem, magnified. The entire back of the sink is the drain area.

 

[aggiedog]

I've started traveling with a small dry bag that I can fill with water to wash clothes. Much easier than sloshing loose articles around in the sink, and it dries quickly afterwards.

 

[Eastridge]

El Mangroove Hotel (grounds)

This hotel had the nicest set of pools of the three hotels. Here are some photos of the main pool:







The hotel had several other pools also.





The main restaurant, where we had breakfast, a lunch and a dinner, had most of its seating outdoors:



Another restaurant had some tables surrounded by a water feature



The first hotel has a better gym (and probably spa) but my family liked the facilities here the best, maybe because we spent the most pool time here.

 

[Eastridge]

El Mangroove Hotel (beach)

Yes, this hotel is at a beach, along Culebra Bay.



From our location, it looks like the bay is almost completely enclosed by land but the opening is bigger than it looks. Still, this location is mostly sheltered and I never saw large waves.

There are many other resorts spread around this bay, including the Four Seasons, Secrets, Andaz and Planet Hollywood.

Note that this is a black sand beach. I didn't see many people lying on the beach itself. There were ample beach chairs available on the grounds of the hotel. During the day the sand became very hot -- difficult to walk barefoot on.



The bay itself is beautiful. The appearance changed with the time of day, weather and lighting:













The beach was patrolled by iguanas.

 

[sayhello]

I've heard that El Mangroove is nice. Looks wonderful!

Sayhello

 

[Eastridge]

Adult and Junior dinner

We had about 2.5 hours in the hotel before dinner. The adult dinner was not a group dinner. Individual families had reservations for their own table. We ordered from a restricted menu, in the restaurant with all the outdoor seating that I showed previously. This was the best dinner of the trip.








I don't know where the junior adventurer dinner was. This was a little late in the trip to have the junior adventurer dinner, but that may be due to facilities and timing of other activities.

 

[Eastridge]

Day 6: Breakfast

We're now on the final full day of activities!

Breakfast was at the same restaurant with the outdoor seating. There were many stations but I didn't take photos of most. Since this is outdoors, you may have to fight with the bugs who also want your food. Some of the dishes (e.g. fruits) were in sealed, individual containers, probably because of the bugs.



Like the other two hotels, there was a station that made omelettes and other egg dishes

 

[Eastridge]

Snorkel boat, part 1

The main activity today is a catamaran that takes us to a beach, for swimming and snorkeling.

Here's a video from Disney Parks that ends showing footage of the catamaran trip, and an interview with Ronald.

We boarded at 8am, meeting at the beach. There is a small dinghy that took us to the catamaran. It took two trips to load the entire group. Everyone came in swimwear and coverups.







The boat was just for our group. It could have held three times as many people as our group, so we had ample room to spread around both on the top and inside.







There was an open bar with alcoholic drinks. There were snacks provided after snorkeling.



This is a pretty long event. It took about one hour to cruise to the destination. We stayed at least 1.5 hours there and then took another hour to return to the hotel.

Disney emphasized safety. Before we started cruising, the crew asked that everyone use at least a noodle while swimming or snorkeling, and to go out in pairs. The boat also had life vests but those were the type for emergencies. I found those difficult to use for snorkeling or swimming.



More to come...

 

[Eastridge]

Snorkel boat, part 2

The boat left the bay by going in between a peninsula and a tiny island on the left of this photo. The Four Seasons is on the peninsula.



The boat crew called that tiny island "King Kong island"



Once we got to the swimming / snorkeling area, you had a few options for entering the water. You could climb down stairs or take a slide.



Or you could just jump



There was an area between the boat and the beach that was mostly clear. You can swim to the beach, or if you didn't want to swim, the boat crew would take people there in the dinghy.



However, the water was murky. I couldn't see a thing. I don't like snorkeling in murky conditions so I went back to the boat and switched to swimming goggles. We went in the rainy season, so maybe that's what conditions are like during this time of year. For others who have done this activity: is the water clearer at other times of the year?

If you wanted to see fish, you had to go quite a ways out and to the right of this picture above, toward some rocks shown in the next picture below. The problem was that there were boats and jet skis in between us and those rocks.






I wasn't so worried about the boats since those have professional drivers, but the jet skis had tourists as drivers. My son headed out to the rocks, along with some other guests. I was told one of the boat crew snorkeled with them for safety. My son said the jet skis were not a problem but I can see this as a potential accident in the making. ABD might want to rethink this.

Once you get onto the beach, there is a cave you can walk into

 

[Eastridge]

Return to hotel, lunch, on your own time

Before the boat left the snorkeling site, the crew provided snacks including homemade cookies



Both the ride out and back were smooth. No need for motion sickness tablets.



Before we got back to the hotel, the guides handed out the Day 6 pin:



Next year, Disney should use this boat (yeah, sure):



Lunch was provided. We could go on our own to the main restaurant, up to 2:30pm. And then we were free for the afternoon. This is the only long period of on-your-own time during the entire trip. We considered doing an activity like jet skis but instead just spent time at the pool and relaxing after a busy trip. The main pool was nice.

 

[Eastridge]

Farewell dinner

We gathered at 6pm for the farewell dinner. First, the guides took us to a spot by the conference rooms to see some folk dancing.





Then we walked to a different outdoor dining area for the farewell dinner. This was a buffet. It was dark and it looked like the other buffets so I didn't take any photos. Two alcoholic drinks were included. It was hot and humid.

Once dinner was done, we were escorted to a conference room to see the video. ABD has a new soundtrack for the video and this was the first video I've seen that included everything from the trip, even the folk dancing that occurred just an hour ago. I think Mike skipped dinner and was rushing to edit in the last set of photos and videos. He did a great job.

This evening, Costa Rica played Brazil in the Copa America soccer tournament. So many of the kids stayed with Ronald to watch it on the TVs by the restaurant. The result was a 0-0 tie, which was a good result for Costa Rica.

 

[Eastridge]

Day 7: Departure

On the last day, the only ABD activities are breakfast and transportation to the airport. We had a late afternoon flight, allowing us to sleep in and relax. Ronald arranged a late checkout for us.

Day 7 pin:



The departure airport is Liberia, an easy half hour drive from the hotel. I think earlier versions of this trip required flying to San Jose first, but Liberia is convenient with several direct flights back to the US. As we approached the airport, my wife said "I'll be happy if they just have air conditioning."

They did not have AC. At least not for the check in area and security. Unfortunately there was a long, slow line at check in. Once we got to the area with the gates, that was enclosed and had air conditioning.

Restaurants at the airport were expensive, even more than at Hawaii airports. There was also a lot of security, both at check in and around the aircraft. I have no idea why.

We had no problems with the return flight.

If you made it all the way here to the end of my report, thanks for reading! I hope this helps you decide if Costa Rica is a trip you want to do. If you can handle the heat and humidity, it is a nice combination of scenery, activities, and nice hotels. We were glad we went on this trip. Don't let the threat of rain during the rainy season prevent you from doing this trip.

 

[Mathmagicland]

If you made it all the way here to the end of my report, thanks for reading! I hope this helps you decide if Costa Rica is a trip you want to do

Thanks for doing this great report! It provided lots of details, and did help me to decide that this one would not be for me. I appreciate knowing that, as every destination is not for everyone.