Costa Rica was an amazing trip and it is going to be hard to get back to reality after this trip. Here's an overall summary for all you fellow Costa Rica travelers.
Day 1:Arrive in San Jose and drive to Turrialba
Dave and I left on a very early am red eye flight to San Jose, Costa Rica. Our flight left at 2am, so it was very hard to sit in the LAX airport and not fall asleep. Our flight arrived in Costa Rica at 9am. The whole process of obtaining our luggage and rental car was very slow. So we didn't actually leave the rental car agency until almost noon. Here's a tip for renting internationally...check on your insurance. We failed to do this and had to buy temporary insurance through the car agency for $15/ day. We then drove through San Jose and got our first glimpse of this city. We really couldn't wait to get out of there. The city was just dirty, trash everywhere, and it smelled. Traffic was bad on the main road due to an upcoming vote, so it took us a while to get to our destination of Turrialba. On the way we stopped briefly in Cartago and I got some shots of this amazing church.
While in Turriabla we stayed at Casa Turrire. I really liked this hotel. It was cute and quaint. It had a more country plantation setting and our room overlooked the lake. The people were very friendly and the food was great. We enjoyed our first day just walking around the grounds and having a really nice dinner with wine. Then it was off to bed as we were very tired! I think we were in bed by 7:30!Day 2: Pacuare 2 Day Rafting Trip
We slept in and waited for the Pacaure River rafting shuttle to arrive. This started an amazing two days. We rafted for a little bit in the morning to get to the Pacaure Lodge. This place was amazing! While rafting we met 2 other Americans who were also staying at the lodge. We had a lot of fun together. After a fabulous lunch, we got invited up to see the Honeymoon sweet (which was amazing). A local photographer was there taking photos and took a few of us at the honeymoon suite. Later we hiked to a nearby waterfall and swam in the pool of water. Then it was back to the lodge for dinner. The food at Pacaure Lodge was amazing. We just absolutely loved the lodge here. We had a Riverview Bungalow which I can only describe as luxury meets rustic. 
There was no electricity so there were candles everywhere.
There was no electricity so there were candles everywhere.
Dave Reading by Candlelight
During today we also hiked to a waterfall and swam in the pool of water. Our guide even painted our faces with rocks. 
Then it was off for an amazing dinner. My recommendation: Definitely splurge to come here. We stayed one night, but would have loved to stay 2 nights.Day 3: More Rafting
We woke up in the morning to go have a wonderful breakfast at the lodge. Then I wandered for a bit to take photos of the location while dave rested in the hammock and read his book.
At about 11am it was back into the raft for us. 
This time we had a different guide and met 4 other Americans who were from New Jersey. This part of the trip was a lot of fun. It was pretty much all class 3 and 4 rapids (a lot of 4s). But we all managed to stay in the boat! When we stopped for lunch, a pig came to visit. Dave pet the pig and was pretty excited about it. Once the rafting was over we got dropped back off at Casa Turrire. We decided to not eat dinner at the hotel again, so we would get to experience the town! This was an experience. The streets were busy and we didn't really know where to got to eat. All of a sudden horns started honking at us a lot. We realized we had started driving down a one way street! Ooops! We ended up at this little mom and pop type of place. We ordered for the menu. Our entire dinner cost us like $6! Ridiculously cheep! Then it was back to the hotel for a glass of wine and bed.
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