Tag Archives: river boat

Big Bear Costa Rica Birthday WTF

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So my bud is turning the big 4-0. To celebrate we’re doing an epic guys trip to Costa Rica! I’m so excited, it’s going to be so much fu — wait what? I’m not going? HOW DARE. Apparently Nicholas and his other best bud Drew who is also turning 40 are going by themselves. The only reason I’m even posting some of these photos is to make Nicholas feel bad for excluding me and remind him of all the adventures he owes me.

First they landed in San Jose and chartered a small plane to take them to Corcovado National Refuge.

So angry.

Then they had a crazy driver take them in a jeep across the jungle over rivers to a boat that took them to a resort on the ocean and river called “Aguila de Osa”.

Real nice. Yeah, real nice guys.

They went hiking, kayaking, did a private tour through the jungle looking for wild animals including monkeys, bats, my nemesis coatis and other exotic things, and even went on a night tour looking for giant frogs, spiders and other jungle crawlies.

Blood boiling.

Then back to San Jose where they hung out in the city for a day before taking a bus to a family coffee plantation for breakfast and then to the next resort in the middle of the jungle that is only accessible via white water rafting. I guess given that it’s only accessible by water I feel a little less upset. But it was fleeting. I’m mad.

ANOTHER 5 STAR RESORT IN THE JUNGLE? Yeah this time it had a tree house with ziplines, buried in indigenous land where they were able to visit with the natives. It’s called Paquare Lodge and it’s situated on the Paquare river.

I’m not even going to talk about the rest. I’m too upset. There had better be an even better trip to make up to me. Soon. You hear me Nicholas??

Bear in at Hoshinoya Kyoto, Arashiyama

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Today we were headed to a hotel Pokin was excited to surprise Michael and Savannah with.

In her research of Kyoto, she came across a property near the Arashiyama bamboo forest that could only be accessed via a short river boat.

“Sounds middle of nowhere fun!” Thought Pokin. So she made the whole gang check out of their Kyoto hotel, take the transit system for 40 minutes to the edge of Kyoto, haul their luggage for 30 minutes over cobblestone, to check into some hotel for one night.

Arriving to the pick up spot for Hoshinoya involved heading to a small building across from the river with a couple covered river boats. We were told we could drop off our luggage, but that we couldn’t check in till later. No matter, there were things to see around here like monkeys and a bamboo forest.

We started with the Iwatayama Park since it was right beside us.

Rumours were there were monkeys. In a park. This park happened to be located on top of a hill. We we paid our admissions fee and started walking up and up a path.

Turns out the monkeys were all just hanging out near the top of this mountain, in a clearly with a purpose built feeding hut.

We got some apples to feed them. That was fun. The monkeys were kind of rude though.

After we had our fill of feeding monkeys we headed back down to what looked like a carnival stand.

Michael challenged my bud to a game, so they spent some time on that and ended up collecting all sorts of random things.

Then it was back across the bridge towards Arashiyama Bamboo Forest.

Arashiyama Bamboo Forest, is one of the region’s main sites. It’s a grove of naturally occurring mōsō bamboo — some of the biggest bamboo stalks I’d ever seen. These are pretty cool.

By now, it was getting close to our check in time, so we started making our way back towards the Hoshinoya boat dock. As we were walking down the main street though, something caught my eye.

There was a whole store dedicated to a bear named Rilakkuma!

I was intrigued. We stopped in.

Not only was there a full store of things worshipping Rilakkuma, but there was even a shrine. Well this I can get behind!

After we paused long enough for me to appreciate how much other cultures appreciate bears, we made it back towards the Hoshinoya boat dock where we waited for our transport.

It was a pretty short wait. We had just enough time for tea and then it was time for our boat ride.

Hoshinoya Kyoto is a small 25-room resort perched on the side of a river. The grounds were peaceful and groomed the way you would expect Japanese gardens to get groomed.

While we were overlooking the river, the balcony wood deck in front of us made it a little difficult to see the river, but we could definitely hear it.

Since you get in and out of the hotel via a boat ride, we pre-arranged dinner reservations. Interestingly it’s not included so the poor souls who don’t know to book in advanced are left with instant noodles? Not really sure. We had reservations for a kaiseki dinner which had all sorts of mystery foods for my bud.

We took some time to enjoy the property and then relaxed for the night. Me, with the incense making kit, my bud, in the wooden bathtub they had in the room.