pantstributor

Honeymoonin’

Guys, I went on a honeymoon! Doesn’t that sound so grown-up?! I am such an adult! See?

You know, even though I always swore I’d never get married (oops), I kind of just assumed I’d one day score a honeymoon. I always thought that sounded really super awesome and fancy and sophisticated when I was a kid. And it really was!

I mean, of course it was a poetic celebration of the love that Matt and I share, two whole weeks where we did nothing but revel and delight in our affection for one another. Two magnificent weeks that will live forever in my memory as the most wonderful, serene, heart-wrenchingly gorgeous and romantic vacation I’ve ever taken in my life, a journey the scope of which pictures and words could never do justice.

But this is a PD joint, y’all! Get ready for some pictures of food and cute animals!

Our first morning was spent at a super cute B&B in Austin, Austin’s Inn at Pearl Street. And we enjoyed THIS breakfast on our balcony overlooking the lovely courtyard:

Matt, what do you think about being married so far?

“Breakfast and dance parties and presents and jewelry and cupcakes? I dig it.” Okay, maybe it was me who said that.

So after some scrambling, we made it back to Houston and to the airport just in time for Matt to announce to me that he sneakily upgraded our tickets to Costa Rica to first class! Squee! This has been a long-cherished dream for me, ’cause I’m poor but I like to pretend I’m rich. I’m awfully good at it! I learned from the best (ah-hem, Sarah). It was a really sweet surprise, and we had a super tasty dinner and drank Continental out of house and home, and ate cheesecake, and stretched out our legs (well, I’m short, I can always stretch out my legs. But that Tall Drink of Water I recently snagged was very appreciative of the extra leg room).

Our next flight, from San Jose to Puerto Jimenez (on the Osa Peninsula), was not so luxurious.

Look at our wee little plane! This picture was taken from our seats:

Uh, hello, pilot! But we arrived safely, and took a taxi (read: hayride, since we sat in the back of a pickup truck and there were cows) to the super secluded and gorgeous eco-lodge where we stayed, Iguana Lodge.

Yes, cows.

We went down this winding road far away from everyone and everything

and ended up here, at the Iguana Lodge.

Iguana Lodge is owned by Americans (Toby and Lauren) who visisted Costa Rica and were all, “Eff it, we’re staying here.” I can relate. It’s a beautiful place made up of a few private open-aired huts on the beach, and one big central lodge where they serve food and have books and games and yoga and stuff. The lodge was founded on the concept of sustainable tourism, meaning they only used felled trees as materials for the accommodations, and most of the energy used is solar, and they put money back into the community, creating a library and a school and scholarships and a sea turtle rescue project.

Also? It’s freaking gorgeous.

That’s the Pearl of the Osa, the bar/restaurant located on the premises.

Our stay included DELICIOUS breakfast and dinner, and we got our lunch and our many bevvies at the Pearl. It had a pretty sweet view, you know?

We spent a LOT of time there doing pretty much this:

We also spent a LOT of time sitting under the little tiki  huts on the breathtaking and remote beach, doing pretty much this:

This is our cabin, which was about 100 feet from the ocean, open with screens, my new favorite place on earth (sorry, castle):

That’s right, a sweet outdoor shower! I took sooooo many showers because I loved that part so much. I unpacked all of our belongings as soon as we got there, and just pretended it was our real home. And we spent a LOT of time on that covered porch doing, you guessed it, pretty much this:

Check it, Sarah, I took this picture just for you, from the cushions on our balcony sofa:

I mock you with my monkey pants!

Oh yeah, and dig the view from our balcony:

We sent to sleep every night with the sound of the waves breaking onto the shore. These were some SERIOUS waves, too, all day every day.

Oh, and there were doggies!

Bam-Bam

Fester/Chester (aka, we don’t really know what his name was, because it turns out he didn’t belong to the lodge)

and the cutest/homeliest dog on the planet,

Spike. I think you can see why he was named as such.

They all spent most of their time following us around and being cute, but Spike in particular adopted us. He spent our entire vacation with us. We took a 4-mile walk down the beach one day, and Spike followed us all the way there, got in the ocean with us, and walked all the way back, then settled at our feet when we plopped down to read.

He also spent every night sleeping on our porch, and once scared the hell out of me by sneaking into our cabin when it was raining, so when I swung my feet down from the bed, they landed on Spike’s greasy back. Oh Spike. You were so gross and yet so cute. I miss you.

That picture was taken during one of the many candlelight dinners we had served to us on our balcony! We were pretty much the only guests there during our stay, and Toby and Lauren made sure the staff catered to us. They were all so fantastic; the staff is kind and funny and helpful and great (all Costa Rican), and Toby and Lauren were really cool, too.

tuna steak with yuca au gratin and hearts of palm and chorizo and broccoli and stuffed peppers and yummy bread!

shrimp etoufee with carrots and beet salad and rice and grilled papaya and garlic bread and a chicken skewer!

chicken tandoori with candied rice and flat bread and hummus and avocado and cucumber salad! I can’t believe these are the only pictures I took of our many, many delicious meals at the lodge, but I did get some pictures of our desserts!

plum tart!

giant ice cream sandwich!

really good prosecco!

Friday nights at the lodge they have Pasta Night, where they make a huge vat of delicious spaghetti and meatballs with salad and garlic bread and lasagna, and a DJ plays salsa music and all of the kids from Puerto Jimenez come and shake it down.

This was pretty much the only time we saw other people  there who didn’t WORK at Iguana Lodge, so we had fun! See?

Other things we did on our porch besides eating and reading: we each got a massage under the covered area during a thundery rain storm, and we we each got a mani-pedi, too! GLAM! But it wasn’t all reading and sleeping and eating and drinking. Obviously, it was MOSTLY those things, but we had adventures, too!

We saw a big-ass snake!

We went kayaking through the mangrove swamp! It was pouring the whole time, and that sort of just made it even more fun and adventurous. It was just the tour guide and us (for everything we did, it was just the tour guide and us. Costa Rica during rainy season is all about YOU), and he educated us about the amazing eco-system the mangroves cultivate. He was really nice and smart and we had a wonderful 3 or 4 hours kayaking through the river and into the open ocean with him.

He just knocked these oranges (that look like limes!) off the tree with his paddle and gave them to us. We made cocktails out of them later. Obviously.

We took a break on this secluded beach (even more secluded than at Iguana Lodge) before kayaking out into the open ocean.

He taught us how to crack open coconuts:

And then we feasted on coonuts and oranges and pineapples harvested from the swamp. It pretty much rocked.

FRESH COCONUT, WE WILL MEET AGAIN SOON. Now that I know how to open you, that is.

Then we kayaked out into the open sea, which made me feel like an explorer, ie, someone much braver and more athletically-inclined than I actually am.

Here we are after our rain-soaked educational adventure!

We also went on a boat tour of Gulfo Dulce, again just the tour guides and us on their boat on the single most gorgeous day of the entire vacation. Thank you, vacation, for scheduling your rain around our itinerary.

What is that you spy, oh happy Meredith? IS THAT A FREAKING DOLPHIN?

Yes, come closer, dolphin! Come closer! Frolic, and bring your friends!

Look how close he is to my head!

TWO DOLPHINS!

THREE DOLPHINS!

FOUR DOLPHINS!

Meredith and Matt PLUS DOLPHIN!

We also saw sea turtles and sting rays. All MANNER of sea life! I really enjoy saying “all manner of sea life.”

We stopped at this gorgeous island, mostly just to say, “Look, we’re on this gorgeous island!”

There we are, see?

And then we went back out on the boat into the bay, and just jumped out in the middle of the bay and started snorkeling. We took a page out of Erica Greenhouse’s book and purchased a waterproof bag for our camera. Matt took all of these very professional snorkeling shots. Henri, this is your cue to look away.

Mr. Tour Guide, I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to take the coral.

Me in my Junior’s Life Jacket.

Matt’s not a little baby, so he went without a jacket.

Our last excursion was to go zip-lining through the rainforest. We were ready to go and looking pretty damned cute in our zippy gear!

Zip-lining is amazing, because most of the rainforest wildlife (ALL MANNER OF WILDLIFE!) inhabits the highest tree-tops where you can’t see them. Unless you’re zipping through the rainforest 150-ft up in the air, as we did. Unfortunately, our camera battery died before we could take pictures of all of the crazy sloths and toucans and iguanas and chameleons and macaws we saw that day, but we did manage to snag quite a few pictures of MONKEYS EEEE!

This one monkey jumped on the zip line and started booking it towards us. At first we were all, “Yay! Monkey wants to be friends!” and then as he got closer and angrier-looking, we were all, “Okay, dude, take your intimidatingly large monkey parts and get the hell away from us.” So he did.

That wraps up the 10-day portion of our Osa Peninsula/Iguana Lodge stay. Because I am intent to make this the single longest and most pictoral post ever published on poshdeluxe.com, I’ll just go right ahead into our 4-day stay in Escazu, near San Jose!

The cemetery next to the tiny little Puerto Jimenez airport:

The view back to San Jose on the scary little puddle-jumper:

Our new hotel, the Beacon Escazu, wasn’t so eco-friendly, but it was super tony and we did appreciate crawling into a bed with DRY sheets at night (open-aired hut in the rainforest = EVERYTHING is damp). The landscaping of the grounds, pool, hot tub and area surrounding the bar and restaurant was so lush and tropical, it was almost like still being in the rainforest!

Lovebirds! They’re on their honeymoon, too.

The pool at night.

Our room was spacious with THIRTY FOOT CEILINGS and a cool open shower concept.

The food at the Beacon was GREAT. And we ate lots of it. As we are wont to do.

Matt’s tuna steak.

My DIVINE pork chops with potato pancake.

Fancy embossed plates.

A somewhat disappointing creme brulee, that, despite the extravagant sugar sculpture adorning it, wasn’t crispy enough on top for satisfactory cracking purposes.

My enchiladas verdes.

Matt’s apropos Costa Rican plate.

REALLY good ceviche.

We spent most of our few remaining days eating, drinking, and reading by the pool (duh).

But we also ventured into town for some more eating, more drinking, and SHOPPING to replace the reading. We’re so adventurous!

We found the Princess Marina, the best and cheapest seafood restaurant EVER. We ate there twice. In four days. In a foreign country filled with exciting new restaurants to try.

My SIX lobster tails with garlic mashed potatoes, for something like $9.

Matt’s seafood fountain.

Blackberry margarita!

Our final full day dawned, and we decided to get dressed up (well, vacation “dressed up,” meaning no flip-flops for once) and…eat and drink some more at the hotel restaurant!

We toasted our amazing trip in the only way one can pay adequate tribute to such a spectacular vacation: shots of Patron followed by Imperial beer.

The trip eventually had to come to an end as all trips must, and it was time to fly back home, but even that part wasn’t sad because we got to fly home first class and eat more tasty rich people food and drink lots of fancy first class cocktails! And then we got to come home to this:

and also this:

and also a giant pile of wedding presents from our incredibly generous friends and family! So I guess I don’t have too much to complain about. But still…

I want to go back to Costa Rica, man.

© 2009 Poshdeluxe.