Costa Rica And Pickleball!

Our arrangement for gathering together to begin our tour was to meet everyone at the airport. Another lady who came in from Arizona met us on the airport shuttle from our hotels and we had the driver drop us at the arrivals area. There was one restaurant in the area where we could sit and wait for the others to join us. Some were flying in that morning or joining us from other hotels.

Since we weren't exactly sure what the lunch arrangements were, we bought sandwiches and a drink and enjoyed them as we waited. Before long, our driver from King Tours found us and took our luggage to the van. Eventually our hosts, Celeste and Tony Horpel from Pickleball Costa Rica, and the others in our group joined us and we were on our way.

Our first destination was the Puenta Leona resort on the Pacific coast. The countryside was green, very green. Remember we were in a rainforest area. That point would be made several times over our stay in CR with rain showers (and at times downpours) almost daily. The heat and humidity hit us all the moment we stepped out of our nice air conditioned van. Were we actually going to play Pickleball in this weather? Yes.

The problem was the rain. By the time we arrived at Puenta Leona it was drizzling--our Pickleball would be delayed. We met for dinner at the restaurant across from our clustered rooms (there were four rooms to each cluster with an open court in the middle). The restaurant was open aired so no A/C. After a bit we got used to it. All of the meals were included in our package and were buffet and nicely done. Our first night was an Argentinian theme with beef on the grill. (There would always be some items freshly cooked on the open grill.)

After a dinner where we got to know others in our group a bit, Celeste and Tony gave us wonderful gifts of local coffee, mugs and t-shirts with their frog Pickleball logo. Everyone was tired from their travel so it was an early evening. Pickleball would happen in the morning provided the tennis courts would dry off enough for taping the Pickleball courts.

It would happen that we would tape and often chalk because it would rain off and on each day wiping away the previous lines. Some days were extremely hot and humid for playing in the sun but we managed to pull it off and also had several clinics with our Pickleball ambassador and coach, Claudia Fontana.