People & Culture

Sep 23, 2018
PJ Bimonte’s Costa Rican Trip of a Lifetime

PJandFamily

For every five years of service, employees are eligible for a company-funded Trip of a Lifetime. Senior Project Manager PJ Bimonte, PMP, returned from his trip to Costa Rica in August. Below, he shares some highlights from his once-in-a-lifetime vacation.

“Thanks to the generosity of Arthrex, my family and I were able to take a trip to La Fortuna, Costa Rica. We chose La Fortuna because Digital Design Specialist Katie Greenberg highly recommended it.  

La Fortuna is in the Northern Highlands of Costa Rica, about two and a half hours from San Jose. The city is centered around a beautiful park and a large church. The Arenal Volcano adds to the ambiance and can be seen from almost every part of the city.  

LaFortunaGetting to La Fortuna was half the fun. It's a quick, two-and-a-half-hour flight from Ft. Lauderdale, FL, then a two-and-a-half-hour drive through the winding Costa Rican countryside. When we arrived to our hotel, outside of the city, we were greeted by a breathtaking view of the volcano and the hot spring pools.  

We spent our first day relaxing from the travel. We learned that the thermal pools at the hotel were emptied and refilled nightly by the underground rivers beneath the volcano, so we decided to try them out. Soaking in hot springs was definitely a different experience even from a hot tub, but one we quickly got used to. Thankfully there was one cold pool as well, but we didn't figure that out until day two!

We tried to stick to local cuisine and we were not disappointed with our choice of the casado, a traditional dish that includes rice, black beans, plantains, salad, tortillas and a protein. 

We started day two with a large, traditional Costa Rican breakfast that included Gallo Pinto, lots of fresh fruit, meats, cheeses and Costa Rican coffee, which we enjoyed while watching hummingbirds fly about the flowers. This delicious breakfast became something we looked forward to as soon as we woke up every day. After fueling up, we took a rafting trip on the Peñas Blancas river where we were lucky enough to see Brazilian long-nosed bats and howler monkeys in the wild. 

RaftingOn day three we relaxed by the pool until a night-time hike at the Arenal Natura Ecological Park. Our visit was during the Costa Rican rainy season and we got caught up in a downpour during the hike, but it didn’t take away from our experience seeing the amazing diversity of the wildlife that lives in Costa Rica. I could do without the 22 species of venomous snakes that live there, but we only saw one of those outside of their designated enclosures!

On our last day of the trip, we went into La Fortuna itself. If there is one thing we would have done differently, it would have been to spend more time in the city. It was small and easily walkable from end to end, but filled with great art, shops and more restaurants than we had the time and stomach size to sample!  

I want to thank Arthrex for this program, which is of the many reasons that Arthrex is one of the best places to work. Coming to work every morning is easy when you know that the company you work for both values and appreciates you as an employee and as a person.”

Look for more Trip of a Lifetime highlights on FacebookTwitter and Instagram.