Pura Vida!!

 Lee and I just got back today from an 8 day trip to a place we've always wanted to visit, Costa Rica!

I haven't blogged in forever but I don't want to forget anything so I'm journaling it all.

After months of research, we planned out the "must make/see" stops. We flew into San Jose, stayed the night at the Airport Marriott and woke the next morning to rent our car for the week and headed north to the popular surf town, Tamarindo. (we rented a 4 wheel drive from Budget for a week for around $300 and brought our own GPS that we downloaded maps to before we left)

The GPS said it would take about 3 1/2 hours to get to Tamarindo but clearly didn't take into consideration the 40 different 25 km school zones and buses. 3 1/2 hours turned into 4 1/2.

So picture this - our first real day in Costa Rica. We're so anxious/excited to see this beautiful country and surf at this popular destination. We've been in the car for 4 1/2 hours, much longer than we anticipated, and we pull up to the hotel we booked for our first 2 nights, one of the most highly recommended hotel in Tamarindo by TripAdvisor...

No, I'm not kidding.

 We can laugh now, but after our long drive and built up excitement, we were not laughing at the time. It had more of a "hostel" feel to it, but it was a full fledged hotel.

So, in my opnion, this picture and surroundings is a pretty good representation of Tamarindo.

It's the hot, dry desert part of Costa Rica.

And the beaches...well, they aren't beautiful. Tamarindo beach is similar to some of the not so pretty beaches in san diego.

Anyway, we decided to stay one night just for the experience, and bailed on our non-refundable next night and Tamarindo all together.

BUT...not before getting up the next morning to get in some surfing at Playa Grande on our way out.

It was a nice beach. Not pretty, but the water is warm and we were 2 of abot 6 people on the entire beach. AND, there were some nice roller waves perfect for longboarding.

We left our valuables in our car and parked at the nice people's...house? that we rented the boards from. So this was taken at their place after.

just a little friend we passed on the way to the beach...

On to our next stop...Arenal!

And this time, we weren't disapointed. We added on a night (that we gained from leaving Tamarindo) and stayed 3 nights at the Hotel Silencio Del Campo in our own private cabin nestled into this beautiful scenery.

Now THIS was the Costa Rica I was looking for!

The hotel staff was amazing, the food was superb and there were natural hot springs scattered throughout the property to relax in anytime.

The hotel gave us (me) a complimentary volcano mud facial...heaven!

 While in Arenal (the rainforest part of Costa Rica near the active volcano), we did the hanging bridges, hiked to the La Fortuna waterfalls, and did some amazing white water rafting.

Hanging Bridges - a beautiful hike/walk through the rainforest, crossing several bridges suspended hundreds of feet in the air. It was beautiful! We were fortunate to have met a nice Tico that worked there and pointed out several animals, a wild turkey, an anteater, and a howler monkey that our new friend was kind enough to point out that howler monkeys have white testicles. We looked up. Yep, there they were! Our unofficial tour guide spoke only spanish so Lee did the talking. I heard our friend ask Lee if I spoke spanish and Lee said, "Nah, she just asks people how old they are."

Nice. Thank you Lee.

(When we were in mexico last year, I kept asking everyone "cuantos anos" instead of "cuantos questa" to find out how much everything cost....Lee waited until the end of our trip to tell me I had been asking everyone how old they were instead of the price of what they were selling.)

While at the hanging bridges, it started pouring rain. It made it that much more fun. It was a warm rain and for some reason, it  just felt amazing to be in the middle of the rainforest in the pouring rain.

White Water Rafting - Funnest experience EVER!

We rafted down the Sarapiqui river in class IV rapids. Amazing!

We only lost one paddle and two people...we got them all back. ;)

Pura Vida!!!

 La Fortuna Waterfalls - 

Great hike with LOTS of stairs. We hiked out the back side and then all the way back down again. Great leg workout! ;)

So fun swimming in the waterfall!
The current was so strong, you had to fight just to stay as close as we are, it kept pushing us back to shore.

The night before leaving Arenal, we went back into the little town of La Fortuna and strolled around downtown.
We ate at a local soda (the little mom & pop restaurants the locals open) and found a chocolateria where they make they're own chocolate from hand picked cacao beans! We did a sampling, learned how to make our own chocolate, and brought back some cacao beans to try it! Can't wait!

Typical Costa Rican food, Casado. (casado is a Costa Rican meal using rice, black beans, plantains, salad, a tortilla, and an optional entrée that may include chicken, beef, pork, or fish.)

On to our final destination, Manuel Antonio!

On our way there, we drove through Tarcoles and crossed over this bridge where crocodiles love to gather. They were HUGE! Some were 12-13 feet long!
   

...and since we stopped to see the crocs, why not get something from one of the hundreds of fruit stands? :)

Manuel Antonio had some beautiful beaches! 

The view from our room at Hotel Mariposa. Said to have some of the best views in Manuel Antonio.

Best place to watch the sunsets.

Manuel Antonio National Park - a must see! Hiking/walking trails through beautiful rain forest full of animals, leading to beautiful, warm water beaches. Just before the entrance, Tico's are out trying to hard sell you on a private tour (which takes the price of entrance from $10 a person to $45-50 a person). They tell you you wont see any animals without them and it will be waste. I would say 90% of the tourists went with tours...we went on our own.
And...we saw a huge sloth, a rare agouti (over-sized guinea pig looking animal), several large iguanas (3 feet long), a deer, squirrel monkeys, howler monkeys, and the ever mischievous white faced Capuchin monkeys.
It was fun playing I-spy throughout the jungle!

This is how close we got to the guys! One little guy kept reaching over and pulling some guys hair whenever he would turn around!

K, bare with this video. One little mischievous monkey watched these people put their backpack down at the beach. He waited for them to go into the water, then while looking over his shoulder to make sure no one was watching, scampered over, UNZIPPED the backpack, double checked again to make sure the coast was clear, rummaged through their stuff until he found a bag of individually packaged cheese and crackers and ran off with the loot.
This is the video we took. Its amazing how he opens up the package like a human would do, not like a wild animal!

Our last day in Costa Rica we decided to hike to the Nauyaca Waterfalls.
It was a short 45 min drive from Manuel Antonio, just south towards the little town, Dominical.
We stopped at Don Lulo's and paid the $5 per person entry fee. We were told to drive down and park in the "parking lot", which we somehow missed so we just drove until the road/path became  impassable.

We hiked the rest of the way (about 2.5 km) and saw beautiful, bright colored turquoise butterfly's and hundreds of the tiniest baby frogs you've ever seen, jumping along the path.
The hike took about 30-45 minutes.
We hiked to the lower falls first, where you could swim, and had the falls all to ourselves!


Selfie's under the waterfall!

After cooling off there, we hiked up to the upper falls.



Our hike out was about another 45 min out, then we stopped by the cute little town of Dominical and had lunch a "Porque-no?"  Delicious fresh food, beautiful views, and awesome fresh fruit smoothies...a perfect ending to our last day.

Despite the beautiful views and scenery, and the amazing adventures, by far, my most favorite thing was just getting to be with this guy...all by myself!

So, so grateful for the family and friends that helped out with our kiddos while we were gone, THANK YOU!