Pura Vida

Wow- 7 months since my last post. I think that's a record. Unfortunately (for me and my family journaling efforts) blogging just doesn't do it for me like it used to. However, we just returned from a trip that is most definitely blog worthy - and for not posting for seven months - that's saying something. I tend to be wordy and I have 7 months worth of ideas hanging in my mind so this post is sure to be long and picturey!

We were lucky enough to take a quick trip to Costa Rica - something I've wanted to do for a long time. We bought a Living Social getaway for a 3 night stay. Our planning involved making sure they had rooms open for the time we would try to get there and renting a car. We really had no idea where the place was that we were staying or what to do. We had our passports and off we went.

We flew into the San Jose airport, got our car and drove 2.5 hours to our hotel. The first thing I thought as we started our drive was that it looked a lot like the island of St. Lucia- a stop we made on an Eastern Caribbean cruise we took about 10 years ago. We did nothing on that island since all we could afford was a room on the ship but I remember thinking it was the most green, tropical, lush place I had ever seen, at least from the cruise ship deck.

We journeyed on tiny little roads with narrow lanes and one way bridges until we got to the dirt road that led to our hotel. After about a 10 minute bumpy ride, we finally reached our hotel. In the middle of a rain forest. Words cannot describe how amazingly beautiful this place was. Sorry all you Hawaii lovers, but it put Hawaii to shame. Our hotel was not a typical hotel. It was a bunch of private bungalows plopped into a rainforest, carefully placed as to not disturb it's natural beauty. Rivers, small waterfalls, and jungle were everywhere. Just outside our bungalow was a tree that attracted tropical birds which we saw in the first 15 minutes we were there. The rain forest was constantly audibly active. Birds, monkeys, insects, snakes, frogs - you name it - they were talking. The property had all kinds of farm animals too as well as vegetable gardens and fruit trees. The hotel restaurant made a lot of it's food from their very own animals and produce they raised right there on the property. And the staff was so warm and welcoming. They told us all the cool things to do and even offered to watch our kids if we wanted to do something "really adventurous."

I am the type of vacationer that likes to go and see and do everything. But, I could have had a good book and laid in the hammock in this place for days as long as someone fed me some guava every now and then. This place felt so authentically Costa Rica. Not that I can claim to know what authentic Costa Rica is, but it was as far from some commercially tourist area as I had ever known or been.

This was our bungalow

 



 

Look closely at the middle of this picture and you can see a really cool bird

 

 

We discussed what to do. We had many choices. River Rafting. And not wimpy little uneventful river rafting, but class III, IV and V river rafting. Horse back riding, natural hot springs, zip lining, repelling down a waterfall, limitless hikes, visit a volcano, boat ride down a river to see crocodiles, monkey and snakes. We decided on going to a little rain forest refuge place called Echo Danaus where there was guaranteed to be wild animals for the kids to see. We expected a zoo-like place where we'd see some animals that were being re-rehabilitated but that is not what we got. Instead, we got a narrow pathway winding inside another rainforest/jungle. Where there were tons and tons of animals. Not in enclosures.

We spent a lot of time in the butterfly garden.

 

We spotted a crocodile about 2 feet away from us. Notice how there is barely a fence between us. A fence who's purpose was solely to guide the walkway, not to keep anything out.

 

Look to the right of Colby's head to see the crocodile

Cameron spotted a sloth hanging upside down in the tree. It's hard to see in the picture, but it's there.

There were lots of tiny red poisonous dart frogs and huge green lizards. That place was blast and we loved every minute of it.

The next day we decided to do a zip line tour. There is not a whole lot to say about this except that it is by far the most amazing thing I have ever done in my life - child birth being a close second ;). It was 3 hours of zip lining through the jungle and over waterfalls. I was giggling like a little schoolgirl the entire time and couldn't believe I was actually doing it. It was surreal. I've never described anything to be surreal, but this was.

 

We had to do some hiking between zip lines (11 total). We had to cross this little bridge. They would only let a few of us at a time. There was a cable running across the whole thing and I held on for dear life thinking that I may very well need it. 

 

We came across this snake. One of the guides assured us it wasn't poisonous as he showed us his stubby finger that had to be amputated from a snake bite when he was repelling down a waterfall nearby.

The next day we decided to do some driving and we drove to the Arenal Volcano. It was gorgeous and quite a sight to behold. We drove around Lake Arenal. Costa Rica has EVERYTHING. Lake Arenal was crystal clear and I'm sure a perfectly contented temperature (we didn't actually go in it) and you could rent a speed boat and waterski on it. It was surrounded by lush tropical mystery and a huge smoking volcano. We didn't even make it to the coast which we hear has white sand beaches. Really, what else do you need?

Arenal Volcano

This weird animal was on the road during our drive. I have no idea what it is.



Here's a view of Lake Arenal 

 

And of course, no trip would be complete without some souvenirs. I fell in love with this mango wood vase (that's all wrapped in Plastic). Can you tell by my uninhibited excitement? 

"Cameron!" (imagine me saying this in a near perfect Spanish accent). "Es muy bonita. Me gusto mucho." "Solomente triente y cinco dolares!" If you know Spanish, pretend that was perfect grammar as well...

On the way back from our little road trip to Arenal, we stopped at natural hot springs. So cool.  I mean warm. It was this never-ending hot spring river with little pools that dumped into one another- completely not man-made.

It is now a family tradition to seek out the nearest Burger King while in a foreign country and partake of it's greasy American disgustingness instead of the local cuisine. I take no part in this tradition. Unfortunately, the children have joined Cameron in this despicable habit.

And this is the part of the trip where our dog-loving daughter catches fleas. I'm not kidding. I guess Costa Rica doesn't have animal control for dogs because stray dogs were EVERYWHERE. They must kill cats for sport because there was not one of those to be found. Being the genius that I am, I let Kara touch all the dogs she wanted, fleas never even crossing my mind. I know- I am an unfit parent- I know this now. After Kara's 52nd encounter with a dog, Cameron said, nonchalantly, and as if he had known this the whole time and didn't really mind, "I bet that dog has diseases and fleas." Since I apparently thought Costa Rica was perfect, therefore free of all known pests until then, I freaked out, made her back away from the dog and washed her hair and body 5 times that night.

Despite the fact that Kara got fleas and there is a possibility that we brought home a lovely pet parasite with us (we'll see how the tests results come out next week), we can't wait to go back. It was worth a parasite. Okay, I've never had one and if we do then I'm sure I'll be singing a different tune if the tests come back positive. My only regret is that I didn't bring my nice camera. I would have gone crazy. And I forgot to bring our battery charger for our little camera so most of our pics are taken from my phone.