Tag: costa rica 2016

Our third stop was Arenal.  We booked a tiny room for 4 people and I ended up sleeping approximately 3 hours in a shower stall with bugs crawling over my face using luggage wrapped in a shower curtain for bedding.  Not fun.  Note to self – pay closer attention to the rooms Susan is booking.

Our second night there we booked another room at a hotel that was a kids paradise.  Slides everywhere that emptied into hot pools, pina coladas, and air conditioning!  There was a mini zoo with crocodiles, an ant farm, poison dart frogs (they’ll only kill you if you eat them), turtles, and even a sloth.

Arenal was a dormant volcano and probably would have been a more fun trip when I was 20 and single and could spend 8-10 hours a day hiking.  But the hot springs were nice…

We also passed by one of a few ‘crocodile’ bridges in Costa Rica.  They don’t move much, which probably explains why they’ve lived so long (they are living dinosaurs – 180 million years old), but they are plenty scary to look at.

While in Jaco we also took a day trip to a private island – Tortuga.  It sounds like something straight out of a pirate story and it looked the part as well.

While there we snorkeled, road the banana boat, ate lunch, and hiked.  There was a trail that went to the top of the island (nothing, and I mean NOTHING is flat in Costa Rica), and the whole time I was imagining myself searching for long lost buried treasure or fleeing incoming British sailors who wanted me head.

Skylar and Parker are both quite athletic, with Skylar passing me on the trail and Parker and I climbing at about the same pace.  I’m not sure if they are phenomenal or if I’m just out of shape 😉

There was a wild boar that had learned to like people.  We fed him coconut and he would eat from your hand and let you pet him.  Later in the day, Susan saw him drinking rum punch and shortly thereafter he fell asleep under a shade tree with 3 college girls snuggling him.  Life is good as a domestic boar on Tortuga!

After leaving Quepos we went to Jaco – a so called locals beach, but also one of the best surf spots of Costa Rica.

Our second day in Jaco we went on an ATV tour.  The owner was from San Francisco and had bought the property with the expectation of developing high end condo’s on it.  The country is definitely expat friendly.  You find them everywhere.  He had bought in 2007 and when the real estate market crashed in the U.S. it brought the rest of the world down as well.

So, being the entrepreneurial type, he converted the property to horse back tours, atv tours, zip lining, and leased land to local farmers.  There was a waterfall that you ride ATV’s to and they serve you fresh pineapple – cut on the property with fresh limes that we pick on the way.

The kids had a blast driving the ATV’s on the trail back and it was a good morning excursion.

Our digs at Jaco were the nicest – luxury condo only a block from the ocean and the towns’ favorite locals restaurant.  The water wasn’t nearly as nice as Manuel Antonio, the kids and I called it chocolate milk water.

Our first day of the trip we weathered the night in San Jose at a cool boutique hotel, then it was off to the first leg of our tour – Quepos.  Our hotel had beautiful pictures online, and upon arrival, you could see how they framed those images just right.

The property had it’s heyday probably 15 years earlier, and while the accommodations were fine, the property itself was in a slow state of decline.  The kids loved the pool, and we met Iggy the Iguana who greeted us each day.

Our last night there I showed Susan to the local restaurant conveniently located 20 yards away from the property.  We walked in and were greeted by a local man playing powerball (hadn’t seen that since the late 80’s) and the owner who let us know that the “catch of the day was mahi mahi”.  She could have just said – I made my family some fish that my husband caught yesterday, and I can grill you some up to for only $8.99 US.

I’m not sure how you survive on a selling 2 beers a night, but she probably had paid off any debt, and the restaurant provided some additional income when possible, and most likely had her living quarters attached in the back.

Our second destination in Costa Rica was the Manuel Antonio rain forest and beach.  It was about a 30 minute drive from our hotel outside of Quepos.

It took about an hour to hike through the rain forest to reach the beach.  The hike wasn’t hard, just long – and it happened to coincide with our 10:30am snack break.

The beach was awesome, as evidenced by my 360 degree panorama shot, however, Susan was accosted by both the monkeys and the raccoons which actually made away with a bag of our food.

The kids and I missed the action, but we promptly packed up and headed for safer shores.  The beach just outside of the park is also pristine and beautiful minus the monkey and raccoons.

Hadobogee and Parker have a special bond, as is evidenced by our first night in Costa Rica.