Thought I would take a few minutes to post some thoughts about our time in Costa Rica. It was the first time we had taken the kids outside of the country, the first time we've traveled internationally on our own, and only the second time (Peru) Stacey and I have been out of the country if you don't count a cruise we took around Mexico several years ago (and Canada doesn't count). I've been to a few other countries by myself when I was in the Air Force though.
First, the kids did great. It was pretty easy to travel with them now that they are older. They understand a little more and are more self-sufficient, especially since Jonathan is eating on his own and we don't need to travel with a blender.
My impressions of Costa Rica are very positive. I think it could be somewhere that I would be willing to go again over Spring Break. It was much warmer than Hawaii. Almost half of the population lives around the capital city of San Jose, so there is probably only 2.5M other people scattered around the rest of the country. The places we went were fairly rural and not heavily populated and there weren't a lot of tourists and crowds. It was a nice mix of another country and experiencing some of its underdevelopment and lack of infrastructure, yet it had enough modern conveniences so that it didn't feel like you were seriously roughing it. Because they get enough tourists, and their economy were we visited relies heavily on tourism, there were plenty of things to do.
Driving was pretty easy. People didn't drive crazy and they drive on the right side of the road. Most of the main roads are marked well enough to get you where you need to go if you're paying attention, yet it's still possible to miss a turn. However, there are few major roads so you can get cell phone service (i.e. Google Maps) on them and make sure you're going the right way. Sure, they'll pass you on left on a two lane road if you're going to slow, but we do that here too.
A lot of the people we met spoke some English. I was able to practice some Spanish and was able to get around fine since I can read a lot more Spanish, but for the most part it was really easy to communicate. Pretty much all of the people we met were very friendly, warm, and kind. Lots of people gave the kids smiles and wanted to ask them some questions. I am sure that this partly due to the fact that we weren't in the big city - more around country folk. But, they seemed genuinely happy we were there. I never once felt uncomfortable or unsafe where we went. I think they are just used to enough of us that it wasn't awkward, but weren't yet resentful of tourists since there weren't that many of them around...yet.
I say yet because I think the word is starting to get out about this being a great place to visit. Hopefully it won't become the next Waikiki Beach, since it may only attract a certain type of person. There are resorts where we were, but those kinds of people probably are more interested in other things like restaurants, pools, and all-inclusive type resorts. It does take some effort and traveling to get to the Arenal area, which probably keeps some people away.
Obviously, you can see from the pictures I posted that it's a beautiful country. A good way for me to describe our trip is perfectly balanced. We had beach, sunsets, another culture, jungle, a volcano, etc...but the crowds were small enough that it was still restful. The people, weather and food were great, and we had to give up some conveniences, but it wasn't bad. It was still modern enough and yet not modern enough and another country that it was enjoyable and also still fun and restful. I'd go back again, especially over Spring Break, since it's relatively close and warm. We're glad we took the trip!
I made reservations at the Tabacon Hot Springs Resort for our last day in Costa Rica. Although you can stay in this upscale hotel, they also sell daily passes that include a meal. The hot springs from the volcanic activity are very nice. This resort has taken the water and built an endless series of waterfalls, hot tubs, pools, and nooks and crannies all over their property for people to enjoy the water. This place is also landscaped beautifully and includes a swimming pool and a swim up bar area as well as non-water places for adults only to lounge and enjoy their favorite book, app, or just relax.
I think the pictures say it all. We used the morning to rest and pack up for our long travels the following day. We spent the afternoon playing in the water, spreading Oreo cookie crumble like volcanic rocks on me, and tossing larger rocks upstream a few feet. Although I purposely took these pictures without people in them (no one likes to be photographed by a stranger while in their bathing suit), you should know that any of these area were open to sit or swim in.
We were visited by a local lizard that possessed a lifetime pass for the springs. There were a few falls that were a little deep or powerful for the kids, but overall the terraced approach worked well. You can see the kids just kicking it in the water.
There was a pretty big waterfall that was located near the main pool area. They had built a bench seat behind it if you wanted to shimmy or just walk through the waterfall and have a seat behind the water. It was warm in there - kinda of like a steam room. Jonathan wanted me to take a picture of him with one of the many rocks in the streams on his head. Due to the color and position, it looks like he's got a man bun! The final shot is a cool aerial view with a person swimming, so you can get a good idea.. The resort limits the number of people each day, so that was nice and never too crowded to find a spot.
Included in our day pass was dinner at the hotel's very delicious restaurant onsite above the pool. It was a buffet format, and the perfect ending to our 10 days of traveling. It's hard to eat a lot of good, fresh food while traveling with kids. I enjoyed a couple plates of different meats, a salad, vegetables, and sampled a bite of every dessert they offered. In other words, the things I hadn't been able to eat much or any of since leaving. After dinner it was dark, so we spent a few minutes walking around the paths, waterfalls, and pools that were illuminated by lights. The hot springs close at 10 p.m., so I think most people prefer night time because of the colder temps and ambience of this place at night.
This was probably the day the kids enjoyed the most. A couple of people including our hosts had recommended this water park located on the outskirts of the nearest town called La Fortuna. This wasn't originally on the schedule, but as we got settled we realized none of us wanted to do more hiking in the hot sun and humidity. This was our improvisation.
Because Stacey had to work on this trip over lunch, the kids and I decided to do this by ourselves. It didn't open until 10 am, so we decided to pack food and spend most of the day there. Stacey also had some down time to herself back at the house when she wasn't working.
When we showed up I wasn't sure if they were open. There were no other cars in the lot, and none of the water was running. Turns out we were just the first ones to arrive, which ended up being a pretty sweet deal. For most of the day we had the entire water park to ourselves. Another family and couple showed up later, but they didn't use the same area of the water park. We basically had our own private water park, at the base of a smoking volcano, all to ourselves. The day was beautiful, and the water was kept at a perfect 90 degree temperature. In other words, we were only limited by our energy levels, and never once even thought about being cold.
So here's how the day went down. I think the kids went down the orange slide 100 times. I am not really exaggerating...it was a lot. The big red bucket at the top of the structure would fill up and dump tons of water everywhere probably every two to three minutes. Naturally, that was dubbed hot lava and we couldn't get touched by it. We spent all of our time in the orange slide because it would get hit every time by the "lava" and we had to seek shelter inside of it. What was fun about this was that each time someone went down the slide they would stop a few feet outside the tube, meaning they had to scramble back in before getting hit by "lava". Most of the time that was all of us at once.
Another thing that made this park really fun is that there weren't any lifeguards around this section of the pool. Instead of rules and regulations and the water park being perfectly safe (think U.S. liability), it was a little rough around the edges in parts but also very freeing. Most of the time we went down the slide three at a time, with the kids laying on me or joining up in a train halfway down. A lot of times Julia and Jonathan didn't even walk up the stairs, they just climbed back UP the water slide and I pulled them to the top. Sure, there were a few stubbed toes and head bumps, but that only happens when you've having a lot of fun. It was pretty fun to just do whatever we wanted, however and whenever.
The first morning in Arenal we woke up to a beautiful view and sunrise. We got ready and drove a few minutes back the direction we came to make our 8 a.m. tour of Arenal Hanging Bridges Park. I had made reservations for the family with a guide versus walking it ourselves to maximize our experience.
The park is home to some of the coolest wildlife that Costa has to offer. The walk is about 2 miles through jungle-like terrain, but since it crisscrosses a river repeatedly, has something like 15 bridges that you have to walk across along the way. Several of these bridges are cable suspension bridges and some rise probably 100 or more feet off the ground. The fact that the bridges swung back and forth while walking across them added to the excitement for the kids. I may or may not have made it swing more than was necessary.
Although I don't have very many pictures of the wildlife, either because they were too fast of too far or I forgot, here's a list of unique animals I can recall seeing on our trip in addition to the coatis I showed in a previous post: monkeys, an iguana, turkey vultures, leaf cutter ants, pelicans, a toucan, a couple of sloths, lizards, and a frog. We looked for tarantulas on this hike, but we couldn't find any. It's possible that there were a few more animals that we saw that I am forgetting at this moment.
Jonathan and Julia walked the entire way, and they and Stacey thanked me for booking this reservation. It was a fun morning activity for us on our first day in the area. After the hike the kids enjoyed a snack and we enjoyed more delicious Costa Rican coffee at the restaurant onsite. I took the below picture of the Arenal Volcano from the restaurant, demonstrating the sweet view.
On Sunday we packed up and left the beach on the west cost of Costa Rica. The first half of our time in country was spent at the beach, the second half was spent in the Arenal volcano and lake area more towards the center of the country. The west coast was dry compared to the more tropical and lush area around Arenal.
The drive was a little long, probably around 4 hours since we had to drive all the way around the lake on slow and winding roads. If I had a motorcycle, this would be the place to ride for hours on end. The first row of pictures were taken from an overlook of the lake where we stopped and had a picnic lunch overlooking Lake Arenal. Arenal is the largest lake in Costa Rica and a very pretty area.
After lunch we drove for a little bit until we reached the far end of the lake. You can see Arenal volcano in the distance, which was our ultimate destination. Along the way we saw some wildlife including a pack of Coatis, or as Jonathan called them, Costa Rican raccoons.
Here are some pictures of the property we stayed at in Arenal. There were all sorts of things growing like banana trees, porcupine palm trees, and pineapple plants growing outside our front door. The place we stayed was managed by a local couple Thomas and Hannah, who were originally from the Czech Republic and Washington state. However, I think they managed this place for the owner when he wasn't using it.
The house sat up on a hill in a small town called El Castillo, and had a perfect view of the lake and the Arenal volcano. We sat on the deck or inside the house and watched the sunrise and the volcano smoke consistently coming out of the main top crater. Once we moved in and cleared out all the bugs, it was actually a really nice place to stay. The only downside was that it didn't have air conditioning so it was a little warm at night.
...a few pictures of the main level of the house.
