Saturday morning my cute dad volunteered to take us to the airport at 4:30, what a trooper! We got the airport in plenty of time and are about to board our flight. We flew to Houston, TX and then it was off to Costa Rica.
Sunday morning we got up super early and headed to Santa Cruz to go to church (about an hour away). The branch was super small (about 28 people). It was so hot and humid inside that small building. Everyone was super cute and friendly, even though we couldn’t communicate very well.
We stopped at a cute bakery after and then to a little traditional Costa Rican diner for lunch. The owner in his very broken English tried to help us learn to convert dollars to colones. Everyone assumes because of my coloring that I can speak Spanish and are shocked that I can’t haha. On our way home Pres spotted a tiny hand-made sign for The Monkey Jungle Canopy tours. On the way we saw a huge flock of green parakeets, so pretty! We had no clue what it would be like, but we went anyways. After a long bumpy dirt-road, we ended in the cutest little place that was so well cared for and the staff was awesome! They had some fun swings to keep you busy before the tour started.
We drove to Tamarindo after. We’ve realized that all the roads in Costa Rica are dirt and covered in pot-holes and rocks. Tamarindo is the cutest little beach town with so many fun shops and restaurants. We checked out pricing for activities and grabbed a yummy Mexican dinner at Joe’s. Blake and I walked along the beach and it was so gorgeous with the jungle right next to the sand. We headed home and it was crazy as ever. Driving home feels like the Indian Jones ride, such an adventure. We were so happy to come back to our cute home, shower, relax and then crash in bed. Outside our window we watched fireflies and listened to the monkeys howlin’ away.
We did the canopy tour and it was amazing! It was a series of 7 connected ziplines through the jungle.
We saw lots of howler monkeys in the trees
They let Blake and I go tandem on one of the rides, so fun!
Pres, Blake and I tried going upside down on one ride
At the end you got to do a tarzan swing off a tower, ahhhhh I was so nervous but it was super fun.
Monday morning Blake and I woke up at six because we don’t like to shut our blinds. We went out on our porch and ate breakfast (yes, I do take my oatmeal everywhere, even Costa Rica!) The view was definitely not too shabby!
We went and walked along our beach when Pres and Sandy got up. It’s a great beach but no good for swimming because of riptides.
We chatted with the people at our hotel for a bit and got some ideas for things to do. They told us about a cute fishing town, San Juanillo 10 minutes away with a great swimming beach. We grabbed a quick popsicle out of the fridge (frozen juicebox, a little trick I learned in Africa!)
We ate lunch at a local favorite, Mundo Feliz and it was great. We went found a never-ending row of fireants carrying huge leaves back to their hole.
When we got down to the beach it was better than you could even dream up. We had the whole beach to ourselves, a shade tree to sit under, and bathtub water in the ocean….rough life I know!
We went swimming and then relaxed in the shade, read and napped in the shade. We headed back to our hotel after and changed our clothes for horseback riding. Our guide was Fernando and he literally didn’t speak a word of English. I got the baby horse that was super little and I was just fine with that. Poor Pres didn’t even get a real saddle, just riding blankets, gotta love riding horses outside of America!
In Spanish I was able to tell Fernando I am a dental hygienist and open your mouth, haha that is the extent of my Spanish. We rode up through the jungle and WOW my horse liked to run, don’t let his size fool you! I was terrified at 1st but eventually I got comfortable and had so much fun running. Every time my horse would take off Sandy would start laughing uncontrollably. I seriously think I had a racehorse, even Fernando couldn’t keep up! We went out to a gorgeous viewpoint and got some great shots.
It was down to the beach after that. Blake was happy that we finally got to ride through water.
Fernando was nervous because that tide was high and we were riding through a lot of unexpected water, and then it got too deep and dangerous…..so we forged our own path up a large hill into the jungle…….and yes it required Fernando to pull out his machete and create a pathway for us……..and yes he cut barbed wire with that machete. Talk about a real Costa Rican adventure!
Blake was in heaven and he is for sure an official Caballero! We hit another dead end in the jungle and it was getting pretty dark, you could tell he was thinking oh crap what have I done. Lucky me, as usual, I was attacked by mosquitos and no one else got any. Thankfully Blake found a gate along a barbed wire fence that eventually led us to the road. Of course my horses insisted on running the entire way back. We were all sore and tired when we finally got back. The award for the day went to Sandy, she had no fear and was totally a hard-core cowgirl WOOT WOOT!!!! We had a yummy dinner at our hotel and then went home to crash yet again.
Note to self......if your guide doesn't speak English he probably should be given a camera haha!
Pres and I took over camera duty the rest of the ride!
There were gorgeous red crabs all over the beach
Tuesday morning we had another lovely breakfast on our balcony and then set off to Santa Cruz to get gas (there is literally one place within a 1-2 hour radius where you can get gas), so you gotta plan ahead! We grabbed gas and then headed to Playa Avellana (a beach) and ate at Lola’s. The roads were even worse here and we had to 4-wheel through 2 rivers! The restaurant, Lola's, is named after a huge pig that lives there.
It was the cutest place EVER that blended right in with the scenery. We ate with our toes in the sand looking at the ocean and the food was great.
We had another beach day and it was perfect. We body-surfed, sun-bathed, napped and read under a shade tree.
There were crabs all over the beach so we had to move camp one time cause Nana and I got nervous!
Some locals showed us how to crack coconuts against the trees and drink the coconut water, I do not like the taste of that!
We grabbed our computer and headed to Casa Mango again to use the free wi-fi (to e-mail family at home so they’d know we were alive) and grab dinner. It was lovely as always, we LOVE the manager Alfredo, he is so sweet! We went to bed early because we had to get up so early the next morning!
They also have an awesome green parrot that speaks Spanish.
Some locals showed us how to crack coconuts against the trees and drink the coconut water, I do not like the taste of that!
We watched cute monkey’s and a puppy in the parking lot for a while and then headed home.
Wednesday morning we got up at 4:40 and got ready super fast and then hit the road for Tamarindo. It’s only 40km, about 25 miles, but it takes almost 2 hours to get there because the roads suck so bad! We met our guide there and he took us to Playa Flamingo, another 20 min away. We got our gear and then boarded a boat. They took us out to some islands about 20 min away called the Catalina Islands.
We went 60 ft and even though visibility wasn’t the best we still saw a ton of cool stuff……4 baby sharks, lots of fish, eels, puffer-fish, trumpet fish and lots more! I LOVED it! We surfaced, had a quick break and then went for a second dive. Right after we descended I got stung by a jellyfish and it killed….why does everything in Costa Rica only love me, mosquitos, jellyfish, racehorses haha! I had to make-up my own sign language to explain to Blake what happened. I swam like a retard the rest of the dive because my leg was burning but I didn’t wanna go up. Our guide found a puffer-fish and made it blow up. He let me pet it and then gave it to me to hold. It seriously felt like a balloon with wiskers, SO cool! I handed him off the Blake and then when he let go he swam away super slow with his bitty fins, so funny! The second dive was super fun but I was ready to go up at the end cause my leg hurt. I sprayed some vinegar on it when we got on the boat but it didn’t help much. It was definitely a successful trip, even though Sandy got mask squeeze and burst a few eye blood vessels.
When we got back to Tamarindo we grabbed a quick lunch and were going to go to the Tamarindo Beach, but it was too hot and crowded. We drove a few minutes to another more local beach. Everyone crashed under some shade again and I couldn’t put my Harry Potter book down! We had some dogs, chickens and a noisy rooster wandering right above our heads……and one dog peed on Sandy’s beach bag, we were dying laughing! The ride home seemed to take FOREVER because we were starving, but we got to see a pretty sunset.
We went to San Junillo for dinner at Buddha Bar and it was great. We got in the car and it felt like it was midnight, then we looked at the clock and it said 7:45 haha! We went home, showered and slept very soundly!
It was my first real dive and I loved it.
Thursday morning Blake and I woke up early, had breakfast out on the porch and then went for a walk. It was so fun to walk along the dirt roads and see all the locals. We walked to Casa Mango to use the free wi-fi. We were gonna buy or drink or something while we were there, but no one was there so we just sat at a table and did our thing. We were looking for an e-mail from someone we met at church with the contact for a tubing activity. We had success and found just what we were looking for and got all the info so we could book it. On our way back we saw lots of people and had a lovely nature tour………we heard some noisy horses and we got there just in time haha! We had front row seats right as the boy mounted the girl. They had some nice sexy time haha sooooo funny! We could not believe the size of his willy!
After that we walked a little further down the road and saw a momma pig with 5 of the cutest little piglets!
We stopped and watched them for a bit because they were seriously adorable. We packed up beach stuff and headed to the “front desk guy” Jonathan (who seriously looks like a Costa Rican version of my brother Nick…..we all thought the same thing the first time we saw him, so crazy!) He made some phone calls for us and got everything booked and then he was nice enough to let us take his surfboards for the day. Seriously the people there were so generous and sweet!
We headed to Playa Avellana and had lunch at Lola’s. We parked at the restaurant the rest of the day (they have the cutest table and beach chairs made of wood and we were right on the beach but under a bunch of shady trees).
Blake and I surfed on the boards for a bit until we discovered the sand was ruining my new suit :(. I ended up wearing just my rash guard on top the rest of the day. We both got on our feet on the boards for a sec, but had a lot more fun body surfing. It took me a while to catch my first one. We caught it together and I was screaming at him I was so excited, everyone around us was laughing.
We stayed out forever and had so much fun! We went back to our spot and read for a while. We had to leave around 4:30 because it takes a while to get home and it gets dark a little after 6. It started pouring on the way home! We ate a lovely dinner at our hotel but I was WAY too hungry and ate WAY too fast. My stomach hurt soooo bad and I thought I was gonna barf. I laid down and it finally settled. We packed up all our stuff because we had to check out super early the next morning and then hit the hay.
Friday morning we woke up at 4:30….so early! We hit the road and it was still a bit dark so the potholes were not easy to see! We had a long 2 ½ hour drive to Liberia to check into our hotel by the airport. We read SO many awful reviews about our hotel and we were nervous but it turned out to be better than we could have ever hoped for. We loved our Sanctuary! Everything was in great condition and we had our own private room and bathroom, we felt like kings and queens!
We dropped our luggage and then got back in the car for another hour to go to Ricon De La Vieja for our adventure tour. It was definitely waking up at the crack of dawn and driving forever! Unfortunately we didn’t get pictures of most of it because there was too much water and ways for it to break. Our first activity was zip-lining, repelling, rock climbing and rope swings.
I’m terrified of heights so this was a bit scary for me (45 ft repelling…..and yes Blake did it upside down), but it was over the most gorgeous river and we had SO much fun! After that we changed our cloths and went over to the horse corral. It started pouring rain and it was awesome! We got on our horses and ventured off into the jungle. It was so much and wet everywhere but the horses were SO surefooted, it was awesome. We got to go through rivers, saw a Toucan bird, and had SO much fun! We stopped to see a pretty waterfall and rode about 1 ½ hours. Blake was in heaven! We ended up at the site to prep for tubing. We got life-jackets, helmets and tubes. We got to ride down 22 rapids and tubes and it was quite a thrill. I promise it was WAY more scary than river rafting. We had so much fun watching each other tipping, spinning, and flying all over the place, Blake was laughing hysterically the whole time. Poor Blake was the only one of the 4 of us that tipped in some rapids and his legs took quite a beating :( It was literally one of the coolest things I’ve ever done! When we got out the took us to a restaurant by bus and we had a delicious lunch buffet. We saw these oxen out on the road and they let us get on and take a ride.
After lunch we went to a spa. We started in a sauna, then had a lovely mud bath (they forget to tell you the showers are freezing until after you are covered in mud), and then we ended in a hot spring.
The hot spring wasn’t very hot so we went back to the sauna in the end. It was an action packed day and we had a blast! We got back in our car and headed to our little motel. We had a yummy dinner at our hotel, even though we couldn't read a word of the menu haha! We hit the hay early because we had such an early morning the next day.
Our kitchen
Our couch, out those doors was an amazing view!
This morning we woke up at 4:08 to the sound of a gunshot.....AWESOME! We didn't really go back to sleep and then at 4:20 and got our stuff all ready to go. We hurried out to the car, got everything loaded and just as we were about to get in Sandy noticed our right back tire was completely deflated. Normally that is too much of a problem, unless you have a Costa Rican jack......wow. 4 different times the jack slipped out and the car fell down, poor Sandy was a nervous wreck!
Finally Blake flagged down a taxi and he had a much better jack. Once we got that under the car the boys changed it super fast, thank goodness for our manly men:)! We headed to the airport and rode our first flight to Houston. We had a 2 1/2 hour layover and stopped to get lunch at Ruby's diner! It was so nice to finally be able to read a menu so I could order something besides tacos or fajaitas (that was all I ever ordered because I knew that was usually a safe bet). Mmmmm my turkey burger was phenominal!!!! We rode another flight to Denver and now we are waiting for our last layover. We can't wait to see our families and share all our fun stories!!!!!!
SO fun! Looks like you guys had a blast! Costa Rica is on my bucket list! ;) Done with one trip and on the to next! WooHoo! :)
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