Third stop: Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica

We left La Fortuna heading for the ocean! We took a very twisty, turn-y, rocky, sometimes scary, slow-going trek out to the Nicoya Peninsula. I think it took us 5-5.5 hrs. We ate snacks on the road and also had our first run in (and only, thank goodness!) with the Costa Rican police. We were out in the middle of no where... lots of fields, very small towns here & there. We were ready to be at our next stop. The road was finally smooth (not golf ball size gravel) and we were making some time. Unfortunately the police had to be right there on the side of the road waiting for us. So we got pulled over. Told we were going 93 km (shown on the little radar gun). For those who don't know the conversion (I don't!) that would be about 57 mph. The highest speed limit on any Costa Rican road is 80 km (50 mph)... so incredibly slow. Sometimes it is good to go that slow because the road conditions are so poor... but sometimes you want to make up for those horrible road conditions when you have a nice road... but you can't. Or you're not suppose to. And you might get stopped like we did. So he tells us what the max speed limit is. He asks us where we are from and if this is our first time in Costa Rica. Then he walks over to his car to talk to the other police guy that was standing there. Mike then stashes some money from his wallet in the cup holder and I'm looking for our rental car documents (which he asked for but never looked at). A bit later he comes back with this spread sheet to show us. He asks us again if we'd ever been in Costa Rica (no!). Then he proceeds to tell us all the fines/fees for each of the columns (I don't even know what the heck each item was!) and then says "and that totals $700 US dollars" (or $700 & some change, can't remember exactly). I was like thinking- OMG! And I said, "we don't have that much." Mike says I said it panicked but I didn't think I sounded that way... I think I just sounded astounded. ;o) Then Mike said something about us not having that much & the police again asked if we'd ever been to Costa Rica. Again our answer was no. So then he says, ok, how much do you have? Mike opens his wallet & pulls out the equivalent to $65 US and tells him that is all we have. He says something about okay, he will take that for our ticket but we must not speed again, ya, ya, ya. Whatever. So we leave that whole ordeal with it confirmed that yeah, the police are as the travel books say- a bit crooked. And I spend the rest of our time in the car paranoid about having to pay off more police... watching Mike's speed, hassling him about it, and warning him of every police I see (and some I don't see). Fun times. :)

So with that out of the way, we continue on to the Nicoya Peninsula. We arrive a little while later at our next hotel, Tango Mar . We are greeted in the lobby with some yummy fresh juice drinks with the Costa Rican liquor- Guaro Cacique which is made from sugar cane. It was delish and perfect for the warm tropical climate to which we had just arrived. We were provided cold wet towels too which was really nice. :) We met the owner, Hilde, who is Belgian. We ended up seeing her everywhere during our stay... she is highly involved in the running of the hotel and it was always very pleasant to chat with her.

Here is the view from our balcony. LOVE LOVE LOVE seeing views like this throughout the day. :)

And here is our room (after we put stuff here & there!).

We were past the time for lunch so we had some more snacks to tide us over 'til dinner and headed off to the beach. Mike definitely was not wanting to play on the beach (he is not so into the hot weather or the sun) so he headed over to the shade and the hammocks after we checked out the ocean together.

Here is the view down the beach when we are in front of our hotel.

And the view down the other way. 

This is the main building at Tango Mar... where the restaurant we ate breakfast and dinner in is located along with the lobby and spa services. The hammocks Mike enjoyed a lot are in this picture as well.

And here is where our hotel was... it was on the 2nd floor, 3rd balcony over from the right. This hotel also has little bungalows on the property.

Here are the kids getting into the water for the first time:



The tide is super strong here on the Nicoya Peninsula so we didn't ever really do any swimming. Just walking in and holding tight onto the kids hands. :) They liked to run in and out of the waves which was fine as long as they didn't go far into them. They did get knocked down a few times before it was all said and done but they were both troopers about it.

Various pictures of the beach... the top left picture is a hermit crab. We enjoyed finding them in the sand and the kids eventually worked up enough nerve to hold them. :)

More beach pictures (and hermit crab). The second top picture is Bella carrying a coconut she found. She filled it with water (it was just the shell) and she is walking, struggling to carry the weight. (She is doing the same thing in the bottom picture too.) Mike has "Dad" written in front of him but it won't show up in the collage. :(

Another thing we loved doing here is finding lizards and taking their picture. Then trying to get close and scaring them away. :)

Here is Bella in the pool (this is the middle pool) and the view from the pool. No pics of Jackson this time... he is in the room getting a much needed nap. We had been at lunch and he started nodding off while eating. Then when he finished eating Mike picked him up to take him to the room for his nap. (naps were few and far between on this trip and Jackson is a solid 2 hr napper! Not to mention late nights and early mornings. They played a toll on him.) Jackson got very angry to have to go to the room for a nap and threw a huge fit... screaming VERY loudly in the restaurant, hitting Mike as he carried him off, and then biting his shirt!! He gets angered to the extreme when he is tired! So anyway, Bella spent time in the pool while he was napping and I read pool side.

Me on the beach.

 Here is the little lunch spot which is right by the pools.

And this was one of my favorite meals on the trip. It is a cold fish ceviche salad (so fish "cooked" in lemon juice) with plantain chips. The ceviche was perfect for lunch on a hot day, very refreshing. The plantain was made with mashed plantain formed into a patty & then fried. So it was crisp on the outside but a little soft in the middle. I have never had anything like it and it was very yummy!

Breakfast was included in the hotel cost at this resort and it was served buffet style with loads of tropical fresh fruit, cheese, breads, eggs, meats, yogurt, gallo pinto, and a few other dishes that were changed different each day. 

The lunch selections were similar to what you'd see in a cafe.

Dinners were served on the balcony outside at the main restaurant with the ocean directly across. It was always dark when we ate (it gets dark around 6pm as I mentioned in an earlier post) and so you couldn't see the water or beach but you could hear the crashing waves. Lots of seafood choices were on the menu as you might guess and Mike and I enjoyed the dishes we had. They did have resort price tags (on the high side) but we survived. :) 

This is the pool right next to the lunch area. There were 3 pools that were on 3 levels but right next to one another. Jackson is on the steps & Bella is climbing out. 

They have a little trail back behind the main hotel lobby/restaurant area that leads up to an overlook. I'm not really sure we made it to the overlook area... we made it to a clearing that we decided was going to be the overlook (it was really hot!). On the way there, they had a little hanging bridge which the kids liked. And here is also the view from the "overlook". 

We stayed 2 nights at Tango Mar and enjoyed the sun, the beach, the pools, and the food. When we left we decided to go a different route back taking the ferry... the hotel staff said that it was a quicker way to go than the route we took on our way here. More on that next time!

Next stop: La Fortuna, Costa Rica- Arenal Volcano

 After two nights at our first stop in Costa Rica, we headed on to our next stop: La Fortuna, Costa Rica, home of Arenal Volcano (Volcan Arenal). While we were sad to leave the luxurious Peace Lodge, we were excited to see more of Costa Rica. It took a couple of hours (maybe 3?? can't remember!) to get to our next hotel, Hotel Los Lagos. During our drive, the temperatures got a bit warmer... somewhere in the 80 degree range, I'd say. We stopped off at a little shopping mall on the way and got lunch at a grocery store inside. It was a bit odd to see a security guard at the entrance of the mall & we were unsure whether to tip him on the way out (couldn't find anything in the guide book either although I do remember reading something about this at some point). The mall had some interesting looking shops including one shop called H&M with no actual H&M clothing in sight (at least not the H&M I'm familiar with!!). The kids were excited to get a coconut from the grocery store produce section that came with a straw to poke in it for drinking. :)

As we were getting closer to our hotel we began to see the volcano. The volcano is 5,437 feet and is currently in a resting phase. They had lava eruptions up until 2010! Even though it is not erupting currently, there is still smoke coming out of the top (see video below).


Here are some pictures of the volcano from our drive in, from our back porch, and from an outlook point on our hotel property.

And the video of the volcano in action.



These are from the little outlook point... I guess you get a little bit less of an obstructed view & are slightly closer. :)

On the hotel property, near the restaurant, they have a trail that as many tropical plants and some exhibits you can look at. Here are some of the eye catching flowers & plants we found. The one with my fingers is a very small pineapple and then the bottom right corner is the pineapples on the plant.

Crocodile in this area... Jackson loved seeing this guy.

We loved spotting lizards & taking photos. So exciting for everyone! Even the kids. ;o)

On our second day in this area we headed into town for lunch at a yummy pizza place that was mentioned in our travel guide - Vagabondo. Oh and on our first night in town, we ate at a local restaurant that had a good review in our travel guide as well- Soda Viquez. Sodas are like their casual restaurants... not quite fast food because you do sit down to eat and order from a server, but a casual setting with menu items that are budget friendly. Mike and I both had a traditional casado which is a plate of traditional foods. I had the fish which had rice as well as a beet salad, baked plantains, and a few other things. It was delish. Now back to the pizza place... They make wood fired pizzas and they were sooo good!

After lunch we headed further into town to find some dessert. We found ice cream for the kiddos and then Mike and I found some coffee (well a frozen coffee of some sort). The large picture below is the town square taken while we sat at the coffee place. Then of course the kids and Mike in that same restaurant. 

 And here is Jackson with his extremely messy ice cream cone. It was not such a good idea (Mike's, btw) because he has not yet figured out how to eat ice cream fast. He actually is a very slow licker who will not take bites nor lick any faster. So I ended up holding his ice cream to keep his hands from getting even more messy and here I am trying to encourage him to eat faster before it all melts away onto my  hands. No such luck. I ended up throwing it out before he finished and needing to go back to the restaurant to use the bathrooms to do some major clean up.

 I'm getting the events of the day a little scrambled but no biggie, right? Upon waking up we headed down to eat breakfast (buffet included with room) which included all the usual... eggs, cheeses, fruit, breads, gallo pinto (rice & beans), and some meats.

After breakfast we took another walk down the trail and viewed some of the exhibits that were closed the prior day like these leaf cutter ants.  They were pretty cool to watch cut the leaf into a smaller portion and take it along a branch over to the ant "hill". In the far left corner you can see the ant cutting away a portion of the leaf. The right side is their home of tunnels that you could view behind glass.

 We also viewed the butterfly area (no pictures unfortunately) and another frog habitat. We then went to swim in the pools ... they have a regular pool and then a series of pools that are fed by the hot springs that comes off of the volcano area (not exactly sure how all that works so I can't really go into detail!). The further you go up, the hotter the pools got. We hit the first hot spring pool and that was plenty hot for us on such a warm day! We ordered some cold drinks from the pool bar and the kids enjoyed drinking virgin piña coladas out of a large pineapple. We got to see a couple lizards from our seats in the pool and saw a big one jump into the water from the ledge. It was pretty cool!

The pools had some slides but Isabella couldn't be talked into going down them. It's probably a good thing though because Mike went down them both and said that they were pretty rough! Isabella made a little friend that she played with and Jackson checked out the pool up near the top of the water slide with the water volcano in it. 

I didn't get any photos of our room (it wasn't anything special although the view of the volcano was nice. Here are some more pictures of the property. Our hotel is the one in the bottom left picture w/ the white car out front. We had to hike up and down this hill to get to breakfast. Down wasn't bad at all but coming back up with the kids in tow on a hot day required much effort on everyone's part... the kids wearing out fast & us having to drag them up it!  The hanging bridge was one leading up to the hotel's zip line. Unfortunately we didn't realize that the hanging bridge tour was out of this area or we would have been on a lot of hanging bridges. :( AH well... something for next time!

Costa Rica, here we come! (travel day & Peace Lodge)

We have been planning a trip to Costa Rica for the longest, it seems. It might have been in the works for a year and a half maybe. Long time. We were so excited to finally go! The kids were pretty excited as well, especially since we'd been talking it up for so long.

We drove down to Dallas on Monday... we were totally relaxed about getting down there- we really just needed to eat there & then sleep. Unfortunately we got caught up in Dallas rush hour traffic combined with some crazy construction so our dinner ended up being a bit late and therefore we got to bed a bit late. This was not so good because we had to be up at about 5am the next morning to get to the airport in time to catch our 855am flight. (I think the kids were asleep around 1030p!! They need 12 hrs of sleep!!). So needless to say, we were quite tired. The kids were troopers though and did really pretty well.

Of course we get to the airport and it is the hurry up so you can wait kind of deal... show up 2 hrs early so you can sit and spend money in the airport. ;o) 

Here are Isabella and Jackson passing time, watching movies on their tvs with their new headsets. 

And here is Jackson... on our first flight, sleeping. He was eating his snack and before too long he couldn't keep from just passing out. Of course then I am trying to wedge my arm under his head so he won't do the head bob so much and hopefully catch up on some missed sleep. We flew from Dallas to Miami... then to Costa Rica. That was a pretty long day!! 

When we landed in Costa Rica it was mid afternoon. But then we had to go to the rental car place, do all the paperwork (which seemed to take forever!), and then get the car. So we drove out of San José (the capitol) while it was light out but arrived at our hotel after dark. Due to Costa Rica's location, they have an early sunrise (a little after 5am) and an early sunset (a little before 6pm!!). So Mike was driving on some pretty crazy roads up to our first hotel in the dark. As a general rule, their roads are narrow, full of potholes (or if they are gravel they have HUGE rocks mixed in with the gravel), and very curvy as they wind around the different elevations. Add to that people walking on the sides of the roads and drivers that don't exactly follow many rules of the road and it can get pretty intense. Thankfully our GPS got us to the hotel without any problems and Mike navigated the roads well. Our first hotel was about an hour from the capitol. We stayed at the Peace Lodge and La Paz Waterfall Gardens in Vara Blanca.

I got us checked in and we freshened up in our hotel room before dinner. We couldn't see much of the property in the dark but it seemed immense. And our hotel room was a knock out! The kids were so excited. (Pictures below.) Dinner was lovely (although a bit on the spendy side due to this being a resort) and the kids enjoyed the fire. The temps were a bit cool due to the higher elevation, but lovely (in the 60s at night, 80s on a sunny day).

After dinner we headed back to the room and hopped into the hot tub on our balcony. A fun way to bathe, have fun as a family, and relax after a long day of traveling. Disregard my black eyes, that is only my mascara running. :-O

The following day we actually got to see our surroundings and how beautiful everything was!! We had a lovely breakfast of fruit, eggs, bread, and gallo pinto (their traditional black beans and rice that they eat at breakfast which is quite good... gallo pinto means spotted rooster for the appearance of the black beans & white rice). It was actually buffet style breakfast with an omelet station along with many more dishes, but I list the things I ate. :)

After breakfast we set out do walk the hotel's waterfall gardens. (We were hiking, for the kids sake, but really it was just a short walk... a little over 2 miles. The kids thought they needed to be carried by the end of it though! Ha!) The waterfalls were gorgeous, the greenery was amazing, and the temperature was perfect. It actually got a bit cool by one waterfall where you were enveloped in this thick mist. I believe the high elevation in the bottom picture is the Poas Volcano... the website says it can be seen from the dinning area and this picture was taken at breakfast. (All our meals in Costa Rica were eaten outside, sometimes in a covered area w/ no walls, sometimes just completely outside. It was very nice to eat and enjoy all the stunning views although Mike would beg to differ on some of the hotter locations.)

I didn't even realize, until now, that my eyes were closed on this one! :) Bella's might even be closed too.

At the end of the walk (I mean hike) you can take the bus back to the lodge. My first thought was- ah, we can probably walk back, it's not that long of a walk! But upon hear my kids whining at the end of the hike, I knew we'd be taking the bus. ;o) Poor Jackson & his short legs, he just wears out quickly.

The collage below is kind of a mixed bag. The middle picture, with the animals, we saw at the end of the waterfall hike. They are coati mundis. Kind of raccoon like, but not. There was also a couple raccoons nearby and one of the raccoons was actually hissing every time one of the coatis came near. Enemies? Or just a grumpy raccoon? Not sure.

The picture of me and the kids in the left corner is at a coffee plantation, Doka Estate, which is actually where Starbucks gets some of their Costa Rican coffee. It is a small family owned plantation (a couple generations family owned). Costa Rica only contributes about 4% of the coffee beans in the coffee industry, but from what we drank on our trip, it is pretty good coffee! We ate lunch at the plantation (a buffet of traditional foods including plantains cooked similarly to how we do sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving. Well, minus the marshmallows. Also a yummy coconut dessert that tasted very similarly to an mounds bar... had to sing that little song to remember the name of the candy bar! "Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't! Almond Joy's got nuts, Mounds don't." Haha.). We then took the coffee tour where we learned about how they grow, harvest, and process coffee. Very interesting stuff! If only the kids were half as interested as we were. :) Anyway, back to the picture... behind us are bananas which you can also see in the picture below that one.

On the way back I fascinated Mike with my Spanish speaking ability in that I was able to find the ATM by reading the signs. But then he proceeded to critique my abilities the rest of the trip when I couldn't come up with every single translation to every Spanish word he asked me. It's not like you can really cover the whole language in 2 semesters a year for 1 hour a week, for the past 1.5 years. We're really focusing on grammar anyway. Anyway, I digress... I did know the important things in Spanish- like ATM (which isn't ATM, btw).

Now on to the hotel. It was so very lovely! We had our own door plate with our name on it. We had a specific butterfly that we had to memorize in order to get our meal bills charged to our room (this was a struggle but luckily for us it was on our door key). We had our own fireplace (that we didn't use), a shower that was a waterfall (very interesting to shower under) and another waterfall next to the bath tub. The light fixture in the bathroom was amazing (the iron leaf fixture in the far right picture), the sinks were beautifully painted, and there was even stained glass in a little window between the main room and the bathroom. I've already mentioned the jacuzzi on the porch and there was also a hammock as well. Isabella was dying to sleep in the large bed with the canopy but we managed to get them to sleep together (first time ever and so cute to see!). It was all kind of amazing. And I kind of wished we were going to stay there longer than 2 nights. :)

And here are the kids sleeping together on that first night (we put them on cushions on the floor b/c I was really worried one of them would fall off of the high bed and hit their head on the fireplace). I have no idea why her hand is on his head.

and the hammock. I wish I had gotten more time to relax in this thing!

The second night at the lodge we went on a frog safari which the kids loved (especially Jackson since he has totally been in to Diego and all the rainforest animals). They had these two rooms with lots of plants and of course frogs. We were given flashlights (and had a couple of our own) and we were shown where the frogs hang out (inside the leaves) and then we set off to find them. The first room was the poisonous frogs. But no need to be alarmed, apparently, because they are not so poisonous when they are not eating the things they eat in the wild (who knew??). The big concern would be if you had any cuts on your hands (or wherever you touched the frog). So the kids just looked at these frogs. Our tour guide did hold them for us to see (the green spotted one in the far left corner is one of them). They are so very tiny!!

The next room had bigger frogs (but not huge) and none were poisonous. The big attraction (for Jackson, anyway) was the red eyed tree frog. He knew this frog from Diego and he loves them! It was so exciting to see Jackson get to hold one! Isabella did too and she really enjoyed this safari as well. (See, it is a bit chilly- the kids are wearing their fleece jackets! But this would be the only time on the trip that we needed them.)

We also got to see their traditional ox cart at the Peace Lodge. I guess you can ride in this one?? Not sure, we just saw it there and took a picture with it. ;o) You would think they don't use these anymore (that's what I thought) but then later on our trip we saw these huge oxen pulling a cart (not an ornate painted cart, just a regular one) next to the palm (palm oil) plantation. These things are HUGE!

We swam in the hotel pool on the 2nd day after the coffee tour. It was a divided pool with an infinity edge- one side was cold and the other warm. We stuck to the warm pool- it was already an overcast day & a little cool. You can see in the picture that the humidity made things a little foggy. We learned from a gentleman using the hot tub that the pool had a working waterfall. So I got out and pushed the button and down it came. (Isabella enjoyed it!)

The last day at the lodge we went to feed the hummingbirds. They have amazingly beautiful hummingbirds in Costa Rica. I've always been a bit amazed by hummingbirds- the speed at which they beat their wings, how they flitter in and out, how you never really get a good look at them for very long. Well feeding them was so neat! They hung around long enough for you to really get a good look at them and flew close enough for you to hear and feel the fast beat of their wings. The kids were even able to be still enough (which wasn't too terribly still) to have them land on their "flower". So cool!

These purple ones were my favorite.

There were many things to see and do at this hotel. We visited all the animals in the sanctuary and went through the butterfly garden (unfortunately I didn't capture many butterfly pictures this whole trip, even though we went to many butterfly gardens!!). It was a very lovely place and the staff was all very friendly. We'd definitely like to return (and I know the kids would too!).