Last day in Manuel Antonio & departing Costa Rica

On the last day in the Manuel Antonio area (and essentially the last day of our vacation since we would be flying out the very next day), Mike and Isabella went on their canopy tour and Jackson & I hung out around the hotel.

Here are some pictures of Jackson and my day.

 At breakfast with Jackson.

The view from our breakfast table. 

Our first lizard spotting for the day.

After a pretty long walk Jackson was getting fussy and wanting me to carry him. Thankfully we happened upon this super docile lizard and he provided a good little break from our hot walk. Jackson was actually able to touch this lizard where all the other ones dart as soon as anyone gets near. 

I think this is Jackson trying to give it a leaf. I was telling Jackson he wouldn't bite only later to hear from Mike that they can. Who knew??

            

This is a plane that is actually converted into a hotel room at the same hotel we stayed at.

After getting hot on our walk we took one last swim in the pool. We then gathered up our stuff, checked out of the hotel, and then waited for Mike & Bella to return from their trip. 

 

Isabella and Mike's Canopy Tour (this section is narrated by Mike):

We had been talking about a canopy tour for literally weeks, if not months, before we went down to Costa Rica.  Isabella was super excited about it, and I was super excited to get to share it with her, because I hoped it would be a great experience for her.  We nearly booked one at our second hotel, but I decided to hold off and find one that was independent of a hotel.  So at our last stop I had seen a number of signs around town and some material in the room about canopy tours. I talked with the desk staff at the hotel about what was available, they were encouraging and recommended one tour above all of the others for which they had literature.  I wanted to make sure that I could stay really close to my girl on the tour, and I was assured that we would be close together.  I actually thought he said that Isabella would be going with a guide tethered to her, but I must have misunderstood that...

Anyway, for those of you who are thoroughly acquainted with Isabella, you know that she is a pretty "girly" girl. She also inherited much of her father's lack of grace.  So going into the day, I sort of expected it to be a little rough.  She had been running an average of 1.7329 skinned knees per day on the trip and a crying fit about every 1.326 hours.  There are a lot of ways to get injured and skinned up in Costa Rica, especially if your parents like to see animals and waterfalls and stuff like that.

Come the morning of our canopy tour i got up at six-fifteen, jumped in the shower, dressed, and then woke Isabella at twenty until seven.  She awakened with a smile on her face and was raring to go.  She got dressed semi-quietly and we slipped out of the room so that Mommy and Jackson could continue sleeping, which I'm sure they did.  Mommy loves her sleep, and she will, as a rule, sleep as long as she is allowed to or until at least 10 :) Isabella and I were down at the front desk of the hotel at ten until seven waiting for the van to pick us up for our adventure.  The van arrived just a few minutes late, but we hopped on board and off we went...down to the area near Manuel Antonio park to see if there were any last minute stand around participants, which there were not.  Then off to the canopy tour office to sign a release and meet up with a few other folks from other hotels.  I was reassured to see several ACCT signs posted around the office.  Oddly enough, I had not even considered course certification up until the time I saw those signs.  I guess I was very much in tourist mode.  We visited for a few minutes with the other guests (all of them were from the U.S. if I remember correctly) then loaded on to a big van for the drive up into the jungle.  The lead guide, Jorge, kept everyone interested and sometimes entertained with tidbits about the area's history, flora and fauna, and funny stories.  He told us that driving over the very rough roads in the country is called a "Costa Rican massage" and showed us the best plant to use for jungle toilet paper, which information thankfully we did not need. We finally arrived at our destination (nearly an hour drive up into the jungle) and unloaded.  We sat down to eat breakfast.  Eggs, gallo pinto (no avoiding that at breakfast), fruit, bread, and juice. Then we geared up.

Up until now Isabella had maintained her remarkably cheerful demeanor.  She seemed really excited and a little impatient with any delay, like the drive and the breakfast.  Once she got a seat harness and helmet on, she was really raring to go.  We immediately made our first zip line traverse, which was a really short one just across a small creek to get us to the trailhead, then we had a pretty long uphill hike to get to the rest of the canopy tour.  I'm talking close to half a mile, all uphill, in very warm and humid jungle.  You can see by the photos that my girl was cheerful the entire time.  Not one complaint, no whining or fussing, and most amazingly, no injuries.  She was as sure footed as a little mule, even though she was wearing the same shoes that she had complained about the day before.  I think it helped that she had socks on for this...

We finally got to the top of the trail and made ready for a series of zips, rappels, and one Tarzan swing. It turned out that Isabella did not go tethered to a guide, but rather just was clipped in like all the other participants.  She was right ahead of me and we stayed very close together the entire tour, always within arms reach when on a platform. Isabella took to it like she was born to it (which I suppose she may have been:)).  She never showed the tiniest hint of being nervous or afraid - even when bigger kids (or sometimes full grown adults) were crying, literally. So...I guess I'll let the photos speak for themselves.  I guess the only other thing I want to say is that I was (am) very proud of my BIG, BIG girl.

Leslie's part:  After they returned from their trip we headed off to eat lunch at El Wagon which was also owned by our hotel but up the road a short bit. It had some sort of converted train car that you could dine in or the outside patio with a lovely mosaic tile floor. We ate outside (of course) & had a really nice meal. I had a fish wrap which was probably my 2nd favorite meal in Costa Rica. It was delish. While there, our waiter told us that we could look over the patio railing & see an agouti which is basically a large tropical rodent. :) There were several of them & I thought they were pretty cute. You don't really get the size in this picture but I'd say they are maybe twice as big as a squirrel?? 

After lunch we made the drive back to the capital and to our hotel where we would be staying our final night in Costa Rica. :(  We got in after dark and only had time to eat and then get the kids to bed. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that this hotel had a rental car agency in it and actually the same one that we rented from so we were able to return our car that night at the hotel rather than waking up even earlier in the morning to try & find the other rental agency to go through the whole return deal there. So this was a major time saver for us and allowed us some extra sleep and peace of mind.

This is a picture coming into San Jose. We were very surprised to see a different side of San Jose than what we saw when we came in. The area we drove through after getting our rental car was a poor section with lots of small shops and cramped driving conditions. Coming into San Jose from Manuel Antonio we saw a more metropolitan side with lots of tall buildings and a large highway. 

And here are the kiddos on the return flight. Doing pretty well for having to get up around 5am in the morning to get on our 8:35am flight. This was an easier travel day as it was a straight flight from San Jose to Dallas. 

 



After arriving in Dallas we took a shuttle to our hotel (the one we stayed at before leaving on our trip) & picked up our car. Then after a quick lunch we headed back to OKC. We were sad to be done with our vacation but so happy about the fun times we had! We can't wait to go on another trip. :)