Costa Rica, Vista Royal Trip 2016: July 2016

Thursday, July 28, 2016

Isla Tortuga

July 25-27

What a beautiful and magical place on our earth. When my mom mentioned that this might be a good spot to meet up after their two week trip around Costa Rica, we had no idea how beautiful it would be. We were able to catch some great pictures, but of course, I feel like the pictures do not do it justice.

We stayed at Vista de las Islas Hotel, high up on the point overlooking the bay. It took us just over 3 hours to get their from Playa Garza. Most of the drive was smooth, on nice paved roads, but the last part was ROUGH! Steep, dirt roads twisting and winding around the mountains made for a pretty slow drive. It gave us time to look for perezosos (slothes), but to no avail. We have yet to find one in the trees.

The next day we headed out to catch our boat at the ferry stop near Paquera. We had no idea what to expect for this tour (big boat or small, crowded or not) so when we found out it was just our family and one other from Barcelona, we were happy. We took a speed boat over to Spider Monkey Island in search of these cute little ones, but no luck. We thought we found them when Jackson shouted that he saw something move on the cliff. It turned out to be this very fuzzy anteater (which was pretty cool too see). He was too fast, so we could not get a picture.

Before arriving to the island, we stopped at a rock jetting out of the ocean to snorkel. We saw some pretty beautiful fish in the crystal clear water.

The island was amazing, we have been wishing to see some turqoise blue water, and that wish came true. I could have stayed there for weeks!

It was super fun to hang out with yet another new international family. They had 3 kids, 7, 10 and 11. They spoke Spanish, Catalan and some English. Jackson and Max (7) were quick friends and Gracie and Arianna (10) warmed up to each other and had a blast swimming all day.

It really could not have been a more perfect day!

Weekend Time

July 22-24

The kids had so much fun at their last day of camp. It was such a great thing to have them do in the middle of our trip. They meet some great friends, learned how to surf and enjoyed themselves everyday. The camp closed on Friday for the slow season, so they had a party!

On Saturday, we hung out and had a pretty nice relaxing day. I attended a yoga workshop and learned so much! I attempted my first handstand and overcame my fears that I could not do it. The yoga instructor was so encouraging and patient. It was AWESOME!

Sunday we had a photographer take some family pictures. This photographer took pictures of the kids surfing at camp last week. He is from La Jolla, which is pretty convenient. He used to live in Nosara, so he took us to some new spots to get some cool shots. At our last stop we took pictures at a waterfall. Everything was going so well, he was great with the kids and super friendly. Not 5 minutes before leaving, some local Ticos (kinda drunk I think- as it was a local holiday) decided to climb up the face of the waterfall. It was a pretty tight spot were we all were (it is a really small waterfall), I could see what was about to happen. As they climbed up higher, they began to pull down rocks that had come lose. We made a smart decision to get out of there quick before more came tumbling down. Unfortunately, we did not escape quick enough. A rock came flying down and bounced in just the right (or wrong) spot and split open my shin. I knew right away it was bad. I looked down saw how deep it as and just started making my way down. I had to hobble, trying to keep the cut closed. I am sure I looked super graceful. It was quite a walk back to the car, through sand, rivers and over tree trunks. After the 20 minute drive back to town, the photographer knew exactly which surf shop to stop at to ask if they could call the doctor. (It was a holiday, so doctor's office wasn't open) They got ahold of the doc and he was waiting for me with the stitches when we arrived. I had to get 3 stitches (first ones in my life for an injury). All is well now and I am so grateful that it wasn't any worse (like a rock hitting a kid or big rocks on our heads).

After getting stitched up and on some good pain meds, we spent the rest of the day at the beach. Grace met a local girl, Camila, and had a ball jumping in the waves for hours.

Costa Rican mode of transportation

Lalo's frozen yogurt and Cafe de Paris tart

Dinner with our new friends from Israel

She caught a baby gecko

Mamon Chino drink

Thursday, July 21, 2016

Gracie's Blog Post #2

Nosara Kids Camp-

At camp we went surfing. There is a girl name Paola she helps me go surfing. Now I could go surfing by myself. After we do little activity and do a lot of fun stuff. We get to do a project like a wood project and it looks like a surfboard and we got to paint it. Also we got to do like this project that had wood pieces and y my friend Skyler and I made a sign so people don't go so fast when you are driving. There is this ice cream place named Robin it is the best ice cream place ever well I think I had a mango and I loved it so much my brother had chocolate my dad had a cookie my mom had ice cream named coconut lemon. We went to a pizza place in the pizza was pretty good I kind of like it but not really. At the pizza place we were walking on the beach and there was this dog that was attacking my mom and biting her.

Pura Vida! Can you please make a comment on my blog so I know you read it.

Sunday, July 17, 2016

Not sure what day it is...

Fruit smoothies for breakfast

Can you name the friut?

Fruit cocktails at night- passion fruit

Lazy days at the beach

Watching the Euro Cup at the Guilded Iguana

Lunch time

Day who knows...

We have begun to truly adapt to the Pura Vida lifestyle. This week has flown by, days have begun to blend into one another. They are full of doing a whole lot of nothing, mixed in with a lot of adventure. We have arrived at home each evening tired, sun-kissed and ready for bed each night.

Highlights from this past week:

Kids participated in a week long camp at Nosara Kids Camp

Kids surfed everyday
Some activities they did were yoga, beach clean up, arts and crafts, went to a climbing wall and learned about ocean preservation

Met a cool family from Israel

Jackson had his first international playdate with Liam and then we met up with the family at a locals only kind of restaurant. Naomi works for Google in Israel. It was super interesting hearing about life in Israel, how things are so similar, yet so different. She was born in the Netherlands, has lived in England, Australia, New Zealand and now Israel. They are looking into relocating to the USA or other part of the world, one reason is becuase they want their kids to be fluent in English. It was so fun to watch Gracie and Elli playing together using sign language, both girls are super verbal in their native languages so it was challenging, but they made it work. Liam speaks enough to get by and the boys had so much fun swimming, playing Taki (Israeli version of UNO) and games on the internet. They will be in town as long as we are, so I am sure we will be hanging out with them more this week. Liam and Jackson will be going to a new Spansh immersion camp two days this coming week, and the girls will do another week at Nosara Kids Camp.

Found the best local ice cream shop-Robins

Coconut lime and mango are our favorites so far
Sekreets Gelato is a close second

Uncle Scott arrived and rented a fun ATV

So helmets and speed limits are not really used here in town. Could be because you can't really drive that fast on pothole dirt road that are usually big mud pits, but it still makes me uncomfortable. I plan on taking it out this week to explore some of the back roads in our neighborhood.
We also will go on a ATV tour later this month to some local waterfalls- La Mala Noche

Jackson learned to surf all on his own

He is loving the independence of paddling out on his own and catching his own waves.
We are battling surfers chafing- any suggestions??

Went fishing

Within the first 10 minutes the first fish bit our line. Jackson got to real him in, it was a huge Spanish Mackerel. In 1.5 hours we caught a TON of fish; Spanish Mackerel, Jack Fish, Black Tuna, Red Snapper, Pargo and others I cannot remember their names
Made homemade ceviche from the Spanish Mackerel we caught
Learned how to clean a fish- scales and all

While we are so glad to have internet here we are learning it is not like at home

Updating the blog is challenging, one minute you are connected, the next the power had flipped of for a minute
We found out today it is DSL...didn't know that still exisited
Uploading pictures is no fun...the wait is LONG

Ate lunch at the local Mini Super Kami..kabobs straight of the grill
Finally found the local grocery store

We have been "shopping" for food at local convenient stores... not easy. Imagine having to go to 7/11 for every meal. I have had to get pretty creative and we have been eating lots of eggs, beans and rice. I'm excited to go get real food!

Drank my first PIPA (cold coconut water straight from coconut)

They sell them on the side of the road for a dollar. When it is super hot and muggy outside nothing quenches your thirst like a cold coconut cut open right in front of you.

Went to 3 Yoga classes

All three were very different, the last one I was able to do a full backbend!
This week I am going to try Rope Yoga and maybe even Aerial Yoga

Eric got a TICA massage
Went to La Luna restaurant (one of the only ones on the beach in all of Nosara region)

The food was amazing
The view was amazing
The service was amazing
The stray dogs on the beach...not so amazing. We went down to take a sunset picture and this stray beagle dog came right up to me (so far all the strays have been so nice and friendly) and started rubbing his nose in my long beach dress. At first I was fine with it, but then he started to get frisky and if you know me, I am scared of dogs, so this did not make me feel too great. I asked my bro in law to help get the dog away from me (he loves dogs). The dog got pissed and started to growl, nip and snap at my legs and feel. Internally I was FREAKING OUT! The dog had me pinned down by my dress so I could not move, all the people on the beach started to try to help me by making loud noises and pushing the dog away. I was finally able to get my dress free and all on the beach made a mad dash to the restaurant. The waiters must know this psycho dog, because they spent the rest of the night snapping him away with their dish towels. A few glasses of wine helped calm my nerves.

Uncle Scott watched some monkeys get electrocuted

So sad...I had just finished videoing this cute dad and baby monkey when not 10 minutes later they got zapped and ended up being the local vultures dinner. It is a major problem around here. There is a local foundation that helps with this..check out this site. http://sibusanctuary.org/

Spent some time exploring town while kids at camp

ATV riding

Found a short cut from one beach to another, it was super fun driving through an alley/river to get to the other side

The ocean brings in different shells everyday

Went to Playa Pelada for a walk, watched the tide come in and rush up through a blowhole near the beach

Learned how hard it is to drive at night on dirt roads with very questionable headlights

Almost drove us off into a ditch

Had our second ant invasion

Nothing stopping a swarm of thousands from passing through the house area. All we could do was stay out of the way
We have seen so many cool new bugs this week
One very persistent lizard who was determined to get inside, he won