Today we spent the day driving to La Fortuna. Not having a data plan and driving out in the jungle on dirt roads is a little nerve-racking. Luckily I had gotten directions on Google Maps while we had wifi at the house and somehow (not sure how) we could see on the map on my phone where we were the whole way. So even "without" technology, we still have technology. We decided not to purchase an international plan because with Verizon it was just too expensive. So far we haven't really needed it, we have wifi at the house (and many local restaurants and hangouts) and a portable local phone for emergency calls. I could get used to this type of "disconnect".
It took us around 6 hours to get to Arenal, we stopped at a very cute restaurant half way, Mi Finca, that was also an animal rescue center. They had Macaws and iguanas hanging out in the trees, the first Macaws (and only so far) that we have seen.
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| First macaw |
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| My favorite new Costa Rican food- patacones (green plantains cooked and eaten with black beans and guacamole.) |
The drive was just beautiful, changing around every turn. First we were in the jungle, then rolling hills that looked like Switzerland, to farmland, then back to jungle. We hit severe winds on our way there, it was crazy. One part of the drive included driving behind a semi hauling some kind of windmill part (like the ones in Palm Springs). It was SLOW!
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| This picture does not do this semi justice. It took up more than his half of the road, no one could get by on the other side and we were moving at a snail's pace. |
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| Big sky |
Our second stop was at Lake Arenal Brewery. It was a lovely quick stop, had a GREAT piña blond.
We finally made it to Los Lagos Resort and Spa. We really did not know what to expect, and boy did this place exceed our expectations. I hope the pictures explain how awesome this place is.
We all crashed, couldn't even get out of bed to see the fireworks that someone was shooting off for us Americanos.
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| JJ read the entire Archie comic book on this drive! |
Day 8 7.5.16
The hotel had breakfast included every morning, so we filled up on papaya, melon, pina, local breads and meats. We were so lucky to find out that the resort had their own butterfly, frog, crocodile and ant attractions. We were able to see all of these up close!
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| Tree frog enclosure- red minis everywhere! |
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| Dad joined in on the search for the little reddies. |
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| Pineapples growing at the resort. |
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| Patiently waiting for a butterfly to land on her finger. |
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| My actress- coming through the butterfly "stage curtain" |
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| Another of the actress |
Spent the morning and afternoon swimming in the thermal baths, walking up to the observation point for the volcano, going down waterslides and drinking fun drinks.
In the afternoon we drove over to Mistico to take a tour on the hanging bridges. We were hoping to see some wildlife on this tour, but it was not to be. Our tour guide was "interesting". I think we drew the short straw on this tour. He was spacey, could not speak Spanish or English, felt like he had to show us every ant hill on the 4 mile hike and told us waaaaayy to much about his personal like. Oh well, we did have fun walking on some very shaky suspension bridges and learned some about the local plant life.
Kids had fun watching TV in Spanish for a while, they have been deprived of TV watching for the past 2 weeks. They did not even complain once when Spanish shows were their only option.
On the walk back to the room in the dark the kids and I ran into a "pizote". Coati click to see it. We were startled at first, but then watched as it scavenged for food.
Day 9 7.6.16
Got up early this day to head out to go to Sky Adventures for zip lining and a Gondola Tram ride. Since Day 1 Gracie has wanted to go zip lining, she is definitely my little daredevil. She was crawling out of her skin with excitement. During the 10 minutes of waiting for our turn, we saw a toucan, a LARGE, LONG black and yellow snake and iguanas. We saw more on the "non-tour" then we did on the tour the day before. We had fun meeting a new family on vacation as well. They were from Menlo Park, CA. JP the husband is an ESL teacher and only speaks Spanish to his 3 daughters. After a little conversation, we learn that they are staying just down the street from us in Nosara for the next two weeks. I am sure we will see them on the beach.
I will let the videos describe the zip lining, there are no words to explain how awesome it was. (So I have having major technical difficulties getting the video off of my GoPro. I usually can figure things out when it comes to my computer, but not this one! I am going crazy!) I will have to post these awesome videos later.
The benefit of taking an early tour is that we had the rest of the day to play in the pools. With 3 water slides to go down, new friends from Florida and options to order Shirley Temples at the thermal pool bar- the kids were in heaven. It was another great day!
Day 10 7.7.16
Plan was to swim in the am and then head back to Nosara, but after a night of loud thunder and lightening, pouring rain and winds, swimming was not in the cards. The drive home included a new route down a sketchy dirt road, past the construction site for the windmills and through farm country, but it saved us more than 30 minutes! Seriously, Google Maps has not let us down yet!
It was good to be "home", but got back to no water or air conditioning. I guess the bad storm we hit in Arenal also hit in Playa Garza, knocking out power and blowing up circuit breakers left and right. After a quick phone call to Antonio and Huber, we were back in business. Us girls had dropped off the guys at the bottom of the hill at the local Italian restaurant to watch the semifinals of the Euro Cup, and I guess waited to long to pick them back up. My dad, Eric and JJ had started to walk up the gigantic hill to the house...oops. One of these days we will film the drive up to the house, I am so grateful for our old Land Rover!
Like clockwork, our parakeets greeted us with their singing and flight show.
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