Adios 2020 Costa

We spent our last day in Costa Rica visiting the town of La Fortuna.  We strolled up and down the streets and tried to get a feel for the culture.  We stopped at the farmacia, the grocery store, vegetable stands, the cathedral, and several tourist shops.

Yes, that's a giant carrot Maggie bought....and ate.

We ate a semi traditional Costa Rican lunch and saved all our scrapes for any stray dogs we would encounter.  Daddy's plate came out on Fuego and everyone got big kick out of it! So fun!

Our last late afternoon/evening we made it down to Club Rio, yet again, for the cat feeding.  That was interesting.  Those cats mean business when it comes to dinner time.                                    

And of course since we were down by the animal sanctuary we had to stop and say hello to some of our favorites.  #slothlove

After another fabulous day, we grabbed dinner, took one last swim and packed up.  Back home {and reality} REALLY REALLY early the next day.

More 2020 Costa

We woke up on day two to coast through Costa Rica on bikes.  Biking is always a win adventure with our family.  However, this one was a little rough.  I don't think there is one single flat surface in all of the country {or at least on our side of the map}.

We coasted past the volcano, around the lake and even through town.

We made a few stops along the way for picture taking musts {and to catch our breath}.

Sweet Lu did the best she could for as long as she could.  Her bike was 4 inches taller than what she is used to and the terrain had its challenge.  So thankfully a truck driver stayed on route with us and that is just where Lucy rode for her breaks.

We returned to our resort, changed into our suits, grabbed lunch and made our way down to Club Rio for Tubing.

And when I say tubing, this wasn't floating down a lazy river.  It was about 40 minutes of rushing white water.  It was the perfect preface to our next day's scheduled adventure.

The water was definitely chilly so as soon as we excited we bolted straight for the hot springs.  Awwww....absolutely amazing.

I'm pretty sure we ordered room service that night and rested our weary selves.  The following day turned out to be one of our favorites.  We woke up and had breakfast by the volcano and then met up with our driver.  We were going White Water Rafting down the Rio Balsa!

I seriously can't get enough of Maggie's face in this picture.  Ya'll she was terrified.  Poor girl.  I'm happy to report that she ended up loving it!

After that harrowing adventure we enjoying an authentic Costa Rican lunch at a sugar cane farm.

Lucy made best friends with Dianno, the owners daughter, within the first few minutes of our arrival. It was the sweetest.

During our visit, we got a nice demonstration and taste test of sugar cane and moonshine {the truth}.

Back at the resort, we had dinner, daddy and the girls swam, and Jack and I  braved a Night Rainforest Hike.  Let's just say my skin was crawling the entire hike!

Our guide was the most insect and snake obsessed man I've ever met.  He was nuts which led to great entertainment.  He pointed out the "most poisonous {fill in the blank} in all of Central and South America" way too many times.  I had a nice case of the heebie-jeebies.

But we did see a Red Eyed Tree Frog.  If that doesn't scream rainforest, I don't know what does.  We also saw lots other creatures that I wouldn't get near, much less take a picture of.  For one lots of snakes, including a Coral snake {eeeek!!}, Wolf Spiders, Termites, frogs galore, and lots of other slimy things.

I'm thinking I might deserve a Mom of the Year nod for braving that adventure with Jack considering I am terrified of snakes.

Okay, so I'm nearing max capacity on this post.  I've still got one more day of vaca, so stay tuned!

2020 Costa Rica

Happy New Year and New Decade!  My kids were super excited about the latter.

I'd like to the think we rang it in just right.  We said hello to 2020 in Costa Rica.  Which was absolutely amazing if you are in to rainforests, sloths, and natural hot springs {which apparently we are}.  The vaca was one adventure after another and I can't really imagine a better way to unwind after the bussyiness of the holidays.

This definitely goes down as one of my faves.  So here we go....

We flew in to San Jose which was a 3 hour drive from our resort.  Not fun but so worth it.  We arrived at the The Springs Resort in the Arenal region just in time for dinner and bed which turned out quite perfect.

We woke up our first full day to sunlight. The difference in scenery was unbelievable.  Hey, there's a volcano right next to us!

Our first stop after breakfast was the animal sanctuary at the resort.  We could have left right after this experience and called it a vacation.  This was incredible!  After a short bus ride down to "Club Rio" we were immersed in animals and given a guided tour through their homes.

Can you say adorable?  We immediately fell in love with these creatures.  Our new family slogan is #slothlove.  I'm telling you we are obsessed!

Next up  at Club Rio was horse back riding.  I hurt my back right before we left {apparently that comes with broken toes and boots}, so I opted out.  Trust me, it killed me, but I yoga'ed my tail off the rest of trip trying to become mobile again to make sure I didn't miss a thing.

And Jack isn't a huge horse fan, so it all worked out.  But look at these fun pictures Clay got of him and the girls!

Before long, we all met back up and were amped up for our next adventure.  Which was none other than the Arenal Hanging Bridges...

We were in the canopy of the Rainforest.  I was seriously amazed. Up until this point in my life I had only read Dr Seuss's Rainforest book to my kids 100 umpteen times.  This was for real.  We were in it!

 And look at that volcano...stunning!

So, I know we have devoted all of our family love to sloths, but this Howler Monkey who joined us on one of the bridges was pretty cool.

Our evenings were spent back at the resort, eating dinner and enjoying the many natural hot springs.  Medicine for the back {and mind}.

Okay, I think I'm about to overload blogger with pictures.  So the rest of the vaca is coming in a second post.

Until then...#slothlove