costa rica day 7

may 7, 2008
before leaving la fortuna we decided to hike to a waterfall. we got up in the morning and went and were the first ones there. we had the whole place to ourselves for a while so we played in the river downstream from the waterfall and watched the blue morpho butterfly flutter around. about an hour later the place started getting busy with visitors, and we hiked out. the hike down to the waterfall wasn't too bad, because it was all downhill, but coming out was straight up made even more difficult by carrying the kids.

after the waterfall, we all piled in the van to travel across the country to the caribbean side of costa rica where we would be staying for most of the rest of the trip. before we left we had some tentative arrangements but nothing concrete for places to stay, and dan's co-workers gave him some grief about that. they thought it was weird for us to just go down there with no real plans and wing-it...especially travelling with 6 kids.

so we asked directions on the best way to get to puerto viejo and we were told to head in a general direction and then ask for directions along the way. the roads in costa rica are poorly labeled when they are labeled at all so it made for an interesting road trip. i speak spanish as does my brother-in-law, and my sister manages ok with her knowledge of italian, but one of my favorite times was when we sent dan out to ask for directions. we were out in the countryside where they didn't speak english, and for some reason we thought it would be a good idea to send the non-spanish speaker out to ask for directions. needless to say we went a little ways further and then asked again for directions.

we were under the impression that it would take us 5 or 6 hours to get there, but it ended up taking us at least 10 hours to get to the house we were renting just outside of puerto viejo.

costa rica day 6

the next morning we had arranged to go on a little rafting trip for the morning. it was a really gentle river so we just floated along and looked at the wildlife. we saw sloths, bats, howler monkeys and even a crocodile. the funny (or not so funny) thing is that part way through our trip we stopped to swim in the river for a little while, and the kids were floating down in their life jackets and swimming and stuff. we got back in the boats to continue the trip and right around the next bend was the crocodile. also, our trusty guides decided to take our inflatable raft right up and nudge the crocodile. i could just imagine it taking a bite at our sturdy ship.

when we pulled out of the river we stopped by some peoples house where they had made us fried plantains and some cheese. it was pretty tasty. they also had some brand new little puppies that entertained the little kiddos.

later that evening dan and i left our kids with my sister and we went to find some hot springs. there are lots around, and we didn't really want to pay $50 to go so we found a reasonably priced one. it took us a while to find it with the directions given us and with the limited signs. eventually we found it, and it was fun, but basically just a big hot tub.

i had been to costa rica previously when i was in college and we went to a really cool hot springs that had beautiful plants and more natural surroundings and waterfalls and stuff, but we paid a lot more to go to that one. so i was a little dissapointed this time when it was like going to a community pool. you get what you pay for i guess. we had wanted to find some natural hot springs along the river, but weren't able to pry that information out of the locals.

more on costa rica....

so, over a year ago we went to costa rica and i never finished writing about our adventures. well, i am going to attempt to recall what happend on the rest of the trip and show a few more pictures.

so, i left off the last post about costa rica arriving in la fortuna. so we spent the night there and in the morning after a breakfast of fresh fruit and gallo pinto (rice and beans) at the hotel we headed into town. my brother in law decided he wanted to see if any stores in town sold a backpack to carry their 1 and 1/2 year old little boy. we asked at numerous stores and nobody really knew what we were talking about. so we decided to abandon the idea and head off toward volcan arenal and go for a hike (ok so really more of a walk since we had 4 kids under age 4 with us).


arenal is an active volcano, so you can see the boulders being spewed out of the top of the volcano, and hear the eruptions. we never had a clear night where we could see the volcano, but during the day we were able to have some good views. we hiked to where there was an old lava flow from about 10 years ago or something. it was cool to be able to see an active volcano.

costa rica day 3

costa rica day 3


saturday may 3: woke up this morning and, after a refreshing shower, went out in search of breakfast. we walked through the outdoor market where vendors were selling mostly vegetables and fruit and stuff, but we also saw a lady selling hats. we tried a few on annie (she had claimed dan's hat as her own) but she always would say that it didn't fit. so we gave up and continued our search for food. we found a bakery and bought some juice and some bakery goods and sat outside and ate breakfast near the dog that was foaming at the mouth.


on the way back to the hotel we walked through the market again. amongst all of the costarican vendors there was this white lady wearing a bonnet. yep a quaker lady. apparently further north in costa rica near monteverde there is a big settlement of quakers. anyway she was selling bread and jam and looked a little out of place, but i guess so did we. there was also a guy on top of a truck feeding sticks through a machine. we came to the conclusion that it was sugar cane and he was juicing them. we didn't try the sugar juice, but we probably should have.


well we packed up our stuff and headed toward manuel antonio national park. it is a park on the beach that has some trails through the rainforest. we drove the windy road from quepos to manuel antonio. when we got close to the park there was an official-looking guy in an orange vest and a name tag showing people where to park. we got suspicious when one of the other guys (not official looking) came by to tell us that it cost 2000 colones (about $4) to park. we watched everyone else and they were paying, so we decided to pay the guy because we didn't want them to be mad at us (and our rental car). so we walked toward the entrance to the park and asked some guides at the entrance if the car parker guys were official, and they said "no, but they will watch your car for you." i hate feeling like i'm beeing taken advantage of because i'm a tourist, but our car was still there when we got back so i guess it was worth it.

this was outside the door of our car when we arrived

at high tide you have to cross through some water to get to the entrance of the park. dan helped annie cross, then as he turned to help eva and I annie sat down in the middle of the little stream. well, as we got to the ticket booth, there was a short line of about 3 people. one of the guys who worked there saw me carrying eva and let me cut through the line and made a lady move her stuff off of a chair so i could sit down. anyway, by the time i sat down for a second dan had made it through the line. during our trip people generally loved seing the kids and going out of their way to help us. i guess that is one reason to take babies on a trip.

so we hiked through the rainforest on a trail along the coast. dan had annie in the backpack and i had eva in the baby bjorn. apparently the majority of people that go to manuel antonio just take the short hike to the beach on the other side of the park as some people were carrying bags of ice and drinks and picnic items. this was nice because the rest of the trails were practically empty. we took a few short, but sometimes steep, hikes through the rainforest where we saw a couple of sloths, a troup of monkeys, and a few other random unidentifiable animals.

annie mostly just wanted to put rocks in this little pond

after leaving the park we stopped at a cool restaurant overlooking the ocean. they had taken an old airplane and made a bar in the inside, and the restaurant around the rest of the plane. it was kind of a fancy restaurant which usually scares me, however i loved it because it was all outside (but covered) and they didn't care that dan and annie weren't even wearing shoes.

we were going to meet chame and jon and their family the next morning at the airport so we started driving back towards alajuela. it was pouring rain and dark. in costa rica you could be where it appears that you are nowhere near a town and all of the sudden there will be someone riding a bike or walking on the road. people don't walk off to the side of the road, they walk the line. this makes for a stressfull drive. well, a couple of hours later near jaco, the rain suddenly stopped, and eva suddenly started crying. she had had another one of her famous diaper blowouts. so we pulled over in jaco (think spring break surf town) and found a place under a lightpost to try and change her. we were on the main street so people were walking by and i had eva in the trunk of the car (the trunk was open) screaming at the top of her lungs. after getting her wiped down and into a clean onesie we decided to just stay there for the night.

getting a hotel room in jaco was a difficult task as everything was full on a saturday night. after trying about 3 hotels we decided to try one last one right on the beach. they had a room which what i understood had a double bed and a single bed. however after paying and getting to the room we had just a double bed. apparently i need to brush up on my spanish, i guess it was a double or a single. we decided to stay anyway and put eva on the floor - which didn't last too long. so the four of us shared the double bed. it wasn't as bad as i was expecting however at about 4 or 5 in the morning it sounded as if every bird from the rainforest was right outside our room screeching at the top of their lungs. not just nice little good morning chirping, but jungle squaking of many different varieties of very loud birds. i acutally started to laugh a little bit to myself as i thought "are you serious?"

costa rica day 2

costa rica day 2 (may 2):
we woke up with the sun and after our continental breakfast of bread and jam, corn flakes, and baby bananas we set out for a walk of alajuela's center. we went to the plaza in the center of town where little kids were feeding pigeons and squirrels. one of the little boys gave annie some peanuts to feed the squirrels.


we checked out the cathedral, went to the market, then did the obligitory stop at pops ice cream shop. i had some sherbet - cas (i don't know what this is in english) and guanabana (soursop - i think) flavored, dan had coconut and mango, and annie had some chocolate chip. mmm. we took our ice cream, walked across the street to the plaza, sat next to a drunk guy on a bench and had our morning snack. on our walk, eva's pacifier fell out of her mouth somewhere so i suggested we take the same route back to the hotel. about a block away was eva's paci in the gutter. it had only been run over probably once so we picked it up, put some hand sanitizer on it, and rinsed it off back at the hotel. good as new.


we decided to rent a car and drive down the pacific coast. earlier on in the week, before we left for costa rica, eva got sick. we thought she was done with the diaper blowouts, but a couple of hours into our trip to the coast we stopped in a small town (orotina) and eva was covered in poop. we made space in the trunk to change her diaper and after about 20 wipes she was all clean. luckily we had stopped next to a little restaurant, so we were able to wash hands, get a bite to eat, and drink some yummy juice.

back on the road, we crossed the tarcoles river. you can walk out onto the bridge and look down to see the crocodiles basking in the sun.


about five hours after leaving alajuela we ended up at our final destination for the night - quepos. we were able to find a cheap hotel, and went out to get some food in the pouring rain. we found a place down the block and had some dinner. on the way back to the hotel i was telling dan that our hotel reminded me of the cockroach hotel we stayed in in mexico, except that it didn't have the cockroaches. when we got back to the hotel and turned on the dim light, i heard dan chuckle, then he set off stomping his foot at something. it turns out we had a huge cockroach in our room. dan, the fearless hunter, was able to kill the bug and put it in the toilet where it swirled around for a while. meanwhile, eva was having another diaper blowout, and unfortunately since we went with the cheap hotel, that meant no hot water. sorry eva.

we survived

so, we survived our 13 days in costa rica.

day 1: (thursday, may 1) our day started out with a call from continental airlines asking us where we were. no, we weren't late for our flight, but our flight was going to be delayed and we were going to miss our connection in houston. they wanted to get us on a flight in 45 minutes. however, we were still at home and would not be able to get there in time.

they did find us a flight on another airline so we would be able to get to costa rica that night.

we had packed all of our stuff for 4 people in one bag, so when we got to the airport and weighed our bag, we were over the baggage weight limit by 10 pounds. we pulled out enough stuff and shoved it in our carry on bags and barely got under the weight limit.

the flights were uneventful, and when we got to costa rica that night, the guy at immigration let us go through a special line so we didn't have to wait in the long line.

we asked the cab driver to take us to a hotel, and he took us to a decent one in the center of alajuela called la guaria.

after getting our bags to our room, we asked the guy at the front desk where we could go to get a drink (not a "drink", but just a drink) so we walked around the town that evening, went and bought some juice and grape fanta at the liquor store, then went back to the hotel to watch pimp my ride and get some sleep.

to be continued...

was this my idea?

so tomorrow we are leaving for costa rica. i decided it would be a great idea to take our two kids, and meet my sister and her 4 kids (oh yeah, husbands too - but they kind of count as kids anyway). so make that 2 women and 8 kids travelling through central america.

did i mention we leave tomorrow and we have yet to secure any type of lodging?