There is something that draws us to mud. We found more of it while hiking at the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve. There are three main cloud forests in Monteverde. The most popular is the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve. We chose the Santa Elena Cloud Forest to avoid the crowds. There were still plenty of people there, but we…
Our destination in Costa Rica after Puntarenas was Monteverde. Monteverde is a wonderful break from the heat on the coast. There are sun showers every day. Did I mention the breeze! Monteverde is up in the clouds and close to heaven. Our Airbnb was perfect. It is a small two-room house with two beds, a small kitchen, and a couch.…
The trip from San Jose to Bocas Del Toro when we first arrived was long but easy. We were on a fairly empty, air-conditioned bus and had quick transfers. The trip back to Costa Rica from Bocas Del Toro was not easy. We woke up at 6:15 a.m. to finish packing and be out of our Airbnb by 7 a.m.…
On our last day in Bastamente started as an easy day. We were packing, finishing laundry, doing school work and other work. Before lunch, we hiked up to the little school on the hill. It was summer vacation when we were here. The school year is from March to November. We were told that the school is for grades K-9…
Day 4 in Bocas Del Toro started out rough. There were yelling and negativity from the start. The kids were whining about doing school and begging to watch. Henry took forever to get ready to go. We locked ourselves out of our Airbnb. Lucas, Henry and I (Judy) went to check out a small island that and ended up getting…
Day 3 in Bocas was a zero-day for us. We only left the house to go to the grocery store. The boys did school in the morning and we played cards and had some screen time in the afternoon. Zero days are critical for us since we are now traveling long term. I (Judy) did laundry. We have a cute…
On Day 2 in Bocas Del Toro, we hired a boat with a Dutch family staying near us that we met the day before. They have two boys ages 4 and 2. We set out around 9 a.m. with our boat captain Maya. He planned a great day for us. Our main destination was to Zapatillas Island. The first stop…
Our first night in Bastimentos, we made pasta and fell into bed exhausted. At 4 a.m. I (Judy) awoke to the sounds of roosters. It sounded as if they were singing in my ears. Bastimentos is rarely quiet. Birds, dogs, music, people. The island is alive. The day after we arrived at Bastimentos Island we walked around. The part of…
The journey from San Jose to Bocas Del Toro was keeping me (Judy) up at night for weeks before our trip. We could have taken a plane. We could have hired a private or shared shuttle that guided us to Bocas Del Toro and helped us through immigration. We chose to find our own way and it worked out perfectly.…
Touching down in San Jose, Costa Rica was exciting. This is the family’s first international trip since we rented out our house. Right out of the gate we left one of our suitcases at my sister’s house and had to go back for it. We have 4 backpacks and 2 suitcases, so it is disconcerting and embarrassing that we left…