Being quarantined is making us, like many people, stir crazy. We want to get out and continue to see the world! It has also made us reminisce about past travel. Since we are not able to go out and explore and share new adventures with you, we are looking back at some of the amazing travel we did in the past.
This week we will go back to Costa Rica in October 2014.
We went to Costa Rica with Michael’s father, Gerry, Michael’s sister, Melissa, and her daughter, Violet. Lucas was 4 and Henry and Violet were both one year old. The kids were so little!
This was our first trip to Central America. We spent 8 days in Costa Rica, four days in Arenal, and four days in Jaco.
Our first night in San Jose, we stayed at a Radisson hotel. We stayed in the same hotel this year when we flew into San Jose and it brought back memories.
Early the next morning, we rented a small van and set out for Arenal. The van just barely fit the seven of us, our luggage, and Melissa’s jogging stroller.
Gerry had some trouble with the GPS, but luckily, we corrected the course before we got too lost. We enjoyed the drive and stopping along the way at sodas (homes on the side of the rode that are also small restaurants).
We stayed at a hotel in Arenal called The Springs. Our friends Nate and Kellie recommended the hotel and when we looked it up, they had a Groupon. It was meant to be. The hotel is beautiful. We had two rooms that each had large balconies with hammocks (Michael was in heaven).
The best part about The Springs is the water slide in the hot springs. We sent our kids down that slide with reckless abandon (something we would not have been able to do in the United States). We spent hours going down that slide.
The adults went ziplining. Gerry and Melissa went one day, and Michael and I went another. When Michael and I arrived at the zip line it was raining and thundering. They told us we would have to wait 30 minutes to make sure the lightning stopped. Five minutes later they gathered us up and took us to the top of the ziplining course. We spent the first part of the morning ziplining into dense fog and rain. It was a little terrifying. Eventually, the weather cleared up and we had a gorgeous view.
After four days of water sliding, we packed up and drove to the beach in Jaco. We rented an apartment on Airbnb right on the water and near the town. The best part of our time in this part of Costa Rica was Manuel Antonio, National Park. It was established in 1972 and is full of wildlife. We saw birds, sloths, monkeys, and iguanas. We also spent some time at the beach playing in the sand and searching for colorful fish.
On the way to Jaco, we stopped to take a monkey tour. Melissa and Judy love monkeys. It was a memorable tour. The monkeys came onto the boat to say hi. Not everyone was happy about that.
We fell in love with Costa Rica on that trip and it is one of the reasons we chose to start our trip this year in Central America. We will likely head back to Costa Rica again. There is still a lot of the country that we have left to explore.
