Costa Rica was our planned trip for April 2020. We cancelled it with hesitance, thinking even at the end of March that maybe things suddenly would get better. And here we are in 2021.
Almost a year later since the original plan, we were able to take the kids to Costa Rica for their spring break. We used our airlines credit from previous year and because our tickets prices were half the price this time, we were able to do a lot more with our Delta and Southwest credit than fly to Costa Rica.
We flew into San Jose, Costa Rica around midday.
A rental car was a must for us as we traveled to two different areas. It was a bit crazy as the shuttle that took us to the rental car place took about 30 minutes to transport us there because of all the construction going on in the area. We got our car and started our adventure in a new country. It was fun to see the temple a mile from the car rental place.
We were heading for La Fortuna, in the northern part of the country. Our drive was about 3 hours, with windy steep roads and some patches of rain and fog.
We arrived to our airbnb which was across the street from the “hotel”.
This is our house. So green! It had two bedrooms and a very nice outside area!
We were quite tired after our traveling, so we found a recommended place for dinner and relaxed.
In the morning, I enjoyed the beautiful outside gardens while Robert took the kids white water rafting.
I hear it was amazing! I just didn’t want to risk going with my ACL still in rehab.
It took a lot of research to find all our activities, but at the end we made all the right choices. The kids went onto class IV rapids in some places, which is what they all wanted!
A Costa Rican lunch included.
This is me enjoying the rushing river next to our airbnb.
And while everyone was gone I ordered myself a spa lady to come over to the house and do a facial on me. It was very relaxing.
In the afternoon, we decided to go to the hot springs in the village--tickets were included with the accommodations.
It was definitely a place where the locals went, kind of man made but with natural hot springs, of course.
The water was SUPER hot in some pools! It had slides and weird things to sit on in others.
For Day 2, we had more adventures planned! But first we had breakfast at the hotel. Plantains were delicious there!!!
The boys played a bit of ping pong waiting for our shuttle to take us ziplining!
Boy, was I nervous....yes, I am so afraid of heights, it’s not pleasant at all!
But they explained to us how to do it safely...
And we just hoped for the best.
The first time was TERRIFYING for me. It did get a little easier with each time, but still... Apparently, the kids were unfazed! They LOVED IT!
This is a family picture right before the long-long ride at the end! It was actually drizzling and raining the whole time we were ziplining. So we were MUDDY!
Katya before her looong journey on the zipline.
Alex is getting to “scream” down...
I, obviously, look super scared. This is not my type of relaxing!!!
Mark was all smiles!
And since Robert was the one with a phone, we didn’t get a picture of him...
Katya shows you how messy we all were!!!
A nice refreshing snack at the end. And the funny/weird part is that the other family in our group was from UT!
All day, the weather was on and off rainy. It was still warm but wet. We went out to lunch to a very nice plant based place which I absolutely loved. Alex looks ecstatic to eat there as well.
Kids did find food they liked there, besides smoothies.
Nice colorful outfit, Mark!
That afternoon we took a little driving adventure to explore the outskirts of La Fortuna. Seriously...usually, you can drive over to the VOLCANO (because really, there is a Volcano there) and walk around it, look at it, hike in the area. But the weather was meh....so meh...that obviously, you see NO VOLCANO!
This was kind of a non-pretty part of Costa Rica after all. I mean, it was all nature but nothing like what you imagine Costa Rica to be. Again, because the Volcano disappeared!
Well, this snake was cool though!
So our full second day in La Fortuna was still very fun because of ziplining but I feel that the rainy and cloudy weather kind of gypped us of the view and the opportunities to REALLY see this area...sadly. Well, we might just have to come back!
Lyana.
