Costa Rica Day 1 and 2

Date: February 24 & 25

I’ve heard about the cool wildlife in Costa Rica: the monkeys, sloths, and amazing birds. So, when we started talking about going there for a vacation, I thought it’d be perfect. One catch though, how could we possibly go as a couple and not bring our kids? They have a spot in their hearts for animals even bigger than we do. So…. we saved up even longer and brought them with!

Jill (mom) is travel our planner. She did an especially great job this time, reading up on all of the places to see and things to do. So much so that when we were still driving to our Air BnB, in our rented Suzuki SUV, she knew to pull over before crossing Crocodile Bridge so we could see all the crocs in the water below. I’m super glad that she did. It was a much welcomed break in our journey and so cool to see all of the crocs below. While we were stopped, we treated the kids to a smoothie/frozen fruit drink from one of the vendors near the bridge. This was the first time we saw Macaws fly over head. They were high above in the distance, but the smoothie vendor pointed them out so we understood what they looked like flying overhead from then on.

We had anticipated around a 3 hour drive from San Jose to Uvita, where our Air BnB was, but between the stop at the bridge, the small dinner we had at a “Soda” (a side of the road restaurant/store), and the many large, slow trucks that we difficult to pass, it ended up taking over 4 hours.

On the drive to our temporary home, Charlie needed a bathroom break, so we stopped at a BM (like and Aldi in the states) and she relieved herself while Jill and Mattix picked up some things for dinner. I stayed in the vehicle to make sure all our stuff was safe and to enjoy the air conditioning a bit more.

When we finally pulled in to our home for the week we were not disappointed. It was a beautiful 3 bedroom house, each bedroom with a shower and toilet. A sizeable kitchen and dinning room poured into the living room with a wrap-around couch. The best part was the patio and infinity pool outside with the lounger chairs and hammock out back. This area had a view of the Whale Tail beach and amazing sunsets. We even had a dog that would stop by that we called Burrito (he reminded us of a friend’s dog they named Taco) and a cat that we found napping on the patio a few times. The kids tested out the pool while we had a drink and some homemade quesadillas. We were all pretty tired from the long trip, so it was an early night.

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The next morning we awoke to the hot humid morning air. Our Air BnB only had air conditioning in the bedrooms. We immediately checked out the patio again, spending time drinking coffee and enjoying all the colorful birds that would come and go before the steamy heat of the day got too strong. We did this almost every morning we were there. The birds were amazing to watch and one morning, we even saw monkeys jumping around in the trees.

Later that morning, we picked up a few additional groceries for the week from the BM, then head back to the Casa for lunch. Every day was hot and humid. It was a great break from the frozen weather we left in Iowa, but Mattix and I tended to over heat a bit quicker than the girls. Jill and Charlie had no problem with the heat and sun and seemed to lay in it any chance they got. Mattix and I, with our fair skin and aversion to the heat, needed to hide in the shade or in the A/C from time to time so we didn’t get to cranky from the heat.

In the afternoon, we decided to check out Whale Tail beach (Parque Nacional Marino Ballena). When checking in to the beach (there is a small fee since it’s a national park), we heard the park ranger talking to other tourist about a sloth in the tree. We went over and looked and got our first pictures of a sloth, one of the many animals we were anxiously anticipating to see.

The beach was a beautiful mix of sand, waves, and jungle and despite there being a bit of a breeze, the air felt like a furnace and the warm Pacific water didn’t provide much relief. Since we were there during high-tide, the sandbar that resembles a whale’s tail was mostly under water and we weren’t able to walk out on, it but we swam in the ocean a bit and Mattix got his first taste of jumping waves. Despite putting on copious amounts of sunblock, and wearing a sun-shirt, Mattix and I still got sunburnt.

After we had our fill of heat, sand, and sun, we headed back to our house to make dinner and watch the sun set. There was an explosion of color that reflected off the ocean set off by the cool blue pool water. That night while playing cards with the family, we saw an owl land in the tree next to us and we got a couple of nice pictures of it’s silhouette.