Costa Rica Week 2

Day 1 (Monday, June 3rd)- Week 2

Our alarm went off at 4:50 a.m. Ugh… we had a really nice, clean bed, it was cold and still dark outside… easier to stay in bed. But we all got up and rushed out the door by 5:10 to meet up with our bird guide. For the next 2 1/2 hours, we were able to see so many beautiful and exotic birds. We saw the Guatemalan country bird- the Quetzal. So many other groups were out there looking for that same bird. It was a lot more interesting and fun than what we thought it would be. It probably helped that our guide was so enthusiastic and just as excited to see that bird.

Aunt Georgia treated us on this excursion because she really wanted to go… we got an excellent deal on it and the guide told us it came with breakfast. Well that breakfast was a cup of coffee and 4 crackers. 😂 That stinks that none of us drink coffee. I do have to say I was a little nervous about my girls making to much noise, being restless and bored but I think they were the most into it. We all thoroughly enjoyed it.

We left the cabin in San Gerardo and drove out to Cartogo to meet with an old friend of Corom’s from when he was here for 2 years. We met Josue and his wife and 4 kids. His kids are similar ages as ours.

We met up for lunch, then drove to Puntarenas at a time share Josue has. The hotel we are at is the nicest place we have been to so far (and will probably be the nicest one for our entire stay). His family has a suite right across from us, so it will be a fun couple of days.

All the kids (our kids and Josue’s kids) jumped into the pool the minute we got to our hotel. We all swam for a while, left to watch the sunset by the light house, went out to dinner, then came back and swam more… during our swim (it was close to closing time), we heard 3 pop sounds about 20 meters away from us. I jumped up and looked over to where the pop sound came from and kept saying was that a gun shot or firecrackers? We then saw security guards running down the dock ramps with guns out and their high beam flashlights. We quickly ushered our kids out of the pool and got up to our place. My oldest was really shaken up about the entire situation and couldn’t stop crying. We put the girls to bed and then Corom and I watched for a good amount of time from our balcony. We were on the 3rd floor with a great view of the dock.

We found out (through Josue asking the security guards) what happened. One of the security gaurds caught someone stealing fishing poles off one of the yachts. He started to fire his gun to stop and catch the guy. They spent 3-4 hours looking for the guy and never caught him. They were out in boats, some walking/swimming around the canal (where there are crocodiles in there), and some walking up and down the docks and going in different yachts and boats. It was pretty intense. We also found out that the security guard on duty will have to pay for what was stolen because he was the one on duty. Pretty crappy!

Day 2 (Tuesday 4th)- Week 2:

I got up early this morning and went for a 58 min run. It felt so good to go out!! It wasn’t the easiest place to run but I do love getting out and seeing sights that most tourists don’t get to see. After breakfast (at the hotel) all the kids swam around for a few hours.

We drove to a beach where the monkeys come down from the trees and eat right out of your hands. It was so fun feeding them! And there were so many of them. The kids played for a while at the beach. A few hours later, Josue and his family had to leave and we headed back to our place.

The girls ran straight to the pool and played for a couple of more hours. That evening, we stayed inside for dinner and just relaxed.

Day 3 (Wednesday 5th)- Week 2

My alarm went off at 5 and I went out for a 60 min run. It was refreshing and by the time I was done, I was dripping with sweat because of the humidity.

We packed up this morning and shortly after breakfast took off back to the Castillo household. We dropped off Aunt Georgia and visited for a while. Aunt Georgia leaves to go back home early tomorrow morning. It was great having her with us.

That afternoon we met up with the Harris family. They are joining us for a week. We began our drive to La Fortuna. We took a few stops along the way. We stopped off at a Catholic Church and walked around their gardens.

We had brake problems in one of the vehicles… that was a good hour and a half detour of fun. We met some really nice families that helped us out with our cars.

We eventually arrived at our place in La Fortuna. The kids noticed the pool right away. They quickly unpacked and jumped right in. We had a nice evening.

Going to bed was extremely hot!!! And I heard a mosquito buzz in my ear during the night…. I had a rough time sleeping. I absolutely hate the noise of a mosquito buzzing!!

Day 4 (Thursday 6th)- Week 2

I started off my day with a 25 min run… I wanted more but every place I ran was a dead end or I would run into dogs. Not too many options this morning. It’s all good, though.

We had an eventful day today!! So many fun things. We started with a 3 mile hike around the volcano. We had a good rainstorm come down on us for about an hour but it felt good. This hike was so beautiful! Pictures do not give it justice.

My youngest and the Harris’s youngest touched a plant and their hands started to itch like crazy! We had to rub mud all over their hands and arms.

We drove over to the hot springs and stayed there for about an hour.

We then went and got a deal for our family and the Harris’s to walk the grounds of a resort where there was a butterfly exhibit, crocodiles, frogs and ant exhibit…

With that deal came zip lining on 14 different lines which was absolutely amazing!!! We had 5 guides with us and they were so fun, always joking around and just kept us laughing the entire time. They also hooked us up with a huge swing… I would not do it! I am a baby that way. But it was a major fall before the swing!

A few videos of the rope swing:

We were also able to use there pools (there were 7 different pools, all different temperatures and slides, back massagers, etc at most of them). Yeah… we spent the next 2-3 hours there. We left around bed time and headed back to our place. It has been so fun to have the Harris’s with us!

We returned back to our place and had a low key night. I believe everyone was asleep by 9:30.

Day 5 (Friday 7th)- Week 2

We packed up from this place and headed to Samara a beach town.

It took us about 5 hours to get there… Corom had a place lined up for us and he said it was only $15 a night. Of course that was too good to be true! The Harris’s went to their place and we drove to ours (about 2 min away). Well we showed up and it was $15 a bed; it was a hostile. The plus about it, we would have had beds next to each other. The downside, we could have shared a room with other random people. We left that place and booked a place where the Harris’s were at. It is a nice place. A little more than what we wanted to spend but we had no where else to go. 😂

We walked to the beach and hung out there for a while. After we grilled up meat and had a nice dinner… we ate and the kids swam in the pool.

Day 6 (Saturday 8th)- Week 2

I was able to go out for 1:23 min run. It felt so good and it was one of the better routes here. Costa Rica is not an easy place to run! I found lots of different dirt roads and a little trail along the beach. I know I have said it before but I believe runners see things that others don’t while on vacations. Today was beautiful and one of the roads, there were hundreds of baby frogs jumping all over. Oh and the horses here just roam around.

We went snorkeling for the 1st part of the day….

Then Came back to our place for lunch, and spent the 2nd half at the beach and eating snow cones… It was a Beautiful day!

That evening we walked the little beach town and grabbed some ice cream.

Day 7 (Sunday 9th)- Week 2:

We got up early so we could attend church. It was about a 35-40 min drive. It was great taking the sacrament today. The people were great and very friendly. We hung out with the missionaries and fed them lunch today.

We ended up at the beach the rest of the afternoon. Corom and Matt rented surfboards. They wanted to show off their mad skills (ok neither one of them are good.) After about 10 minutes, Corom broke his surf board in half and had to pay for it. The guy charged him $250 for it!! 🙄 Fun times!

We walked the little town and celebrated one of the Harris daughters birthday with pizza, cupcakes and ice cream.

We were supposed to leave for our friend, Artuto’s place tonight… his place/town is having a lot of rain, so there is flooding. We decided to get a cheap room here another night. It was a one room, 3 bed place (smaller than a basic hotel room) but it was nice and clean.

This has been a great week…. a few little hang ups but there is nothing we can do about that.

Random pictures from week 2: