Saturday, March 28, 2009

Costa Rica

We had a big adventure in Costa Rica over spring break. We started in San Jose, Costa Rica's centrally located capital, then drove 120 miles west on the Pan-American Highway to the Pacific Coast. The circuitous drive through the mountains to Guanacaste Province, where our hotel was located, took five hours. Roads aren't marked very well, so we would probably still be circling San Jose if it hadn't been for Gabriella, our GPS.

But after the long hot drive, we arrived to this:




Ahhh. . . .

Down the beach, in Playa Avellanas, was Lola's, a surfer hangout. Check out this beach:


We visited briefly with Lola, the giant pink pig for whom the restaurant is named. She's quite elderly, but does enjoy the occasional dip in the ocean.


Boy Wonder loved Lola's strawberry smoothies.


After hanging with pigs and the surfer crowd, we visited several national parks. In the first, Palo Verde, we floated down the Rio Tempisque to feed snacks to the capuchin monkeys and check out the crocodiles.




On a day trip to another national park, Rincon de la Vieja, we wandered around Guanacaste's capital, Liberia, hiked to a waterfall, and positively flew down a crazy jungle water slide.





In another adventure, we ziplined through the forest canopy (yikes) and made friends with some monkeys and a 130 pound python named Baby.








We also checked out a local rodeo, where anyone can jump in the bullriding ring and be a rodeo clown.


All in all, we had a blast. Costa Rica is beautiful, varied, and welcoming. It was a nine-day vacation of swimming, laughter, monkeys, terrible roads, new words, fruit smoothies, iguanas, sun, Food Network, new friends, water balloon tosses, buffet breakfasts, Gallo Pinto, foozeball, early breakfasts on the deck, gelato, pythons, coconuts, boogie boards, tidal pools, and strange fruit.

We definitely want to return.


Pura vida!

4 comments:

Donna said...

Oh I would love to visit there sometime. I have said several times just this past week that once, just once before I leave this earth, I want to see a waterfall in person.
Nice blog!

Katie said...

WOW!!!!!

AppyLove said...

That pig is CRAZY. I think I just officially added Costa Rica to The List.

500Jerk said...

I definitely recommend visiting there. It is such a beautiful place, and we only saw a small part of it.

But don't forget to rent a GPS!