Costa Rica April 2024

We took a two week trip to Costa Rica with all the kids and Darrin's parents April 13-27. Why Costa Rica? We've heard wonderful things, it's been on our bucket list, and we figured since we had to get passports for our Alaskan cruise, we may as well get our moneys worth out of them. As a brief summary before the day to day breakdown, we spent half the time in La Fortuna (Jungle/Rainforest area) and half the time in Jaco Beach area. We loved how every day was a wildlife scavenger hunt-what will we find next?! We saw so many incredible things wildlife wise (Sloths!!, monkeys, macaws, toucans, colorful birds, butterflies, bugs, frogs, lizards, iguanas, crab and more). We loved the hot springs, beautiful waterfalls (including the blue Rio Celeste wow!), and rope swing. The chocolate tour we did was unforgettable. The ocean water was the perfect temperature and the boogie boarding was perfect. To be honest, the food was the hardest part. With the exception of fresh fruit which was amazing, we weren't impressed with the food. All in all we are so happy we went and at the same time don't feel the need to go back since we feel like we did what there was to do. So grateful for this time as a family!

Random thoughts about our trip: 

-Our point system for the kids has worked wonders. 1 point= $0.10 and anytime they earn can be spent on souvenirs. We can taste points away too. 

-Every day feels like a great big scavenger hunt. Everywhere we go/drive we're on the lookout for animals, birds and creatures which are so plentiful! We have LOVED the wildlife!

-The flora and fauna here is WOW! So beautiful. 

-The beaches we've been to are all dark sand (almost black), so fine and soft, and the Waves are plentiful and perfect for boogie boarding and surfing. You certainly have to be careful of the rip tides though. But it's really shallow for a long ways out which is great too. The ocean temperature is perfect (86 degrees)! So warm. 

-Most everything seems expensive here. Groceries, restaurants, souvenirs, tours etc. We rented a car so we've looked at a lot of places to find the same prices. Not sure how the people here can afford to live.

-The roads haven't been bad at all like we'd been warned of so many times. There were a couple times when we had some pretty steep dirt roads but those were definitely exceptions. The time the GPS has given us to get from point A to point B has been accurate.

-The time here is the same time as at home-bonus!

-The Sun sets at 6 every single night all year. 

-The water is safe to drink

-Same plugs as home which has been nice. 

-We've used Google translate quite a bit which has been awesome. For the most part though we've been able to communicate with English and the little Spanish we know. 

-Not any snorkeling that we've found unless you take a boat somewhere on a day trip.

-We've had a fantastic time here and made wonderful memories as a family-its beautiful here-but that being said…we didn't feel the need to come back. It may not seem like it since we find things to do even if we have to do a long drive, but we've felt like we've ran out of things to do at both locations we've been in. 

-We haven't loved the food. It's been fine and in some cases good but haven't loved it (with the exception of the fruit - the fruit is so good!

-Wow, it has been HOT plus humidity which wow, don't remember ever sweating this much. 

-There are people to take your money to park at a lot of places. These people wear vests to make you think they're official but for the most part they are not they just want to charge you for parking. 

-The Costa Rica Colone (their money) is THE coolest. It's plasticy feeling and has a see through part! 

Day 1-Saturday April 13- Our flight left at 5pm. We fit everything into 1 backpack each plus one carry on sized suitcase (just one!) for two weeks for 7! When we boarded our flight the pilot was SO nice and let Austin into the cock pit and was super cute with him and gave him a set of wings. He was SO EXCITED about his first ever flight. This is the first flight Rachel remembered too. We made a mistake by letting Rachel and Austin sit on their own behind Darrin and I for the first flight to LA. Austin kept unbuckling and going to hang out in the bathroom without us even noticing lol 🤦‍♀️🤣. He and Rachel were so cute with their reactions and excitement about taking off and during some turbulence all my kids behaved like they were on a roller coaster-they loved it 🤣. We landed in LA and had a 4.5 hour layover where we played skipbo, did an airport scavenger hunt, did some window shopping and some coloring. Then we boarded our 6 hour flight to Costa Rica and slept a decent chunk of the time although it was a reeeeally rough sleep-very uncomfortable and squished. 

Day 2-Sunday April 14-our flight landed in San Jose Costa Rica at 5:30am. We got our rental car through Enterprise and it went smoothly. We were hoping for a minivan but were given a crossover so it was SO tight with all of us and our luggage. Luckily two of our kids were able to ride with Mom and Dad Simon to make the 3 hour drive more comfortable.

-We stopped half way at "Zarcero topiary gardens" which were beautiful. Topiary gardens, a playground and a market with a bathroom all in front of a beautiful church which made for the perfect stop. We grabbed some breakfast at the market.

-We arrived at our Airbnb "Hotel Arenal Dreams" at about 11:30 which is well before check-in at 3. She'd told us we could hang out in the pool and put our luggage inside while the cleaners cleaned and we waited. It was SO HOT and humid whereas at the topiary gardens we were a little chilly and worried we didn't pack correctly-we didn't feel any humidity there!

-I went with Mom and Dad to get some groceries for the week... It took forever to find a place for groceries since none of us have data and then once we did in felt SO overwhelmed and clueless as to what to get to feed my family. No peanut butter, no sugar to go with oatmeal which was an idea for breakfast, no cheese, no lunch meat, I couldn't read any labels, a small box of cereal was about $7, the milk was not refrigerated and I was hungry and just wanted to cry. I felt like I was scavenging for food in the wilderness lol. I bought some eggs, some expensive cereal, milk, juice, and some frozen taquito looking things... That's it...I was so frustrated at the lack of foods that would be easy, somewhat healthy, filling and food my family would actually eat. I wanted to cry. I was really tired too. Got back to the Airbnb where Darrin was finished swimming with the kids and we were just waiting for the cleaners to finish up.

-The Airbnb is pretty nice with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, laundry room and a beautiful pool. It has ac units in each bedroom too. 

Once we got in we had some snacks since I couldn't find lunch and most of us napped which was MUCH needed. We woke up so hungry and decided to go to eat at "SpecTACOlar" in La fortuna. It was really yummy and I finally felt ok about being in Costa Rica after napping and having a full tummy ☺️. 

Day 3-Monday April 15-

-meeting coatimundi (look like a mix between monkey and racoon)

-Hour boat ride around the Arenal Volcano which provided fantastic views of the volcano and some cool birds (we just drove to the Volcano Lake and there were people there offering to give boat rides or you could rent kayaks-they took all of us on an hour boat ride for $70!). 

-Finding a great place to eat off the side of the road where we had empanadas for the first time (Delicious), corn on the cob, fresh pineapple, fresh coconut water/flesh and some hot dogs!

-Choyin Hot Springs River (so warm and relaxing! Spent hours here.)

-El Salto rope swing and waterfalls (so much fun! We all jumped many times and Rachel even jumped several times and Austin jumped off one of the rocks into the river too! )

-gorgeous sunset

-swimming at our Airbnb pool

Day 4-Tuesday April 16-

-Got a day pass at Baldi Hot Springs. (Tabacon hot springs was highly recommended but after researching we landed in Baldi. We're so glad we did-we LOVED IT!) $47 for ages 11 and up, $34 for kids and Austin was free. Is a huge resort with 25 different hot springs pools all ranging in temperature with some cold pools too, A kids area, water slides and too many waterfalls to count all with gorgeous plant life in every direction and the Arenal volcano in l as a backdrop. The kids were determined to put their heads under in every pool  and under every waterfall. They succeeded with the exception of one pool that was so hot it would have burned them. We spent the entire day there with the exception of leaving for lunch and coming back and had a fantastic time. We practically had the place to ourselves too. And there was next to no workers too which was great since I didn't feel like the kids were being whistled at for being kids. The waterslides were SO FAST they were scary lol. We stopped at a large grocery store (MegaSuper) on the way home and finally found some better options for food although not many. Today we saw smoke coming out of the volcano, two parrots flying, a birds nest with baby birds and the Mom going back and forth to feed them, and a highlight was seeing a huge line of ants working hard carrying food home. So cool! Once we got back to our Airbnb Darrin was swimming with Rachel and Austin to find a frog in the pool swimming with them! We made spaghetti from the store and finished watching despicable me. 

Day 5-Wednesday April 17-

-Spent most of the day at "Proyecto Asis". First we did a sloth tour at $30/pp, Caden and Rachel were $18 and Austin was free. It was SO COOL. We saw 4 different sloths in the wild including a young one. We learned all about the sloths of Costa Rica and also got to see two basilisks climbing a tree! I was so nervous through because Caden came to me saying he needed to throw up and looking green and pale-he went to sit down and drank some water and eventually recovered without throwing up 🙌.  After the sloth tour we went to get lunch down the street. They were really friendly and the food was good. They had 3 dogs that the kids loved on. Then we went back to Proyecto Asis for the"wildlife tour" which was $35/pp for everyone but Rachel and Caden who were $20/pp. They are a rehabilitation center for injured animals to get them back into the wild. The tour guide Carlos was great and we learned a lot about the animals here in Costa Rica. Monkeys, macaw's, parrots, toucans, coati and a jaguar. We also saw a giant iguana in the wild climbing a tree, turtles and boat billed herons. There was a hybrid green and red macaw there. Humans bred it-red and green macaw's never mate since they're territorial and red macaw's are around the beach while green are in the rainforest to camouflage. Parker totally got it to copy him when turning his head back and forth it was hilarious and we caught it on camera. Both tours were great although extremely hot and humid.

-We went home for a rest and then the kids begged to go back to El Salto Rope swing so we did that until it was dark. Rachel was so funny-she begged us all day today to go back there and when we did, she tried to swing off but was too scared. She did it fine last time but she was in tears wanting to go but too nervous. Eventually she did go at last 5 times tonight. We came home for top ramen and cucumbers for dinner and watched "the boys in the boat" before bed. 

Day 6-Thursday April 18-

We had a slow start to the morning and eventually made our way to the "Bogarin Trail". $17/pp for a self guided tour. Right when parking Darrin and the kids saw a toucan up close and I missed it because I was buying tickets. But pretty soon after we started the trail we saw three sloths. A mom and baby sloth and another just chillin in the tree tops. We saw a few more toucan but pretty far away in the treetops, a basilisk, lizard, iguana, lots more trails of hard working ants, a ton of variety of birds, squirrels running through the tree tops and an awesome view of the volcano with smoke coming out free of clouds. It was a beautiful hike and took us a couple hours. We had lunch there and then did the other short trail. 

Next was our chocolate tour we booked through "Rainforest chocolate tour" which cost an average of $27/pp (can't remember the difference between adults and kids prices but know the total). It was SO COOL! We all loved every minute. If started out by us seeing two monkeys right at the start which was awesome. Then we got a tour of the cocoa plantation, learned some really cool stuff about cocoa and chocolate like the fact that the cocoa fruit is pollinated by bats and eaten by squirrels. It takes 60 days from start to finish to become a ripe fruit for picking. Then once harvested (we got to try it right out of the fruit which was slimy and when we sucked on it it tasted like mango), it takes 7 days for the beans to naturally ferment, then 15 days drying process in a greenhouse with heat lamps. It's then roasted, then peeled (we got to eat it at this stage which Darrin, myself, Parker and Spencer liked and the other kids hated LoL) and ground into cocoa nibs. Then the shells are separated from the beans, and it's made into kind of a paste with with some solar and heat and pressure (either by hand or with a hand churned press which we tried both), we tasted  it again at this stage and the "paste" of cocoa and sugar (about 80% cocoa) tasted like the most delicious brownie batter 🤤!! Hot water was then added as to make hot chocolate! We each got to have a cup and add the add-ins  we wanted (Spencer tried the Costa Rican traditional way with corn, chilli pepper and vanilla mixed with the cocoa and tiny bit of sugar-he thought it was decent-the rest of us tried varieties including cinnamon, orange extract, extra sugar, vanilla etc-yum!). Lastly, they took the paste and added a bit of cocoa oil to make the most delicious melted chocolate goodness. We could go through the line with our spoon as many times as we wanted and try as many toppings as we wanted. Favorites included caramelized cocoa nibs, coconut, nuts, marshmallows, sprinkles, orange flavoring and vanilla. I can't count the number of times we went back through the line to have more and more and more. Austin's clothes and shoes were covered in chocolate since he couldn't keep his spoon steady 🤣. Darrin also had drips down his shirt. They ended the tour with giving us solid chocolate they'd made and giving us each cocoa beans. We ended up buying some caramelized cocoa nibs too because we loved them so much! We all loved it so much. 

We ended the evening going to dinner at "Travesia Restaurant" which was delicious all around. We came home and watched the second minions before heading to bed. 

Day 7-Friday April 19-

Some of us (Darrin, myself, Spencer, Rachel and Austin) went back to the Bogarin trail first thing to try to see more animals. We didn't have any luck with birds or sloths but saw two basilisks (one green and one brown), three red and blue tree frogs, an awesome centipede and a few lizards. We then drove to the "Místico Arenal Hanging Bridges" to meet up with Mom, Dad, Parker and Spencer. They had incredible views of the Arenal volcano here and as we hiked through the rainforest we saw a sloth pretty quickly. It was AMAZING because at first you could barely see her she was just laying on the tree and you could only see a ball of fur. Then she started to move and then she started to move A LOT! We saw her move from tree to tree to tree! She was upside down and hanging and it was amazing seeing her go from tree to tree! She was a female two toed sloth. Eeek-so exciting! We also saw a crazy furry caterpillar looking thing (got a video), some beautiful birds, the most beautiful huge butterfly, another red and blue tree frog, a brown frog and a bunch of colorful lizards. The hanging bridges had beautiful views and the kids were obsessed with collecting dead leaves from the ground and watching them float down to the ground from the bridges. We didn't feel crowded with people whatsoever like many things online indicated if you didn't go super early. In fact we had the hanging bridges all to ourselves most of the time. By the end we were extremely hot and tired but enjoyed it a lot. We grabbed some food at the grocery store on the way back home and relaxed the rest of the evening. There was a beautiful sunset and we watched minions #3 and had ice cream! 

Day 8-Saturday April 20-

Today we decided to drive to Rio Celeste which was 1hr 40 min away from La Fortuna where we've been staying. We did a 7 mile round trip hike there with loads of steps to get to the most breathtaking blue water waterfall, and river. It was one of the coolest things ever! I'm so glad we made the trek out there. The hike did have quite a lot of steps but we saw monkeys, lizards, a yellow snake and the floura and fauna was astoundingly beautiful. We listened to our audiobook "the insignificant events in the life of a cactus" and on the way back we stopped at a place called "Kamis" where we got burgers, fries and pizza. We also got some yummy treats at the bakery next door for dessert. We came back home to watch a movie and have our treats before bed. I'm so grateful for how well the kids did today. We've been hiking A LOT and they've done great! So the kids except Caden have really awful earaches too and Rachel had a fever yesterday. They were rock stars!

Day 9-Sunday April 21-

Today we changed locations to Jaco Beach! After having breakfast and packing up, we headed out on our 3.5 hour drive. First stop was the pharmacy. After a fairly sleepless night with someone, Rachel and Parkers earaches, we did Dr on demand and they prescribed antibiotic eardrops. The pharmacy didn't have the same thing as what was prescribed but something close enough so we got it plus Benadryl. We stopped at a viewpoint and also stopped at Minas del Aguacate on the long drive. We didn't find the caves, but played in the natural rock waterslides there. We were not planning to get wet, but half of the kids decided they just had to try it out. We also enjoyed listening to our audiobook on the long drive and guess what we saw?! A yellow billed toucan that flew across the road right in front of our car!! The roads were mostly totally fine but we hit some pretty sketchy stee-eep windy dirt roads and I'm so glad we survived. When we got to our hotel and we're getting settled, I happened to look out our balcony window and there were two incredibly colorful red macaw's on a tree pretty close to us!! I was totally geeking out. We went to get dinner at "eminadas Argentina's" down the street from the hotel which was a good price and really yummy. We got them to go and brought them to the beach to eat. The sunset was beautiful and everyone got in the ocean which was quite warm even though it was almost dark. Once dark, we came back  the hotel, showered and hung out before bed. 

Day 10-Monday April 22-

After a sit down breakfast at our hotel restaurant which is included, we went to go to a butterfly place but the owner was under the weather so they told us to come back another day. They did let us tour the treehouse they rent out though which was really cool. We then went to the Jaco open air shopping center and did some shopping although didn't buy anything since the prices were insane. We did rent boogie boards through Thursday though from "the surfer factory" for $98 for 3 nice boogie boards. We stopped at the Jaco sign and got some empanadas to go and ate them and went to Jaco Beach to try out the boards. It was the PERFECT DAY at the beach. Overcast making it the perfect temperature outside and the perfect temperature in the ocean (86 degrees)! They were the perfect waves for boogie boarding and we all boogie boarded for a little over 4 hours. Everyone loved it! To top it off, there were 6 scarlet macaw's at the beach in a tree today and we for to see then fly off about about 30 minutes and they flew off in 3 couples 😍. So beautiful! We came back to the hotel to get ready for dinner and headed to "Vida Hermosa Restaurant" which was very pricey but the best food of the trip if you ask me. Mom and Dad got us passionfruit smoothies that were to die for too. It started to rain during dinner with lots of lightening. A nice guy that worked at the restaurant helped each of us get to our car while holding an umbrella for us. We came back to the hotel to watch some shark tank (which Rachel was very disappointed didn't actually have anything to do with sharks) and get to bed. 

Day 11-April 23-

Today was another dedicated beach and boogie board day. We started at Hermosa Beach right in front of our hotel and when the rip currents got a little too much we switched to Jaco Beach again. At Hermosa we saw a bunch of crabs including what we now know are nicknamed "Halloween Crabs" and hermit Crabs which was cool. It was fun to have Grandma and Grandpa with us at the beach today-they even did some boogie boarding-they never cease to amaze me. Yesterday was very overcast which was so great and today was very sunny which meant that despite being diligent with sunscreen application, it didn't cut it and we all got too much sun. We had a great time though playing all day at the beach. The boys got up on their boogie boards like surfboards today which was fun. The beaches are such soft black sand and we saw 4 more red macaw's at the beach today. Darrin left to grab fried chicken for lunch and brought it back to the beach since it's so hard to pry the kids away. At about 4:30 we left and stopped at some stores on the way home for some groceries and dinner. We showered and watched a movie before bed. 

Day 12-April 24-

We decided to drive to Nauyaca waterfalls today which was a 1.5 hour drive southeast from Jaco. On the drive there we saw macaw's found along side us and there were SO many palm trees farms which was cool and beautiful. It was a 4 mile hike all together and on the hike there, it legitimately felt like hiking in a sauna. Sweat dripping the entire time in fact by the time we got to the waterfall you'd have thought we'd already jumped in by the looks of us. Not kidding. It felt SO refreshing to get in and play. We had a lot of fun there and it was beautiful! We had great cloud coverage on the hike back and halfway through it started raining hard which actually felt so good! We saw what we thought was a baby owl on the way back that looked like one of it's wings wasn't working right but when we Google lensed it is a Pauraque-he sure was cute and it was fascinating being able to be so close. We then went to Dominicano Beach on our way back to Jaco. It was really overcast and the ocean was so warm we had to get in and play again. It started raining again and it felt and smelled so good! After playing at the beach for an hour and a half he headed the rest of the drive back. Thank goodness for a good audiobook to pass the time. We grabbed fried chicken again for dinner since it's a crowd pleaser and not crazy expensive and got to bed. 

Day 12-April 25th-

After breakfast we went to "Royal Butterflies" which is a butterfly sanctuary. None of the butterflies there were brought in they just planted plants to attract the butterflies and they've also planted 80 different types of fruit trees there. They have an enclosure too where Dan, the owner taught us all about the butterflies in there. We saw lots of eggs, chrysalis', caterpillar and of course butterflys. A favorite was the owl butterfly which is the largest in Costa Rica. They totally look like and owl and can also mimic a snake plus when they fly under sunlight they're blue! So cool. Dan was great and the property was great. It was really really hot though. Next, even though we were overheated we decided to do the “El Miro” hike. We saw so many lizards and iguanas on the trail. It's an abandoned mansion-locals claim that a wealthy man sought to construct a mansion, possibly even a hotel and a restaurant, on this high location, given its breathtaking views of Jacó’s coastline. Unfortunately, the rich owner passed away before his splashy 3-story complex was ever completed, and so, the building was abandoned shortly after, falling into a state of disrepair. There's a bunch of graffiti and it's actually really cool way to on the mountains. The views are gorgeous. 

We grabbed fresh fruit from a vendor and a smoothie bowl from Sunny's Cafe for a light lunch. We came back to the hotel to rest and get ready for the beach. Perfect beach conditions again-overcast, nice breeze and we got some great boogie boarding in as well as a beautiful sunset. We picked up dinner in the way back to the hotel after returning the boogie boards we'd rented. After getting ready for bed we cashed in our free drink cards we got at check-in. Virgin Pina coladas, strawberry daquari and mint mojito. Yum?! Such a great day! 

-Day 13-April 26

Our last day here! We checked out of our hotel in Jaco and made our way to San Jose with stops along the way. Our first stop was the Jaco Farmer's market. We tried a new fruit that I LOVED called Grandillas. Crunchy, juicy and tastes incredible. We also got cane juice and freshly squeezed orange juice. There were SO many iguanas there at the farmers market. Next stop was a new beach. Very calm water, lots of hermit crabs and there were 2 macaw's there and 2 more flying overhead. Next stop was crocodile bridge where we saw about 10 crocodiles from a bridge one of which was HUGE. That was so cool! Next stop was the San Jose Temple. I can't describe how my heart lept for joy upon seeing it-it felt like home. It was such a tiny temple but brought so much joy to be at the house of the Lord. Then we went to Walmart to get some snacks for the way home and see if we could find any souvenirs. We also ate dinner there at the cafeteria. It was VERY different than the Walmarts at home with a fence around the whole building, parking garage underneath, a bunch of security guards all over the parking lot and many things locked up inside like the sunscreen, baby formula and more. Oh, and the cafeteria. After we shopped and ate we made our way to our Airbnb for the night. We had to wait for the owner to meet us there since we didn't have service to message them earlier. It looked like a sketchy area but it felt safe because they had locked gates and doors. The place was huge and could sleep 12 with a kitchen and 2 bathrooms and we got it for $83 for the night! We tried to go to sleep early which was really hard since we had to wake up at 3:40 am. 

Day 14-April 27

Travel day home. We've had such a great time but we're ready to be home in our own beds and have our own food and speak the same language as others around us 😁. It's going to be a loooong day to get there though lol. Left the apartment at 3:55 am to return the rental cars. Unfortunately, that took a lot longer than anticipated since they wanted to charge my father in law for his broken door handle that was there before he rented it. It took a long time before we were on the way to way to the airport which cut it quite right as we got to the gate right as they started boarding. 6 hr 20 minute flight to LA from SAN JOSE. Then almost an 8 hour layover in LA before leaving to SLC! We passed the time with lunch, walks, lots of monopoly deal, some coloring, and dinner. Short less than 2 hour flight home and then an Uber to get back to our house. Our burdens were made light on such a long travel day and it feels SO GOOD to be home.