the pura vida way

Post Grand Canyon rim to rim, my weekly running mileage has basically fallen off of a cliff. I'd been bumping along, trying to keep it to at least 20 miles per week, but then the NJ summer swamp descended and I just haven't been motivated to run more than 3-4 miles per run. I sit here on a Saturday morning with mileage not even in the double digits for the week yet. I might muster up the courage to get out tomorrow morning, but for the moment, sitting here drinking coffee and writing seems like the more reasonable way to spend a Saturday morning.

It's been a little over a week since we returned from a magical, wild trip to Costa Rica. Having two teenagers forced me to really reign in the amount of activities I would've planned if it had just been Chris and I traveling. On the one day I booked more than 1 activity, the kids were visibly and audibly more grumpy in the evening. Overall, the vacation was a wonderful mix of relaxation and adventuring. It's tough to be in Costa Rica and not feel like you're on an adventure. You can just be sitting anywhere outside and the wildlife will knock your socks off (if you're a NJ gal like myself).

Even on vacation, I love being up early. It allows me a couple of hours to explore solo and I can do what I want and then have the patience to move at the kids' pace later in the day. Not sure how, but our travels over were completely smooth. No delays and the drive to our first destination was a little hairy, but really not that bad. We stayed in this amazing treehouse in the jungle in Alejuela. The private property was operated as a "hotel" and had 7 treehouses. It was fantastic. We each had our own beds, but had to share 1 bathroom, which ended up being fine. We did battle with mosquitoes as soon as we arrived and wore bug spray to sleep, but other than the bugs, it was an awesome place to stay. On the first morning, I ran/hiked my way down to the river. It was amazing being able to get on their private trails right outside my door. They brought coffee up to our patio each morning, so it was right there waiting for me when I got back from the river. As I was sitting having breakfast that first morning, a hummingbird flew right next to my ear. I just sat in a trance, enthralled by all of the animal sounds. During my run, I heard so many bird sounds and monkeys. The outdoor dining area where we had breakfast was surrounded by hummingbird feeders, so we were able to enjoy all different types of hummingbirds while eating. Later that morning, we also visited a little pond they had set up for frogs and saw a variety of frogs including dart frogs and glass frogs that blended in with the leaves. That night we saw one of my favorite animals, the red eyed tree frog.

Monkey Treehouse

Breakfast on the patio

The most delish yucca patties and fresh fruit for breakfast

Red-eyed tree frogs

Super cool plants everywhere- this one is a type of ginger plant

Mission no. 1 for both of our kids was seeing sloths, so I booked a tour at a local wildlife rescue center called Projecto Asis. For some reason, I can't hear the phrase "rescue center" without thinking about Go, Diego, Go. Anyway, mission accomplished on our first full day in Costa Rica. We were able to see 2 sloths out in the trees at the center. The guide had a really powerful telescope and a cool gizmo that allowed us to take zoomed in photos on our iPhones.

I adore their little piggy noses

Day 2, we had an awesome, private hike to San Vicente waterfall. The owner of the treehouses hotel recommended the hike. We only saw one other group of hikers the entire time. The forest was so lush and we even saw a tarantula which had unfortunately been stepped on. The plant diversity is really striking- loved seeing the wide variety of ferns.

After a quick lunch, we went to a chocolate workshop where we learned about chocolate and made our own. The highlight for me was getting to taste the pulp that is around the cacao seeds. Fruity and delicious.

Our next stop was La Fortuna. We stayed at a very impressive Airbnb on top of a hill, surrounded by farmland and homemade trails. If it hadn't been overcast, we would've had a direct view of Arenal from the outdoor patio and pool. Loved exploring the grounds and it was so much fun to see all of the baby goats and piglets at the farm.

Day 3: We did a family hike across a series of hanging bridges at Mistico Park. My daughter spotted an anteater in the trees and at the end of our hike, we watched howler monkeys with their babies playing in the trees.

Used our imagination to "see" Arenal in the distance. We did get to see at least the bottom part of it.

Trails around the Airbnb

Teeny tiny piglets

Hanging bridges

Our only monkey sighting for the trip

After Mistico Park, we had a delicious lunch at a local soda and then headed out for ziplining at Sky Adventures. I had no idea what we were getting into when I booked the ziplining. I have ziplined before, but this was extreme. We were lucky to experience clear skies, an amazing view of Arenal and no rain during our late afternoon adventure above the forest canopy. I clocked my speed on the longest zip line, which was 0.5 mile long and I hit 43 mph. It was really fun riding tandem with my daughter on one of the zip lines.

Before our cable car ride up, finally saw the top of Arenal

If you could only hear our screams...

Lucky that we could see the top of Arenal while riding, but it clouded over eventually. My son opted out. He does not like heights.

Day 4: We left our Airbnb and headed to Rio Celeste for a tubing trip. We got our first taste of how bad the roads can be in Costa Rica. Unfortunately, many of the roads are unpaved, so it was a lot of very slow driving while being bumped around. Where the roads were paved, there were a ridiculous number of pot holes and many windy and narrow roads with switchbacks and hairpin turns. Definitely needed to be completely focused while driving. The journey was tough, but the visit to Rio Celeste was well worth it. The color of the water was really beautiful and kind of reminded me of the blue lagoon. We were lucky to catch it at such a beautiful color as sometimes with storms, it can be muddy and brown. The four of us were clipped together in our tubes and we had a river guide who maneuvered us between rocks in the choppy sections. We traveled about 3 miles down the river with a short break to go swimming.

Unfortunately, with regards to driving, the worst was yet to come. Luckily, there was a nice restaurant with the tubing company, so we could have lunch prior to our long journey down to the Monteverde cloud forest. A 2.5 hour ride somehow took 4 hours. We got stuck on an unpaved road for many miles and could only go 15-20 mph. I was terrified we were going to get a flat tire. I had planned on arriving in the cloud forest in daylight, but it ended up getting dark about an hour before we arrived. The Airbnb wasn't the easiest place to find in the dark, but we finally made it at around 7PM. We had stopped in town to get some simple ingredients for dinner and breakfast. I was so happy to eat and go to bed. The cloud forest was completely different as compared to La Fortuna and Alejuela. It was quite windy the entire time we were there. Definitely a lot cooler and a lot less buggy. In contrast to being eaten by mosquitoes as we slept in La Fortuna, it was so nice to be able to sleep with the windows open in the cloud forest and not get eaten. One really odd occurrence were the lawn shrimp (tiny, half-inch long shrimp) that would get blown into the house, under the front door during the night.

The next morning, the wind was still blowing, but it was nice enough to get outside for a hike along the trails right outside our front door. The coolest thing we saw were clear-winged butterflies. Looked like something out of a fantasy movie. Later that morning, we visited El Trapiche, a family-owned farm that cultivates sugar cane, cacao and coffee. The tour was excellent. We all learned a lot and were able to sample fresh sugar cane, sugar cane candy, freshly made chocolate and freshly brewed coffee. One of the best things we ate the entire trip was a little taco made with a root vegetable called arracache. It was such a delicious 3 bites. I also left with many bags of their award-winning coffee. Very cool that they had all different types of processed coffees including washed, natural, honey and anaerobically fermented coffees.

The beautiful El Trapiche farm with many shade trees

Loved the fresh sugar cane

My son making the traditional sugar cane candy

Fermented and roasted cacao seeds

Honey-processed coffee

After the tour, we went into town and had lunch. Monteverde is definitely a popular place for tourists as indicated by the many people we heard speaking other languages and the uptick in pricing at the restaurants. One of the best parts of the trip were all of the delicious juices we had (guanabana was my favorite!) and the food was also delicious. A favorite of ours was the traditional casados, which is rice, beans, salad, fried sweet plantain, some other vegetable mix and a protein all together on one plate. We also enjoyed chifrijo, which is basically rice and beans with salsa, fried pork belly and avocado on top. Arroz con pollo was a delicious seasoned fried rice with chicken and vegetables that we liked as well.

Casados

Chifrijo

We had some time to rest up and then we met up with our guide for a night walk, which is a very popular thing to do in Monteverde. We lost count of the number of signs we saw advertising night walks. It was pretty fun to see birds sleeping in the trees and all of the insects in the forest. We enjoyed seeing the little "green apples" sleeping in the trees- the toucanets, which we learned can be violent towards other birds. At least they were peaceful when we saw them. The stick insects were quite amazing. We also stumbled upon a very large leafcutter ant hill and our guide pointed out a scent that she thought belonged to a male puma. Luckily, we never saw the puma.

A very large stick insect

On our last full day, we met up with our guide (who was also our Airbnb host) and she took us to the Curi-Cancha Reserve. As we were leaving our Airbnb, we saw two toucans flying up ahead. We ended up seeing a bunch of wildlife at the reserve as well. A favorite sighting was a few families of white-nosed coati, with little babies playing with each other. The peccaries, which look like wild boars, were also cool to see. We also saw crested guan, which are kind of like wild turkeys. Unfortunately, we did not have a quetzal sighting. We waited by an avocado tree for awhile, but they never came.

White-nosed coati

Peccary

There was a very rare sighting at the hummingbird gallery. Sadly, one of the hummingbirds was eaten by a pit viper that was hanging out on a tree. Another nature guide witnessed the exact moment when the viper captured the hummingbird. When we got to the hummingbird gallery, we could see the viper with the hummingbird in its belly. It was being dive-bombed by other hummingbirds who were trying to get it to leave.

We got to see many colorful hummingbirds up close

Photo from the guide who saw the viper eating the hummingbird. Eek.

Another beautiful sighting was all of the hollowed out fig trees. We all fit into one and found porcupine quills.

Large hollowed out fig tree

Porcupine quill

Overall, a wonderful trip to two fun areas of Costa Rica. The kids enjoyed it but were pretty exhausted when we got home. Unfortunately, we dealt with weather-related delays when trying to come home and ended up getting home at 2:45AM when we were supposed to be home closer to 9:30PM. Bonus and a miracle that we all stayed healthy and immediately after the trip. Very lucky to be able to experience a small slice of Costa Rica. I loved the kindness of all of the people we met. They truly embody the spirit of Pura Vida, which is probably easy to do, when surrounded by beautiful nature and animals on a daily basis.