Day 7 – Last Day In Costa Rica

admin August 31, 2024 0 Comments

This was our last full day in Costa Rica, and it turned out to be the best one.  We had several hours of driving to get back to the capital for our flight out the next day, but we had half a day with no plans.  So we had asked our guide from the mangrove tour for suggestions the day before.  He suggested a hike along our drive back.  We had no idea what an amazing place he was sending us to.

Kenzie and I followed his directions, turned off the main road, and drove 30 minutes on a dirt road into the jungle.  We were starting to wonder if we’d gotten lost again when we finally found the unassuming entrance to the park. 

It was a 3-mile hike roundtrip, and over the several hours we were there, we only saw 5 other people.

The first half of the hike was up steep mountains and included a bunch of very high (and sketchy) hanging bridges crossing valleys and next to waterfalls.  So beautiful!

The second half of the hike was even better.  We worked our way back down to the river and followed it back.  All of the waterfalls we’d seen on the way in drained into the river we followed back out. For a mile and a half, it was swimming hole after swimming hole fed by the waterfalls and river.  We spent the next hour swimming in a few of them and taking lots of pictures.

This place is not anything we had read about or found in any guidebook, so we were so appreciative that one of the locals shared it with us.  It turned out to be one of the highlights of the whole trip!

Day 6 – The Mangroves

admin August 30, 2024 0 Comments

Day 6 was a trip through the mangroves. It was a completely different experience from yesterday, but still full of amazing wildlife. Lots of birds, snakes, and of course, MORE MONKEYS!!!

Our guide today was great and had lived in Costa Rica most of his life. His ability to spot animals in this thick jungle was incredible. I found even after he spotted something and told me exactly where it was, it sometimes took me another minute or two to find it.

The driver of our boat was also really interesting. He and his family lived on an island isolated out in the mangrove forest. He was born in the house he lives in, as were all of his kids, and he lives off of the land except for earning some extra money driving the boat on these tours. He took us by his place on the tour as we were looking for snakes, and mentioned that apparently crocodiles coming up on his beach and to the house are a real problem. So interesting!

We’d gotten pretty luck with the rain in general, but this day was a heavy one. And on the drive home it was clear looking at the roads just how much water they see during the rainy season.

Day 5 – Manuel Antonio National Park

admin August 29, 2024 0 Comments

Monkeys and sloths were high on our list of things we wanted to see on this trip to Costa Rica, and Manuel Antonio National Park was supposed to be a great place for this and other wildlife viewing. It did not disappoint! Hiring a guide was highly recommended, and I’m so glad that we did. Not only did we learn so much more about the forest, but his ability to spot animals was incredible and we’d have missed most of what we ended up seeing if we’d done it alone. During our time there we saw 8 sloths, howler and white face capuchin monkeys, reptiles, birds, and lots of interesting plants. Not to mention the beautiful beach at the edge of the park. An absolutely amazing experience and something I’ll never forget.

After our half day at the national park, Kenzie and I drove south just exploring the area. We wrapped up our day at a “soda” (a roadside cafe) to wait out the regular afternoon downpour.

It was a great day, and we definitely got to see all of the wildlife we were hoping for!

Day 4 – Crocodiles, Monkeys, Iguanas and Driving to Manuel Antonio National Park

admin August 28, 2024 0 Comments

Our fourth day was mainly a travel day. We left La Fortuna and drove through several hours of beautiful jungle and then along the coast to our destination, the Manuel Antonio National Park. We made several stops along the way including taking a walk along the “Crocodile Bridge.” It’s just a bridge along the road, but crocodiles are known to hang out here. And it did not disappoint. When we looked over the edge, there were several waiting for a meal to float down the river to them.

We continued our drive to Manuel Antonio, and when we arrived in town it was still light so we drove down to the beach and came across several monkeys just playing in the park!

We wrapped up our travel day by checking into the hotel and having dinner at “El Avion.”. This is a restaurant with a beautiful view, but what’s more interesting is the C-123 cargo plane the place is built around. The inside of the plane is the bar and you walk through it to get to the seating area. This plane, and another just like it (which crashed in the jungle), were used by the CIA to fly arms and drugs back and forth to Central America as part of the Iran-Contra scandal in the 80s. The plane was abandoned at the San Juan airport and the restaurant owner had it brought to Manuel Antonio as an attraction. Random, but definitely made for a unique attraction.

Day 3 – La Fortuna, Costa Rica

admin August 27, 2024 0 Comments

Today was our big adventure day.

The number one thing Kenzie wanted to do on this trip was Zip Lining. One of the biggest zip lines in the world is in La Fortuna. You take a tram up the side of the mountain (actually a volcano), and then a series of 7 zip lines take you back down. One of the zip lines is about 3/4 of a mile long, and you are about 600 feet above the jungle canopy. She was so excited! I was dreading it…

Almost all of the pictures are of her, but the company did manage to capture one of each of each of us on our first zip line. You can see that look of total excitement in her face, and total terror in mine!

It’s hard to describe how high, and fast and high this is. The pictures and video do not do it justice. I was surprised to find that about halfway through, the wheel on the carriage that attaches you to the line was so hot you could not touch it with your bare hands (from the friction and speed of it running down the cable).

She had a blast, and by the end, even I was enjoying it.

We also saw our first monkeys and sloths in the trees. These were both high on our list for this trip so that was really cool to see them along the way.

On the drive back through the jungle we stopped to buy some fruit on the side of the road and found that the few other cars that were stopped were actually a movie crew filming a movie. So we hung out for a bit and watched them, then headed back for a little souvenir shopping and dinner in town.

Our hotel was at the base of the volcano here in La Fortuna and the view out of the door was beautiful.

Day 1 and 2 – Costa Rica!

admin August 26, 2024 0 Comments

Kenzie and I had a chance to slip in a quick trip before school started again, so with the help of a great deal on airline tickets we decided to spend a week road-tripping around Costa Rica!

It was a long travel day, starting at 3:30am. We were so tired that we forgot to get the typical PDX carpet on the way out. Instead, we got San Jose, CA (not nearly as nice). After a long travel day, we got some sleep at a nearby hotel and then set off the next day for the drive to La Fortuna.

We had planned for an easy day of driving without any set plans. And I’m glad we did because we got lost on the back roads in the countryside. But as is usually the case, we have some of our best experiences when we are lost or have no plan. As we wandered through the little villages and back roads, we came across a little farm that offered tours of their plantation. They grow coffee, chocolate, and other miscellaneous fruit.

We dropped in to see if they had a tour available and as it happened there was a group of people from Spain who had arranged a tour and they were kind enough to let us join them.

We spent several hours wandering the property, eating LOTS of fruit off of the trees as we went (we were stuffed by the time it was over), and learning about how coffee and chocolate are made. This farm does everything from growing the coffee and chocolate beans right through roasting and processing both on-site. All on a small family farm. It was really interesting seeing (and sampling) the process at every stage.

We’re here in the rainy season, and the rain is no joke. It’s so warm, so it’s not bad being in it, but I’ve never seen rain and thunder/lightning so intense. We were caught in a rain storm during part of the tour and had to hike through a sudden flood of water that runs through the farm. But we both had a blast doing it!

After our tour it was another hour of driving to our hotel at our destination for the next few days, La Fortuna.

A few days in Reykjavik, and then home…

admin July 27, 2021 0 Comments

After visiting the rural parts of Iceland, we wrapped up our trip with some time in the only major city in Iceland (Reykjavik). We started with a Segway tour (that’s our go-to move in a new city to get an overview of the place, hit all the popular spots, and see what we want to go back and spend more time visiting). Having rental scooters in town was also a great way to get around. Some of the highlights included visiting the Reykjavik fire department to trade patches and check out their engines, walking around the downtown shops, and visiting the Icelandic penis museum. Yep, that’s right, who knew, but we wandered by an “interesting” storefront and sculpture that caught our attention and discovered that Reykjavik is home to the Icelandic Phallological Museum. You just know we couldn’t pass on checking that out. The museum was ok, but the gift shop was definitely worth a stop! 🙂 We did skip the Phallic Cafe after learning about traditional Icelandic food (shark that has been buried 6 months to ferment, puffin, and horse). I’d rather not know what was on that menu.

After a week away, it was time to head home and pick Kenzie up from grandmas house in California. Great trip, and a perfect place to venture out after the last year in lockdown!

Iceland’s Golden Circle

admin July 19, 2021 0 Comments

On one of our last days in Iceland, we did the Golden Circle, which is a popular day trip from Reykjavik. It was an easy day, with some great scenery. We saw the original “geysir” (where the word comes from), an incredible waterfall, and some of the most historic areas of Iceland where the origins of government developed over 1000 years ago.

Reykjadalur Hot Spring Thermal River

admin July 19, 2021 0 Comments

So after a day of recovery from hiking the volcano, we were ready to try another long hike. This time it was to the hot springs thermal river. This river is created by geothermal springs and so the water is the temperature of a hot tub. It’s was a long hike to get there, but a pretty amazing experience relaxing in a 100-degree river for our now daily Icelandic “soak.”

Icelands South Coast

admin July 17, 2021 0 Comments

After hiking the volcano we headed down the south coast of Iceland for a few easy days of sightseeing. Lots of waterfalls and beautiful scenery. We went as far as Vik (which you might recognize if you’ve been watching the Netflix series Katal, that red church should look familiar). We ended the first day at a restaurant serving traditional Icelandic food. But we were not feeling that adventurous so we played it safe and ordered fish and chips from the tourist menu.