I got off the United flight at San Jose airport with a bit of trepidation. Steve assumed that my 20 minutes of Spanish revision made me the family expert. I didn't have the heart to tell him that the last time I spoke any Spanish was 19 years ago and that a Peruvian local woman congratulated me on a pregnancy after I’d attempted to tell her that I was full from dinner.
In the airport customs queue most were American and I figured that English had to be widely spoken. While I have been proved right in the tourist areas, the customs lady threw me a bit by only speaking Spanish. I figured she was asking me how long we were staying. I think I told her we were here for 4 months instead of nearly 4 weeks but hey, with a few fingers and thumbs we got the visa regardless!
Over the nine months of travel Steve and I have divided the organisation of the trip. Costa Rica and Belize were firmly in my court. Things have been busy on the home front prior to leaving (renovation, moving and a degree) and while researching I came across a Costa Rican company called ‘Anywhere Costa Rica’ that specialise in travel through Costa Rica. I sent them details of where we wanted to go, what we wanted to do and our time limits. About twenty emails back and forth and they had organised the transport, accommodation and some of the tours at a quarter of the price Steve has organised Africa! I think I must have over emphasised hiking and animals (for another blog) but it meant that I had an itinerary and was grateful for the shuttle bus waiting for us and our much diminished luggage (we’d sent everything we didn’t need to either Australia or New York via ‘sendmybag.com- a brilliant UK company that we’d found on the internet and I highly recommend them see below for details**)
Our first stop was at the base of Arenal volcano. 3+ hours north of San Jose. No one can stay on the volcano or even climb it as it’s still smoking (last volcanic activity was 2010) and we’d decided to stay out of the main town - La Fortuna and instead put ourselves at the foot of the volcano in the hot springs area.
Our hotel, Los Lagos is made up of a reception, a dining room and rooms dotted across it’s resort. Our room was 15 minute walk up a very steep hill (as are all the rooms) and adjoined to others in a block. It made for noisy mornings but we have soon got used to early starts (5.30am) which seems to be the norm here and consequently early finishes (haven’t seen past 10pm since we’ve arrived in CR!)
The big pull of Los Lagos were the hot springs and the water slides. A series of pools; two cold pools and three warm/hot pools with a total of 4 very fast water slides. It was seriously damp during our stay in Arenal as the clouds hung over the volcano and there was nothing better than getting into a slide of hot bath temperature and whooshing downwards into the huge bath! This also led onto the pool bar so really there was little excuse ever to get out. The kids enjoyed the cold water more, especially after they got very burnt on his first day. The clouds were very deceptive and even with suncream everyone caught the sun with both children getting subsequent skin peeling (bad Australian mum!!) .
Costa Rica is no nanny state and common sense is expected to prevail. ‘Pura Vida’ pure life / life is ok, is the national slogan and when it comes to activities everyone took a much more relaxed attitude to danger. In the slides this meant, they were built for speed not comfort so bruises were expected. No life guards and certainly nobody at the top of the slide to tell you when to go (just count to about 20 and off you go). One of the slides had a sudden decapitating tunnel half way down. The knock on the head and water filling your lungs was a reminder to act a bit faster. Kids are natural adapters and never left this particular slide. I preferred to mellow in the hot bath!
Costa Rica is very popular with Americans as a holiday destination. Those poor people get no more than two weeks vacation a year and have to jam in everything on their wish-list in this short time. Therefore it should not have surprised me therefore that Costa Rica is an adrenal junkies dream vacation. We’d signed up for Rappelling (also known as abseiling), rapid rafting and zip lining. I’ve listed the companies below that we used and I highly recommend !
Taking the ‘pura vida’ attitude to these tasks everything consisted of a 2 minute instruction and a push off the deck. I thank God that kids and I have done a fair amount of rock climbing (yes St Peters only but at least they know how to abseil!) and zip lining previously. The zip lining was fun and sent us through the canopies of our resort where we saw monkeys and toucans. Slowing down and stopping oneself consisted of holding down your leather glove on the speeding line. One kid took his thumb out of his glove and got a very bad burn…but hey…’Pura Vida! My kids listened to the two minute instructions like their life depended on it (which it did) and you can see from our photos that we all concentrated hard but loved it!
Rappelling…we weren’t sure what was involved and just took the bumpy ride to a canyon after which we realised it was abseiling down waterfalls. Steve has never done any abseiling ever and the initial drop was 125ft. He ventured off the deck with a shove from the instructor and a look of ‘what the F…’ on his face.
The rappelling also included something called a ‘monkey drop’. It’s difficult to explain but imagine zip lining and then suddenly half way through you drop 80 ft (about 22 metres). While Kyran felt like Tarzan I screamed like Jane and scared most other living creatures in the jungle. Steve standing at the deck saw it coming and kept quiet but the pair of us had shaking legs and started counting down how many more were to come. Erin got a little nervous because she was so light and just swayed in the water. It didn’t help that even after you got the hang of it and wanted to avoid the water the belayer at the bottom stopped you mid water to ensure you get a thorough soaking!
WE hadn’t realised that the rappelling was through water and unfortunately unlike most of the others we didn’t own ‘water shoes’ We instead used our trainers and hiking boots. It’s lucky we got used to being soaked early in the day as the same afternoon we headed to the river for rafting.
Part of a convey of 80 people in rafts ours held just the four of us and our 19 year old guide. They know what they are doing but our 11 and 9 year old don’t. Instructions on what to do if/when you fell out did not leave me feeling very optimistic for Erin. She’s as light as a feather and I had vague recollections from about 26 years ago of a girl nearly drowning on a rafting trip in New Zealand. I needn’t have worried. These waters are WARM, not glacial as NZ is and Erin took to it better than Kyran. When the guide said ‘GO’ she screamed at Kyran to get rowing and held on tight when we hit rocks. Half way down our two hour row we stopped, had fruit on the rocks and then got going again. In calm waters the kids jumped in (fully clothed with boots and all) for a swim. I didn’t as I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to drag myself back into the boat but we all agreed it was one of the best things we have ever done as a family.
It was a shame that this was on our last day in Arenal because the chances of anything drying were slim and I busted the hotel hairdryer trying to dry out the shoes that evening!
So other than a day and a half of action we also went for two walks to observation points for the volcano. Arenal is a great place for walking with striking views in every direction. We liked to walk which is just as well as hills are steep! It was unfortunate that at no point during our stay did the clouds completely clear and we got a full view of the top of the volcano. It got close a few times (when I didn’t have my camera) and I hear the sight is amazing. While disappointed of this lack of photo opportunity I am rather grateful as it was hot enough without full sun and I didn’t want to make the kids sunburn any worse.
After 4 nights in Arenal we had to get to Monteverde which is home to another two national parks. ‘Cloud forest’ and the ‘childrens national forest’. It was either a 8 hour drive or a 3 hour drive plus a boat ride to get there. Roads in Costa Rica are divided into State vs Government. We have quickly found out that only government roads are bitumen and everything else is dirt road. The locals call it the ‘Costa Rican massage’ 2 hours of bumping up and down does wonders for a diet as you have no appetite for a good few hours afterwards! Local shuttle buses pack everyones bags in the back and a few times Steve and I restacked cases to ensure they didn’t come flying onto our heads! Our boat taxi was wonderful – 45 minutes of bliss listening to the boat motor across the lake and taking in the spectacular scenery. Oops…that is the idealic version. The reality was that behind me I had two 16 year old girls spend 45 minutes taking selfies and telling each other how ‘ugly’ they were and in front two women my age or older doing the same!!!!! Really…?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!?! Later on Erin and I had a bit of a chat regarding the stupidity and sadness of it all. Lets hope it sticks.
Monteverde was a bit cooler but much dryer than Arenal and we got the rest of our damp gear dried in our home made chinese laundry. Only two nights here for walks in the forest and yet another zip line adventure. This zipline was not for acrophobics as it took a gondola tram to get to the start of the ride at the top of the mountain. The largest zipline was 750 metres long and we rode from one mountain top to another. Although it was in the cloud forest we saw not a cloud and the views were utterly spectacular. You want to be like a bird..this is the one to do.!
There is much more to Costa Rica than adrenalin adventures. The children have been having dream science lessons and probably know more regarding animals and fauna than most by the end of this trip. I’ll leave that for another blog!
Heidi
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*Sendmybag.com
If you are intending to send anything overseas you must have a scanned copy of your passport and passport details of the person receiving it from you (if you aren’t there..eg a parents). They are able to pick up your case from a hotel so you don’t need to stand guard over your suitcase waiting for several hours or take it to an office. Give yourself at least 2 days to organize as anything back to EU and Australia require extra paperwork in plastic covers tied to the outside of the case. We didn’t have what they wanted but it’s amazing what you can achieve with A4 plastic covers, sticky tape and gift tape!)
