Life is just a sequence of Reoccuring Events - Make them fun!: Costa Rica Trip

On July 28th we woke up early and packed up our things into the car. I got packed up pretty early so while I was waiting for the others I walked around the grounds. Our house was on about 20 acres of rain forests and pathways. It was really quite pretty.

View of Lake Arenal

Swimming pond...it was just a little too chilly to swim in

The caretaker had left banana's on our doorstep...so yummy

After we will all packed up and went to a nice German Bakery in Nuevo Arenal for breakfast. It was really good and we bought some pastries to eat for lunch later in the car.

Then we drove over the north side of the lake and headed west towards the coast. The land and roads were much flatter and less curvy. We saw lots of ranches and farms. We were headed to a ferry town and then on to take the ferry across the bay to the peninsula where our next house was located. The ferry town of Puntarenas was very dirty and it was the only place on our trip where I felt like I might get robbed. We didn't explore it at all and stuck to the ferry boarding area. I helped Matt buy our tickets...since the ticket office clerk didn't speak very good English. We all had to walk onto it since only the driver could be in the car while it was boarding. It took about 2 hours, boarding...traveling across the bay and unboarding. But it was kind of fun.

The roads on the peninsula were the worst we saw the entire trip...it was rare to find a paved road. They were all dirt or gravel. It took us a while to cross the peninsula to Playa Carmen where our next house was located. We got to the town a little early to check into the house, so we had dinner at an Argentine BBQ place. It wasn't that bad.

Then we walked back to the house and got checked in. It was a pretty cool house. Very Spanish villa feel to it. Tall ceilings, open windows...there was no A/C so we opened all the windows to let some airflow in. There was only two bedrooms so Jeanette and Becca were in one and Cari and I claimed the other one with Matt out on the hammock on the balcony.

We had a little visitor....

We went to bed early, we were getting up early the next morning to go ziplining in Malpais, just down the coast. I'm not that fond of heights....or hanging over forests on a wire...so ziplining is not my first choice of recreation.....but I did it....scared to death the whole time. We saw some Howler Monkeys and some other fun creatures too.

This is my "I survived Ziplining" picture

Cool red squirrel that hung out our house

After surviving, we went back to Playa Carmen and had brunch at the local Soda. Then we spent the rest of the day playing at the beach.

The water was so warm....but very sandy.

Then we went back home and started running our laundry. It was about midway through our trip and we were in need of clean clothes. It was my turn to wash my clothes when we were getting ready to eat some dinner...so I had to go out in my PJs....fun times. We went to an Asian place. It was kind of fun since everything on menu had kind of a Costa Rican twist. The fish and chips was fish and fried plantains. Then we had ice cream for dessert.

The next day was Jeanette's birthday so we made her a French Toast breakfast and ate it out on our covered patio.

And then we traveled on a dirt road over a mountain to another village called Montezuma where there were lots of little shops and places to buy gifts. It was very touristy but fun to see all the arts and crafts being sold.

We stopped for lunch at the local Soda....it was very hot out so after lunch we drove back to Playa Carmen and swam at the beach for the rest of the afternoon.

We ended the day by eating out at another Pizzaria and afterwards Cari surprised Jeanette with a homemade cake with ice cream.

Then we started to get packed up. We had our longest travel day the next day to our last location down south. Matt spent most of the next morning as we packed up looking for a route on his phone across the peninsula to the north point of the bay...he didn't want to take the ferry again. So we were planning to cross country it. I sent a text to my parents to let them know we would be on the road again, and my dad texted back to tell me my home had flooded....I'll post about that fun later....needless to say I was a little frazzled for the rest of the day.

The route Matt picked was at times pretty scary...the road was dirt and/gravel...and we had to ford three rivers. One of the rivers was pretty deep and very muddy. There was a local guiding people across that one...but the water still splashed pretty high up on car windows. It seemed to take forever to get across the peninsula but we did make to real roads again.

One of the rivers we crossed

The fences that lined the roads were made with live trees

Once we were over the top of the bay we cruised down the coast pretty fast. We stopped for gas and found an awesome gift shop where Jeanette and Becca bought hammocks. We stopped for lunch at a really nice Soda about halfway to our destination.

This is called a "Churchill"...best ice cream treat ever

Our beast of a car...it got us through the rivers and over the dirt roads...use to be white

By sunset we made it to our last house....our cabin on the beach. The caretaker didn't speak any English so I was a translator but we got all settled and was able to catch the sunset on the beach.