Costa Rica Day Eight!

This was the most adventurous day of our trip. We took a 90 minute private transfer from our hotel to the "Adventure Tour" at Hotel Guachepelin. We got our gear and we were off on the first piece of our tour, a zipline course. It was a little frantic, and with a rappel, a rock climb, and a tarzan swing led by the same set of guides, it became a bit hectic and out of control at a couple of points. A bummer because I would have loved to experience rock climbing without fearing for my life as the distracted guide pulled me up the rock wall. Well, maybe another time.

Costa Rican First Aid Tent. LOL

Ready to Zip!

Zip-Lining upside down... Not all it is cracked up to be. Mostly just a blur.

Kent came zipping down the canyon!

As part of our Adventure Tour we were forced to ride given the opportunity to ride domesticated horses to our River Tubing Adventure. It was actually pretty comical, as they stuck about 40 tourists on the backs of horses, then "herded" us down the road. It was all fun and games until they started trotting. Oh boy! That was uncomfortable, and Kent reports that it was just as uncomfortable from a man's perspective! Occasionally one of us clueless tourists and our horse would take off on a rogue adventure, and seeing as how we had no idea how to ride or manage our horses, we were just stuck going along for a ride through the trees and underbrush. A few injuries were sustained. And I was laughing so hard I was crying. For all the wrong reasons.

Horseback Riding to the River. Not exactly our thing.

Next we were given tubes and a life vest, and off into the River Negro we went for our tubing adventure! The river run was 5 km long, with level 2 & 3 rapids. It was a blast!

Pura Vida!

Lunch at a local restaurant followed the tubing adventure. It wasn't that good, but it was free, so that was awesome. And as usual, the Costa Rican scenery was unrivaled! 

Plus we got to ride on an ox. So there's that. 

After lunch and the ox ride, we gave each other volcanic mud baths. Fun and romantic?! Well. funny, anyways. We got to take a dip in the Natural Hot Springs after our exfoliating mud baths.

Just what I always wanted to do!

Messy Muddy Fun!

Costa Rica Day Seven!

After being on the go go go for 5 days in the Rain Forest, we were ready for a day of pure relaxation! We set out to spend the whole day poolside. We realized after a very short period of time that the 97 degree temperatures were going to have us spending most of our day IN the pool. Thank goodness for all inclusive cold beverages!

Pura Vida - loosely translated to mean "Pure Life." The Costa Rican motto

Costa Rica is an extremely peaceful country, with an ecological focus. We found the Pura Vida lifestyle in every area we visited.

Not a bad view for the day!

I was happy as a clam with my kindle. For about 20 minutes. Then I hopped into the pool to do water aerobics... Just to get cooled off!

There were some very LARGE lizards in this part of the country

We went on a beach walk and checked out the neighboring RIU Palace. It was also beautiful, but had less of a tropical feel. We liked the foliage at our hotel a bit better. Overall, it was a great day, and by a Loooong shot, the cheapest day of our vacation!

Beach Walkin'

More action at the pool. In the late afternoons, the pool got pretty wild once all those Canadians and Midwesterners had been busy drinking all day long!

Costa Rica Day Six!

The midpoint of our vacation took us from the lush green rainforest of the Arenal Region, to the much dryer, desert like climate in the Guanacaste area. Although the beauty of the Rain Forest was sad to leave behind, we were ready for dry weather, and the heat of the Guanacaste province. And boy did we find the heat. The average temps in Guanacaste were 95-98 degrees. It was smokin' hot!

Enjoying our taxi through the countryside

The lush green landscape just as we left the Arenal Province

The change to a dry desert climate happened in a flash. Like literally went from green to brown in 2 minutes. Crazy!

Using our stilted Spanish, a picture of a map, and our taxi guide's marginal English skills, we were able to request a side trip on our 3 hour transfer from the Nayara to the Riu. We felt bad, as our taxi driver had no idea what we were headed into, and the road was rather bumpy, but he was handsomely rewarded with a nice tip that made his day. I believe it was well worth the side trip! And Kent and I were pleased to see yet another beautiful waterfall and another small piece of the beautiful Costa Rican landscape. 

Llanos de Cortez Waterfall

Our check in at the RIU Guanacaste was uneventful, but we were thrilled to find that we had been upgraded to a beautiful ocean view with a room that looked out over the pool and beautifully manicured hotel grounds. Oh happy day!

The walkway from the lobby to the pool.

Open Air Hotel Lobby? Yes please!

A different view of the lobby, where we spent plenty of time, connected to the hotel's wifi, available only in the lobby. We were grateful to be able to text with our family, but bummed that the wifi did not support facetime. :/

My handsome husband, poolside on day one, enjoying our first "free" cocktail!

Costa Rica Day Five!

Our final day in the rain forest dawned rainy once again. We knew that this was expected in the rainforest, but we were sure ready to be dry again!

We were going on a true Zip Line Tour, with a series of 8 zip lines through the rain forest. It was not our first zip line, nor the best we've ever done, but pretty fun overall. Really, how can you not have fun on a zip line tour?! We felt a little like herded cattle, as they had zip line tours that left every 30 minutes and ended up stacked on top of each other, but we still had a great time.

All geared up!

Hot coffee midway through to take the chill off

Even Kent got into the coffee today!

After our Zip Line tour, we were off on the SkyTrek. A guided hike through the rain forest. It was nice to slow down for a bit and appreciate the flora and fauna. And that is a sentence I never thought I would write! Haha! We learned some very interesting facts about the wildlife in the Costa Rican Rain forest.

Me and my new favorite tree- a stilted palm

A savvy reader might notice that this is the same waterfall we rappelled the day before!

Our darling guide Nancy teaching us all about the foliage

One of the many VERY looong Rope bridges we traversed through the tree tops.

Another cool tree, which I cannot remember anything about now. LOL. And yes, at this point we were getting some heavy rain.

Costa Rica Day Four!

Today was a day with few photos to show as evidence of our adventure. Bummer! We weren't sure what we were headed for when we were picked up for the Sky Limit Tour, so we left our camera in our safe (and dry!) backpack. Turned out to be a good move, as we got soaked!

There was a little mix up in the pickup time for our tour (no fault of ours :), so Kent and I were the last to arrive at the departure point for the Sky Limit tour. The guides quickly helped us into our harness and gear and off we went on the Sky Tram deep into the rain forest! With very little discussion, we headed onto our first obstacle, a zip line, followed by a parallel tight rope race. Third, we were tortured by descending a netted cable, backwards as quickly as possible. This activity was not our favorite, and made us feel like a couple of stumbling bumbling fools! We traversed a high wire, then dropped down in a controlled free fall from the treetops to the forest floor. We hiked through the forest for awhile then descended a 45 degree ladder down a cliff. After traversing a rope bridge and a ladder bridge, they took us to the Tarzan Swing! A fifty foot free fall, with only a rope to save us from sure death! Okay, maybe a slight exaggeration, but it truly was exhilarating! The waterfall rappel we went down next was no big deal after the Tarzan Swing! It was raining quite heavily for the second half of the tour, so we got very wet, and my fall into the river sure didn't help! The chill didn't really kick in until we went for our final two zip lines through the treetops.
Luckily we were able to take advantage of the cafe at the end of the tour and I indulged in a hot cup of coffee while Kent had a nice cold beer. Men!

The view of the Arenal Lake, from the treetop cafe at the Sky Tours headquarters.

This is the waterfall we rappelled. Sadly, no photos of us rappelling it were available.

At this point in the trip we were getting consistent rainfall, as it had rained all night and much of that morning. We had a nice clearing with some sun when we headed out on our Sky Limit tour, but that turned to rain midway through. One of our taxi drivers told us that there is no "dry season" in the Rain Forest. Just the "wet season," and the "Less wet season." Funny, but true. 

We decided to stay close to home, and had dinner at AltaMira, the restaurant on site at our hotel. They were grilling steaks out on the patio. My ribeye was fantastic, as was Kent's filet. Delicious food in a picturesque setting, after a fun-filled day. Paradise!

A break in the rainy evening at the Nayara Resort and Spa.

Costa Rica Day Three!

Our second adventure in Costa Rica was again led by our friends at Desafio. We had a long bus ride to the Rio Sarapiqui to begin our rafting tour, but it was totally worth it! The river rafting closer to our hotel only offered level 2-3 rapids, and Kent wanted a little more adventure (sensing a theme here?!), so he booked this tour, with level 3-4 rapids. The river was quite low on our visit, (apparently it is controlled by the Costa Rican government, who open and close the damns above this river to maximize flow...) so it turned out to be some very technical rafting! We even had to paddle upstream at one point to rescue some fellow tourists who were thrown from their raft, and stranded on a large rock. It was quite an adventure! 

Our guide, Adan, thinking we are goofy tourists.

Our guide, Adan, working his butt off while we have a good ole' time with our new friends Sam and Audrey.

This time we are doing the work, while Adan takes a well deserved break. :)

We had a long day on the river, and a long drive back to the Nayara, so we quickly showered and headed into La Fortuna for dinner. We chose an Italian restaurant called Anchi'o, and we were not disappointed! Our food was fantastic! Highly recommended if you ever find yourself in La Fortuna, Costa Rica!

Great Ambiance too!

Yummy Focaccia

Costa Rica Day Two!

Our second day in Costa Rica, or rather our first full day in CR had us going on our first adventure of the trip... Rappelling waterfalls! Kent spent hours and hours researching excursions, but I very intentionally did not. Just the names of the adventures Kent had planned were enough to raise my heart rate a bit. I'm so glad I went this route and didn't back out of any of the adventures Kent had in mind. I would have missed some pretty fantastic experiences!

The folks from Desafio (which is, in our humble opinion- the best tour company in CR) picked us up and toted us to their headquarters in downtown La Fortuna. After transferring to a 4WD vehicle, we were four- wheelin our way up Lost Canyon. Aptly named Lost Canyon because it is not found on any map! 

Our team of four guides took us on a fantastic Canyoneering (or Canyoning as they say...) adventure through the rain forest, with a series of four waterfalls, natural pools, a "manmade" waterfall, and some of the most spectacular scenery we have ever seen!

Desafio!

Pre-adventure, with 2 of our fantastic guides, and a nice couple from Mumbai who joined us on our adventure

Me, rappelling one of four waterfalls

There was a free fall section at the end of one of the rappells. Somehow they talked me into flipping upside down and flying freestyle! :0)

Kent, rappelling the waterfall

Kent, in freefall

Hopping into the jungle pool!

For some reason, this was the scariest part for me... Go figure!

Our guides created a "human dam" in order to give us this experience.... a mini flash flood! It truly took my breath away for a moment.

After our canyoneering adventure we had some free time to relax in the sun by our cozy little pool, in the most comfortable pool chairs EVER! Well done Nayara!

Poolside!

Kent and I ventured into town for dinner at the Lava Lounge that evening. I made a bad decision and ordered a hamburger. Oops. Kent ordered a traditional Costa Rican meal, that was awesome. Big surprise, huh?! I ordered a pina colada as a nod to my dad, and it was the best one I have ever had!


Yum!

Lovin the Lava Lounge!