Adventures in Costa Rica!

I'm a tad bit behind. We went to Costa Rica May 7-12. It all started with us wanting to go on a trip out of the country. Bracken talked to his mission buddy, Matt, that travels a lot about him and his wife coming with us. We wanted to go to South Africa but that didn't pan out. So when Matt called and said he could get cheap standby tickets to Costa Rica we were stoked! His wife couldn't come so he invited a friend of his, Jared, to come. Jared was in our married student ward in Cedar, crazy how small of a world it is. Turns out I was the only wife able to go, so I'm glad they were able to put up with having at least one girl there so I could enjoy the vacation. It was a blast! Tuesday morning I dropped off our kids at Paul & Denise's house. I picked Bracken up form a meeting in Ogden and then we made our way to SLC to pick up Matt & Jared. We made a quick stop at McDonalds and then on to the airport for two hours of waiting. The plane left at 9pm and we flew through the night. We got to Costa Rica around 4:30am, got our rental car and we were off. I'm not very good without sleep so I was trying to stay awake to see all the countryside but I kept on dozing off. Bracken took a lovely picture of me sleeping with my mouth open but lucky for me I got to choose the pictures for this post so it's not included!

We drove for hours on our way to the Arenal, a volcano. There are not straight highways, it was a lot of windy roads going up and down. Bracken & Matt said the traffic was much more organized than Venezuela but I still think the drivers were insane. I'm glad I didn't have to drive...or even navigate! We saw a near miss of a head on collision and people were not afraid to pass you around corners. When we reached the volcano it was disappointing there was no spewing of ashes and the clouds were low it just looked like a mountain. We took a nap in the car there and went to the bank. Walked around a little bit. This was my first time out of the country besides Canada (and a trip to Mexico when I was little that I vaguely remember.) It is definitely an eye opener and makes me so grateful for where I live!

Picture of a house. They weren't all that bad but wow I'm glad to live where I do.

One of the bridges we drove over. Some of them left you wondering about the structural integrity and praying as you went over them. The worst one by far was bridge made out of wood planks and a chain link fence guardrail. I also made the mistake of looking down...and it was a lllooonnnggg way down.

We then drove south to the city of Puntarenas. We talked to a native there that was trying to get us on the ferry to somewhere. He was trying to tell us that the beach we wanted to go to was bad and there was crocodiles. But then he told his there was a surfing competition there. He contradicted himself a ton but I think he was the best english speaker we ran into, I don't think I could talk as fast in english as he did! We stopped at the beach in Puntarenas but just looked. We didn't stay long, which I"m glad because it was definitely not safe. It was the scariest place (safety wise) on the trip I think we went to. Maybe it wasn't that dangerous but just the condition of the houses and shops made you wonder. Matt was driving this whole time since he was the listed driver on the rental agreement but he was getting tired so Bracken switched him. Not even 10 minutes later we drove into a police stop. (Knowing Bracken's luck with getting pulled over we should have realized this would happen!!) Bracken gave the cop our rental papers and his ID. Bracken acted like he didn't know Spanish very well so the other two went along even though they are all fluent. Smart move since I think the police officer felt some pity on us so he only gave us a $10 ticket for not stopping for a sign or something like that. If the rental agency found out I guess they add like 30% to your bill and it might have voided our insurance...which we ended up needing at the end of our trip!

some nicer looking homes in Puntarenas

We pulled into the beach town of Jaco that evening. It was definitely a LONG day. We found a hotel room that only cost us $10 each. As you can see...it was pretty luxurious. We could have paid extra for A/C but we're too cheap.

Jaco was the most touristy place we stayed. We ate at a nicer restaurant that night. I think Bracken would travel there again just for the fish tacos! My salad was pretty darn good too. It was a great way to end our first day. We all zonked out fast that night from so much traveling!

The next morning we got up and ate at a little Bakery. Bracken and Matt shared one of their favorite snacks of dipping the bread in chocolate milk. Pretty darn good. We spend the time body surfing and laying at the beach. The beach was beautiful, and not as dirty or crowded as the beaches I've been to in CA. We were out body surfing and they guys started swimming in. Bracken yelled for me to come in so I started coming in and he kept on looking back and saying "Skye, Come in!!" I was wondering why he was so worried but then I started freaking myself out that there was a shark or something. I guess he had seen some fish but didn't know what there were. So we were all just standing in like a foot of water looking out at the waves. Every once in awhile you could see something black floating in the waves. Then all of the sudden I looked down and right when I said "LOOK!" Bracken started jumping and screaming because something his his foot. Turns out they were Manta Rays! We just stood there for like 20 minutes watching the waves push them into shore. We ended up getting hit by one and screaming like little kids. Except Matt...he just stood safely on shore. It was pretty entertaining, although a bit spooky because we didn't know at first if the stung or not.










Jaco Beach










Probably hard to see but there are fisherman on the rocks. This was on our drive between Jaco and Hermosa.


That evening we headed for Hermosa. The drive was a bit crazy, it was pouring rain, dark, with cars and people all over the road. Yet again, glad i wasn't driving. Hermosa was my favorite beach. It wasn't super touristy, we watched a surf competition and then practically had the beach to ourselves as the sun set. Matt & Jared found us another cheap place to stay, and it had A/C and a TV. now talk about luxury! The guys were happy about that since they got to watch an NBA game.












The guys watching the NBA game.

Hermosa beach
in the evening.

Sunday we headed for Manuel Antonio which is a National Park. The rainforest is really noisy from all the birds and insects! We went on a little side trail and saw a whole pack of monkeys swinging in the trees above us. There was even a monkey with a baby on it's back...so cute. We also saw two sloths(really are amazingly slow), a ton of crabs, a snake, a bunch of cool colored birds and more little bugs and critters.

headed down the trail

not a very thick snake but it was super long.




Monkey with baby on it's back

more monkey

at the end of the trail there was an amazing beach. It looked like the water got deep fast so the waves came really crashing in. I loved the sound of it and with the birds it sounded like those nature cds. (or more correctly the nature cd's really sound like that beach i guess??) We didn't jump in since we were hiking back but we did sit and relax and enjoy the view.

Bracken and Matt enjoying the beach. I fed this iguana some granola bar...i look a little nervous!

That night Bracken rented some beach chairs. (Bracken says "by far the best 3 dollars I've ever spent.") and we sat on the chairs reading until it got dark. Who knew life could be so relaxing when you don't have the kids around :)

Monday morning we were suppose to head out on a hike that a guy, Hiero, that worked at the hotel was going to take us on. Of course we paid in advance....and that morning we waited and he showed up late saying the van was broken. We didn't want to do the hike anymore. Asked for our money back. He said he didn't have it and would have to go to the bank and ran off. So we realized he'd already spent the money and that's just part of the Latin American experience so we spent the morning at the beach and looking at the souvenir shops. I bought Kamri two cute dresses and Hayes a wooden snake. Matt & Jared were walking around the beach and they found Hiero curled up in a rock cave asleep. Instead of beating him up for the $15 he took from each of us they just felt pity...probably spent it on drugs and spent the rest of the day hiding.

That afternoon we started driving back to San Jose where the airport is. On they way we stopped at the Tarcoles bridge. We parked between a little police station and the bridge went to look off the bridge and see crocodiles. There were probably about 20 crocs we could see.

We were hoping we'd have some discovery channel action and have the croc eat the bird but no luck. We headed back to our car that was about 100 yards away only to discover the window busted out and all our luggage (except Matts) gone! Matt's luggage was on the side away from where the window was busted so apparently they didn't have enough time to grab it. Luckily I was too lazy earlier to put our passports back in our bag and I had stuck them in the pocket behind the passenger seat. So although everything but our souvenirs and our tennis shoes were stolen (and the camera we were holding) we did have our passports to get out of the country!

We brushed away the glass and started driving back to San Jose. We stopped right after the bridge to tell some police but they just said there was nothing they could do about it really.

The main road to San Jose was closed so we headed to the alternate route which was a dirt road which was also under construction. Apparently there was another way to go because we only passed two other cars the whole time we were driving through the construction.

Construction is putting it mildly. I will never complain about crappy roads again. We passed about 40 huge trucks with tires as big as our car during the hour or so we were in construction. They didn't stop for us....we had to go in reverse once before one ran into us. There were no signs, no workers directing you where to go and it was dark. We just had to guess whenever there was a fork in the road.

So being the girl of the trip, I was a little worried since there were no signs. I made them stop and ask a worker if the road would get us to San Jose. Bracken translated for me that they said Yes just keep on going and be careful of the machinery. After it was all over he admitted that the workers said something like we were crazy for going that way but sure it would get us there eventually. All three of them were telling me that it was fine and not a big deal but when it was over they admitted how insane it was. I like to use Matt's description of the road being "treacherous."

I couldn't get a good picture of the big machinery trucks since we only had our zoom lens on the camera (the other one being stolen.) but just an idea how close they were to us.

We went to the thrity rental place when we reached san jose. Matt & Jared left for two hours to the police station to fill out a police report while Bracken and I called to cancel our credit cards. They had already used our credit cards three times (luckily we didn't have to pay for those charges, since we already lost about $200 cash) By the time Matt & Jared got back it was 11pm and we had to be at the airport at 4:30am. Since Matt was the only one with his wallet he paid for us to have dinner at McDonalds since they accepted credit cards. Then we went back to the thrifty and slept in our new rental car in front of the rental office because we weren't going to pay for a hotel for 5 hours.

Although very uncomfortable I think we all managed to get a tiny bit of sleep before we headed for the airport. Luckily the flight home was uneventful and we made every flight.

But i did forget to mention that I was still in my swimsuit...since all my clothes got stolen. Luckily I had on board shorts and a rash guard too. Yep. I fit in okay in Costa Rica but walking around the Denver and SLC airport I did get some weird looks!! I ended up being in that swimsuit for 48 hours straight. Not comfortable.

All in all it was an amazing and memorable trip. We saw a lot of beautiful Costa Rican countryside, had a great time and came back with some experiences we can laugh about now.

Waiting for the plane at the denver airport. We both definitley needed a shower!