Day 1

We heard Costa Rica is a relatively friendly place to go for kids, and that it’s full of birds. Sounds like the perfect fit for our family!

We took a 6am flight, meaning I had to wake the kids up at 3:45am to make it on-time. Though they had gone to sleep less than 6 hours earlier (despite their Dad’s encouragement to get to sleep earlier), they stayed very upbeat through pure excitement. We made it through the airport and security without any challenges and boarded our first flight.

First we flew to Houston and the kids enjoyed watching the Mario movies on the way. Janet and I read and caught brief moments of sleep. We had a short transfer in Houston and boarded our flight to Costa Rica with a nearly identical experience to the first flight.

Once we landed, we benefited from our having small children in tow because a lady directing traffic at the customs area sent us through an accelerated line. I overheard others saying that those standing in the regular line had a good two hours ahead, so our 15 minute wait felt great. The customs officer didn’t seem to speak any English, so I had my first real opportunity to use my Spanish to help get us through.

We ran into our first real bump when getting our luggage. Our car seat bag didn’t make it onto our flight and they had placed it on one landing that night. We needed to get driving right away to reach our AirBnB in La Fortuna so couldn’t wait. After probably 45 minutes of the luggage attendants getting confused and searching for a bag the tracker showed was still in Houston, they gave us one booster to borrow and agreed to reimburse a rental at the car place. This was inconvenient, but the real issue was that making the kids wait for 45 minutes without anything interesting happening. That used up most of the patience they had left.

Once through, we had to get our rental car. I thought Avis had a location the SJO airport, but found out we had to pile into a shuttle bus for a 1 kilometer ride to the rental area. Clara noticed the palm trees and said that this was surely going to be a fun vacation because she could see palm trees. Her favorite vacations have been Hawaii and Florida and they have palm trees so the palm trees here are a good sign.

Once we got our rental, we needed lunch. The kids didn’t have any real breakfast and had been living on snacks for close to 10 hours. We could tell their fuses were running short, so we decided to go somewhere familiar instead of trying local food. While at McDonalds, we also received a free ice cream in exchange for giving that location a good review online. Not the last time a restaurant would really emphasize their desire for a good review.

We had a 3 hour drive to get to La Fortuna. I quickly adapted to driving in the Costa Rican city. Driving in the back country of England had trained me in close-quarters driving, Los Angeles had me prepared for aggressive drives, and Washington DC had me ready for winding streets and intersections that made no sense.

The drive really tested the kids who really made their discomfort known by the end. We didn’t arrive until after dark, but when we did, the kids were thrilled with our AirBnB. It had a pool with cool lights, and plenty of space in it to explore. Janet and I were happy it was clean and had a good wall around it to feel safe, but we never felt threatened in La Fortuna.

After making everyone some ramen we had brought with us, we got the kids to bed.

Day 2

We started the day with breakfast at a local shop called “Soda Sabores Lulu“, which seemed to be popular on other blogs. The kids had their first experience with plantains and enjoyed sharing some hot chocolate. Our main course was the rice, beans, eggs, and other traditional Costa Rican breakfast food.

For our first activity we went to a Chocolate making tour with Eden’s Organic Farm. Costa Rica in August has a lot of rain, especially it seems in the mornings, so we put on ponchos and joined the tour. They showed us different types of cacao trees they grew and taught some of the history. When it came time to open a cacao pod, Sophia volunteered to help and managed to hammer it open from the middle. They gave us some of the seed pods covered in a white goo to try which tasted like mango.

He then gave us dried cacao beans to crack open to get to the chocolate nibs which we could eat. As pure chocolate, they tasted bitter. So he brought us to where they had already melted some dark chocolate and mixed with a little sugar and gave us a chance to mix the pure chocolate with sprinkles, nuts, turmeric, salt, coconut, cinnamon, and others. After taste testing a few times, we each made chocolate bon bons by putting our choice of filling inside a few.

While the bon bons cooled, we grinded up more chocolate nibs and made a spicy chocolate drink. Their recipe is supposed to be similar to the original drink used by Mayans, but without the alcohol. It was hot and bitter, so Janet and I had to finish off the kid’s cups (I snuck some sprinkles into one to try to sweeten it up, but it wasn’t enough).

The kids were tired, but we still had a great time learning about and eating chocolate. At the end, we also let them choose their souvenir for the trip – the girls picked out stuffed toucans and Thomas grabbed a stuffed sloth.

After the chocolate tour we came back to our AirBnB. The rain stopped so Clara and Thomas swam a bit in the pool. The pool wasn’t heated so I didn’t feel the need to get more than my feet wet. A few turkey vultures perched nearby while we swam. Sophia loves vultures since they have pink heads and her favorite color is pink so we made sure to get her outside to see.

Since the weather cleared up we decided to book an afternoon nature walk at Sloth’s Territory. This ended up as one of our favorite activities of the trip. We got decent-enough pictures of sloths with the help of the guide, but the kids really liked the small creatures.

Early in the walk, we crossed paths with a thick line of leaf cutter ants. We hadn’t seen this before so we spent a good while tracing their trail and watching what looked like little leaves march by. We ended up seeing quite a few leaf cutter ant trails on this walk and throughout Costa Rica.

The kids also really liked the red poison dart frogs. The guide mentioned that they call them “blue jeans” frogs since their legs are blue. Many call them “spiderman frogs” given their red & blue colors. Thomas loves spiderman right now, so he latched onto that immediately. We saw a few other highlights like a heron and a Broad-billed Motmot (credit to our guide for the photo – I think his name was Bernardo).

Before and after the walk, Clara chased butterflies in the area. We also saw quite a few hummingbirds in the area. It was a perfect spot for us.

We finished our day with dinner at Harmony Food Restaurant (another one that seems decently well recognized). The food was really good and really plentiful – chicken, mahi-mahi, salmon, and lots of rice, veggies, and others. We also ordered hot dogs for Sophia and it came with two. We had plenty to take back to the AirBnB.

After that we did a bit more swimming (I got in as well) and enjoyed the cool color-changing LED lights that came on in it after dark.

Day 3

Today started with horseback riding for the girls and me. We almost missed it though. I booked through Horseback Riding Costa Rica after finding them on the map right near our AirBnB. We arrived right on-time (even though I tried to get us going early), waited in a long line for others ahead of me, then found out that our ride actually started at a location 15 minutes away. Apparently they had sent me the address in Whatsapp but it looked like it was just an ad to buy more of their experiences so I didn’t realize it was supposed to be an address.

We rushed over and they were nice enough to wait for us. The rest of those on the tour – probably 20 people – were all mounted and very much might have been frustrated at this family holding everything up, but they didn’t show it. We quickly mounted up. Sophia was afraid and didn’t want to do it, but at this point we had not time for fears so we plopped her on her horse “Condor” and were quickly moving out. Important note: this was Clara and Sophia’s first actual horse ride.

Clara picked it up pretty quickly. Sophia did too, except she also screamed the whole time up the mountain. At this point, the other patrons could have felt like “geez, first this family made us start 30 minutes late, and their kid doesn’t even want to do it and is screaming the whole time.” However, the other riders were all great and very supportive. Everyone tried to help Sophia calm down, encouraged her, and during a pause they all gave Sophia a big round of applause. This didn’t change her screaming, but it was very nice.

In fairness to Sophia, it wasn’t an easy ride. We were going up a mountain on grass and backtrails. Due to all the rain, mud filled the trail throughout. The horses couldn’t plod along, but had to take big steps, speed over ruts, and often bumped into each other. We didn’t do a little ride around an arena; we had a real horse ride.

Eventually we reached the top of the mountain to a lookout point. Had the air been clear we would have had a good view of Mount Arenal, a semi-active volcano in the area. Instead, we looked out at thick fog and mist that periodically cleared enough to see the valley below, which was still beautiful. We stayed there longer than I would have thought, but this worked out great. Sophia started petting the horse’s noses and Clara and Sophia started braiding the manes of some of the horses and putting flower petals in them. This helped calm Sophia’s nerves a good bit.

By the time we got back on the horses, Sophia was still nervous and crying about getting back on. Fortunately, our trail went slowly downhill on paved road. With the gentle path, Sophia ended up completely fine with the ride. Even after we reached the bottom of the road and had to go through water that came up to the horse’s knees, Sophia did great. For the last 30 minutes, she led the way without any concern. As for me, my horse kept trying to take the lead on the way up and fighting me when I made him slow down to stay with Sophia. On the way down, I couldn’t get him to move faster than a weak trot so Sophia was out of sight for most of the way back. Clara ended up back with me as her horse liked to pause a lot.

We all made it back just as it started to pour rain. We jumped in the car and went back to Janet and Thomas at the AirBnB having conquered horses.

After sharing our horse adventure stories with Janet and Thomas, we went and grabbed lunch at a local Soda called Soda Vista al Cerro Chato. We didn’t order anything crazy, but enjoyed a traditional Costa Rican lunch. The kids meal came with a passionfruit drink that was just tart enough to make Thomas do funny faces.

We then drove out to the Mistico Hanging Bridges. This gave us a walking tour of the rainforest near the volcano. Our guide used his spotter to point out snakes, sloths, monkeys, and birds. I don’t know how the guides find them – even when I know where the spotter is looking I still couldn’t see some of the creatures.

The hanging bridges made Sophia nervous, but Thomas loved them, so whenever we came to one Thomas would hop out of the stroller (while Janet chased him to stop him from running and jumping on it) and Sophia would take a seat for me to push her across. The bridges provided gorgeous views but they do come at the cost of suspending hundreds of feet in the air. I felt perfectly comfortable, but not everyone would.

The hike isn’t difficult, unless you have to push a stroller with one kid and carry another on your shoulders, or otherwise carry a kid in your arms. As luck would have it, we did have to push a stroller with one kid and carry another on our shoulders, or otherwise carry a kid in our arms, so we were pretty tired and I was pretty sweaty by the end of it. However, we were rewarded at the end with two monkeys walking across the top of the wires suspending the last hanging bridge.

The horseback ride gave Clara, Sophia, and I free access to the Los Lagos hot springs, so we decided to finish our day there. We paid for Janet, then changed and dipped in. We enjoyed it, but were glad we had the chance to test it at a discounted price instead of spending a full day there. The hot pools felt nice, but tended to be a bit crowded and too deep for the kids to play in. Thomas and Sophia both had brief moments of going under when they weren’t expecting it given how dark the flooring and steps were in the pools.

We did find a cold pool with enough of a shallow area for Clara and Sophia, but it was too cold for Janet and I to enjoy and still too deep for Thomas to do much besides play on the edge. However, we did get ice cream and pizza so overall we had a good time, we just didn’t need any more than that.

It was an exhausting day, so after we got home and got the kids bathed, they fell asleep quickly and completely.

Day 4

So you thought yesterday was exhausting? Good. Let’s start today with a 500 step trek to see La Fortuna Waterfall! I’m in decent enough shape – I’ll run 7 milers in the morning before work – but after all those steps (carrying Thomas a fair amount) my calves felt a little wobbly. The waterfall was worth the walk though. Except for Niagara Falls, this was probably one of the bigger waterfalls the girls have seen, and unlike Niagara Falls we didn’t put them on a boat that put them right into the waterfall’s spray, so I think they liked this one more.

After doing all 500 steps down, Clara and Sophia did all 500 steps back up. Fortunately, so did Mom and Dad (carrying Thomas) so we got some ice cream at the top before getting in the car to go to the Observatory.

The Arenal Observatory Lodge is a hotel inside Arenal Volcano park, but they offer day passes to enjoy their trails and see the wildlife. Right inside the lodge area they maintain a natural area with watermelon and papaya posted on a high tower for birds to come eat. We watched crested guans and lots of little birds eat for a while before going into their restaurant for our own meal. We ordered a “meal for two” plus chicken fingers & fries and a bowl of fruit, all for us to share. I think they sized the “meal for two” at more like a “meal for 4” portioning. I also think it was one of the best meals we had on the trip, so we were very happy to have enough leftovers for dinner that night.

After lunch, we walked around the trails to see more wildlife. We went up an observatory tower and watched birds for a while before heading to a “frog pond” (spoiler, we didn’t see any frogs). On the way over, we ran into a band of Coatis – small animals related to raccoons. They were foraging through piles of leaves and uprooted plants just a few feet from us. We had to hold still while I took a picture of them and asked ChatGPT what they were and if they were dangerous. They are not (unless you threaten them, like anything else), so we slowly kept moving. After we didn’t see frogs at the frog pond, we turned around, watched more birds and butterflies, and eventually got back in the car to return to our AirBnB.

Back at the AirBnB, we enjoyed one last swim in the pool.

Day 5

We took it slow this Sunday morning, joining church by Zoom then getting things organized before check-out. After cleaning up and locking up, we said goodbye to our nice AirBnB and stopped by Soda El Turnito for brunch. We ordered Empanadas and Tamales that everyone tried and everyone liked. We also ordered pancakes which everyone also liked, though I ended up needing to finish much more of than I needed. Our meal topped off with an order of salchichas which Sophia and Thomas especially liked. And just like our first breakfast, we ordered hot chocolate and fed it to the kids with spoons. I wonder if a few Costa Ricans will think that’s normal American behavior, but we just did it because the cup was too hot for the kids to hold.

We then drove the 3 hours to Monteverde. I had heard we needed to get a 4-wheel-drive or at least an All Wheel Drive for that stretch. For the first couple of hours I wondered what the fuss was about. The road had frequent potholes, but nothing that a normal car couldn’t handle. I thought that maybe they had recently paved more of the road.

Then for the last 30 minutes – just 5 miles of road – it turned to dirt, rock, and divots. The girls were already uncomfortable and feeling a bit carsick, and this final stretch put them to the test. I turned the dial in our little Nissan Pathfinder to “mud/rut” so it could do whatever special thing it thinks it does and worked our way through the hills. Fortunately, nothing felt dangerous – we weren’t driving near any ledges – it was just a really bad road.

We made it to our next AirBnB and it was gorgeous. It overlooks a large ridge into the valley. I could sit happily on the porch reading and overlooking the mountains for a long time (if I didn’t have kids with other plans). We settled in and explored, played some hide-and-seek, and figured out rooms. Eventually we were hungry again so we went to The Jungle since the kids love Indian food. Their butter chicken and tikka masala was just as good as the quality places we frequent at home.

After a bit more planning we called it a night and prepared for the next day.

Day 6

We booked an early morning nature hike through the cloud forest with the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Preserve. This one leaned more educational than the others as the guide shared many more specifics about the preserve, plant life, and other facts. This provided our best and most frequent sightings of hummingbirds, including one in its nest.

We also saw a falcon and multiple interesting bugs. We didn’t really have breakfast so the kids did start to struggle a bit with the 2.5 hour walk, which meant that Janet and my back started to struggle with carrying Thomas everywhere, but we still had a great time.

After the nature walk we went to a hummingbird cafe right outside the entrance. They hung many hummingbird feeders outside the entrance that drew all sorts of hummingbirds, making it easy to get some good shots. After trying some of the cake and cinnamon rolls at the cafe, we caught the shuttle to get back to our car.

We followed our nature walk with the Monteverde Butterfly Gardens. Thomas fell asleep on the car ride over so I entered with Clara and Sophia and waited a few minutes for the guide. Eventually the guide arrived and we started our tour in a room focused on insects like scorpions, tarantulas, stick bugs, and others. He shared lots of interesting information; enough that this portion went for probably 30-45 minutes. By then, Thomas had woken up so Janet had an easy time joining us on the tour, just in time for Thomas to see the spiders and come along to the butterflies. They showed us 4 butterfly enclosures where we saw Blue Morphos, Shoemakers, Orange Julia Longwings, and many others. We’ve visited many butterfly enclosures over the years since all of our kids love them and this certainly scored better than average.

Everyone felt plenty hungry after our time there and the kids requested pizza so we went to nearby Don Luis. They served thin-crust pizza with lots of toppings so it hit the spot and produced enough leftovers for dinner. We were stuffed, but were near the Ice Cream and Cheese factory so we went by for a treat. Apparently they used to provide factory tours, and after they closed that they had a window where you could see them making the cheese, and apparently they closed that off too. Regardless, we agreed that they provide one of the best strawberry ice creams we’ve had, and the other flavors live up to high standards.

By this point we reached the early evening and everyone felt pretty tired so we went back to our AirBnB to just relax. Clara, Thomas, and I played some hide-and-seek around the AirBnB grounds, and Clara found and caught another butterfly. I also took a couple of work and church calls while the kids watched some Bluey in Spanish.

Day 7

We anticipated a zip line trip to land as a highlight of the trip. When we woke up, the weather did not cooperate. The weather apps had never provided any useful prediction of rain, so it didn’t matter that the forecast the night before called for clear skies in the morning. We relaxed for part of the morning until it looked like things cleared up at 9am. I booked a zipline tour at Treetopia Park for 10am for Clara and me. Clara consistently mentioned that she felt nervous, but still seemed excited to try it.

By the time we arrived, the weather had gotten wet again. The rain didn’t come too hard, but it gave everything a thick fog with strong wind gusts. We could still operate in it, so they strapped Clara and I up and showed us how to do the zip line. We had 6 other people in our group, including 2 kids, so we watched four of them go down the first “practice” zipline that goes ~450 feet long. Treetopia uses a breaking system (unlike some in the area that require you to use your gloved hand) and overall the establishment felt very safe. Even with those precautions, Clara felt overwhelmed by the length and height and remained unconvinced of doing the remaining 6 zip lines.

I convinced her to go up the tram to see what the next zipline looked like before making any final decisions. She enjoyed the tram ride well enough, but once we saw the second zip line – a 1500 ft long line covered in thick-enough fog that we couldn’t see the end – Clara put her foot down. We watched the other families go down the line but that didn’t add any comfort. Since the fog was so thick, I decided the payoff wasn’t going to be big enough for her to change her mind by trying it. Without the views, it was just going to be scary zips into an obscure abyss. So we turned around and took the tram back down.

After returning our gear we went back to the AirBnB, had a snack, and then went to the Bat Jungle. Upon arrival a little dog immediately greeted us. I hadn’t let the kids (or Janet) pet any of the other dogs we encountered since my experience in other countries suggested that the dogs might not be flea-free. However, this dog appeared better washed and cared for than any others we had seen so I let them pet and play with it. The employee there (who owned the dog) gave us some information about the bats and some flashlights. We read some of the exhibits, then went into their darkened room to look at the 35+ bats they had on display. They reversed their night/day sequence so they were up and active. We watched them fly to hanging displays of fruit and grab pieces, even seeing some of them holding fruit in their claws and munching at it. Sophia most enjoyed seeing some of the bats hanging from the ceiling in couples or groups. They looked like they were cuddling.

After the bats, Clara saw a variety of butterflies in the landscape. Even though I limited Clara to staying on the path, she still managed to catch a small butterfly that came across the path. We also saw Blue Morphos in the wild for the first time.

We eventually managed to pull Clara away from her butterfly hunt to go back to the butterfly conservation spot from the day before. Our tickets provided access for multiple days so we took advantage of it and sat in the different butterfly houses for a while. Clara is still the undisputed master of getting butterflies on her finger (or catching them when in the wild), so despite our best efforts to get her to leave the butterflies alone, she managed to hold a few and hand some off to Sophia and Thomas.

Eventually the kids felt hungry so we went to Taco Taco. They served great Mexican food. We ordered a big plate of tacos, a quesadilla, rice, and chicken fingers. The kids ate some of the good stuff, but I think over-focused on the chicken fingers and fries.

We passed the Municipal de Monteverde Park on the way to Monteverde and the kids saw the playground as we drove by. I agreed we could go there after dinner so we spent a bit more than an hour playing on the best playground we had observed in Costa Rica so far (we hadn’t seen many).

They made a friend with an English-speaking 6-year-old that joined them for swinging, climbing, and sliding. I managed to get the kids to ask her name and she said he name is “Itza” (pronounced “EET-sa”). When Thomas heard that, he laughed and said “Pizza? I love pizza!”. Itza didn’t think it was quite as funny but told Thomas “no, it’s ‘EET-sa” to which Thomas simply said “Oh” and they went back to playing together.

Afterward, we stopped by the grocery store next to the park for snacks and treats.

We went home and had some of the treats before getting everyone to bed for our last night in Monteverde.

Day 8

We had a reasonably leisurely morning packing up. I spent a little time reading the AI in Geopolitics book by Hal Brands I brought for the trip in between getting bags situated. The full Toy Story movie was on so we also let the kids watch that while we got ready. A full bright rainbow also appeared over the mountain view which made for some good pictures.

While the drive from Monteverde to Manuel Antonio takes 4 hours, we had a 5 hour gap between check-out in Monteverde and check-in at Manuel Antonio so we went to the Curi-Cancha reserve. This is one of the better groomed natural areas in Monteverde. It includes a few gardens and well set trails throughout. We didn’t go with a guide so we didn’t see any hidden wildlife, but we saw lots of Blue Morphos and other butterflies, hummingbirds, and cool bugs. Near the end they have a maze which Sophia led us through without hitting any dead ends.

After the walk we hit the ice cream factory again since we have to pass it to exit the park. Then we gassed up and started the 4 hour drive. While the drive sports incredible views, it winds sharply both horizontally and vertically through the first couple of hours so everyone but the driver felt a bit car sick at some point. Eventually the road meets and follows the coast making for smoother driving. Thomas especially liked the highway since we could see lots of construction equipment building extensions. Having an excavator every half-mile kept him a little happier in his uncomfortable car seat.

The last 5 minutes of the drive is likely the most precarious driving we had to do in Costa Rica. Sharp turns, blind turns down steep hills, narrow streets filled with cars, people, and dogs, and lots of buildings under construction. Thankfully our AirBnB didn’t disappoint. We had a big space again, a small private pool, and an arcade machine keeping 8-bit games from the 80’s alive.

After we settled in we went for dinner at El Avion, another restaurant recommended on other blogs. We had a great time there. Thomas and I liked the old plane that greets you as you enter, and we all enjoyed views of the ocean and white-faced monkeys creeping around to steal some food. At one point the monkeys crawled on the overhang near our table and looked down at us, but never really went for our food.

When we returned to our AirBnB we got ready for a quick dip in the pool but we saw lightning coming toward us from the distance so we decided not to.

That night as I caught up on some work, the power went out. It stuttered on and off throughout the night, but the extra darkness and the sounds of air conditioners and other machines kicking on and off throughout the night woke Thomas and scared him into our bed.

Day 9

Sophia started her day spending time in our little pool. While I sat watching her we saw two Scarlet Macaws fly overhead. This gave Clara and Sophia each a special bird for the trip since Clara saw the Toucans and Sophia saw the Macaws.

After drying off we drove into the city to park and meet our tour guide for Manuel Antonio National Park. We had read about the scammers who try to get you to stop in unmarked parking lots and they really are plentiful and aggressive. The first one we ran into stood in the middle of the road with several other men with the main guy wearing an olive shirt clearly meant to look official. I couldn’t tell if he had any real authority so I did stop and roll down the window, but after I understood he just wanted me to park there I rolled the window up and we drove through as they gestured at us like we did something illegal (we did not). We speed by many more of those until we found a more official looking lot with a clear trail to the park. I honestly don’t know for certain if that parking lot had any official sanction or if the people who charged me $9 have any authority to do so, but at least they spent the time to put up a sign and clear out a decent amount of land to make parking easy.

We walked through the beach trail to get to the place to meet our guide. While I booked on a website called https://manuelantonionationalpark.org after a lot of searching online to figure out which guides are “official”, I suspect that this guy was simply smart enough to grab an official looing URL with a “.org” address rather than being actually officially affiliated with the park. Our first hint was that our guide sent us an email marking a local cafe as the meeting place rather than the entrance to the park. That said, we really liked our guide, and by the end of the tour my guess is either there are no officially sanctioned guides, or they’re a tiny minority.

This tour was thick with wildlife where we got excellent scope-pictures of frogs, crabs, lizards, hummingbirds, and more. Clara proudly spotted a few of the Basilisks that run on water, and Sophia spotted our first black spike-tailed iguanas. Our guide shared quite a bit of the park and Costa Rican history too.

At one point several capuchin monkeys played and wrestled on and off the boardwalk. After a few moments watching them, one monkey came up close to us as we watched him and then put his paws on Thomas. I quickly made a move at him to get him away – luckily he didn’t scratch or bite Thomas. Our guide suggested that Thomas staying cool in the moment likely helped – if Thomas had screamed or reacted the monkey might have felt threatened or excited and caused some damage.

After the monkeys we reached a section of Espadilla beach where our guide showed us a few hermit crabs and taught us how to recognize the Manchineel tree. Manchineels produce strong toxins in every part of it (bark, leaves, fruit) so touching it or standing under it in the rain can cause burns and blistering. We didn’t stay at that beach.

After that beach, we returned to the path which – after seeing more wildlife – eventually concluded at Manuel Antonio beach. This beach didn’t have any Manchineel trees (at least at our part) and had calmer waves hitting the shore. Unfortunately. I didn’t realize that our tour ended at this beach so I had left swimsuits and water shoes in the car. This had little-to-no effect on our kids behavior. Clara and Sophia went fully into the water as they searched for interesting things (finding a beaded bracelet) and building a sand castle. Thomas found a decently-sized hermit crab and tormented it by constantly picking it up as it tried to get away and burying it in its sand “house.” We stayed there a good couple of hours.

After the beach, we went up and rinsed their feet before putting their wet feet into socks and shoes. Since Thomas had only recently potty-trained we kept a pair of shorts with us always just in case so he got lucky and had a dry pair to put on. Unfortunately, the shorts were just a tad big and kept falling off, so at one point we took them fully off and let him run back down the trail in his underwear. We didn’t do that until after we enjoyed a few smoothies at the Mon Titi nature shop.

Once we left the park, we returned to our car (which fortunately hadn’t been stolen, broken into, or ticketed – that place must be legit!) and went back to the AirBnB for some showers. Once we had all cleaned off, we went to Mangata for dinner. This Peruvian restaurant might have provided the best dinner of the trip. I made all the kids try Ceviche (Clara liked it). We also ordered chicken saltado (knowing the kids would love the rice), really good fish tacos, and fries in huancaina sauce (I love that sauce). We had a table next to the ocean view really topping off our trip.

We came back to our AirBnB and decompressed…or recompressed as we read about how dangerous monkey bites and scratches can be. Glad Thomas came away without an issue! We planned for our final day in Costa Rica.

Day 10

Our last full day in Costa Rica. We took an easy morning packing and enjoying the AirBnB. We stepped out a little after 10am to drive away, and then trouble struck. I had forgotten how close the car was to a concrete wall in the driveway and turned a bit to sharply so that it scraped the corner and broke off the side bumper thing. I had managed to make it through all the tight and windy streets with aggressive drivers only to bump a wall in our draveway.

Fortunately it was a scrape rather than real structural damage so we could get on our way. Unfortunately driving away allegedly voided the extra insurance I had bought. This guaranteed lots of future headache trying to get a reasonable response from Avis.

We continued on our way to Nacarcosta Wildlife Adventures for a wildlife and boat tour of the mangrove forest. They started by showing us some of the plants they grew including cinnamon, peppers, lemon, etc. Then we saw a few farm animals. This included a water buffalo raised on the farm that we could sit on. I hopped on and the kids took turns joining me on his back for pictures.

Then we saw some of their birds including a few chicks the kids held. After 2 years of hatching chicks at home and then hatching ducks this last summer, they have lots of experience handling cute little birds.

Then we got on the boat to see more wildlife. We saw lots of lizards and iguanas throughout the tour, including catching a few looks at what appeared to be the basilisk potentially running a few steps on the water. The guide also pointed out bats, and mosquitos floating above the water that have learned to “jump” when they’re “pinged” by a bat’s echolocation. This meant that if we clapped, they would also jump.

We had a few good shots of birds as well, including a black hawk, and a few Kingfishers. Unfortunately, the Kingfishers don’t stay still for long and we always passed them at a faster pace. I never quite got a good shot of one.

The guide pointed out another hummingbird nest and this time we saw the owner make some adjustments in it before settling in.

We also had a monkey encounter. We had chosen Nacarcosta specifically because we thought they did not entice the monkeys onto the boat or feed them. However, the guide did that anyway. He provided them with natural food in their diet (not pancakes or other human food that some tours apparently do). But after reading about the problems of monkey scratches and learning these monkey encounters are technically illegal we had hoped to avoid that. Regardless, the kids mostly had a good time watching them (until one bumped Sophia’s eye).

After the tour ended they provided us with some fruit and we tried lychees. Lots of vendors sell these by the kilo on the side of the road but they looked spikey and we didn’t have a clue how to eat them so we never sought them. After learning how to peel them (and that peeling them is what you do with them) we got to the fruit that’s like a thick grape with a large pit.

We got back on the road and stopped at a small place for ice cream and gas, then did the rest of our 3 hour drive back to San Jose. After checking into the Residence Inn, we had dinner at the hotel restaurant before I then drove the car over to Avis to return it. There I learned how the front desk people have been instructed to interpret the insurance contract and how to estimate damages. Suffice to say that every Avis location has very low average review scores on Google Maps for a reason.

After I Ubered back to the hotel, we got the kids to bed and Janet and I spent some time that evening doing insurance things for the car before going to sleep to brace for our day of travel.

Day 11

Travel days are hard, but at least this one was relatively uneventful. We took the 5am hotel shuttle to the airport, checked our bags, and grabbed some spoons from an open shop to eat yogurt that the hotel had given us for breakfast.

Then we stepped into a long security line. I had read online that the lines get long as early as 6am since so many of SJO’s flights are international ones that leave early in the morning, and they were right. Fortunately, we had babies with us! While it didn’t get us any accelerated treatment through immigration, they did send us to a shorter line for security scanning. We might still be in line today if not for the stroller and 2 year old we brought with us.

Once through we stopped in a gift shop for some final souvenirs for the kids. Sophia chose a rainbow squishamallow owl while Clara and Thomas got plushy bouncy balls (plus a spiderman car for Thomas due to good luck). After a short wait we boarded our flight. Thomas had a hard time on that flight and getting through the immigration & custom lines in our layover in Houston, but after some ice cream and French fries from Chick-fil-a he mostly settled down.

We boarded our last leg of the flight (which had no screens in it, but we survived), landed in DC, and found our car safe and sound right where we left it. Happily, we encountered no other issues on the way home and settled everyone in to prepare to go back to normal.

We loved our time in Costa Rica.