Rick and Janell's News: COSTA RICA

This post is late in coming....almost two months late. I have been lazy and have not taken the time to post but better late than never:)

In January after our visit to Tampa Bay we flew out to Costa Rica for a week's adventure. And an adventure it was! This was our FIFTH time to CR. We love it so much, so when different countries started opening up for tourists again (with Covid rules set in place) we saw that Costa Rica was relatively easy to get into. I say easy for me because Rick did all the legwork. We had to make sure we had sufficient insurance, a health form filled out and of course, not be sick, to get into the country.

Just a few days before leaving, the US decided to mandate all families traveling out of the country to have a Covid test before getting back in. While that could have caused a hiccup in our trip, I am happy to say that it was relatively easy to get, albeit a little extra money to get back home.

Anyhoo, on to memories of our little trip.

We stayed in the Los Suenos Marriott, which we have stayed at the two other times we have stayed in his area. This time though we were upgraded to a better room...a "swim-up room". This room made our trip from fantastic to SPECTACULAR!

Our room had a walkout deck into a beautiful pool! It is funny how something so simple elevated our trip so much but it certainly did! We loved getting into the pool every day just for relaxation. For the most part it was pretty private, and it felt like the pool was just for us! Another a huge bonus to having this room were the macaws that we could see fly by into the trees just adjacent to our room. One day while we were enjoying the pool we saw a toucan land in a tree. So cool! Especially since toucans are my favorite bird! After this trip macaws have become a close second, though! They were so loud and beautiful!

Our room had a fun hammock just next to the slider door.

Our first day was a Sunday so after spending most of the day in with meetings and studying and such we headed off for a little drive. We stopped at a picturesque place to snap a photo with Jaco in the distance.

We ate number of meals in the hotel's restaurant. The passion fruit smoothies were the best!

We had a lot of this....(chips, guac, and pico)

and this....(shrimp ceviche) while in CR.

Another hammock shot.

Rick started Pathways schooling at the beginning of January, and he was so DILIGENT getting up every morning at 5:30 to get his studies and work in so it didn't interrupt our play time. He's so amazing!

I love that when he sets his mind to something he goes for it ALL. THE. WAY.

This was the continental breakfast served everyday. I always upgraded to add some eggs and rice and beans. It was always a great breakfast eating al fresco while watching the iguanas and birds.

One of our days we got to take a 4 wheel adventure tour. We were able to ride up into the jungle and swim in a waterfall. Rick also did a little snorkeling and saw the elusive crawdads. The jungle was amazing, and the 4 wheel ride was super fun as we got to drive into the river many times getting ourselves pretty dirty! The natural pools helped to clean us off.

Another day we got to take a riverboat ride on the Tarcoles River. This has been a favorite each time we have come. The crocs are HUGE, and we got to be entertained by the boat's captain as he hand-fed two of the crocs we came across. He got super close to them! Pretty crazy! We also got to see lots of indigenous birds from the area.

The sunsets were beautiful! This particular one was taken from the Hotel's restaurant.

Another highlight of our trip was our day trip into Manuel Antonio National Park. Our guide was very knowledgeable about the flora and fauna of the park. We saw a lot of wonderful wildlife...

There is also a renowned beach within the park with monkeys all over the place.

After getting out of the park we stopped and had a wonderful lunch across from the beach. We had planned to spend the day on the sand and in the water until....

I noticed that I forgot my swimsuit:(

It worked out well though, because we just went back to the hotel and enjoyed our pool:)

My limeade smoothie was a welcome treat from our hike in the park.

More ceviche for Rick:)

This was our last night in the Jaco area, and we were hoping to have pizza on the beach as the sun set, but unfortunately the pizza place didn't open till later, so we watched the sunset and then had pizza.

They were both fabulous!

One afternoon we took a drive up into the mountains and just really enjoyed the sights. We were up on a ridge and could see down on both sides of the valley. So beautiful!