Day #6: White Water Rafting the Pacuare River

This was seriously so much fun! We did a day of white water rafting on the Pacuare River and it was challenging, beautiful scenery and a blast! The trip took about 4 hours of rafting and a short stop half-way through for lunch on the side of the river. We had so much fun! My favorite parts were when we went through the craziest rapids ever, the boat in front of us capsized and our guide was ejected from the boat (see the pictures below) and when we went through this amazingly beautiful canyon and swam in the water, floating down the river looking up at these amazing cliffs. This was so much fun and our guide was hilarious.

That's Jay and I on the right side, paddling our little hearts out.

Look closely at this picture. That foot you see behind my head is the foot of our river guide as he was thrown from the raft. Hilarious!!!!
And he made it back on the raft...

Don't worry - not our raft. This was the team in front of us. We are much to skilled to ever capsize....

Day #5: Hanging Bridges

Our last day in Arenal we went to Hanging Bridges, which are exactly that. These huge suspension bridges that hang extremely high up above the canopy of the rain forest. It was actually a little more intimidating than the zip-lining actually, but so much fun and beautiful. It is about an hour hike through these paths through the forest and over bridges. We saw monkeys! One goal crossed off the list. But I never realized how cool it could be to watch ants, until we saw the leaf cutter ants. They have these trails crossing the path and they are carrying these big chunks of leaves from way up high and they are really cool to watch.

All I have to say is yum. They have the best garlic bread in Costa Rica. How do they get the perfect toast?????
And seriously, these batidas - amazing. Between these and the lava flows, we could have lived off a liquid diet. Could have, but definitely didn't. The highlight in food is that seafood is so abundant, so I got fish almost every day and it was all seriously amazing. Loved the food.

Day #4&5: Tabacon Hot Springs

The resort we stayed at in Arenal was called Tabacon and they have these amazing natural hot springs that are heated by the lava flowing beneath the ground. They have made this place so beautiful with secluded pools and waterfalls all over and beautiful plants and trees everywhere you look. One of the nights we were there it started to thunder and lightning (I know, get out of the water when there is lightning blah blah blah). So we just sat in these pools with the steam coming up, in the middle of the rain forest, watching the lightning. It was surreal. This place was literally the most tranquil, beautiful setting I could imagine. There is also of course an amazing spa, so we got massages and spa treatments in a private cabana out in the rain forest. Amazing!

Day#4: Arenal Volcano, Zip Lines and La Fortuna Waterfall

Our next stop was La Fortuna and the Arenal Volcano. This is such an amazing and beautiful place! We had so much fun. We got in at night and it was so cool to wake up in the morning and look out and see this huge volcano looming in the distance that we couldn't see the night before.

The Arenal Volcano

Our first outing was the zip line. This was one of my favorite activities of the trip. You are dangling waaaaayyyyy up in the air above the canopy of the rain forest, zip-lining over waterfalls and rivers and huge trees and it is pretty intense! At first we weren't so sure and were all pretty intimidated (though I am sure Jay and Rich will say they never were). But once we got going it was awesome and we all had a blast. It is so beautiful and so much fun.

Then we took a serious hike to the La Fortuna waterfall. It was well worth the hike - it was the coolest waterfall I have ever seen. There is a pool at the bottom and the water is so powerful it is like swimming in a river because the water is always pushing you to the shore. It was amazing.
La Fortuna Waterfall

Day #3: Playa Hermosa, Tide Pools and Surfing

On day #3, we went to Playa Hermosa and ate breakfast and watched the surfers, then went to the tide pools and "La Sirena" (The mermaid statue).

This is Playa Hermosa. It is such an amazing beach, with the black sand.



Lounging and relaxing at the Los Suenos Marriott Resort where we stayed. This place is amazing!!!


Then Jay and I went surfing. Well, Jay surfed and I got rocked. I had never been surfing before and it was amazingly difficult! By the end, I was exhausted, had sand everywhere and my nose was burning from all the salt water. It was fun, but I am not going to be a surfer any day soon. I even had an instructor pushing me into all the waves!

My handsome hubby, the pro surfer.
Hard to believe I know, but I did actually get up a few times. I have chosen not to post the 50 pics of my falling and being rocked by the waves!

Costa Rica - Day 2 ATV Tour and Waterfall

This was the craziest ATV tour ever! We definitely got more than we bargained for, but it turned out to be such a fun adventure! And that's what Costa Rica is all about right? So we started out with the basic, but beautiful well made on road tour. We went to the top of this mountain, with amazing views all around, the rain forest below, while we are at cloud level. It was beautiful. While we took a break at a little restaurant at the top of the mountain, our 15 year old guide arranged with the owner of the restaurant to take us to this beautiful waterfall that apparently "no gringos had been to before". We were told it would be a short drive, that was a little rough, but would be fine and a short hike. Well, the drive on the 4-wheelers was, shall we say treacherous, could hardly be called a road on the side of a mountain, areas were washed out and they would have to stand in the gap and hold the 4-wheeler on the mountain as we drove on the ATV, a guys with a machete was out ahead, chopping down tree branches along the way. The hike was more of a steep descent into the rain forest. But the waterfall was beautiful and refreshing and definitely well worth it! It turned out to be quite the tour!

Costa Rica!!!! Day 1 - Tortuga Island

We took an amazing trip to Costa Rica and met Jay's sister and brother in law, Rich and Jaime, there. It was honestly the best vacation I have ever gone on! Our first stop was Playa Herradura and on our first day we took a boat to Tortuga Island. We had a small bit of bad luck in that there happened to be red tide passing through, which apparently is a bunch of algae, so we didn't catch any fish and the water was a little yucky looking. But the weather was beautiful and it was a nice trip. The guides cooked us a fish lunch on the island, which was very good and we just explored the island, found some crazy animals, like deer, warthogs that really like people and thought they were dogs, following us around wanting to be petted, and more hermit crabs than I have ever seen in my life! It was a beautiful day! We went during rainy season, so there were almost no tourists, which was awesome. It rained only a couple of times we were there and luckily never interfered with any of our activities.