Jungle Love

I booked my tickets without any research for Costa Rica… Yes…I really did that again! Guess I wanted to go there as most of my friends had been there and I had fantastic feedback about some travel agency. I was thinking of a comfortable & relaxed trip to the jungle… I won’t have to research, and I can have someone else plan for me. Win Win. And that’s precisely what I did!! Yes, cheated and got help from a travel agency “ Pacific Trade Winds” which my friend had used. It was easy, and they were accommodating throughout our trip planning and during our trip. But, saying that, I should have at least researched on which areas to visit before. Well, too late now as we came back a couple weeks back and have no regrets and enjoyed our trip immensely.

We planed for six days which turned into eight days as I had miscalculated the dates and 12 am red-eye flight was not helping. The red eye flight is a great time saver unless your flight is delayed couple hours and then it takes a toll on kids. We left at around 1:45 am because of bad weather. What’s up with all the rain and storms in Southern California?? Well, at least we have the most beautiful spring flower bloom now…

 

 

 

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We reached around 9:30 am and had a nice clean van waiting for us for Monteverde. The driver didn’t understand much English, but the google translate was a great help. He stopped for us to eat breakfast and then for a fantastic lunch at a soda (small local food eatery) near the beach on our way to Monteverde.  The kids got another three hours of sleep, and we caught up on sleep too, although it was quite a winding drive and half of it was not paved and was quite bumpy.

Monteverde had lovely weather and was quite cool as it’s up in the mountainous northwestern region of Costa Rica. We choose to do nothing the first day, but enjoy the local food and see the sunset from this fantastic restaurant called Morphos!
Locals gather here and enjoy the fruity drinks with a fabulous sunset. You have to reach here at least 44 minutes before the sunset to grab the seating outside! It is worth the wait. We went there both days for the evening. Although, the first day we just had some appetizers and drinks. We then headed out to Taco Taco for dinner, a lovely little joint with delicious food. It was quite a walk coming back to our hotel, as it was an uphill walk.

 

 

 

                       Taco Taco and Morpho’s

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The hotel we stayed was an eco-lodge (Monteverde Country Lodge) which my kids found interesting as you don’t throw anything (not even toilet paper) in the toilets and there are no trash bags in the trash cans. Monteverde Country Lodge is a low budget but clean and great place to stay. Their breakfast was quite delicious too. The Butterfly Garden and the Night Walk tours are walking distance to this lodge.

The next day we went to the Hanging Bridges in Selvatura. The small hour hike was beautiful and worth doing. We all enjoyed the lush green forest and the hanging bridges. The next tour we booked was the Coffee & Sugarcane tour, which was fun. We booked both the tours through the hotel and saved some money instead of booking through the travel agency. And you can book any tours a day before or email your hotels before to find out about the tours they offer.

 

 

 

  Hanging Garden and Coffee & Sugarcane Tour

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We had a shared ride from Monteverde to Arenal in a Mercedes van. There were just two more people. It was again a bumpy unpaved road. But, this was one of the most scenic drives. It was a bright, beautiful day, and we could see Arenal volcano most of our ride. You have to take a boat to cross Arenal lake and head to the city. It was terrific as we had the boat to ourselves and two other people! It was forty minutes of constant picture session. Must do boat ride if the volcano is clearly visible, which was the case with us.

 

 

 

                     Drive & Boat ride to Arenal

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Arenal is a beautiful place and Fortuna is a small town next to it. Most of the resorts are in Arenal. We stayed at a wonderful little resort called Arenal Spring Resort and Spa. The only drawback of staying in Arenal is that you have to go to Fortuna to get food (if you want to try other than resort food)! We went to the city, and it was worth 10$ each way! The restaurant and sodas are more reasonable, and there are more delicious options for food.

 

 

 

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Arenal Resort and Spa was a lovely small relaxing resort, and I highly recommend it. Kids did a couple activities while all I did was …all things spa. Zipping(Canopy Ecoglide) and the Horse Ride to the Waterfalls was a hit with kids! The Sloth Tour was fun, but I was skeptical about the guides finding the sloth as they were not in actual forests. I booked them through our travel agency, but you can call the resort and find out about the tours. We spent three days here and enjoyed every single day without getting bored.

 

 

 

                        Sloth Tour

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Next up was beautiful Manuel Antonio Rainforest. Our ride from Arenal to Manuel was very scenic. We got a Mercedes van again, which was a part of the package from Pacific Winds. I think this was the best part of going through the travel agency, hassle-free transport. We stopped at a fantastic restaurant right on the beach. The food at Fiesta del Mariscos was slightly on the higher side, but the views and the gorgeous beach was worth it. There were not too many people there which was an added bonus!

 

 

 

             Fiesta del Mariscos @ Tarcoles beach

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Our eco lodge Costa Verde in Manuel Antonio was in a beautiful area and was next to the rainforest. It’s a little odd though as the resort is spread around the hill. But, we got a lovely room with a small kitchenette, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The view couldn’t have been better as we saw the beautiful sunset the first night. There were couple toucans next to our window, sloth right on the tree in front of the room and monkeys and iguana were everywhere! We could have just spent time outdoor and not gone for the Manuel Antonio Forest hike.

 

 

 

                      Costa Verde Eco Lodge

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It’s was crazy crowded and super hot in the Manuel Antonio National Park. This hike should be done early morning if you want to escape the warm, muggy weather. I would suggest doing it with a guide if you are interested in spotting animals. We learned a lot about plants and different animals in the rainforest.

The most memorable time in Costa Rica was our Sunset Sailboat tour the next night. It was a small group of 20 people on the four-hour tour which included delicious dinner and drinks. The kids got to snorkel in the warm ocean water, we chased dolphins and saw one of the most beautiful sunsets that day! I would highly recommend going out to the ocean for sunset cruise there. Of course when it’s a gorgeous day like we were lucky to get!

 

 

 

                       Sunset Cruise

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After two days in Manuel, we headed back to San Jose. We slept through the drive as we were all tired. The Curio Hilton hotel was quite central, and we walked around the whole area that evening. It was much colder here. The kids wanted to stay back and finally watching TV in English, and we headed out to this beautiful coffee joint, La Mancha and got a little mini lesson about the Costa Rican coffee. Later we headed out for dinner with kids. I stopped at this fantastic empanadas place, El Fronton which was highly rated. It was a terrific little place, and I had never tried that kind of empanadas before. It’s a must go place if you are in San Jose.

Costa Rica was a much needed relaxed vacation which all of us enjoyed as it catered to everyone’s interests. The kids had a blast with all the activities and no museum tours this time around, and I relaxed finally with not much planning and no rush to see lots of places…