Puerto Viejo -The Caribe

After a couple of days rest, including taking the ladies to my ward... we decided to go on another mini vacation!
Now here's some advice. Don't believe everything you read on Google. After picking a place to stay and finally deciding on one and reserving it, I went to bed. Turns out while I was sleeping Mom and Nat decided to Google Limon, Costa Rica -the port city on the Carribean side of the country. It's about an hour North of where we planned on visiting. They stayed up late that night reading of murders, robberies, human trafficking, and smuggling.
Needless to say the next morning they did NOT want to embark upon our trip.
Being the stubborn person I am, I insisted that we go because after talking to locals and other Ex Pats down here, I deemed it worth the trip.
It was about a 4 hour drive on nicely paved roads. We hit a little traffic and saw lots of trucks, but it wasn't too bad because it was in the middle of the week and not during rush hour.
We stopped at a Sloth Sanctuary just north of where we were staying and enjoyed an afternoon learning all about them. In Spanish sloth is 'oso perisoso' which means lazy bear. We also took a mini jungle cruise and saw some monkeys, sloths, and even a cayman.

Our expectations for a hotel needed a little adjusting when we got there. We had bungalows with walls, but screens around the top for an open air feel. It was almost like camping.
It took us about a day to adjust and find our way around, but after that we really enjoyed ourselves.

We went to the Jaguar Rescue  center next... we saw all sorts of animals including more sloths! ... but no Jaguars :) Afterward we spent the day at the beach, came back to the hotel pool, then enjoyed a nice taco dinner.

The next day we went to a great surfing beach, and checked out some cool new restaurants. Half the vacation always seems to be eating food!

On the way home we stopped at Cahuita National Park. The beaches looked amazing, but we didn't want a 4 hour drive in sandy clothes. Next time!

Manuel Antonio

Wednesday morning we wisked our visitors away on another car ride (about 2 1/2 hrs) to Manuel Antonio and stayed in a beautiful place called hotel Mariposa.
Seriously the most beautiful view I've ever seen. They served us a delicious breakfast every morning and provided us with pina colodas while swimming in the infinity pool!
We hung out on the beach and went on an awesome zipline tour! There were 10 lines, one was the 3rd longest in the world and another one was one of the fastest. We were going between 55-60 mph!
The kids did really well and loved it. They got to go by themselves on all except the 2 mentioned above. It was so hot! We had lots of stairs to climb and sweated like crazy. My 64 yr old mother did wonderful even with a cold. I think she must have sweated it out because the next day she was all better!

After ziplining we spent some much needed R&R at the pool then headed to a dinner where we got caught in a crazy rainstorm... which meant we needed hot chocolate and dessert back at the hotel restaurant.

The next day we attempted a snorkeling excursion based off of what the concierge at the hotel told us. We could have taken an expensive boat tour, but decided to drive to location instead and get our own gear. We got to the beach and rented a 2 person kayak plus snorkel gear for Mom and Natalie. Madison and Dylan rode in the boat with the women and Grayson and I swam next to it. They paddled out of the bay to the spot where the snorkeling was supposed to be. The destination turned out to be farther than they expected, so I thought I would jump in the boat to offer my assistance with paddling. Bad Idea. 6 people in a 2 person kayak... Grayson got on the back okay, but when I attempted to get in I capsized the boat. Grandma and Dylan were wearing life jackets, but not crrrazy Aunt Natalie (who it turns out can only doggy paddle very poorly-how did we grow up in the same household?) had a panic attack and lost her snorkel mask and Grandma lost a flipper. Needless to say, we flipped the boat back over and tried to get the old women back in. Oooooh Suzy... she just couldn't do it. Not with all the pushing and pulling we could offer. In the end, she hung on to the back of the boat and we headed back to the beach.
After the unsuccessful attempt we went to a beach with waves! We spent the rest of the day on a beautiful but crowded beach near Manuel Antonio Park and surfed and shopped and relaxed the day away. No Gracias was a frequent pharase

                                             We saw a sloth just hanging out in the wild.

Saturday we woke up early to drive home. On the way we stopped at our favorite beach- Esterillos and played till we were burnt to a crisp, then we went to Los Suenos near Jaco and had some lunch.
We had a great time together! Hope it won't be too long before we can do it again!

Visitors!

We were lucky to have visitors for 2 weeks!

Natalie and my mom flew in on a Tuesday morning. 

They brought Koko with them! They brought her in a little carrier and put her under their seat. She did great and was super easy to travel with! Oh its so nice to have our dog back. It was so wonderful that our neighbors and friends back in Utah took such good care of here for 2+ months. 

After we unloaded their suitcases and fed them a little food, we headed up to La Paz waterfall gardens which is about 1 1/2 hr drive from our house. 

The weather was perfect and we had a wonderful time.