I Want to Move to Costa Rica!!!!!!

Costa Rica = Best Time Ever!

We had a great time in Costa Rica!!! We did and saw so much! It's a beautiful country and today Ruth and I were talking about moving there and sell jewelry on the street. It's a sound plan if you ask me.

Here is what we did! I will post pictures from each day once I load them!

DAY ONE - SATURDAY:
Arrived in Costa Rica!
Went straight to hotel by airport (Best Western?)
Had dinner there - typical Costa Rican Arroz con Pollo, YUM

DAY TWO - SUNDAY:
Drove to our hotel, Tabacon, about a 3 hour drive away. Lots of twisty, windy roads full of potholes!
Arrived at Tabacon and had lunch
HOT SPRINGS! They were awesome - hot water (like a hot bath or hot tub), waterfalls, slide
Dinner at buffet at resort

DAY THREE - MONDAY:
Went into La Fortuna for lunch at a typical Costa Rican place - open air restaurant with typical foods
We were going to just "stop by" the La Fortuna waterfall, but it turns out you can't just do that! It's a drive up a windy dirt road FULL of potholes!!! Then, you get to the waterfall and have to hike down to see it, which is basically a 85 degree angle down. But it was worth it!
We also went to the Arenal Hanging Bridges, which are suspension bridges in the jungle. It was really pretty, even if we didn't get to see much wildlife! It started getting dark, which made it a little creepy, especially when we found out the next day that the jungles have Jaguars!
Went to the Hot Springs again
Dinner at the resort's fancy restaurant

DAY FOUR - TUESDAY:
We had stopped at the supermercado (grocery store) and bought little breakfast snacks, so we just had that before going to...
The Zip Line! We took a sky tram up to the top of a mountain. Beautiful views all around! Then, we did two practice zip lines, which were only about 20 and 40 feet each - no problem. Then, we did the real thing, which was about 2,000 meters, which is about 6,562 feet. PLUS, we were about 600 feet above the ground, so it was pretty scary! I spent the time just praying to God to keep me safe. I'm not usually that type, so that should tell you something about how freaked out I was.
We then went through a mini-butterfly garden on the grounds and also had chicken empanadas for lunch.
We got back to the hotel and went to... you guessed it - the Hot Springs!
For dinner, we went back into La Fortuna and had dinner there, which was tasty.

DAY FIVE - WEDNESDAY:
We had room service for breakfast bright and early and they even wheeled in a little table! We had a typical Costa Rican breakfast with rice and beans and eggs and fried plantains.
We then went to the Hot Springs one last time before leaving to pick my brother up at the airport.
On our way to the airport we got held up in the middle of the road twice - once when a group of Coatis (like racoons, I guess is the closest comparison) and then again when a cow was attacking some guy on the side of the road to protect its baby.
We made it to the airport, though, and picked up Joe.
Went to the resort, relaxed, and had dinner in town (Coco Beach) at a some random steakhouse.

DAY SIX - THURSDAY:
We went to breakfast at the resort (Ocotal Beach Resort)
We then drove to a nature preserve to go on a boat tour, which was awesome! We got to see TONS of birds (herons, macaws, other random birds), crocodiles, and MONKEYS!!!!! They were so cute and came right onto the boat to eat bananas! I will for sure post a picture of them.
We then ate at this little restaurant and it was really good.
After, we went back to the hotel (after a quick stop at the supermercado) and went into the pools.
We had dinner at the resort, where the waiter was getting workout tips from my brother.

DAY SEVEN - FRIDAY:
We got up at the crack of dawn to head to Nicaragua! It was about a 90 minute drive to the border. Customs going between Central American countries is INTERESTING! Note: the bathrooms at customs is DISGUSTING. Avoid if possible.
We then drove to Granada, which is about 90 minutes from the border into Nicaragua. On the way, the customs officials let us know that we would be giving one of the police officers a ride to Rivas, a small town along the way. It was not a choice.
The small town of Granada was pretty interesting, since it is from Colonial times. Lots of older buildings. My mom said it looked pretty similar to El Salvador, which is where my Dad's whole family is from. We took a horse drawn buggy around the town and saw the oldest building (from the 1600's, I think) and a fort that was turned into a prison during the early 80's. That was pretty sad because we learned that there were political prisoners there that were held underground so that humanitarian workers wouldn't discover they were there and they were tortured and killed. They paved the whole thing over because it was so horrific. And to think that happened less than 30 years ago.
We had lunch at a cute little Nicaraguan restaurant, which was good. They also had clean bathrooms, which was a plus. We then went to a little market, where there were TONS of little goodies. I also saw a little kid pee on a tree while I was there.
Then, we went to this lake inside what used to be a volcano. That was pretty. There is also another lake in Nicaragua which is HUGE, but is so polluted that you can't swim in it, which is pretty unbelieveable, considering the size.
We headed back to Costa Rica and got stuck in customs AGAIN. This time it was dark and two customs agents just came to the van and opened the doors. Our guide, Miguel was inside at the time and we had NO idea what was going on! They just opened the doors and didn't say anything. I thought they were trying to sell us something, so I just kept saying "No Gracias" and hoping they would go away. It turns out they were just checking the car for illegal items (which we had none). We finally made it home, but it was a long, interesting day.

DAY EIGHT - SATURDAY:
Headed home early and landed in MN. It was sad.

Longest post ever! Hope you enjoyed hearing about our adventures! :)