San Jose

On our last full day, we drove back to San Jose and went on a little walking tour of downtown. It was the only time to rain was kind of a bummer, but the kids were good sports. We saw a couple of markets, parks, and theaters, as well as two truly beautiful churches. Honestly, overall, it was kind of an underwhelming city (it's not what people come to Costa Rica to see), but I think it was good for the kids to see what other cities look like so they can appreciate ours!

We decided to stop at McDonald's for lunch to compare...menu items were familiar, and it tasted exactly the same as at home!

We left for home the next morning, tired and happy- it was a great trip!

Tamarindo

For the last part of our trip, we drove several hours to Tamarindo, a town on the Pacific Ocean. Everyone loved the beach- it was one of our favorite parts of the trip. Our hotel was up on a hill about 5 minutes from the beach, but there was a shuttle that ran hourly into town and to the beach. They also partner with a Beach Club that we had access to, which was so nice: we had a bar so we could get ice water, bathrooms, lounge chairs, and a private beach area. The trees went so close to the water that we could easily be in the shade while still fully at the beach, and the water was so warm. The beach had pretty impressive waves, lots of seashells, and we just really enjoyed ourselves. 

We typically spent the morning at the hotel pool, went into town for lunch, and then went to the beach until dinner, and then went back to the hotel pool. Rough life.

Animals and Flowers

We kept a list of all the animals and birds we saw on our trip:

Animals: Ant Eater, Black Spiny-tailed Iguana, Lizard, Cows, Horses, Termite nests, Long-nosed bats, Crocodiles, Howler Monkeys, Rat Bull Snake, Emerald (Jesus Christ) Lizard, Blue Jean Frog, White Linated Bat, Black and Green Frog, Tilapia, Toe-toed Sloth, Glass Frog, Godi, Red Frog, Coati, Eyelast Pit Viper, Land Crabs, Catfish, and Kitten.

Birds: Chicken, Buff Rumped Warbler, Great Kiskadee, Yellow Bird, Peacock Bird, Great Curassow, Parrot, Tucan, Aningha Aningha, Tiger Heron, Lordas Parakeet, Scarlet Rumped Tanager, Yellow Tanager, Hummingbirds, Vultures, Swallows, Russet Nape Wood Rail, Jackamar, Boat Billed Heron, Stripped Owl, Blackbelly Whistling duck and ducklings, Green Heron, Chackalaka, Black Throated Oreal, Common Black Hawk, Tri Colored Heron, Warbler, White Ibis, Osprey, and Scarlet Macaw.

Here are some of our favorite pictures:

And we loved trying to capture how pretty all of the flowers were:

La Fortuna Tours

Our trip was made up of several small tours. People showed up to drive us where we needed to be (always on time), and then they showed us around each place. It was often just our family, or at most two or three other people with us. It was lovely!

One of our favorite things we did on the trip was a raft float. We saw so many animals on the tour, and the abundance of wildlife is one of the things that makes Costa Rica unique. I'm going to do a post next of several of the animals we saw throughout our trip. 

Another highlight of the trip for me was the hanging bridges tour. It was a bit rainy during our tour, but we were mostly under leaf cover, and since we had rain gear, it was just atmospheric. There were about 10 bridges we crossed, a few of them about the length of a football field! Jake found out he is a little bit afraid of heights, but he did great crossing the bridges anyway. The views were stunning.

One free morning, Jason took Eli and Logan down the road to a place people like to cliff-jump, while Ali, Jake, and I enjoyed a morning at the hotel pools.

Another tour we did was a sloth-spotting tour. It was raining again (but again, we weren't too bothered because we were in a jungle, so mostly protected), so that meant that the sloths were huddled high up in the trees. We saw them through the scope, but they weren't active. Too bad. We did see lots of other animals, birds, and flowers on our walk, though, so it was still a good time. (Can you spot Jake in this picture?)

One evening at our hotel dinner, there was a dance show. The dancers were quite good, and our server told us that some of the dances they performed were traditional Costa Rican.