After our crazy fast trip to Seattle for passports on Tuesday we packed up on Wednesday and flew to Salt Lake on Thursday. My sister Katie was so kind to come through security and pick our kids up from us in the airport. I was super worried about how the kids were going to react when I sent them with Katie. They were so excited to sleep at Katie's house and had no tears when they left us.
However momma was a bit of a wreak, I was so nervous for the few day or two about my little kiddos.
We went from Salt Lake to Atlanta and had a layover for the night there.
Then we were off to Costa Rica where we landed in Liberia.
Welcome to Costa Rica. When we got off the plane and we went through customs it was all air conditioned. From this picture we walked through some big doors and felt the rush of heat and humidity.
We had a crew waiting for us and Katie made us this sign.
It is not a huge airport so we saw them right away!!
We stopped in Liberia for lunch and then went on a drive around Lake Arenal to La Fortuna. It was a few hour drive and we quickly realized why Emily told us to bring a pad to sit on in the car. It was a very bumpy ride but once your bum got numb it wasn't so bad:)
Our first stop was in La Fortuna at a hotel right in town.
Our beast of a car, Mildred we named her.
We got into our rooms and hit the pool first thing, to cool off :)
We went to dinner at a "Soda" as they call them in La Fortuna and I remember it being my favorite meal of the whole trip.
Garret playing a pick up game in Central Park in La Fortuna.
Ice cream in Central Park after dinner!
Our breakfast from the hotel every morning. It was so good, who doesn't have beans and rice for breakfast?
The fruit was so fresh and full of flavor, yum!!
After breakfast we got in the pool to.......cool off:)
Our first full day we hiked to La Fortuna waterfall and it was incredible.
This is at the beginning there was a very cool bridge you walked over to begin the hike.
Katie and Karen
At the top look out point
The hike was steep, Tanner started counting the stairs down but stopped after 150, someone told us there were over 500 :)
The beautiful trees, everything was so incredibly green.
This tree had a huge hole in it that I climbed into. The base of the tree was so big!
It was so green and beautiful!! The waterfall sound was amazing.
Katie and Emily
The boys!
Garret, Tanner and Kirt
Swimming at the base of the waterfall. It was so strong, you had to keep swimming or you would end up on the rocks.
Jon went to swim around the back of the waterfall when a security guard started yelling and blowing his whistle and made him come back. I guess when the falls are this big it's too risky to swim around the falls.
Emily and Kirt
On the other side of the waterfall down some steps you could swim in the pool that was nice and calm. This is Grammy, Katie and Tanner.
Looking down from the pool.
The water was so clear, this is Tanner swimming.
Katie and Grammy
When we got back our room had been serviced and they make our towels look like a heart with real flowers from the tree outside our door. It was awesome!!
**Side note: right next to our hotel was a fruit smoothie place and I could have had 10 a day they were so yummy. Jon and I had one in our hand at all times. We tried Mango, Passion Fruit, Guava....all kinds and all were delicious.
A great picture of Centeral Park in La Fortuna of course a Catholic church was the focal point of the town.
Arenal Volcano
You could see this volcano from our hotel. No, those aren't clouds around the volcano, it's steam. It's an active volcano and regularly has lava flowing down the other side.
We went to a pizza place down the road for dinner that night. They had true coke in a glass bottle that was so yummy! Only coke I had on the trip actually!
Then we went to Tabacon Hot Springs-one of the most beautiful places on earth. The hot
springs are heated by the Arenal volcano and the gardens are gorgeous.
It was so steamy in the pools this is the best we got for pictures of us!!
The Christensen Family
One of the trees in the gardens had the roots growing above ground!! The first picture we took as soon as we pulled our camera out of its case. By the time we snapped the 2nd picture it was almost too steamy to see anything.
A frog hopping by the locker rooms!
The next day we packed up and checked out of San Bosco hotel in La Fortuna. We drove to La Paz Waterfall Garden. Not only are there 3
incredible waterfalls at this place, but also birds, butterflies,
monkeys, hummingbirds, large cats, frogs, and snakes that are all found
in Costa Rica.
The last waterfall (Escondido Falls) can only be seen on the road to the Gardens. We stopped and bought some fresh fruit from the guy on the side of the road and took a few pic's.
This was the sink in the bathroom, they really play off the waterfall theme.
The gardens start really high in Costa Rica, it felt like we were in the clouds.
This critter walked right by us, we can't even remember what it's called, but they told us he isn't very friendly.
Catching some shade under the "poor man's umbrella" plant.
The Toucans were a HIT! They were super active and they would sit right on your arm for pictures. We got some videos of them eating. They put the fruit in the very end of their beaks and then throw their heads back to toss the fruit into their mouths.
Sid the sloth
It's hard to believe, but the next two pictures are of the same butterfly. The "Blue Morpho" is the prettiest blue color on the bottom of it's wings, but on the top of the wings it has markings that look like owl eyes to chase off predators.
Eating rice pudding. Yum!
Just hanging out with some poisonous frogs.
They had an orchid farm inside the gardens. Really pretty.
Just your average Costa Rican centipede on the trail down to the waterfalls.
Temple Waterfall #1
White Falls #2 This one was cool because you could walk right up to it and reach out and touch the falls.
These two are of the brink of White Falls.
Encantada Falls #3
The brink of Escondido Falls which we saw from the road on the way up to La Paz Watefall Gardens.
This is another one of those critters while we were waiting for the bus. Apparently racoons are lower on the food chain than this guy because he kept chasing the racoons away.
Coffee plantation.
This is one of the families that Kirt met while he was on his mission 20 years ago. The man in the white shirt was preparing to go on his own mission and now he is in charge of the entire Seminary program in Costa Rica and in his 2nd Stake Presidency. The family was really nice and of course they made us food even though we dropped in on them unexpectedly.
This is Marielos. Kirt lived across the street from her while on his mission and she still lives in the same house. This was really fun for Jon because he was glad that I got to see what it was really like eating local food. Trust me it's not like the restaurants. We had chicken fried rice, refried beans, beet salad and tres leches for dessert.
Marielos still had pictures of Kirt as a missionary 20 years ago.
After dinner, Kirt wanted a picture in front of the house he lived in when on his mission. Shortly after he took this picture, Marielos came out and told Kirt he was standing in front of the wrong house. In his defense, the house had changed a lot in the last 20 years.
This is our hotel in the capital city San Jose. It was very nice and was right next to the soccer stadium.
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