Costa Rica - Zip-lining and Arenal Volcano National Park
We ate a quick breakfast of stale cereal (picked up from the Costa Rica grocery store) and granola that I brought from home and then headed to the Sky Adventures Zip-line Tour - minus Romney and Sister Jackson. Turns out the Jacksons had an equally rough night. In addition to rude birds and bothered cows, Romney spent the night throwing up and was too weak to do anything. Poor guy. Megan stayed home to keep him company and the rest of us continued on. Our weather app forecasted 90% rain Monday and Tuesday but the manager of our rental said he never trusts the weather app. Just open your windows, look outside and make a plan. We headed on our adventure with overcast skies but no rain, which was a blessing.
Zip-ling with Sky Adventures
We got harnessed up and waited for the trolley that took us up, up and up the mountain. From the top we could see Lake Arenal and got into a hand statue for pictures.
7 zip lines in all. The first was a small one through the trees so we could get the hang of it. The second one was long and over a huge valley - which made our stomach’s drop a little bit. Everyone loved it… except maybe Jane who slowed to a stop without reaching the end. Like a champ she turned around and pulled herself hand over hand until the guide came to get her. After zip-line #3 it started to rain and then to POUR. Luckily the group of us were waiting under a covered area trying to keep dry but those that were still coming in got DRENCHED! Since our guides waited for the entire group to gather and then headed out in front of us, the downpour could not have been better timed. After 10 minutes the skies let up and our group continued on in clear skies.
Beautiful view of the Arenal Lake taken with an Iphone. Not nearly amazing enough to do it justice. Just beautiful.
White Nose Coati
Such a cool animal. Fun to see him up close in the parking lot.
Lunch at La Ventanita with views of the Arenal Volcano
When we got back to our hillside retreat, Romney still wasn’t feeling well, but Megan decided to join us for lunch in a cute little motorcycle inspired restaurant in our own town. We parked on a rocky sloped driveway and walked beside the house to find an outdoor covered patio and motorcycle themed restaurant - which was just a kitchen attached to the house. Motorcycles stood here and there and chairs faced a Costa Rican flag with views of the cloud-covered volcano. Megan and I shared some quesadillas and enjoyed them. The boys liked their burritos although Luke complained that they weren’t exactly like burritos as home… too much cheese. Then we tried chocolate and pineapple milkshakes. It was definitely a fun location with a great view.
It started to pour as we finished out lunch, but we continued with our plan and headed to the National Park by the Volcano to do some rain forest hiking.
Arenal Volcano National Park
The greenery was lush and high and we definitely felt like we were in the jungle. Beautiful palm leaves lined our damp trail. It rained off and on but it was warm and seemed like just the thing that happened in a rainforest. How else does a rainforest get so green? We jumped carefully over mud puddles, studied impressive trees, explored lava rocks and listened to tropical birds.
Lukewarm Hot Tub
We were excited to try out the hot tub — especially after being soaked from our hike in the rainy rainforest — but were a bit disappointed with the temperature. It was warm but not warm enough. But the boys had fun getting out and jumping in the colder pool and then back into the hot tub. We lasted for awhile until it rained a windy sideways rain right into our hot tub. Then we were done.
After the hot tub we showered and cleaned up. The kids were anxious to hang out at home so we left them at the house and headed to a restaurant for dinner - just the adults. Great to chat about Jackson job interviews and their plans for the next couple of months. We brought home some chicken strips and fries for the kids and they were gone within minutes.
Matt switched places with me and spent the night in the bungalow and slept great, and I slept perfectly from 10:00pm - 5:45am without even moving and fell back asleep for another hour and a half before I got up. I needed that good sleep! It was wonderful.