Pura Vida

I'm up before dawn, sitting at the pool at Tamarindo Village Hotel, listening to the throaty calls of the howler monkeys. I'm going to miss this. The inquisitive raccoon that came by made it feel a little more like home. (I didn't know Costa Rica had the scourge of raccoons until yesterday when our host at the hotel mentioned them. Hopefully the boas feast on them as easily as on rabbits!)

When the kids wake up, we will be leaving for the ~80-minute drive to Liberia airport to return our car and begin the journey home. Liberia appears to be a small airport - though technologically advanced, and so Mindy has checked us in and done remote ID verification - so I am hoping for a streamlined trip through security....but we'll leave a good chunk of time just in case.

Good-bye Tamarindo...for now!

******

Vamos car rental set us up well in San Jose, and were equally great for the drop off in Liberia. That cooler they provided was a nice touch - lots of use in the heat! (The nearest gas station to Liberia's airport drop off was on the other side when coming from Tamarindo, so that was a mild inconvenience, but hardly the fault of Vamos.)

This pretty accurately captures the kids as we wait in line: Everest reading, and Lauren - desperate for attention - pestering him!

The small airport lived up to expectations, and we were quickly through to our gate. Bar any eventful moments on the flight home (let's hope there are none!), this wraps up this adventure. 

Good-bye Costa Rica! See you...soon??

Costa Rican Hospitality

The people here in Costa Rica are generally wonderful - kind and friendly - and everything about our experience has made us feel safe. At risk of playing to stereotypes, that was a little more expected in small towns in the interior, but is a welcome surprise in busy Tamarindo. I don't know that there are many countries in the world where a newcomer would have this consistent experience everywhere. 

Breakfast at Tamarindo Village Hotel is simpler than what we have been getting in the rural interior, but it gets the job done. Fresh fruit and cereal/toast to get the kids powered up for the day. They offer coffee, but Mindy and I prefer to check out the specialty shops for that. We did, however, take advantage of the hotel pool before heading out.

Big brother helps little sister figure out the code for the hotel gate as we leave...

...and then monitors her as we go.

Derecha Sagrado is a local gem for coffee. On a hot day like this, I very much recommend their cinnamon and honey iced latte with almond milk!

That's my boy! He may not like the taste, but he's learning to discern and describe coffee flavours!

There is a playground across the street, so even though the ocean is right there, the kids have their own priorities. Lauren immediately made friends with a little 2-year old local, and we spent the next half hour chatting with her engaging parents - Eder and Sophie - who run the local school Surf With Chocolate. Eder even retrieved a piece of cardboard for some Costa Rican tobogganing!

Good-bye and have a nice life, Sophie and Eder. Or, maybe we'll see you next year?

This is a squirrel. Not exciting. But fun to see how the coloration is different from our usual.

Epitomizing the Costa Rican faith in their fellow humans, twice today we had vendors offer us things on the promise that we would return and pay later. (We didn't have cash on us and I was hesitant to hand my credit card information over to a random person wandering the streets...even in safe Costa Rica!) In one case, it was the souvenir that Lauren was determined to get, so I jogged back to the hotel. Bonus - another brush with wildlife!

The other vendor was selling beach image and thirst-quenching deliciousness!

Overpaying for that seems appropriate in this context.

Dinner at Green Papaya taco bar - they got us with the swings for seats! Turns out the food is pretty fantastic, too!

One day, Mindy and I will be able to enjoy romantic dinners when we travel - leaving the kids to fend for themselves. For now, we get kind of dressed up in order to play Uno with the boy. (The girl was busy "mothering" a 2-year old from a neighbouring table.)

The plan was to get back into bathing suits for an evening dip in the ocean, but the sun was already setting as we departed Green Papaya. Run for the beach! Catch the sights!

Any time the phones come out, the kids want their chance to take photos, too.

What's this along the beach? A fire show? Mesmerizing and incredible! (Doesn't hurt that their bodies would be inspiring even if slouched over in a fast food restaurant...)

One last look at the ocean before calling it a night.

Bah! Bedtime can wait. It's our last night in Costa Rica (at least...on this trip). Gelato on the walk back to the hotel!

And now, finally, bed. Good night Costa Rica. 

Miami, Costa Rica

We were told Tamarindo isn't the "real" Costa Rica - that's it's more like Miami. That isn't automatically a criticism, but this morning - after the unbelievable experiences and wonderful people here at Casitas Tenorio - it feels like we are losing something. 

We skipped the farm tour this morning in order to pack up the casita. Partway though, eagle-eyed Lauren called out from the front veranda "monkeys!" Now, keep in mind that Lauren is 4, so she has been telling us all trip about the monkeys she has "seen" from the car, or the whales, or when she climbed up in the trees and was swallowed by a snake (which...to be clear...didn't happen!). This time, though - true!

Howler monkeys coming to wish us farewell at the casita. What caused heart-stopping excitement a mere two days ago...now gets only passing attention from some...

On to breakfast (the pancakes veritably got more attention from Everest than the monkeys beforehand!) and yet another new visitor to the rancho - a Crested Guan.

(Merely "near threatened" so rather boring compared to last night's kinkajou!😂)

Followed by more brief-but-intense rain.

Before leaving - and in response to our inquiring - our hosts Nana and Jeff showed us a house on the property that includes a full kitchen - more suitable for longer stays. Perhaps that's next year's adventure?? (Last night Jeff saw tapirs just in front of this house. We missed them. So....decision made, right?)

Before leaving the little village, we stocked up on essentials for the trip, including some of the granadilla and mamoncillos were first tried yesterday, as well as hydration from Cafe Semilla.

We did NOT take the "logging pass" highway out of Bijagua de Upala - stuck to the primary highways - but we were still treated to awe-inspiring views as we began our journey west to the coast. 

There is a pronounced change in climate and ecosystem as one descends from the mountains and heads west. Lush and wet tropical rainforest is replaced by arid semi-desert - what reminds me of New Mexico in the U.S.A. As we were in an air-conditioned car, the dry heat really only hit as we stepped out for a bio-break! We also noticed that the valley was on fire. Truly. What first appeared to be controlled fires - small smouldering areas with people generally nearby seeming to monitor - was replaced by smokiness across the highway and multiple widespread areas where the ground was smouldering or actively alight. "Should we be turning back? Are we driving into a forest fire?" But nobody else on the highway seemed to give it a thought. There was a steady parade of cars heading in the same direction as us, and the cars coming in the opposite direction appeared in no hurry. Eventually we made it through the smoke-filled valley, and marveled in the evening as we looked out from the beach that we could still see fires burning in the faraway countryside.

Tamarindo!

A beach town that in some ways feels like beach towns all over the world, Tamarindo is a beautiful homage to sun, sand, and surfing. Plenty of action along the main strip - restaurants, shops, and loads of people meandering around in bathing suits and flip flops. 

We checked in to Tamarindo Village Hotel, a small, friendly hotel well off the beaten path. (It felt a little like we were leaving Tamarindo to get to our place here, though it's only a ~3 minute walk to the central part of town. Just...once you leave paved roads - and you don't know where you are going - it always feels a bit like leaving civilization.) The clean and well-appointed room did NOT feel away from civilization, and the hosts/owners were great!

Monkeys in their not-so-natural habitat...

...super impressive!

When you're new in town, the beach is actually a little hard to find, strangely! I mean, we knew exactly where it was - just behind that row of shops and restaurants - but it takes a moment to realize that these dirt/sand alleyways off the main (paved and finished) road between the shops are the intended route.

The beach!

The rainforest was a dream for me, but there is something so heart-wrenchingly stunning about an expansive beach at sunset. We took about a million photos, and were in good company with so many others doing the same!

The kids were having a blast and finding much-needed ways to burn off energy after the long drive!

Tomorrow is a full day of sun and sand!

Noah Has Got Nothing On This Place!

Casitas Tenorio B&B has a working farm aspect to it - cows for milk (eventually beef for the boy calf), chickens for eggs, and vegetable gardens. The rabbits, we were assured, were just pets. All 25 of them! Except, there aren't 25 anymore. There had been 25 rabbits, but Costa Rica has snakes and various other predators, and now Casitas Tenorio has two rabbits. In one incident, a boa slipped into the rabbit pen (thin snake easily fitting through the gaps in the wire) but then was stuck inside once it had swallowed a mother rabbit and five babies.

The manager - Nana - suspects that their cat was eaten by an ocelot, and she expects one day that their adorable 3-month old puppy (Lauren's favourite part of Casitas Tenorio, hands down), may simply not return from the jungle. However, "this is beautiful" as she puts it, because it is nature. 

Our pre-breakfast farm tour this morning wasn't all gloom about animals, however! We tasted spinach off the plant (more would be served sauteed at breakfast), as well as their "coyote culantro" (like cilantro...but not).

We were especially nice to this cow, knowing that it will be someone's dinner one day.

Everest and Lauren even had the chance to milk a cow! (A chance that Lauren didn't take.)

The cow's back legs are tied during the milking process for safety whether or not amateurs are at that stool as she stomped on her first calf when it was nursing. She was getting so many good things to eat that she didn't seem to mind.

Did you know that pineapples, naturally, take two years to grow and produce one fruit per plant? (Apparently modern farming can increase that productivity...if you don't mind a side of chemicals.)

Was breakfast tastier because we were so close to the production? I don't know...I tried the milk for coffee knowing where it had come from! (I don't enjoy cow's milk under any circumstances, so this more about the experience. It...tasted like milk!) In any case, breakfast was delicious and powered us for a day in the heat exploring this region.

We drove through Tenorio Volcano National Park to enjoy the majestic landscapes and incredible views. There is a beautiful waterfall to see in the park...but it's a 3km hike each way and it was hot. Not sure how Everest would handle an aggressive ("moderate difficulty" according to the guidebooks) trek in the heat, and there's only so far that I can carry Lauren! Maybe next time!

The kids had plenty of energy for the hyacinth labyrinth! (Laberinto Río Celeste)

...until, actually, they didn't. Everest and I tackled (and solved!) the second rectangular labyrinth after we cheated to find the centre of the more challenging round one, but by then Lauren was cooking in the heat so Mindy took her into the car to cool off!

From there, a proper cool-off in the turquoise waters of the Rio Celeste - the colour resulting from the mixing of minerals and compounds in the water.

True to expectations, we were briefly caught in a rainstorm in this tropical rainforest! Not too bad when we were already in bathing suits...

Back to the village of Bijagua de Upala for a late lunch and cafecito at Cafe la Semilla (recommended by Nana at Casitas Tenorio) and then back to the casitas. A full day and time to relax, right? We did not expect what greeted us upon our return - howler monkeys!

A mature grey sloth high up in a tree!

Toucans (not captured) and - I am told - parrots that flew high overhead but didn't stop here. Wow!!

Jeff, one of the staff here at Casita Tenorio, introduced us to granadillas 

and mamoncillos 

- tropical fruits that were popular when he was young but aren't commercially viable and so have largely been replaced by the more popular mangoes, watermelon, pineapples (conventionally grown!) and papayas that accompany every breakfast here. Both are delicious, and I wish these were available back home!

We spent much of the evening in the rancho, enjoying the jungle sounds around us, the good company of our hosts and fellow travellers, making crafts... 

(This collection is largely Lauren's handiwork, including "painted" paper towels when she made paint out of markers and water, using Q-tips as paintbrushes - clever girl!)

...and learning en masse with Duolingo!

Our last treat of the evening was the seldom seen kinkajou, or "honey bear", what looks sort of like a cat with an exceptionally long tongue.