Costa Rica Part 3

We arrived on Thursday afternoon to our final destination, Fiesta Resort. It's on the Pacific side of CR . . . I don't know if the beach at the resort has a name . . . I don't think so. Our hotel was some "all-inclusive" place. Which I am not quite sure what exactly that means. Free, anytime drinks (alcoholic and non), food, etc.? I don't know. Our rooms were nice and the resort was nice, but the kids were definitely mostly interested in the ocean!

So after getting everyone checked in to our rooms, we headed down to the beach . . . We were told no one swims in it because of the riptides. I am sure there are some dangerous riptides there, but I think they are also extra-cautious. At the other beach in Tortuguero we were told the same thing. Anyways, we let our kids play in it and luckily all was well. There weren't many others in it - and the only ones who were, were white. But our kids never went super far out and Ben was usually in the water with them. Me? I don't like the ocean much at all. I have never been a big fan of the water - add salt and waves that pummel you? No thanks. But I did wade for a while and the water was fairly warm and so that was nice.

It was pretty! Although the black sand was kind of not so pretty - and became scalding hot as my kids discovered the next day!

The kids absolutely loved playing in the ocean - jumping the waves, body-surfing, etc. It was great watching them. :) They literally stayed passed sunset and were so happy to be at a beach. (I did recommend to the tourist company that a nicer, swim-friendly, white-sand beach - which CR does have - might have been a better option . . . But we still had a fantastic time.) That night we ate dinner and just walked around the hotel, etc. CR's soccer team was playing Canada - and so the hotel's movie room (usually set up for kids to watch a movie in the evenings) was showing the game and it was packed of Costa Ricans cheering every time a CR player touched the ball. It was awesome. CR won that night! (And then went on to play the US the following week - and beat us!) 

After the dinner, the boys went back to the beach - but not to swim, just to be on the sand, hear the waves, etc. Ben and I walked out, too (trying to find Lucy's missing hotel key, which we didn't find - but it also turned out not to be missing, ha). We saw all sorts of crabs running and then burying in the sand - it was cool, but also kind of creepy! We left the boys and then Ben and I spent the rest of our evening signing us all up for the stupid Covid tests we had to take on Saturday - requirement for flying back home. It took forever to do . . . The kids watched movies in their rooms.

The next morning we drove maybe 30-40 minutes away for an "outrigger" adventure. We canoed out to this beach. The beach was gorgeous and we were the only ones there - our own private beach for a couple of hours! The waves were not amazing, but I liked them, ha. Ben and the boys even tried out snorkeling and saw tons of fish, etc. It was a really fun outing for sure.

On the way to our adventure, we stopped at this area of a river where crocodiles reside - how weird yet cool!? We saw maybe a dozen of them. So crazy.

The place where we met our guides and got ready for the adventure. 

All ready!

So fun and so pretty!

A "Halloween crab" greeted us at the beach. :) There were also a lot of cute hermit crabs walking around.

It would not have been a true CR adventure without a dog. So a dog rode out with us on our outrigger. (He actually fell off it on the way home - I think he was a bit sleepy and just slipped off. The guide in the back just scooped the dog up by his neck as he passed.) Here's the dog digging for crabs. :)

The Wave.

The story behind The Wave: So Miles' phone is waterproof. I had actually encouraged him to take it when they went snorkeling. Which he didn't. Which he later regretted. Anyways, he finally decided to take some underwater shots and then was attempting to capture the waves from underwater. Well a surprisingly big one came and knocked whoever was there over - including Miles, which made him drop his phone. We then spent the next 25 minutes searching the ocean for his phone. The guides were all out there as well - one even took his kayak far out and tried to look beyond where we were all looking. After 20 minutes, it wasn't looking so good. We were all devastated for Miles. Not for the phone - but what he had on his phone. Thousands of pictures, his contacts, etc. I had finally told Miles that we had to stop and head back - these guides had an afternoon tour to take out as well. Well within a minute of me telling Miles that, he found it! Thank heavens and thanks for answered prayers!! The phone was still on and, yes, it still worked and still works today. :) Sheesh.

One the way back from our outrigger experience, we went to the town of Puntarenas. The only cool thing about it was this sign, ha. It was a really trashy, poor, gross area. Our trip included this so as to buy and eat a Churchill. A Churchill is a weird CR ice cream/snow cone/milk drink:

They were fun for sure! But also a bit weird. I basically just liked the ice cream. Lucy couldn't get over the dry powered milk and didn't eat much of hers. The boys all finished theirs. :) Emmy might have, too. The thing is, there were carts and stands right by the resort selling these - so no need to drive into the trashy town . . . But whatever, another adventure!

We had a bit of downtime when we got back to the resort and then met the kids back up at the beach. They stayed, again, until past sunset. We had a fun evening at dinner together (with Shirley - we always ate at least dinner with her - we'd always invite her to join us because why not). Later in the evening we had fun getting some virgin Daiquiris, Shirley Temples, Miami Vices, etc. So fun.

We had to check out of our place on noon on Saturday, but the kids still spent another couple of hours that morning playing in the ocean. We then went back to our rooms, dumped out 5 pounds of sand from our suits (no joke), and packed up. (The pictures are pretty out of order and it is truly the biggest pain trying to move them around . . . so in random order . . .)

This could have been Thursday or Friday night. Who knows?

Ben bought this cool shirt at the store inside the resort. Looking good!

The resort was all-lit up and pretty at night.

So crazy . . . that first night at the resort as the kids are playing in the water, we hear "Emmy?!" Yep, it was Tahlia - her good friend from school! They knew they were both going to be in CR, of course, but neither one knew where they would be. How insane that we ended up at the same resort! Tal had just gotten there and was spending the whole week there at the resort. Anyways, we ran into her and her family (mom and sister) a couple times while there. So fun.

The resort had a little snack shop open during the afternoons. Free food. I always got the delicious fruit - pineapple and papaya and watermelon. So good. Ben loved the ceviche - this one served over a bag of chips. There is actually a Costa Rican restaurant in Ridgway that Ben and I had gone to once - maybe a couple of years ago? Ben had the ceviche and loved it. So he was excited about eating it here and thought it was super tasty. He got it a few times while there. :)

Ben in front of the pool in back of our resort. It was a pretty place for sure! We were just more interested in the ocean, not hanging out at a pool (which we can do at home!).

The girls had fun ordering their "drinks" at the outdoor bar. :)

Saturday morning . . . all packed up and ready to head back to San Jose. It was coming to end - so sad! There is Shirley and Juan Carlos on the right of the picture. The best guide and driver in CR! :)