Before we took our trip to Costa Rica, both Aaron and I pictured the country having lush, tropical forests, with beautiful beaches,surrounded by farmland. We spent the first few days of vacation seeing beautiful beaches, but they were dry. For the second leg, we were ready to see the lush jungle and all the animals and plants the inhabit it.
So we hit the road and drove south through the farmlands to the mid Pacific coast. We stayed in Manuel Antonio, which was a little fishing area that turned into an international tourist destination with a national park and fantastic beaches.
This area of the country is gorgeous and is exactly what we had pictured. Dense forest covering the hills, bordered by the ocean.
We stayed in a cute little hotel up on a hill tucked into the trees, overlooking the Pacific. Without even leaving the hotel we saw toucans, lizards, monkeys and amazing sunsets.
We took a guided walk through the national park to get an upclose look at much of the exotic plants and animals that live there.
After seeing sloths and monkeys and several colors of frogs and birds and huge lizards and an insanely poisonous snake (without any glass between us and it!!) and butterflies and flowers, we asked Ethan what his favorite animal was. His response - the white tailed deer...that he can see at home. Awesome.
Even though the deer was his favorite, he really got into seeing the other animals as well. It was neat to see both kids get excited when they spotted something and to hear Ethan still talking the 'jungle'.
Ethan even got into taking pictures of them with the iPhone, like Mommy.
My favorite day was spent on one of the beaches in the area, Manuel Antonio. This beach is the closest I have found to true paradise. We spent a day hiking to it and playing in the sand and the water and the sun.
The beach is tucked into a bay, its water was so very calm, so very blue, and so very warm. It was the perfect swimming and floating water.
The water is surrounded by cliffs and is rocky on either side, which made nice tidepools for E and Daddy to explore.
And the beach backs up to the jungle so there was plenty of shade. It was truly perfect!
All except for the monkeys.
The monkeys know that people equal food, and they will stalk you until they get what they want. While Kels took her nap on the beach, I was sitting next to her enjoying the view and snacking on crackers. Our little monkey friend (pictured below) was watching and as soon as I took my hand off the bag, he jumped down and snagged it, landing inches from Kels.
I knew all he wanted was food, but it still scared me having him so close to her. Luckily, he didn't care about the baby, just the crackers. Dirty little monkey.
We spent the rest of our time in this region exploring other beaches,
watching for wildlife,
playing in the ocean,
playing in the pool,
and loving our time together.
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More from Manuel Antonio:
E LOVES playing in the sand.
He would sometimes stop to play in the water.
But was right back with his diggers afterwards.
Even after a day at the beach, we still managed to find time for the pool.
Walking through the jungle was fun for the kids,
probably because they didn't actually do much actual walking.
Mommy and Daddy are great sherpas.
Although sometimes Kels got down to have a little rest when she found a good seat.
In our down time, the kids entertained themselves together.
The Costa Ricans love little kids and our blue eyed, blondies got lots of attention.
Being the baby, Kelsey stole the show. Que linda!
Pura vida
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