First Post-COVID Family Trip: Costa Rica

March 2023

Although Timmy and I had finally graduated from having spring breaks (we had both finally graduated from law school), we still opted to travel during spring break, this time accommodating my mom's schedule as an adjunct professor at Randolph Macon. We set out for a popular tourist destination, a place we'd heard tons of good things about: Costa Rica. This was the first time my brother and I had partners crashing the trip, so the four of us plus my mom and grandma ventured south from our various cities for a week of family vacation.

My then-boyfriend, Pete, tended to have horrible travel luck - but our flights from Cincinnati to Miami then Liberia seemed to be exceptions to this rule; that is until we were stranded in the Liberia airport for hours on end as the rest of my family members' flights were delayed due to storms... after circling for a while, they actually touched down in nearby Nicaragua to refuel before finally arriving in Costa Rica.

The Liberia airport is nice but small and does not seem to have central air conditioning; suffice it to say that once we saw the others walk through those security doors, we were elated that the trip could officially begin.

After shuttling offsite to retrieve our rental SUV, we drove at dusk to our hillside villa in a beautiful community overlooking the nearby beach and valley of Coco Beach. Our villa was nestled into a mountainside overlooking a deep, lush ravine that sloped down into the ocean, where the water stretched on for miles and other islands' beaches were barely visible in the distance.

Being worn out from the travel day, we ventured down the steep and winding road to the restaurant onsite and dined at the indoor/outdoor patio by the resort pool. The food and service were amazing, and we had a good feeling that this was just the start to an incredible vacation. We were all the more excited to see this place in the daylight.

Once back at the villa, we started to map out our plans for the following day and all agreed on driving to a centrally-located national park revered for, among other things, its gorgeous views of a famous volcano called Arenal. Having the day's itinerary loosely confirmed, we said our goodnights and settled into our rooms.

The next morning, we headed for breakfast at a beachfront cafe with rave reviews Pete found (Cafe Corazon), and it did not disappoint. The coffee drinks, eats, and patient server were exactly what we needed as we admired the views of Coco Beach and discussed our plans for the day. Soon realizing that the national park we discussed the night before was nearly three hours away (and we did not have groceries, gas, or other supplies for a day-long adventure), we decided to postpone that plan to the following day.

After breakfast, we then had time to walk along the boardwalk and beach, where we were soon approached by a tour guide offering tickets for a sunset boat cruise / snorkeling adventure happening later that day. Although he was an undeniably charming salesman, we were also eager explorers and planned to return to the beach in a few hours to board the boat for the outing.

Once back at the beach, we all shuffled onto a dingy that took us out to the larger boat, where we then secured a table booth. The bar soon opened and music started bumping - and just like that, we were on our way. It was special to see Coco Beach and the surrounding areas at this time of day as the sun twinkled across the water.

After an hour or so of cruising, we anchored in a small cove, where all of us (except grandma, who kept a watchful eye from the ship) hopped in to go snorkeling. Just as we were swimming around, eyes peeled for coral and fishies, the sky opened up and started pouring rain; it actually brought some relief from the heat and humidity plus made for a very memorable snorkeling experience.

Once back aboard, the staff provided us an impressive buffet of jerk chicken, beans, and fresh fruit that was shockingly good for being served on the center console of a tourist boat two hours into a mid-afternoon cruise. We devoured the food, visited together, and took in the views of the lush-green mountainsides as the sun melted slowly into the water and we made our way back to the disembarking area. After the boating adventure, we swung by a grocery store and gas station to better prepare for our trek to Arenal National Park the following day.

With an early-ish departure time, we loaded up the car and drove the roughly three hours to Arenal National Park, which is situated near La Fortuna. The drive itself was quite beautiful; we traveled along winding roads, through windmill farms, around a massive lake nestled between densely-covered mountains, down many bumpy paths, and alongside some curious critters until we arrived at the main entrance of the park.

Upon arrival at the main entrance, we waffled about which hike to do and whether to hike at all (seeing as there did not appear to be a nice sitting area where grandma could wait). After some confusion but with lots of patience and graciousness from the park staff, we changed our minds about hiking to the volcano and decided instead to go find a sloth adventure in La Fortuna. We didn't have to venture far, and eventually began a walking activity through a sloth sanctuary called "Life in the Sloth Lane."

After nearly an hour of scouring the canopy, and some near-disappointment, we finally spotted a sloth making its way along some vines from tree to tree over the walking path. Soon after, we spotted another sloth with her baby high up in the canopy, and then another mother/baby duo closer to the end of the trail loop. Alas, life in the sloth lane requires patience and attention to detail - how fitting.

We dined for an early lunch at the sloth cafe before several of us jokingly (at first) agreed to venture back to the volcano. My brother and grandma opted to stay and explore downtown La Fortuna, while the rest of us piled in the car and made the 20-minute drive back to the trailheads since we drove nearly three hours to explore this damn volcano after all.

There, we did a quick few miles through the lava fields, and ended the hike on a mountain-top cafe that overlooks the volcano, the park's major lake, and the luscious canopies of the sprawling jungle. Wanting to beat the darkness, we caught our breath, hydrated, and headed back to La Fortuna to retrieve the others before driving back to Coco Beach. For dinner we landed at a tikihut sports bar in town (Coconutz) showing March Madness games.

The next day was a low-key one that started with shopping our way through the quaint downtown area of Coco Beach; we ended up back at Coconutz for lunch to enjoy more basketball and I -- donning green on St. Patrick's Day -- received a free green beer as the others whined about not knowing that the holiday would be celebrated or recognized abroad. Perks of being Type A and doing my research before packing, I guess.

After lunch, we headed back to our resort for a pool day where we admired the stunning views and local creatures of the resort's cliff-sides. Seeing as we had great luck spotting sloths, we were hopeful to see another popular Costa Rican critter: howler monkeys. A nice gentleman who unwittingly stumbled upon our family hanging by the pool advised us that we could feed the magpies (large blue birds) from our hands - so mom and I fearfully held out some crackers for the aggressively hungry birds, while our shrieks of fear and excitement finally wowed the howler monkeys into responding.

As the sun disappeared, we returned to the villa and soon realized in our pre-dinner snacking endeavors that a whole box of Girl Scout Cookies mom had packed with her was missing from the kitchen island. If you know anything about my family, you know this was the point at which accusations started flying. Who was it that devoured the whole box? Why wasn't someone coming clean? Was this person not sick from eating two sleeves of cookies? Seriously, guys... who ate all the cookies?

Everyone turned on each other; partners became suspicious of one another; grandma was falsely accused (more than once). The missing cookies became a very serious matter that we'd have to get to the bottom of...but then... just as we were heading out the door to dinner, we spotted a family of howler monkeys in the trees, and the glimmer of a silver wrapper at the foot of one of those trees...a silver wrapper that could only be one thing.

So case closed you may think - it was the monkeys that stole the cookies. But how? Why didn't we hear these rowdy thieves of the night? Why did they only take the cookies and nothing else? Must we assume that Girl Scouts Cookies are this addictive for all creatures?

Well, spoiler - it wasn't grandma but it wasn't the monkeys either. We encountered the true cookie monsters upon arrival back to the villa after dinner: raccoons. We nearly caught two of these trash pandas red-pawed as they approached the kitchen doors, begging for food with immense audacity and shamelessness. It was at this point that the case could be officially closed: Someone mistakenly left the kitchen door ajar the night before, and, under the cover of night, the crafty thieves (who are much quieter and more resourceful than monkeys) swiped the cookie box. Poor grandma, she barely escaped the false accusations.

After the night of THE cookie incident, we had one final day to explore this beautiful country. Pete and I grabbed a quick workout at a local gym, then we all got excited about a canyoning adventure we had agreed to the day prior. We yet again piled in the car to drive to La Leona, a waterfall hike situated in a small town that required some walking and climbing but mostly swimming.

Upon arrival to the trailhead after a VERY bumpy car ride, we parked grandma in a shady spot alongside the stray dogs scattered about and set out for our adventure. We had the most knowledgeable and excitable tour guide, who shared details about the local plants, aqua-colored water, the jungle's inhabitants, and the mineral deposits from the nearby volcano.

We swam, jumped, trekked, climbed, descended, and explored our way through narrow canals, waterfalls, mineral pools, boulder bat caves, and muddy paths. There were several spots where we got to plunge from a massive boulder into a whirlpool of water below and there were a few areas where we had to pull ourselves along a rope toward a waterfall through a strong, narrow river current. At seemingly every turn there was a rickety ladder or battered rope we used to navigate up or down a rockface which carried us that much closer to a powerful waterfall or some other natural wonder. This hike was awesome.

After many tired, muddy, hungry, slightly bruised and scraped-up miles, we dragged ourselves back to the base camp where homemade food and grandma awaited us. She, along with a handful of strays, greeted us excitedly and we gratefully wolfed down the rice, beef, and veggies offered to us before piling back in the car and leaving this jungle's hidden gem.

That evening, we dined at the resort restaurant one last time before packing up and preparing for our departure the following morning. On our final morning, we dined at this adorable coffee shop called Java that was in an area of Coco Beach we had not yet explored; it was a nice treat to explore a new area but revealed just how many places there were yet to be discovered.

At Java, our waitress kept poking fun at how much food Pete ordered for himself... she would playfully say "andddd another thing for you, sir" every time she delivered one of his drinks or smoothies or pastries or entrees to the table. The rest of us enjoyed our waffles and specialty coffees before cramming in the car a final time and making our way to the airport to depart in separate pairs back to our respective cities.

What an amazing vacation this was! We all had high expectations because of how many wonderful things we'd heard and, yet, this beautiful place exceeded them all. Kudos to the locals who endeavor to provide a welcoming, adventurous yet relaxing, clean, safe, and tasty experience for all us tourists.

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To Do or Not To Do?

I cannot say ENOUGH wonderful things about this country! Plus, it is one of those places I'm sure you can visit many times and each time find the same level of novelty yet familiarity as your first time there. We stayed on the west coast and, besides our day trip to the centrally-located Arenal National Park, we only saw a small portion of this country; to that end, I'm eager to return and explore other parts! People visit and never leave and it makes perfect sense once you visit Costa Rica for yourself.

So, yes, I absolute recommend this place be added to your list if not already on it... whether a family trip, honeymoon, friend-cation, or solo travel, Costa Rica has beautiful sites, endless adventures, friendly locals, amazing foods, incredible accommodations, and so much more. Pura Vida, baby!

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