Day 14 - Heading Home

 I was somewhat sad waking up this morning at the hotel knowing we needed to fly back home today. I had set my alarm last night for 6:30am, but woke up a little after 5am. I laid in bed until around 5:45am until finally getting up. I thought about returning the car last night, but instead decided to do it this morning. The car rental place was literally across the street and seeing it was super early, the rental return was lickidy split.

When I got back to the room, Olivia was slowly making her eyes adjust to the light. Anna got up a bit after. We let Thomas sleep a bit longer before finally waking him and we all headied to breakfast. We had some time, so we hung out in the room for about an hour, repacked, and relax before heading to the COVID testing site around 9am.

I had made an appointment for 10am, but figured we could probably get in a bit early. I'm glad we went as after 9am it started to get a bit busy in there. The results didn't take too long and wouldn't you know, we all were negative. The testing site had a shuttle van and it took us right to departures. Check-in didn't take long at all. However, when we got to the counter, the agent informed us that Anna's passport had expired. What? I thought I had checked all of that. He questioned how we made it into the country. After some back and forth, we said luckily it was not our fault for getting in. He extended the expiration for a day and made some calls to ensure we wouldn't have issues back at entry.

While we were going through Costa Rican passport control Anna asked where her iPad was. Oh oh - it was in the room. I called the hotel and they sent a driver over to the airport. The problem now was we were through passport control and I could not go back out to retrieve the iPad. I spoke with numerous people before finally convincing the captain to go out and get the iPad. Whoa, that was close! We already had one shocker. Two kind of made the heart skip a bit.

Anxiety levels a bit high, we all relaxed a bit and grabbed some food. We were going to sit for several hours, so we made the best of it. During boarding they called my name to the counter. They told me I needed to go grab my luggage and leave. They said I could not fly because they scanned some cannisters in our luggage. What? This can't be happening I thought. I went back and forth with the attendant before getting a security agent to walk me to the tarmac area and retrieved my bags. Apparently I had several bike air cannisters in the bags, which I removed from the luggage and handed to the securtiy personnel. They then took the luggage back to the luggage cart and proceeded to drive it to the plane. Crisis averted again!

We finally managed to get on the plane without any further issues and made our way to Miami. Once landed we went through immigration and eventually got into Charlotte. We arrived around 9:30pm and got home around 11pm. 

Another wonderful vacation that went by way too fast, but will be remembered for a lifetime! So glad I got to spend it with the people I love the most! 

PURA VIDA!

Day 13 – Last Day at Chachagua Resort

Thomas and I started the morning by heading down to the pond. We grabbed the resort poles and relined them with the fishing line we had gotten from Super Christian #4 the night before. With the poles now ready for action, it didn’t take LT but about a minute before he had a fish on the line. Thomas ended up catching 8-10 cichlids within about 30 minutes. We wanted to use some of the bread balls as well, but the front desk had no clue of what we were talking about and said we had to wait until 8am when the owner would come in.

We went back to the room, grabbed the girls, and went to breakfast. Delicious! The staff made anything and everything we wanted. Bellies full, we headed back to the room to relax while I broke down the bike and packed it into the bike carrier. Afterward, I went back to the room to blog a bit and before we knew it, we needed to start packing. Mama packed us up pretty good, while I loaded the car.

While Anna was getting ready she accidentally dropped an earring in the sink. It had managed to go down the drain. Thomas and I made an attempt to get it out, but unfortunately, we had no success. I went to the front desk and through multiple ways of explaining, we finally get the head guy to understand what happened. He kindly sent their maintenance man to the room and he retrieved the earring for Mama.

Thomas and I headed back down to the ponds to try our luck with the bread balls. The maintenance man just happen to be the same guy that was the holder of these secret bread balls. He fished with us for about 30 minutes. Although we couldn’t understand each other, we laughed and cheered and had a great time. The girls headed back to the pool bar while we fished.

We met the ladies back for a drink or two after fishing and eventually made our way back to the rope swing that we played at the day prior. Olivia slept in the car, while Thomas and I played in the water for about an hour and a half. Let me just say, they can FLIP. LT had a ball! He quickly became the local pro!

We slowly made our way back to La Fortuna, shopped a bit, ate, and then made our way to San Jose. We got in a little after 9pm. It took about 3 hours and the first two hours were very sketchy. I was glad to arrive at the hotel. We spent the remaining of the evening repacking the luggage and watching a little TV.

Day 12 – 1st Full Day at Chachagua

Mama and I got up early and walked the trails this morning. The resort had some awesome primitive trails which circled the property. We watched the toucans (Chestnut Mandibles) play in the trees for a while. The birds have such vibrant colors and are very voicetrous! When we got back to the room, Thomas, Mama, and I headed to the restaurant for some breakfast. Olivia was still sleeping. Breakfast was included and I believe the cheapest meal we have had here since arriving.

When I was at the front desk earlier, I noticed they had some fishing poles leaning up in the corner. Feeling empowered with all that yummy Tico breakfast, LT and I decided to go try our luck. We grab the fishing poles and noticed they were not in the greatest shape or even had hardly any line on them, but beggars can’t be choosers! The only bait we had was some bread balls that were in a container by the poles. I believe it was the same food they were feeding the horses earlier in the morning. Let the games begin. Naturally, playing on unfamiliar turf, the fish quickly scored up the takes, but eventually, we managed to catch a couple.

While we were fishing, Anna headed to breakfast with Olivia. We caught up with them a little later at the room. The entire family pod went for a hike around the property for about an hour or so. Hot, sweaty, and ready for some cooling off, we grabbed our suits and headed to the pool. We all had some drinks and Olivia ordered a few appetizers to manage the bellies growls.

Earlier this morning I made reservations to attend a chocolate-making class for all of us at 1pm. We could only hang by the pool for a little under an hour before going to the class. We definitely made the best of trying all the pools, drinking, and powering down the snacks. A few minutes before 1pm, we headed down to the restaurant for the chocolate experience.

I was glad to see it was a private class. Our instructor was named Carlos, a native to the area since birth and he had been here working at the property for the last six years. I can honestly say everything I knew about chocolate, the cocoa plant, and the chocolate-making process was totally wrong. The class was super informative and we all had a ball. It was so rewarding watching the kids interact and totally get into the whole process. We made and tried several different chocolate drinks and in the end even made our own unique chocolate bars. We have yet to try them.

With our brains freshly stimulated, we headed into town, La Fortuna. The girls wanted to shop around and walk the streets. After a few hours, we to Anch’io for dinner. We had eaten there ten years ago and it was some of the best pizza we had ever had. And let’s just say, they did not disappoint. The food was just as we remembered – AMAZING! Anna got pasta, which was so flavorful. Olivia and Thomas got a capressi pizza and a pumpkin soup. I opted for a pepperoni pizza. Nothing was left, except for a few slices. They gave us a complimentary bruschetta and a flan dessert that was over the top. I could have had 4 or 5 of those just as a meal.

It was a little after 6pm now and we started to head back to the car. I stopped in one of the shops that were more of a general-purpose store and found some tackle. I manage to buy line, hooks, and a lure all for a little over $3. INSANE! We the new wares, we could surely refit the fishing poles at the lodge and even the playing field now. Olivia and Anna headed back into a store we visited earlier and decided to donate some dinero to the locals. They came out with a bag of stuff.

With all of us a little bit on the done side, we drove back to the resort (about 20-25 minutes), headed to the pool for some drinks, and then I called it a night. Thomas stayed back in the room and chilled as well, however, the girls lit it up for the last evening at Chachagua and hung at the pool for a few hours before finally coming back to the room around 11pm.

Day 11 - Last Day at The Springs Spa & Resort

We only had one day at Springs Spa and Resort, so we wanted to make the best of it today. Check-out was at 11:30am and we decided to simply get packed and have everything loaded into the car early morning. That way we wouldn’t have to worry about returning to the reception and settling up. Club Rio was the entertainment ground for the Springs. The top of the resort had several pools, then a little further down the mountain, they had some more pools with slides, and then finally at the base by the river they had Club Rio.

Club Rio had all the animal enclosure, a restaurant bar area, pools, a climbing wall, horseback rides, and water sports like tubing and rafting. We opted to kick it in the spring pools for most of the morning and hiked along the trails. At 1pm we scheduled a wildlife walk, which was a guided tour to see all the animals. Three years ago, the Costa Rica government made it a law to not be able to handle animals anymore, so all the places we went to see them, we needed a guide. You can definitely understand why once you see the cages. You are still able to get pretty darn close to the animals. This would not be possible in the states like it is here.

The wildlife walk was awesome. The kids got to be up close and personal with a bunch of the monkeys and other creatures. All the animals at Springs were there due to animal injuries, confiscations from others, nuisance animals saved, and animals given by owners once they were no longer able to take care of them.

After our tour, we headed back to the reception to settle up our bill and then headed to the slide pools. Thomas and Olivia seemed to regress about 10 years each on the slides. They had an amazing time! I think Thomas went down the main slide at least 40 times. Anna and I watch the kids and laughed till our bellies hurt. We ended up closing our stay at one of the pool bars with some drinks watching the Arenal Volcano. The clouds covered the top of the volcano and we simply watched the clouds glide above it hoping to catch a glimpse of the tip. It got close, but we never saw it in its full glory. We are hoping to in the upcoming days.

We left The Springs around 4:15pm and headed out to Chachagua Resort. It would be our stay for the next several days.