Try A Costa Rica Adventure Vacation! We Did & Loved It!

All that hard work in and out of the gym paid off for a fantastic Costa Rican 25th wedding anniversary with my husband Mark and our kids Oliver and Laken. I wanted to inspire you and show you a few great photos of our adventures as well as share the places we visited in case you decide to check it out too. It’s only a 4 hour flight direct from Atlanta to San Jose. Full disclosure, our friends (former neighbors in Memphis, David & Kelsey) live part time in Costa Rica and part time in Dever had a video call with us via What’s App when we were tossing around the trip idea. They emailed us places to stay, places to go and things of interest along with tips and tricks (so helpful). Best to schedule your excursions in advance if you wish to make them happen as they can often be sold out.

Typically, because I run my own fitness studio I don’t get to take vacation more than a mere few days at a time and really close to most holidays. You small biz owners know what I’m talking about. If you don’t see or work with your clients then you don’t get paid or you pay yourself less money! If you are like me and still in the building phase (since the relocation from Memphis to Greenville) then you aren’t lucky enough to get those 2-5 weeks that others working in corporate or other businesses get for vacation time. Take it where you can!  I hired a new personal trainer about 4 weeks before the trip and wow did she seem overwhelmed with all the exercises, new information and immersion of how to implement our custom Energize Method of Training. She couldn’t see all of my clients due to several of them I train more like a physical therapist, working around numerous injuries or ailments. Sink or swim baby! Just like life, right.

Anyhow, let’s get straight to the adventure with a few pictures and videos. We arrived in San Jose on Sunday. I know you can’t help but singing the song or make the joke…Do You Know the Way to San Jose? (by Dionne Warwick, an international hit in 1968).

Side note..Costa Rica is on Central time but does not observe daylight savings.

We stayed in 2 different Airbnb’s. We rented an all wheel drive SUV (a must) & drove 4 hours to Monteverde which is north of San Jose. Monteverde is also known as the Cloud Forrest. We went during the rainy season but lucked out on the weather. It was mostly a misty rain at this altitude, no mosquitos and pretty windy back at our place. A word on the roads, they are narrow, winding, steep, lots of potholes, rocky and often steep drop offs on the sides. Motor bikes are plentiful and will make their own lane to pass you both on the right and left sides. They are everywhere, mostly because it’s very expensive to own a car due to the import tax of 45-85%.  Lots of Costa Ricans can’t afford air conditioning either so they are toughing out that humidity in the lower areas. Did you know they don’t have a postal system. The drinking age is 18. The driving age is 18. Health care is free.

Excursion #1 (day 2)

• Waterfall hike down with horseback riding back up and lunch included. (Waterfall was called El Tigre). The splash once we got so close drenched Oliver and he loved it!
  

Excursion #2 (day 3 morning) Zip-lining Adventura Park with Hiking between stations with several uphill grades and steps.

• Sitting & superman style and bike zip-line for the boys. A few of the zip-lines were really long ones! The superman is face down and you pretty much have to have some good back extension flexibility. In my case I put my arms out too early and stopped well before the end of the line. I had to reach my arms up over my head and reel myself to the helper before grabbing his boots while he towed my in. The boys also did a bike zip-line.
• Mark & Laken did a straight drop jump almost like bungee. Oliver decided against this at the last minute and they unhooked him. I wanted to do it but they said if you have back or neck issues it’s best not to. Darn my neck! Better to have not risked ruining the rest of the vacation for a shot of adrenaline.

Excursion #3 (day 3 afternoon) Mark & me only
Don Juan Coffee, Cacao & Chocolate Tour

• I don’t drink coffee but did try a sip of their local made rum made from sugar cane. I was picked to extract the sugar water manually from a sugar can stalk with the help of two other patrons. The tour guide added a little lime and wow so yummy! The sugar water starts fermenting in as little as 45 minutes.
• Did you know that mosquitos have a part in creating chocolate. The male pollinates the Cacao tree.
• Costa Rica only produces Arabica coffee bean from the coffee berry tree which seems more like a bush. They are harvested by hand and the pickers must be on alert for the venomous green viper snakes.
• I saw a cinnamon tree which was pretty much like a scratch and sniff. So cool!
• The cacao nibs are so delicious and dairy free!

Mid-week we drove 4 hours with some great views along the The Pacific Ocean and stayed in Quepos which is a beach area and more touristy.

Air bnb #2 (What a stupid steep driveway, but worth it for the Monkey sightings!)

Within 5 minute of arriving at our airbnb a group of white faced monkeys the locals call “The Mafia” were just outside on the back porch and roof area. They were sliding down the rope which was so funny! We all loved this! We saw them several times and then eventually put some food out for them as well. So exciting!

Excursion #4 (morning) Guided Tour Manual De Antonio National Park

• We met tour guide at entrance where we followed him in. Security tight and you couldn’t bring any food, plastic bottles or plastic bags in the park. Bags were searched!
• Our tour guide was awesome and so quick to spot animals, flora and fauna on the walk towards the beach. He had a telescope with a tripod and then could use your phone to zoom in more to get video and photos.
• We saw sloths, huge moths, devil horned poisonous spider, poisonous tiny snake on tree I couldn’t even see with my eyes, lion crabs, Central American Agouti, large humming birds (there are over 50 species in CR), howler monkeys, iguanas, huge woodpeckers (looked just like Woody), deer and I’m sure I’m leaving something out. Very overwhelming and beautiful biodiversity.
• Poisonous tree that we were warned not to touch as it can cause asphysiation leading to death.
• Post tour we hung out on the beach afterwards and took a swim.
  

Excursion #5 (night) Mangrove Boat Tour

At this point we were all exhausted (about as exhausted as I am doing this post..lol). We did a lot as you can see. This is where it’s pays to be fit and healthy so you can keep going. We had booked it the day before and paid so we forced ourselves to go. Not sure I would do again but we did see lots of cool wildlife. We saw bats, different bird species, bullfrogs, racoon, boa up in a tree, crested iguanas, snake swimming in the water the tour guide grabbed and pulled inside the boat. The crocs alluded us!

Excursion #6 Catamaran tour

• snorkeling (water kind of murky so pretty terrible and I only saw one variety of fish)
• jumping off boat, sliding down slides, hanging out on large floating mat
• lunch and drinks included

End of week we drove back to San Jose and stayed with our former Memphis neighbors David & Kelsey that have lived part-time in Costa Rica & Colorado for 11 years. Our kids use to play together but of course they didn’t even remember each other.

• We got to hear about their experience & differences of living in the States versus Costa Rica
• Kelsey took me Downtown San Jose to the local farmers market the morning of our flight, They wanted us to try some exotic fruits that rot too fast to export.

Overall we had a fantastic time and needed a vacation from our vacation. Highly recommend if you are ready to be on the go and seek adventure. It took me a week to recover since I crave a schedule and my eating plan.

I am of the mindset that the world is a vast place. We (as a family) don’t typically visit the same place again for big (and expensive) vacations. If we do go back we would do the Caribbean side. We would visit Arenal where you can see the volcano and La Fortuna where the hot baths are located and maybe Tabacon as well.

If you need to get fit, more flexible or have better balance for an upcoming bucket wish adventure vacation or one that requires lots of walking then work us in your schedule with our personal training or massage therapy services!