Our Trip to Costa Rica: Part 1

Friends of ours invited us to go with them on a vacation to someplace warm this winter.  So we stocked up on flyer miles and got free plane tickets for all 12 of us to Costa Rica. Our kids are all about the same ages so each of them had a buddy which worked out perfectly. Given the price of our plane tickets, I suppose we shouldn't complain about the flights....but we were honestly second-guessing ourselves on the way down. The airlines were great, and everything was on time it was just 2 days & 4 planes each way with a very short night's sleep in between and a 2-year-old who HATES long lines and being forced to sit down for plane rides. Once we were there, however, all the stress was well worth it.

There's no way I'll cover everything in one night, but to get started I'll share about the first place we went. After a long, curvy and bumpy ride, we arrived at the University of Georgia Campus in the cloud forest of Monteverde.

I was a little skeptical our first night, as I listened to the wind and rain all night long, imagining how poorly our footwear and clothes would hold up in all the wet and muck. But even though it was unusually windy and misty for what should have been the dry season, it didn't too often flat-out rain. Having come from MN it was still plenty warm for us and the damp never seeped through enough to chill us so we were all happy even if we were smelly and a little soggy. As a silver lining, the mist made for some fantastic rainbows.

Other than the less than perfect weather, the place was fantastic. The older kids' favorites were hiking through all the trails with lots of guided tours. The classes given by the naturalists on insects and plants - plus the kids got lots of vials they could use to catch the insects they found.  Sam especially liked hanging out in the lab, learning about the research they do.
The middle age kids really enjoyed the constant supply of hot tea and hot chocolate (made with super-fresh milk; practically still hot from the cow). The littlest ones really liked getting as wet as possible. Frankie also liked tearing through the lunch hall around all the tables while everyone ate.

The moms enjoyed having 3 authentic Costa Rican & super delicious meals made up for us a day.
Seth actually really enjoyed the adventure of driving on terrible roads all the way up there. I can't say that was his favorite but he really liked it. (We complimented each other well on the trip - my language skills and his driving skills made up where the other was completely incompetent).





I'm not going to lie - before leaving I was a little nervous about poisonous snakes and whatnot -especially given that Frankie's not fantastic about not touching things when we tell him not to, but once we got there of course, I was just fine. Sam found a bunch of army ants once, but a naturalist was right there and told him to just walk away quickly. And we found a tarantula right next to a scorpion on our night hike. That was honestly so cool! They were both too slow-moving for me to get squeamish, but I can't say the same for everyone else there. Charlie was pretty disappointed that the tarantula and scorpion didn't have a battle.

Here's a picture of our last day there. I think Charlie was just mad at being rushed to get ready to go. 

Here's a leaf-cutter ant hill. We should have had someone stand by it to show how huge it is, but I think you can get the picture.

 Out on the nature hikes:

In the lab:

 Some of the insects and butterflies that can be found on campus. And yes, that rhinoceros beetle is as big as it looks. Probably bigger.