After spending our first night in San Jose because most of the major roads to the coast were closed (record-breaking rain caused flooding, mudslides and all sorts of fun-ness) we set out Sunday morning - hoping for the best!
Such a gorgeous country!
Yes, baby those are cows. No, baby, we won't fall off the cliff that the driver is getting so close to.
a bad pic of a rock slide that closed the road we were on for a while. We had to just wait while some locals and tractors cleared out one lane and then take turns with the on-coming traffic to get by.
Just keep playing games...we're almost there!
best way to travel on long, windy mountain roads.
Finally we arrived in Playas del Coco - a small fishing village, somewhat newer to the "tourist" scene and OH-so-endearing and beautiful. Right outside our condo/apartment place there was a....
SWING SET!! Bless the Lord, oh my soul.
and directly to the left - a two-level infinity edge pool!
Where this little fishy (Elasia) spent a lot of time learning to swim all by herself. So proud of my big girl!
Some views from our place
Blackberry camera phone's just don't do it justice, sorry :-/
And that water/beach over there in the distance...that's where we spent our mornings.
we'd walk down this little path through a garden (full of butterflies and flowers)
down this little road through our mini-community
to this great undeveloped beach area. Blackish volcanic sand, jungle and mountains right next to each other!
again, apologies for the lame pics. We didn't bring our phones to take pictures 'til the last day and it was sunset. B+ for effort?
Back in the pool...
lounging pool side.
ate out a few times (tried to stick to "local" places and had some really great food!), but I mostly cooked once we discovered our new favorite grocery store - Super Compro! (The girls lived in their bathing suits.)
Elasia was fascinated by learning where bananas come from.
Two things sum up Costa Rica for her: Flowers and Butterflies. Her two favorite things and she saw hundreds and hundreds of each. She's pretty sure she was created for this country.
Qara's pic with a tiny little purple flower.
When it was time to fly back to NYC we decided not to chance the drive from the coast to San Jose' (the captial where our tickets were booked for.) The weather was awful (in San Jose') and we were sure some roads would be closed. So we bought tickets on this...as Elasia called it... "Baby Airplane". A 45 minute flight in a 12-seater little thing. Oh the adventures...
No, my rear is NOT that big - the plane is really just THAT small ;-)
See, my 4 year old looks like a giant getting into it. Us grown-ups had to duck and scoot to get to our seats.
Looks like I'm the pilot, right? Nope - I'm in my seat. Eek.
No, I'm not in cockpit. Just leaning a little forward.
See. :-D
She's always up for an adventure - my little brave monkey.
And my daring Explorer.
that's a volcano!!
And once we landed in San Jose' there were still 2 more planes and a taxi before we were sound asleep in our beds.
And that's all - our time in Costa Rica was truly Pura Vida!
(ha ha - I had to....sorry)
