Introducing…

The week between Christmas and New Year’s this year, normally spent in a haze of sitting amongst wrapping paper scraps and playing with new Christmas toys, the six of us took a majorly ambitious trip to

Fun facts about Costa Rica:

• It is in Central America.
• They speak Spanish there.
• It includes one of the world’s five Blue Zones, where people live exceptionally long, healthy, happy lives.
• It has rainforest, beaches, and volcanoes.
• They prioritize tourism as a major industry.

Sadly, we left Maddie behind a mere four days after she and Jeddy got engaged. But on the upside, we sent her daily pictures of Ears so she wouldn’t miss him too much.

Eeeaaaarrrrly morning at the airport

Liz of course brought her new camera, which took great pictures out the plane window as well.

We survived airport security, a long flight, and customs in a foreign country, only to face a three-hour shuttle ride from the airport to our hotel.

It was a nice vehicle though, with a helpful driver. [“My name is Alberto,” he said, “You can call me Al.” If I hadn’t been frazzled and culture-shocked and jet-lagged and grimy and disoriented and slightly panicking because it wasn’t really Alberto, it was something more complicated and impossible to pronounce, and then greatly relieved that he gave us something pronounceable, I would’ve told him he could call me Betty.]

It was dark when we arrived at the hotel, and all most of us wanted to do was collapse and maybe shower and/or find some dinner without going anywhere else, so although Caleb lobbied to check out the pool, he was convinced to wait til morning.

The next morning it was raining. Like a rainforest.

It didn’t stop us from taking some gorgeous pictures of the grounds from our balcony, though.

Lizzy spent a good bit of time throughout the week sitting on the balcony and taking super-zoomed pictures of birds. 

By late morning we wandered outside—even though it was still drippy, it wasn’t cold.

Besides, the hot tubs were calling us all.

And everyone appreciated the swim-up bar!

We hopped back and forth between the multiple pools and hot tubs all morning.

We even ordered lunch from the swim-up bar and some of us dined al fresco while others took their lunch back to eat in their room while taking more super-zoom photos from their balcony.

A rare glimpse of Arenal Volcano from our hotel room: spectacular but fleeting in the brief moments when the clouds moved out of the way.

The swim-up bar, with the very tip of Arenal Volcano showing above it.

After lunch we all enjoyed some dry time in our rooms, since we had an excursion planned that evening to a nearby hot spring. 

Hot springs are all the rage in the Arenal area. There were about a zillion within a few minutes of our hotel. Costa Rica’s tourism industry bills itself as having something for everyone: adventure, wildlife, and spas galore. With the “resting” volcano right there, apparently geothermally-heated water pops up all over the place. And it has healing minerals and stuff. Stick a restaurant next to it and you’ve got yourself a business.

It was reeeeaaallly nice.

The one we went to was called Eco Termales, and it had a series of several pools of slightly varying (warm) temperature, separated by beautiful waterfalls, rock walls, and bridges.

Unfortunately, the weather cranked up to a huge lightning storm while we were soaking, which definitely detracted from the relaxing properties of the hot water. The staff didn’t seem fussed, nor did they cease their poolside drink delivery service.

I figured if I died at least I’d be geothermal-mineral-infused.

We did not get struck by lightning, but the kids were uncomfortable enough to eventually get out and take shelter in the pavilion. Also unfortunately, my jeans and everything else I had got drenched, which I then had to drag on to go to dinner, where I enjoyed the food but regretted certain other of my choices.

It was a great start to the week after a very long day of travel to get there: almost all day of playing and lounging around a gorgeous hotel pool, a warm soak, then more excitement than we preferred from the lightning, but then a good meal and a short shuttle back home for very-appreciated dry pj’s and bed.