Los Lagos hotel

We made it to Arenal volcano and hot springs. The road from our last hotel to here was pretty windy, steep and long. It took us about 2.5 hour. I got a little car sick. But it was worth the wait. There are 12 hot springs, all different temperatures to relax in. 

There is also a butterflies I closure, frog farm, ant farm crocodiles, bourses zip lining water slides and an amazing view of the volcano. 

We are about to go to the free breakfast 

Zip lining

Today John and I did a zip lining course, but we don't have any pictures because I bent my camera cord. There were 25 lines and 1 line that was almost a half of mile long that we got to do going face first like super man. 

We are really high in the mountains now, and it's a little chilly. Chilly by Costa Rica standards about 65 with some wind. 

Tomorrow we head to our last location, arenal. 

Eating around...

PWe were told that Costa Rica is not known for their food, which made john and I a little sad because we love to try new foods when we travel. But we have been very pleasantly surprised by the food, one place in particular. 

We have gone to alibi at least once per day since we have gotten here. It is owned by a family and the food is made to order and so fresh. We have been for breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner. 

John with his jevous rancheros

This is the typico breakfast, rice and beans, fried plan games eggs and tortillas. We also go the most delicious fresh juice. 

For dinner I got fish in garlic sauce

 Zac got chicken in a pineapple mango sauce

Linnea got a chicken pita

John got nachos... Decomposed

Since we had eaten here so many times, they brought us free dessert

A very moist chocolate milk cake. 

They make everything from scratch on a few burners. Pretty impressive that that beautiful food comes out of this kitchen. 

Yoga

On Saturday night Linnea and I went to a candlelight yoga class at montezuma yoga. The studio was on up a small hill and overlooked the ocean. The studio was open so you could hear the sounds from the rainforest as well as waves from the ocean. It was by far the best yoga class I have ever taken. It was so great to be outside, with no mirrors or clocks or time lines. We enjoyed the class so much that we went again this morning.

Montezuma waterfall

Yesterday the four of us, me, John, Zachary and Linnea hiked up to the waterfalls. The trailhead was across the street from our hotel. We asked the receptionist for directions "stay to the left! jump in the pool! climb the 135ft rock wall, stay right,if something sucks on you leg it is river shrimp" was what we got. There were yellow dots and arrows showing us the way, but it seemed like we were jumping from rock to rock rather then "hiking" after about 20 mins we arrived at the first waterfall. 

The water was cool and refreshing, a welcomed change from the hot humid air around us. After lounging around for a while, and taking some pictures we were off to climb the rock wall. 

I didn't end up taking any pictures of the wall because I was focusing on getting up it. Luckily there were a lot of roots that mad great hand holds and all 4 of us made it up without a hitch. 

The upper falls were so beautiful. 

We took a different trail on the way down. It was pretty steep and slippery. John lost his footing and scraped his hand ( don't worry, some neosporum and a band aide fixed him right up)

All and all the hike took us about 4 hours. It was such a challenging, fun hike we may just do it again tomorrow 

Tumbor airport

Out final leg of our journey to Montezuma included a very tiny airplane. There were 9 passengers and 2 pilots, I am pretty sure  one of them were in training because the he kept getting orders from the other one. It was very very very windy on take off, the plane felt like it was getting pushed 5-10 feet to the side as he was trying to lift up. 

One we got airborne it was beautiful 

Now landing... That was a hole not her thing. We started to approach the landing strip.. But it was so so tiny 

We made it! And saw the actual smallest airport ever

Hola Costa Rica

We made it to San Jose, Costa Rica. 

On our first flight we met these two who were also going to Costa Rica. We had dinner with them at Lax and played a few rounds of uno which really helped pass the time. 

After our lay over in LA, we boarded our plane at 11:00 pm. John and I were instantly a little disappointed that there were not personal TV's on the back of the seats. But we did score the emergency row, so we had plenty of leg room. 

There was a movie playing, but it was "ELF", probably one of John's least favorite movies. 

After we got off the plane, we headed to the domestic "terminal"

This is the entire domestic terminal. Since we are taking such a small connector plane, we had to be weighed with our bags so they could balance the plane. 

Costa Rica is known for their ecotourism. We got our first bit of that when they handed us our boarding passes, they are laminated so they can be used cover and over again. 

We are now having a little breakfast and should be heading to our first destination shortly. Can't wait to take a nap in a hammock and see our friends Zac and Linnea. 

 John enjoyed his espresso, rice and beans, empanadas, and some egg/cheese/cake. 

Leaving on a jet plane....

.

It has been so cold up here in the pacific north west, so our hot holiday could not have come at at better time.

We loved traveling with back packs when we were in Thailand, so we decided to back pack it to Costa Rica as well. My orange pack weighed in at 13 lbs (3lbs less then thailand) and John's weighed in at just over 10 lbs.

We had a late lunch at Rogue, bought some books at Powells and got some coffee. Now we wait... We seem to always be very early for flights

Bye bye cold wet portland 

A teeny tiny Christmas Tree

Every year, since John and I have been together, we have always gone to a christmas tree lot and cut down our tree. Cutting down a tree has always been one of my favorite memories of the holidays from when I was a kid. I can remember my grandpa coming out with us, walking around the tree lot forever, and finally picking the best tree.  I always wanted to get a giant tree that could fit into our house. The day usually ended with my dad cutting a few feet off the tree to get it in the house.

John and I went back and forth about getting a tree this year and even celebrating Christmas at all. We decided that cutting down a tree would not be the best idea since we are going to be gone for so long.  It broke my heart a bit to not have a tree.

So I did the next best thing, I bought a teeny tiny christmas tree. It's a far cry from my normal 9 foot tree but I guess it will have to do for this year.  (Also, a lot less of a fire danger)

As you can tell, Miley is also a little sad about it. 

On and happier note, we are leaving for our trip in 5 days! It can not come soon enough. We have been having such cold, windy, snowy, icy weather here in Portland. It is about 20 degrees right now with a wind chill into the single digits. Costa Rica is ranging from 80-90 degrees. 

I will be updating the blog about our trip often so stay tuned. 

Our next adventure!

Our friends Zac and Linnea were over for dinner a while back and they were telling us about a vacation they had planned for December to Costa Rica. I looked at John and said, I want to go. To my surprise... He said "let's go" I about fell out of my chair. 

I planned the entire trip in a few weeks and I am super excited about it. 

We are planning to fly into San Jose, then take a small aircraft to Tumbor. 

We will be staying with Zac and Linnea in Montezuma for 5 days. Then we will split up, John and I are headed to an adventure park full of zip lining, rafting and repelling. After that will be relax in the volcanic hot springs of Arenal. 

Can't wait for the trip, and to start blogging about it 

A father/ son packer weekend

It has been John's wish to take his dad to a packer game ever since he was a boy. Johns dad became a packer fan when he was a boy growing up in Germany. The packers were the only team he could get on his am/fm radio, and so he listened. His loves his packers and even has a cheese head at their house. But he had never been to a game, EVER. This year for his dad's birthday he gave him the packers schedule and told him to choose any game he wanted to go to, because he was taking him to lambeau!

His dad choose the season opener vs the Washington red skins. 

John planned the weekend with the help of the packers fan club 

The boys had the time of their life

Hanging out at the Chicago airport

They finally made it.

Autograph signing with the players 

At the official tailgater, it was pouring! But the boys still had a good time ( I am sure the beers helped) 

Saturday morning John got a call form the ticket office offering an upgraded ticket for $30 dollars. The boys ended up sitting 17 row up from the field. 

And the Packers win!

It was the trip of a lifetime, John's dad said it was the 5the best day of his life, behind his wedding day and the day each of his kids were born.