Tabacon and Arenal

After a wonderful 5 weeks in the states, visiting friends and family, skiing, skating, going to a ton of movies, riding horses (that would be Natasha) and generally having a great time, we returned to Costa Rica. We took the 12:15 am flight on Thurs. night, arriving into San Jose at 6:30 am, ugh. It is great cause it is non stop and on Frontier, which we love. It is rough cause it is only almost 6 hours and we have the Graff-need-to-get-8-hours-gene, and leaving at midnight makes for a long day. To make it longer, we decided to drive 4 hours to a hot springs on Friday. It sounded like a bit of a crazy plan, until we got to the hot springs. Those of you who know Joe is a hot springs nut, will be impressed to know that he thinks these are the nicest hot springs ever. I just think this is the prettiest place I have ever seen.

The place is called Tabacon Hot Springs, and it is made of a volcano heated river, split into pools and waterfalls. The waterfall above is the first area that you get to when you enter the springs. Behind where Natasha is sitting are small caves that you can sit in, behind the water. You can stick your neck out and receive the best massage ever! I love this pool.

The sign for Tabacon, if you are interested, I bet they have a wonderful website! I love winter, especially winter sports, but I need to say that returning to summer, and sitting in hot water for 2 days was amazing.

This is the active volcano, called Arenal, that heats the water for the hot springs. Quite often, it is covered in clouds, so we were super excited to see the top! You can see the smoke coming out of the top, and in the night, if you are lucky, you can see hot lava rocks rolling down the sides. How cool is that?

This is a photo of Lake Arenal, which is at the base of the volcano. It is so beautiful and peaceful, 34 miles around. Super popular with windsurfers, as it is quite windy on the west side. Cora, Alexander's girlfriend, and her parents have a lot along this lake and plan to move here one day.

This is a view looking up the river while you are in the hotsprings. The vegitation is mindblowing!

Sorry this is sideways, still figuring out the blog. Just a sweet pic of the volcano and us.

Another great view of the Arenal Volcano

Joe, apre-soak!

Natash and I at that amazing waterfall pool again.

There is a swimming pool, at the end of the resort, filled with hot springs water that has a great slide. I love that I caught Alexander in mid flight!

Alexander in the waterfall...

And doing his pose, in one of the other pools....

and underwater! Natasha picked the pics for this blog, so being a typical #2 kid, she picked lots of her brother!

MMMMMMMM! I can still feel the warmth and comfort of this one!

Natash and Joe enjoying a really hot pool.

Me, too!

Natash must have really loved this photo to put it in twice, and I have no idea how to remove it, so enjoy! So the town that Arenal and the Tabacon hotsprings is closest to is called La Fortuna. It is filled with really fun adventurish kind of things to do and many people from the states visit this are when they are in Costa Rica. There is rafting, horseback riding, soaking (of course) and there is the most amazing zip line ever! Joe, Alexander, Cora and I went on it. Natasha had gotten stuck on it a couple of years ago, really high up, and wasn't ready to go again! One of the guys who works on the zip line took these photos of us!

It was a great weekend, and a great way to come back. It is so green here! And summery. I feel so great being here this time. When we arrived here in July, I felt so responsible for how it would go for Natash and Alexander, that I don't think I really had the where with all to notice the beauty and tranquility of this place. Now, since I know they are doing great and it will be ups and downs here, but amazing, I am really feeling it all. It is so great to be speaking Spanish again! It truly is a dream come true for me, and I am super grateful for this opportunity.

the beach with Cora

The first two weeks of December were all about finals for the high school. We decided to get one last trip in to the beach before the crazy studying began. Cora, Alexander's girlfriend came with us! It was so great. We jumped in the huge waves, played on the beach, Joe and I even went for a run on the beach, and Natasha and Cora and I rode horses. It was wonderful!

This is a pic of Alexander and Cora at breakfast, at the hotel that we love called Monterrey del Mar.




Two very happy and beautiful riders on the beach!














One huge mud fight!


We headed back to San Rafael de Heredia where we began two crazy studying weeks. During that time, our friend Kate came to visit. She is a terrific friend from the peace march and she stayed for 9 days. She and Joe went off to Arenal, which is another volcano with very cool hot springs and the beach. I know Kate has some amazing photos of that trip, I'll have to figure out how to get them from her to post. I helped Alexander cram as much info into his head. The school is quite demanding, and our kids are really learning how to study and how to learn. After finals, we packed up, and headed to Colorado for our 5 week summer ( winter ) break. Look for our very late holiday letter, coming your way soon. Thanks so much for reading! Come visit!!!!

On

Juju part 2

We had a great time hanging out with Julie at home, and then we had the great fortune (namely Joe said it was a great idea) and Julie and I drove to our favorite beach, Esterillos Oeste for two nights. It was heavenly!

On the second day, we drove south to Manuel Antonio State Park, in search if monkeys. It says in the literature that all four types of monkeys that live in Costa Rica live in this park.






We went for a great hike, and saw one monkey... far away. We decided to head back to the car, where of course , we saw a ton of monkeys!
















These monkeys are called Capuchins and they were all over the beach, looking for food. They would come right up to you. Almost like squirrels in the states. Crazy!



















This is the beach in Manuel Antonio. Super different from the beach in Esterillos, just 45 minutes north. It was so warm and calm. We understand the attraction to this special place!

On the way home, we passed this place. I just had to take this photo for our friend Nicholas in Nederland, who is as whimsical and artistic as this sign is!


Julie and her partner Chris lived in Costa Rica last year for a couple of months. They had decided to photograph all of the bugs and creatures that they saw here. I thought it was an interesting idea. The night we arrived home from the beach, I had an opportunity to begin. Check out the size of this spider who decided to hang out on the door post of our bathroom! On Julie's last day here, we went to the holiday show at the preschool that I work at. The school year is different here. School begins in Feb. for the year, and ends in November, then summer is December and January. So this show marked the end of the year for the kids and the beginning of summer. It was so cute!

Julie returned to the frozen north, and we decided to head back to the beach, this time with Cora!!!

Juju!!!!

The week of Thanksgiving, we had no turkey, we had even better! My sister Julie came for a visit. It was awesome to have her there. The first weekend, Elbia, Marco and their son Leonardo and our family went east of Heredia for the first time for a great ride and hike. We stopped along the way for a photo, to show how lush it is. Our friend Carlos says that once you see this part of Costa Rica, you'll never leave.





Hiking around the rainforest is so amazing. It feels like there is no space in which nothing is growing. Check out the plants in this photo! We went for this cool hike, got caught in the rain, and ran out. It was a blast!



















When we got to a shelter, we found these weird yellow things hanging from the sky.



Then we walked around it and found this!








Yikes! We definitely aren't in Kansas anymore!









Juju squeebing (see last post) Natasha!


Sometimes, I like to photograph Joe next to things that I think are really big, to show just how big they are. I guess it's cause he is so much bigger than me. Here is a huge tree. I hope you can see some perspective!

Halloween

So, there is no Halloween or Thanksgiving for that matter, in Costa Rica. Although, Halloween is getting to be bigger. The European School had a Halloween party. Natasha went as a ..... cowgirl....surprise!!!



This is a cute pic of Natash and Caro.





And here are Alex, Natasha and Alexander before the party. The guys were....hmmmm, green caped....masked....guys???

Sebas the squeeb

Remember our Spanish tutor, Dona Ana, and how I told you we were going to visit the cutest baby, her grandson, Sebastian? Well, here are the photos, finally.




These are the parents of the famous Sebastian (Sebas) and Fabiana. They are super sweet!

If you couldn't guess, this is Sebastian the squeeb, a word coined by my kids to mean anyone who you'd like to squeeze, and grit your teeth while doing it. A squeal could also accompany the action. The Jones' call it 'Pete's to you" and I'm sure there is a word in every language in the world.



Whatever the word is, my kids can't keep their hands off of this cutie.








Natasha and Caroline love to play with Sebas' big sis, Fabiana. I'll need to find a better photo of her. She is super cute, too!

My mom's visit

After the trip to Belize, we returned to Costa Rica, as Joe flew from Colorado to San Diego to a conference. My mom, Joan, came down to visit for 10 days. It was wonderful to have her there, although much to her dismay, it was quite rainy and cold. Mom hung out, met our friends, saw the school and practiced her Spanish. It was so cool to see what she remembered. One day, while the kids were in school, we decided to go to the Poas Volcano, with our friends Marco and Elbia. We had a wonderful time. It is about a 2 hour drive from San Rafael, and Marco and Elbia don't speak English, so it was fantastic time to practice our Spanish.This is one of the millions of waterfalls that we see everywhere in Costa Rica.

The Poas Volcano is one of the 7 active volcanoes in Costa Rica. It is often covered by clouds, which makes it super special to be able to actually
see it.This is Elbia, Joan and Marco at the beginning of our walk. We hiked up the road behind them hoping to see the volcano. They are our neighbors, and are such great friends.


Elbia and Lori posing next to a leaf called Sombrillo, which means umbrella. Often times, in the vegetation, I feel like I am in the land of the lost, or something like that, where plants that I have seen before, seem to be 10 times larger.






We walked up to the Mirador, or overlook, and although it was cloudy, we could see a bit of the volcano. Then seconds later, it was totally covered by clouds.











We hung out, waiting to see if we would see it again.
This sign explains the different parts of the volcano. It was so cool to be above a volcano looking down, hoping to see into it. Unreal.

















Then, just as quickly as it had disappeared, the volcano reappeared .We could see the crater and the smoke.



And then it got even clearer. It was so great! I think that if you could walk up there and see it everytime and leave, it would be super cool. And because you only can see it some of the time, it is even more cool when you can! One funny story, as we were driving there, Marco, who is really funny, told us that it costs around $10. per person to get into the park if you are a gringo, and about $1.00 if you are Tico ( Costa Rican). So he told me to cover my hair with a hat, because everyone thinks I am blond here, go figure. And to use tico slang and call him mae, which means man. Then he looked at my mom, and told her not to talk at all. We all laughed a lot! It was a great day!