The McWilliams and friend visit

Spring break came and we had big plans!
Our friends Doug and Janie and Canyon and Darryl came to visit. I planned a great trip to two new places for us, and one repeat! These photos are in Monteverde, which was originally a Quaker community. It is so beautiful and green. It is hard to get there, the only ways into Monteverde are on very bumpy, dirt roads. Long ones! But so pretty.

This is us, minus Darryl at the restaurant in Monteverde. We spent two days there, seeing all sorts of animals, going on hanging bridges and zip lining. It was a blast!

I put these two rainforest photos in cause they are so beautiful and because I always think that I am not that much shorter than Joe, but I guess I am!



Natasha looking through one of the hanging bridges. There were 11 of them I think. They are so cool, you get to walk through the rainforest, and over a lot of it. So awesome, and tranquil.

There was a very cool Butterfly Pavillion in Monteverde, this is one of the butterflies there, having snack. Beautiful.

Then we drove to La Fortuna and went to those amazing hotsprings at Tabacon again. This is when Doug, Canyon and Natasha were waiting to go eat!

After La Fortuna, we drove a pretty far way to a new beach for us, called Playa Samara, on the Nicoya Pennisula. We had heard that it was awesome and it was. Alexander was being carried by Darryl to the beach, cause the road was hot and he had left his shoes in the room.

This is me, with La Roca Bruja, (Witch Rock) behind me. Doesn't it just call you to swim out to it? We all either swam or boated out there, it is about 1.5 kms from where I was standing. Alexander and I swam it 4 times, once a day! Super salty and therefore boyant. It was the beginning of all of us swimming a lot now. We loved it.

Doug and Janie walked or ran on the beach every morning, and looked for birds. I don't know many birds, but Janie saw a lot that she hadn't ever seen before.

A guy who offered horse rides came to our beach in the morning, with two 20 day old foals! Natash wasn't there, so I took a bunch of photos of it. So cute.

Panama!

After the McWilliams' visit, we needed to leave the country. Every 90 days, foreigners need to leave Costa Rica. We decided to go to check out a bit of Panama. We drove to a town on the frontera( the border) called Sixaola ( about a 6 hour drive), where we had to park the car in a tiny, muddy parking area. Then we hiked up to a 103 year old bridge. On one side, there is an office with one person working in it, and that is the processing office for Costa Rica. You need to stand in a line, show your passport and they stamp it. Then you walk across this old bridge with all of your stuff, til you reach this office, above , where you get in another line, and they stamp your passport there.

You can see Joe and Natasha walking across. It is such a trip. Look at the cracks. A bridge like this would never be the border crossing in the US. It was so cool for some reason. Every once in a while a huge 18 wheeler would cross it. Amazing. Then we took a minibus with 10 other travelers from all over the world, speaking lots of languages, to a town called Almirante. It was a beautiful drive, through very banana-y looking fields and countryside. In Almirante, we took a water taxi to the hotel. The whole trip took about 9 hours.

We spent a lot of our three days in the water. This was a beautiful pool at the hotel. We had all gotten so excited about swimming in Samara ( see last post) that we continued with laps here. Even in the rain, it was a beautiful workout!
This is a photo of where the water taxi dropped us off on this island, called Isla Colon, (Columbus Island) Apparently on Christopher Columbus's (Christobal Colon in Spanish) 5th voyage, he came here, loved it and named two of the many islands here, after himself. One is Isla Colon, the other Isla Cristobal.

This is the hotel, it is called Playa Tortuga Hotel. It was lovely.

Joe and I went snorkling, while the kids just hung out. We had had a lot of company, which was wonderful, and we were psyched to just have hang out time! This is Joe getting ready to snorkle.

Joe and Natash, doing their thing!

This is what Isla Colon looks like from the water taxi. Very reminescent of Caye Calker in Belize. The water was so clear and pretty. No beaches to hang out on in the Island, but beautiful to look at from a boat or the shore.

I am always amazed at what is living under the water. Sea urchins (the black ones) are amazing. We saw a ton of coral and lots of fish. So beautiful.

This area is known for its red sea stars. This beautiful pic is the last one that my camera took, just before it got water logged and died. Luckily for us, my sis Melissa is due here in a couple of days and is bringing a replacement!

Visitors!!!

Welcome back. Not sure anyone is still reading, cause it has been so long. However you'll see why in the next few posts. We have had a lot of guests and it has been so much fun. First, Kathleen, my stepmom came in early Feb. She was here for 9 days and we had a blast. She was an amazing trooper, as she probably saw the nicest as well as perhaps the worst we have seen!
We have wanted to go to the Caribean side of Costa Rica for a long time and we had heard that Cahuita and Puerto Viejo in the Limon Provence were both nice. We waited for a long time, because we wanted to go when it wasn't rainy. We decided that whenever guests would come we would go to a new place, and we decided that when Kathleen was here, we would try Cahuita. She and Joe went to Arenal the first weekend that she was here and they had a blast. Then we found a great deal in Cahuita, a whole house for $50.00 a night. We thought we were finally found the deal of Costa Rica! It was this little room, with shutters, three bedrooms filled with mosquitoes and holes under the beds. To make matters worse, it rained the whole time, which was a bummer, cause the reason to go to Cahuita is to snorkel. We made the best of it, though, we hung out, read, ate and relaxed, and the thing I remember most was that Kathleen never complained. She was amazing. Here are some pics from that crazy place!
This dog, Osito, who has won over our hearts, is the other reason that you haven't heard much from me. He is so great, loves to run and walk and chase squirrels and to be around us. And he takes up a lot of our time. This is a pic of Natasha and Osito in the finca (farm) behind our house, where we walk a lot.

Kathleen and Dona Ana and I went to San Jose to see the National Theater. We had a great time, and the theater is absolutely beautiful. I hope we can see a performance there before we head home.
Kathleen and I also went on a Coffee tour, and during part of the presentation, they asked for volunteers and Kathleen jumped up and learned how to determine which coffee beans were ready and which weren't. It is an awful photo, but I wanted to put it in cause it was so much fun. The tour was at Cafe Britt, which is owned by the owners of our school, too. They have wonderful coffee, and the tour is quite funny and informative. You can find out more, and order excellent coffee at CafeBritt.com

These two photos are back in Cahuita. You can see the entirety of the room above. Kathleen did get a great nap in this hammock, until this tiny dog decided to play underneath. One of the great things about this trip to Cahuita was that we all got to get a dose of appreciation for all that we have. Always worth the struggle to get that lesson.

We did go on this beautiful walk in the rainforest in Cahuita, which we both enjoyed a lot.
It is funny, because the next weekend, we had another visitor, our friend Theresa. She and Joe went back to Cahuita and to Puerto Viejo and had a wonderful time. Better weather, hotel and really cool tours. Theresa stayed for a couple of weeks, for a much needed break from winter and stress. She had a bunch of time in the central valley with us, and we went back to the beach for her last weekend. I think we sent her back happier and healthier!

Kathleen's Visit

OH, here are two photos that I must have uploaded from Kathleens stay, that I love. We were walking with Osito. Nice!

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.