The Allinsons

Sorry for the long break but we have been sleeping, eating and drinking by the beach and not much time for internet..that and the stupid Hilton charges an arm and a leg for WiFi. You would think that a hotel of this stature would get with the times and include WiFi with the room, like every other hotel out there! NOT!!! That is just one of our pet peeves about the Hilton, but we won't bore you with those right now. We arrived at the Hilton Papagayo on Thursday after a 3 hour drive through the Arenal volcano area. We left The Springs with tons of cloud coverage, rain and humidity. The drive was quicker than thought and the weather changed quick as well, to sunny and clear. The hotel is just up from Playa Coco ... read more

We have been at The Springs for 3 days now. Day 2 we got up for our first excursion - White Water Rafting. The kids were quite excited and nervous all at the same time. Paola greeted us and drove us to the main city of La Fortune where we met some other people taking the tour. We then drove about an hour to the Rio Balsa or Balsa River! Balsa is a tree and this river has level 2 and 3 rapids. Along the drive our tour guide Jacoba explained the first half of the rapids would be to much for Sarah and Hayden and that they would only be able to participate in the second leg of the trip. There were a few tears but in the end it was a good decision. So ... read more

Our Villa We have a 2 bedroom villa overlooking the ocean. It is a far steep walk (one we haven't attempted yet) down to the ocean- they provide shuttle service. We are at the top of the property so great overlooking views. We are close to some restaurants outside the property, grocery store and a quaint coffee shop. At the beach there is one restaurant which serves breakfast and lunch. They have good food here and the beer is Imperial- but reminds me of Canadian so not my fave! There are 3 pools as well- all a fun walk to find! Beautiful property and lanscape. Monkeys in the trees outside the room and down at the Ocean front restaurant as we showed yesterday. There are tons of lizards and Iguanas all around. I am still a ... read more

After a good nights sleep (well 6 hours) we awoke to sunshine. We had an an early excursion at 7:20 to the Manuel Antonio International Park to see the wildlife. Lindsay and I went exploring for some type of breakfast as nothing is open until 7 and we needed to head out. We found a cafe down the street and managed to find good coffee and some light eats. Picked up by our tour guide and heading off to explore. On the drive we went past a restaurant called Hot Dogs and Beer- think Sean and I will check that one out later! The park is in a busy tourist area along the ocean and looked really cool. We started our tour with Jana and he was very informative. He had a scope that we all ... read more

So the day started with a 5 am alarm to get up and head for breakfast. It was great as usual. Then it was off for a ride to to the airport to catch a 7:50 am flight to Lima. The kids managed to finish counting dogs along the streets of Cusco and ended with 534 dogs in total...and I am sure that was not all of them. But then it came....the day we dreaded, the day of travel headaches.......it was suppose to go smooth...flight to Lima arriving at 9:15, then connect to Costa Rica at 10:45 arriving at 1:30 in San Jose....good- yes? Well not so good.....we ended up not being able to catch our connectinh flight- and were at risk of heading bac to Canada (will fill you all in when we get back), ... read more

Part 1- I am writing this as we take the train back to Ollytantambo to meet our driver for our last leg of the Peru trip. We woke up early and had breakfast at the hotel. We hoped to have a swim before checking out but the natural pond and hot tubs were not quite ready so we decided to just get ready for check out and lounge around the grounds before heading to the train. The weather was sunny and bright so we walked around the hotel a bit. We saw some of their natural birds to the area - yellow and blue ones along with some hummingbirds. They hang banana peels in the trees for them to eat so they hang around, but seeing as the grounds are like a jungle inside the city, ... read more