Costa Rica- Pura Vida!

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Well we HAD to take a little detour and go to Costa Rica, mostly because my parents MADE me spend some family time with them. GOSH.
I hope you can sense the sarcasm in my writing because we were stoked to head off to Costa Rica and spend some time in ‘The Good Life.” There is just so much to talk about, especially since we ended up staying for 10 days, therefore I’m going to give you the main highlights.
We left the airport from Miami around 6 a.m. and arrived in Houston for our layover. I had a message on my phone from my mom telling me that her and my Dad were having troubles with their passports and weren’t sure if they were gong to be able to make it. I guess you aren’t allowed to travel to another country if your passport expires within 30 days of when you come back, and my parents were just 3 days short. Yikes. Sooo long story short, they had to stay in Houston for 3 extra days to get their new passports. My parents being the adventurous ones they are, decided that Costa Rica wouldn’t be worth it unless they stayed the 3 extra days they lost. They asked Matt and I if we wanted to stay with them, and we reluctantly agreed.
We were meeting up with two other families in Tamarindo, Costa Rica. This is a notorious surfing town on the west coast that my family and I had been to before and wanted to experience again. Once we arrived in Liberia, Costa Rica, Matt and I had to wait for a couple hours at the smallest and hottest airport I’ve ever been to until some other members of our group arrived. Finally, my brother and sister along with the Turner family, came through the arrival gates and we were on our way to an hour bus ride to our hotel. As Matt and I took in the sights on the bus ride, I forgot how different Costa Rica was. It is full of very small and poor villages, mostly inhabited by local famers. The people and culture are so refreshingly different, I just loved it. We arrived at the Hotel Diria in Tamarindo, and the next 10 days were filled with surfing, excursions, lots of pineapple and relaxation.
Total, there were 3 other families we met up with, plus some friends, so we had a very large group. Our crew consisted of the Turner family, the Scimeca family and another family that were good friends with the Scimecas. Lets put it this way, lots of 16 year old girls makes any trip interesting. The very first day, Matt and I were out with some others taking a surfing lesson. Yeah, I was the first one to get up, and it was on my first try, no big deal….
The resort we were staying at wasn’t an all-inclusive, (except for breakfast) so we had to fend for ourselves most of the time. Every night we went out for dinner as a group, and we quickly realized that most of the restaurants were fine dining. After a couple nights of expensive dinners, we were able to find more local and delicious cuisine for a more realistic price. We all had a great time chatting and sipping on cocktails during dinnertime throughout the entire week.
Of course, we had to find the good local discoteques, too. “Aqua” (way to be original) was the hot spot to be in Tamarindo, especially for tourists. We all went there the first night and I had a great time with my brother and sister, watching them drink the night away…needless to say I saw a side to my brother and sister I have never seen before that night. Good times. We all hung out there for a while and had a great time. We also went to another reggae club a couple nights after for a bit, but quickly had to leave due to my sister not quite being of age and the creepiness of the local men there. Either way, again, good times.
The highlight of the trip, however was the excursions and surfing during the day. We had a great time practicing our surfing skills during the day, taking a nap, going out, and repeating. The most exciting of these “excursions,” was a canopy tour in the cloud forest up in the mountains of Costa Rica. It took us 4 hours to drive there and back, but man it was worth it. We woke up at 6 a.m. one morning and arrived to the rainforest at around 11. We then proceeded to partake in the most awesomely amazing canopy tour ever. There are canopy tours all throughout Costa Rica, but we picked this one because it is the longest and fastest in the entire country. They weren’t kidding. This canopy tour had 15 stops and was breathtakingly fast. I don’t even want to know how high up we were above the rainforest, but it was pretty high. You couldn’t even see the forest floor, and we were still another good 50 feet above that. Amazing views, I felt like I was flying. You go on a zip line from tree to tree, flying through clouds and over massive gorges. About 10 canopy lines in, we realized that there was a “tarzan swing” aka- mini bungee jumping. If there is anything that is close to bungee jumping or sky-diving, this would be it. We all lined up and waited our turn to jump off a mini-cliff. Attached to our belts was a big swing, so you would swing through the forest. The hard part, however, was the jump down from the cliff…pretty freaky stuff. After that initial jump, it’s nothing but laughs of joy. We then continued a few more stops until the final zip-line that takes you all the way back to where you started, only this time with no stops in between. The line itself is near 3 football fields long., roughly ¾ of a mile, and your top speed is 55 m.p.h. I’ve never had such an adrenaline rush! Matt and I went together on this one, you had to go in pairs because the wind was so strong that one person would be thrown around like a doll all by themselves. We were screaming with joy the entire way, just writing about it makes me want to do it again! After the canopy tour, we had lunch and then continued on to see some reptiles, butterflies and hummingbirds that were also part of the tour. It was actually really cool to see. We got back to Tamarindo at around 9:30 that night and were beat. I think we all slept very well that night
We also got to go on a catamaran on the ocean and went snorkeling. The snorkeling wasn’t anything to talk about really, but we had a great time on the boat! We went with about 30 other people and enjoyed great food and drinks. We got to see a lot of drunken debauchery, so we had a great time.
Another night we ventured to a local rodeo/carnival that was going on. This was a once per year event, and we heard that the bull riding was ridiculous, so we had to see what it was all about. Turns out, in Costa Rica, the bull riding event includes the audience as well. Anyone who wants to can go inside the arena while the bull riding is going on is more than welcome to. People were running after the bull (well, more away than towards it…) and trying to get it all riled up. It was really entertaining to watch. My parents went with Matt and I, and as we were watching this craziness take place, we decided to try and see how all these people were getting into the arena. We found the gate that people were coming in and out of, and before we knew it, Matt was through the gate and inside the ring! He lasted one bull ride, and really showed his masculine side, charging the bull like a Spartan on the battlefield (you like that metaphor?) Matt charged the bull and the bull charged back, the bull won that fight and that is why Matt is now dead and Im coming back to the states alone. Haha just kidding, that bull didn’t know what hit him after my babe got to him! Honestly the bulls would kind of run around after bucking the rider off and make somewhat charges at people but nothing serious. It was also hilarious to see that half the people in the ring were drunk holding their beer bottles. In fact, people were even selling drinks inside the ring! After all this excitement we walked around and saw the carnival rides and enjoyed watching all the local people have fun with their families.
Other than that, we did get to see some monkeys, alligators and lots and lots of iguanas! Those things were like the squirrels of Costa Rica. We also noticed that Costa Rica has a sort of “European” way of doing things, at least in terms of how laid back and “slow” the dining experience is. Any time we went to dinner or for drinks, you had to expect to take at least 2 hours to complete. I really liked it! Plus, it’s a surfing community, so everyone knows how to chill and take it easy there. The whole culture was really different and fun to be a part of. My family went to the same town about 3 years ago and already we noticed a huge difference in the growth of the town. I swear in the next 10 years, Costa Rica will be the new Cancun. Last time we were there, there were no paved roads or nice restaurants. This time it was much more built up and touristy, which actually took away from the experience we were looking forward to. Even though it wasn’t as “local” as we wanted it to be, we still had an amazing time! We are looking forward to coming back to the states and get back to our adventure. Matt just realized on our flight back that since we stayed a few days later than we thought, that we will be in Miami for what is known as the Winter Music Conference, which is the a huge electronic music festival that takes place every year! Yay! So until then, Hasta Luego!

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Photos

Kati, ma and pops
Their old age doesnt hold them back ;)