Costa Rica! We Shall Over Come!

Costa Rica! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Costa Rica. We first visited this exotic country in February of 2011. Even while we were there, we were already planning the next trip. First off, it was going to have to be longer!

 We stayed in the charming but somewhat "all the time fiesta" Playa Del Coco. Our condo was in a beautiful new complex, with a winding river pool and hot tubs. We found this gem through the rental company VRBO. I was a bit nervous about going to a new country with our family. However, I was happy to find a lovely Toronto guy who was happy to rent us his condo. Plus he reassured me I had made a great decision in choosing Costa Rica. Ahhh, gotta love Canadians. :)

Fast forward to 2013, and we were soon off to Costa Rica for almost 3 weeks!! YAY! We flew out on a Saturday, escaping the cold of winter, for warmth and sunshine.

However, the days leading up to our departure were a foreshadow of what was to come. Amyah came down with an ear infection!!! And, her doctor was not so keen on us leaving, as it was not just a typical infection. However, after some reassurance that it was the dry season there, of not letting her get her head wet, making sure her ear was ALWAYS dry, AND making an appointment to see a doctor down there,... our doctor okay-ed the trip.

Armed with a lot of medication, ear drops, and promises we set off.  I packed for the 3 week trip, the night before. EEKS! Having to go through Houston, we stayed over night in La Quinta Inn & Suites,

Rockin' out at Houston International

and were on an early morning flight to Liberia. We wished to get there and travel to a new area in daylight.

The airport has grown due to an increase in tourism. This is a shame for it was once a quaint and rustic airport. I loved how we once had to walk outside to the plane, and basically a metal roof was the departures and arrivals area.

That is a guy trying to tell me NOT to take photos out on the tarmac! Oops! At least he didn't take my camera away.

The new airport. Comfy but not as "adventurous."

Within the first 5 days of arrival this time; Max threw up, Amyah threw up on two differnt occasions, Amyah's stuffie puppy was alsmot lost!, the condo we arrived to had not been cleaned, and we made a 4 hour trip to San Jose to see a Pediatric ENT, for a 10 minute appointment! AND, we were on our THIRD rental car!!!!! AHHHHHHH!!!!!

To be honest, Chris was on the web checking out when the next flight was home, after day 2!

We learned that one overheated Max filled with cheesy pizza and Fanta orange soda will explode.( One side affect of not allowing your kids much pop - they are not use to it!) Once again, we learned that Mommy can run really fast, even carrying a sick 45 pound kid when he is about to upchuck! (Alas, we fell short of the toilets by about a foot!)

We learned that Amyah dehydrates awfully quickly. We then learned she will down at least one, 1.5 litre bottle of water a day, if it means getting a sticker to put on that bottle every time she finishes the bottle.

We learned that we are lucky, oh so lucky, to have a health care plan in Canada which is accessible to everyone.

Waiting at the private hospital in San Jose.

We learned that everyone freaks out in our family if a precious stuffie is lost. However, it is not truely lost until Mommy cannot find it. (I found it!)

We learned that calling people for help, and being our genuine friendly, polite selves, will get us a cleaning crew to come in late on a Sunday afternoon.

 And, we learned that car rentals have heard it all.....

Car #1 -  Chris left it in neutral while jumping out to see if there were cars parked around behind, and Max hit the gear shift. This resulted in it rolling backwards, with the door open and then being bent backwards, on a pillar for the condo! Chris tied us in with the booster cables for the 30 minute drive back to the rental place.

 Car #2 - We spent a quiet day at a favorite beach, not known to a lot of people. However, it turns out to be a hot spot for break and entries! The one bright spot was that we were close to Playa de Coco, and we knew they had a police station.

The kids always wanted to visit a police station! They can now check that off their bucket lists.:)

Car #3- we managed to return it safely on the day we left! Whew!

Now that we have all that out of the way. I will have to share how wonderful the trip was and what we got up to in Costa Rica!

 Adiós a mis amigos