Costa Rica - The people, the culture, the food and the ROADS!

One thing we first noticed was how warm the Costa Rican people are, and how they basically...leave you alone. They are a country of peaceful yet colourful people. I have even heard some refer to Costa Rica as the Switzerland of Central America.

We quite like eating at traditional restaurants, frequented by locals. For breakfast you would have a dish of rice and beans mixed together with onions and bell peppers. This is often considered the Costa Rican national dish and for lunch a casado. It again consists of rice and beans served side by side instead of mixed, with some sort of meat and a salad to round out the dish. Sometimes there are extras like fried plantain, a slice of white cheese, and/or corn tortillas. Salsa Lizano is on and in everything!

 Here we are tasting very fresh fish at Papagayo Seafood restaurant.
Our kids are not fans of fish, even lovely fresh fish smoothered in yummy sauces. So, they had home made chicken nuggets, which were very delish!

This restaurant in Playa del Coco, over looks the main street. So there is lots to see while you enjoy a great meal. You can sit upstairs and get a great view of the whole street, down to the ocean. We also really liked the pizza at Coconuts. The pizzas were just one size - HUGE!

We did buy groceries in Liberia at Jumbo, and the Auto Maercado in Playa del Cocoa. The Tico Bakery (blue/green building) on the right hand side of the street, as you leave Playa del Cocoa, is also full of yummy pastries and breads. Our Spanish is not great but we managed to always pick some delicious breads. I would recommend the cinnamon bread which is braided in to a loaf. :)

Here we are dining in Liberia, right off the main square at El Zaguan restaurant. We had come in to Liberia for a festival. Besides bull fighting!, which we did not see due to having young children, there was a fun carnival. The kids loved the rides and fit right in with all the Costa Rican children, having a blast! We had a slow start to the rides,  as I once again stumbled along in Spanish, trying to figure out the ticket system. :)

Kim playing the Marimba with new friends.

 

Dancing and singing in the town's central square as part of the festival.

If you are making the trek down to Arenal Volcano from Liberia, here is a great place for traditional and very delicious food. It is located in the town of  Tilaran, en route to the volcano. It had a lovely veranda with a  view plus great smoothies! As usual, in many places, the portions were generous.  The kids were also interested in the marimba in this restaurant as well. Do you see a reoccurring theme in musical instruments? :)

 Another treat in Costa Rica are the smoothies! And, the ice tea, which looks like a beer, is the best I have ever had - so refreshing.

And, don't get me started about the road conditions! WOW! However, it only adds to the adventure. Here is a photo of the MAJOR road, the Pan American (linking the Americas), and what it looks like in Costa Rica. Some roads are on a map but when you get there it just ends in a creek bed. One guy told us that was the way, down the creek bed and then make a turn at the next time we saw another road!! We turned around as we were not up for that much of an adventure that day. :)
 

Here are the roads we travelled to a hacienda, and a beach. Thank goodness the tires held up!

And, this little cutie was in a restaurant, prowling around. Ahhhh :)

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

Odds and Ends

A few more tid bits of what to do, to occupy your time in Palm Springs...

Buy funky sunglasses,

Grab a Slurpee,

Drive out to view all the hundreds of windmills, impressively turning in the desert winds.

Get a manicure/pedicure for next to nothing! I mean it was so inexpensive. It was a popular and busy spa too. If you are crazy enough to go to Palm Springs in the summer, there are deals to be had!

AND, for you real thrill seekers, drive South of Palm Springs, almost to the Mexican boarder. Go on a really, really super hot day to get the full effect and check out the mud pots! They are hard to find and when you ask for directions from a worker at a remote and mysterious factory, and they look at you as if you are crazy, then you have found them.

The piece de la resistance, for me, was the fact we were so far south we actually went through a preliminary boarder patrol. The guards were in uniforms and there was even fierce looking dogs! I felt like I was in a movie or it was bad dream. I was brought back to reality when my shirtless son, crying in the back seat over how hot he got looking at the mud, asked when were we going to get him his beer! I just laughed nervously as the guard peered in to our car. (Some background information here would be that we promised him a root beer, if he got out of the car to have a look at the mud pots. It was going to be his first taste of this yummyness.)

What Max is thinking ..."This Root Beer stuff better be good, for this mud pot sucks."

In closing, we, the Beckers, would highly recommend Palm Springs for a get away, if you are looking for warmth and a lot to do.  Here are a few more snaps.

Code Lemon and His Sidekick

A.K.A. Chris and Max had an incident at Soak City today. I was an innocent bystander ( a wife and mother who amusingly watched the situation unfold, knowing full well how it happened. And, it was more fun to stay out of it and watch on.)

All of us were a top of the main water slide area. In one part you had the choice of the blue tube or the open red slide. The kids and Chris were in the line up for the blue, exciting ride. While I, the claustrophobic, was in the line up for the less cool but WIDE open red slide. It is quite painful to wait for a turn. They don't allow ANYONE to go until the previous person is down, out of the water and already on their way back up. It is a lesson in patience.

Amyah's turn came up and she was off like a shot! She is a thrill seeker extraordinaire. She is her father's daughter. Then it was Max's turn. He is becoming a thrill seeker but is always tentative the first time but then that is all it takes.The young lifeguard then told Max to go, and turned his attention back to our red tube line. A girl went and then he kind of turned towards Chris as he said this, so Chris thought it was his turn to go. I did think Max had not been gone long and why was Chris being told to go. It was hot and I was starting to feel delusional!

Then all of a sudden, the lifeguard, shouted "LEMON! I HAVE A LEMON, A CODE LEMON! THE BLUE SLIDE IS SHUT DOWN" (Then there is a low sigh and moan from the waiting masses.) Out of no where appears another lifeguard, perhaps a university student, but with a walkie talkie, so obviously someone higher up in the pecking order. Our lifeguard was frantically telling how this guy went down the blue tube only about 10 seconds after a small kid! He thought it might be his son.  So walkie talkie guy radioed down the description of the two renegades - a small boy in a life jacket and a tall guy in grey swim trunks. A voice over the radio asks if the kid is wearing a BLUE life jacket.

During all this I am quietly waiting with the crowd, not letting on or getting involved. It was entertaining to watch. A rather imposing guy behind, all tatted up good and muscles everywhere, says to his lady friend, "Gooossshhhh this place is strict!"

Soon the red and blue slides are opened again. Only when we find out from the lifeguard below everyone is safe! As I came out off the slide, I half expected to see Chris there, flanked by pimply lifeguards, being questioned. But, no! There was just Chris and the kids wondering why it took me so long to come down!

"What took you so long Mommy?!"

AHHHHHH!!!!!