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Pura Vida: horseback riding

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The hotel offered quite the menu of complementary activities, and I think by the time we left, we had done them all.  Horseback riding we did twice.


It was about an hour ride, and it was a treat to run into Howler and white-face capuchin monkeys early in our first run.  The guide said seeing either was not uncommon (and Howlers, as we experienced, are really easy to find as you just have to listen for a while), but seeing them in the same trees is unusual.  


We rode through a mango grove, skirted near the macaw reserve, saw cashew trees, and plodded past cattle.  To saw it was scenic understates the experience, and to have the horse do the hiking for me did not go underappreciated.  

Piper really enjoyed her first horse, Raphael.  He was ass-stubborn and liked to go his own way.  He was also a beauty, and not terribly dissimilar to Piper in any important way.  
Eventually, we made our way down to the beach and laughed at how each horse approached or shied away from the water.  The stable didn’t really produce many swimmers!


When we went a second time, Wesley and Kyla elected to stay behind.  There was no way Piper was going to miss another chance at riding.  But even that glow was quickly replaced when we got back to the barn and she met the stable dog.  They quickly fell in love with each other, and a picture in my heart–if not on the camera–is the two chasing each other through the tall grass outside the barn, both with dopey (and adorable) grins on their face.  









Pura Vida: Siesta! (We may have called it Cookie o’Clock)

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We loved our villa/triplex/hotel room at Punta Islita.  While featuring no waterfall showers and fireplace jacuzzis, it was roomy with the best and most private backyard.  

A hammock…

…and a plunge pool!  It may have felt a little useless if it was just Dwayne and I, but this little plunge pool was probably responsible for about 30% of our family happiness at Punta Islita.  The very first night, they all jumped in after dinner.  
I struggle with relaxing on most vacations (there is so much to see and do for this overachieving doer!).  But, while there was a lot to do, we could manage an activity or two in the morning and then another one or two things much later in the day, leaving several hours for siesta in the middle.  






We certainly spent time in the family pool and getting sand down our suits while boogie-boarding in the ocean, but we also learned quickly how to enjoy down time in our own place.  We bought what we needed to make PB&Honey sandwiches, cut up one of the many pineapples, papayas, or melons we had bought earlier, and had lunch together out on the patio.  Wesley and Piper spent a lot of time in the bitty pool, while Kyla alternated between plunging and audiobooks.  I read and read, and Dwayne snoozed and read.
We roused ourselves for Cookie O’Clock (Co’C), and opened a pack of whatever new-to-us Costa Rican cookies we bought at the mini-mini mart. We liked Co’C so much that it will be a family custom when we travel the world next year.

Truly, if we could just teleport home (bypassing airports and red-eyes), we would come home relaxed as sleeping puppies.


Punta Islita: Wildlife

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One of then first adventures Piper and I did together in Islita is an early morning Monkey Hike.  Howler monkeys aren’t very hard to find when they scream through the morning quiet, and enough people on the acreage call in tips to the guide.  This time, we explored a few cold trails (and saw a vine snake) before we came across the howlers.  This shot of Mama and Baby through the guide’s shot is the best picture I got…and I’ll freely admit that I just handed my camera to the guide.


Later, Piper and Dwayne went to the macaw reserve.  It was an extra $20 per person, and I think we would have been frustrated had we spent the money for all 5 of us.  But they got to see some macaws from a distance and get a lecture.  

We had fun finding the iguanas around–we spotted them on the stairways and on top of hedges.  



The little lizards are exciting, too, even if not overly photogenic as they crowd around the insect-attracting lights at night. 

On one of our last days, Piper and I got up for the 6am Birding Walk. Neither of us have any strong birding fascination, but we like this sort of adventure (have you noticed Piper is the common thread through all the animal hikes we did?) and wanted to learn.  We saw about 15 types of birds and one rare enough for our guide (who can tell at a glance exactly which of the dozen types of yellow breasted flycatchers is flitting about 50 feet away!) to get excited about.  

Piper and I thought it was fun to see the parakeets play in the tree tops near the beach!


Wildlife in Costa Rica is exciting just because it’s so different–and more colorful–than many of our PNW critters.  But going with knowledgeable guides made the animals interesting beyond just their novelty for us.  I’m going to keep that in mind as we go out for more animal adventures!

Pura Vidaaaaaaa: Ziplining

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Another activity we did twice was ziplining.  Piper was feeling pretty low after a bad sunburn so she stayed in our room while the rest of us went the first time, but was up for it the second time.

Although it was a tree-canapy run high above a chasm, it wasn’t scary, even for our height-sensitive participants.  
All the kids at some point had to pull themselves along the last few feet.
I like how Piper walks on air!
On the last run, which was the longest, and Wesley (at almost 60 pounds), was the lightest of the group, so he went with one of the guides and go FAST!  


Pura Vida: Football!

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Wesley was so stoked about playing pick up soccer at Punta Islita.  A couple of days a week, the locals met on the field for a late afternoon game.  We all went down to explore “town”, and the girls and I walked the one street and did our shopping (in a mini-supermarket that made a 7-11 look like Costco).  
Dwayne gave up playing soccer sometime between Piper and Wesley’s arrival, perhaps a decade a go.  He still looks like a soccer player to me, and Wes was thrilled to run around behind Daddy…

…or not.


The game broke up when it got too dark, and rather than keep coordinating rides with the hotel, we walked a block to one of the two restaurants in town before walking back uphill to the hotel.  I got pretty good at always carrying a cribbage board with me, and so not only did we have a great meal, but Wesley beat me in cribbage over dinner.  

It was exactly the experience Wesley was hoping for, and since there was just one other kid in the game, all the guys (who were casually awesome at soccer) were really kind to the newbies.  In fact, it was so “just right” that we opted not to do it again, as why dilute a good thing.  It was one of many lessons we learned from this trip.

Pura Vida: First taste of the beach!

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Playa:  Beach
Pura Vida: National motto of Costa Rica, literally “pure life”, but more like “life is good”, “enjoy life”, “greetings and salutations”, “it’s all good”. 
What is not to love about a man who sees you like this, regardless of reality?  I’m not sure which is less likely–this gorgeous nude body or that I would ever deliberately get that much sand in delicate areas.  What’s not exaggerated?  I’m reading a book.  In fact, I was reading a book and didn’t notice I was being drawn until he was done and moved on to his next masterpiece….
…our family. 

Pura Vida: Heading to Hotel Punta Islita

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Don’t let the map tell you otherwise–it was a long trip.  I loved our driver!  Eddy stopped by the best fruit stand and his favorite place on the route for a casado (traditional beans & rice with protein, salad, and a lovely squash succotash), and made the best of a journey that ended with more than an hour on dirt roads.  


But somehow, at the end of the earth, we made it to paradise. 

Punta Islita, if you read the fine print, is a Marriot Autograph Hotel.  But it screams tropical destination instead of hotel, and we were grateful to arrive at the last leg of our vacation–6 nights in one place.  

  

Animals, Animals, We Can’t Get Enough of Costa Rican Wildlife!

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Since arriving Monday afternoon, we have seen, fed, and interacted with so many animals.  Costa Rica is amazing!
Humming birds

Frogs

Butterflies 


 
Sloths

 

7 of the 8 species of native wild cats


Amazing insect–just hanging out with the flowers

Residents of the Aviary 

 (We loved this pair!)

And while there was a snake-atorium that we enjoyed, 4/5th of my fam stepped over this without appropriate care and analysis, what I call “examine sticks for potential snakeness”. Because I was busy lecturing my family on snakenicity, I forgeto to wet myself. 


With Glee: Waterfalls at Peace Lodge

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Forget Muggle pictures–Look at what I learned about photography at Hogwarts! 😂



Peace Lodge has over 2 miles of trails through the rain forest and most of them follow the waterfalls.  They weren’t the type you could swim in romantically with mermaids (Pax probably likes to keep it’s fatalities low for PR purposes), but they were beautiful and lush…and very popular in the middle of the day. Which is why I ran down the paths one more time after the day visitors left.  

Why was it just me, you may ask?  Here’s a hint.  The pic on the left shows us early into the trails.  The left one shows us a little further in.

Piper sometimes breaks hard.  And occasionally this kid doesn’t make sense.  The child who climbs trees, goes on any ride (the scarier, the more quickly she runs back in line), happily ziplined across the tree canopy…is scared of bridges and waterfalls??  Or is it just an excuse to justify crankiness? 
Before we ended up skipping some of the viewpoints just to get Piper off the trail, we had some fun frolicking.
Kids totally made it almost 3 minutes before getting shoes wet!  Not really a problem, though, when it’s 80∘.  

We came across this buzzard by the pools.

Regardless of Piper Drama, I enjoyed my late afternoon solo run much more. I got a shot of all three falls at once.  

With Glee: Butterfly Release

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At 1:30 every afternoon, the Peace Lodge did a butterfly release. We were there twice when all the butterflies that had emerged that day were let out of their netted enclosure.  And they don’t just open the lid and let them fly out when they’re ready. Nope, the butterfly-ists gently put them on the guests while the wings dry and strengthen.  I was charmed…and tickled!