The past year or two we've established our little "adventure group". We started with four of us on a trip to the beautiful Savannah, Georgia and then ventured on to New Orleans to cheer on our Gators in the fall and the group just grows every time! For spring break this year we (by we, I really mean Savannah and Hadar thx guys) planned the most AMAZING trip to Costa Rica. I'd been out of the country before but only ever on a cruise ship, this was the first time I'd ever flown out... AND IT WAS SO EXCITING. Almost 4 months later, we all still rave about this trip and I will share my adventures with anyone who will listen. So I thought, why not make a blog post about it?
We flew out from Ft. Lauderdale early Sunday morning and the flight itself was only about 3 hours long. It actually took us longer to drive from Gainesville to the airport. We flew with Spirit, the "no frills" airline and boy was it just that. I got to sit next to a service dog on the way there, so I really can't complain too much. We stayed in an adorable house, called Paradise Found. It's a little off the beaten path, so it took us quite a while to find and it was dark once we finally arrived. But when we woke up the next morning and saw how beautiful our view was, all the exhaustion and stress from the day before completely vanished.
Our house was two stories and the perfect size for the 8 of us that went. Before you ask, yes traveling 8 deep is as stressful as it sounds. Thankfully we had our sound-off system and managed not to lose anyone. Our worried mothers would say that's quite the accomplishment for a couple of college kids. The first day there we just chilled out, enjoyed some time on the beach -- and in our lovely pool -- and explored Esterillos Este, the "neighborhood" we were staying in. It's such a quaint community right on the water. There's a few hotels and a shopping center, but it's mostly houses like our's lining the beach. It was a little inconvenient being far from town when it came to getting things like groceries (a slight necessity) but we managed. In the end being away from all the tourists and basically having the beach to ourselves outweighed the distance.
The sunsets there are insane. I mean look at that! On Tuesday morning we got up bright and early -- much to my dismay we were up by 8 am everyday because the sunrises so early and bright. We drove through the mountains and over to Jaco to go zip lining. The drive was a little rough for me... I may or may not have been hungover... moving on! I've been zip lining before, but it was nothing like this. Our guides were hilarious (oh, Gary) and so kind. Actually all of the people of Costa Rica are kind and welcoming, like every single person we met was just so wonderful (except for the one lady but she's Canadian and that's another story for another time). Once we got back to the house everyone jumped into the pool and I crawled back into the hammock for my daily nap. It's impossibly hot in Costa Rica and being able to chill on the porch in the comfiest hammock ever was an actual blessing.
The next morning we ventured out to the Rainmaker. I was prepared for a leisurely stroll through the rainforest and hoped to stumble upon a few waterfalls and maybe some sloths on the way. Well, that is not what we got. I'm not sure why I didn't expect to climb a mountain (hiking isn't really my thing) but after a million stairs that's exactly what we did. Again it's ridiculously hot in Costa Rica at all times and I was sure I was going to die at some parts. On the way up we were greeted with signs that said "Beware poisonous snakes" and of course chose that route anyways. After climbing over some sketchy bridges and platforms, we eventually made it to the lookout point and back down to the waterfalls. Unfortunately we were there during the dry season, so the animals weren't out to play and the waterfalls were smaller but spectacular all the same. Also: Chacos are more difficult to hike in than I had anticipated.
Early in the week had wandered down the beach to the Pelicano, after hearing quite a few locals raving about it. We quickly became friends with the owners, Mikey and Diana, who btw are the most amazing people ever and treated us like their own kids the whole week. We were hanging out at the hotel trying to plan what we were doing on Thursday, when Mikey suggested we do the monkey mangrove tour. They hadn't steered us wrong yet so we said sure and were ready to go that morning. I'm not exaggerating when I say that this was the absolute coolest thing I have ever done in my whole life. First, we got to see two real life sloths as soon as we got out of the car which was honestly the main point of the whole trip. Then we jumped on the boat and headed over to the Isla Damas. There we got to interact with monkeys! Real monkeys! You can see in the pictures the pure joy on all of our faces when we first got to see them. Our guide Alex was extremely talented and so knowledgable of the area, which made the whole experience.
Our flight was scheduled to leave from San Jose at like 2 am on Saturday morning, so we decided to spend our last day on the beach and at the house. We all got burnt to absolute crisps, despite the copious amounts of sunscreen we had on. This trip was at the beginning of March. It's nearly July now and I'm still trying to even out the awful tan lines I got. At the end of the day we made our trek down the beach to the Pelicano for a last round of sunset drinks and dinner. If you're ever in Costa Rica this is truly the place to be. Mark, the bartender, makes the best margaritas!
This trip was probably my favorite vacation ever and I'd dare to say once in a lifetime. Traveling and experiencing cultures different from our own is so important, and I'm so thankful I got to experience Costa Rica with my best friends. It's a culture that puts happiness and loving others before anything else. The people are genuine and caring. They accept anyone and everyone, regardless of your background and it was a privilege to be able to experience that. I think we all need a little bit more pura vida in our lives.
Where should we go on our next adventure? My vote is on Thailand. ;)
Shoutout to all the awesome people that went on this trip and who shared their pictures with me! Go follow them: Savannah // Hadar // Alex // Hallie // Suzy // Octavious // Rachel
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