Costa Rica Day 7- 8: Waterfall Adventures and Power Outages
Yesterday we were up early for a big day! We loved the ziplining so much that we wanted to do it again. I found a company on Trip Advisor that had a 5 star rating with 222 reviews so we decided to go for it. It was an all day trip, leaving from Manuel Antonio at 8:30am. (a 1.5 hr drive from our jungle house, "Los Aires"). The beauty of having a big family is that we are typically almost the maximum group size so we have been able to do most things with just our family. Yesterday was the same. We were the only ones on the trip.
They fed us gallo pinto for breakfast and I'll be honest, it was some of the best Costa Rican food we've had here. It's basically just a seasoned rice and beans with eggs and Lizano salsa. It was delicious! (We might have to try it for "Hot Breakfast Friday" sometime soon)! Then we headed out to the river in a van, through the palm plantations and then switched into an old hummer to head up a seriously crazy 4x4 road. This thing could go up anything! We went up steep inclines, down steep hills, through narrow ways with cliffs a foot from the edge of the car, through a river and deep into the jungle where we got out and hiked 20 minutes or so to a little casita in the middle of the jungle where they kept their gear. We saw a green poison dart frog and found the plants they used to make the poison darts from. We harnessed up and started hiking along the "Via Ferrato" (narrow trail along the river). We had to be clipped in with our safety harnesses along the entire path which meant clipping and unclipping to go past each anchor point. The kids were awesome. Mikey refused help and did it all on his own for the entire hike.
First stop was the tarzan swing out over the river and waterfall. We even swung upside-down, no hands! It's a little scary! We zip-lined, rappelled, climbed a ladder up a cliff on the river's edge and even got to release from the zip line into a swimming hole. We stopped at a waterfall to swim and jump off the rocks and ended with a rappel/zip line and free fall/rappel from a platform in a tree. We were on the "course" for over two hours. All of the kids did amazing. No one complained or fought and everyone was SO brave! Even Mikey did the zip line release all by himself!
After a short hike back to the open-air "casita" they fed us lunch of fresh pineapple, arroz con pollo and steamed vegetables we hiked back out to the hummer for the trip back. The kids were so tired that they fell asleep (except Kira) in the hummer on the 4x4 road. We had to hold on to them so they didn't fall out while they were sleeping. It was an amazing day!
We traveled back home for a beautiful dinner. At Los Aires, you can arrange for meals to be made for you so we had arranged for a dinner when we got back. Some local ladies who lived nearby came in and prepared a beautiful gourmet dinner for us: black bean soup with patacones (smashed, fried plantains) for the appetizer. Grilled chicken with white sauce and rice for dinner. And Tres Leches cake for dessert. When we got home they had the table set and it smelled heavenly. The kids swam for a half an hour or so while they finished the preparations and then we had everyone shower and change for dinner. We could tell they had spent a lot of time preparing a beautiful meal and we wanted to make it special. The kids had such great manners and we actually sat and talked at the table. We talked about what would be awesome and what would be hard about living or serving a mission in Costa Rica. We practiced saying compliments in Spanish so each time they came to serve or take food away the kids could say something nice about the meal and the service. It was really memorable and a highlight of the day!
After dinner the kids watched Frozen (yes...again!) and fell asleep half way into it. We carried the kids upstairs and climbed into bed ourselves. We were exhausted!
Just a little bit after we had fallen asleep Jeff woke me up telling me that the power was out. It was a little creepy in this open house with no power. We got out our flashlights and lightsticks and walked around the house checking on things. We put lightsticks in the kids' room and stairway so if they woke up they wouldn't be scared. It seems like it wouldn't be a big deal to have the power out at night but it meant no A/C! It got hot quickly so we opened up the windows in the rooms to cool it off. No A/C and no fans in the hottest month in Costa Rica! We tried to sleep but saw light on the ceiling and heard footsteps in the gravel outside. I peeked out the window to see a man walking around with a flashlight. We assumed it was Jeffrey (the 18 year old "security guard" that watches over the house at night) but we were still a little nervous. (Also we had found a large kitchen knife in the bathroom of our private room when we returned from ziplining. Bizarre and maybe creepy)?! Jeff went out to check who it was while I stood guard in front of the kids' bedroom door just in case. It turned out to be Jeffrey who was a little freaked out himself. He said the power usually comes back on in an hour or so. Again we tried to sleep but the jungle is noisy at night! We tossed and turned until around 4am when the howler monkeys starting howling. Everyone was awake by 5:15am and swimming in the pool by 6:30am.
Another major inconvenience of not having power is that you also don't have water at the house because they use a water pump. That means each toilet can only be flushed once and we had to brush our teeth with the water in our water bottles. We couldn't wash dishes and the food in the freezer and fridge were thawing fast! I was glad we had made the kids shower before our fancy dinner! A few of the toilets really needed to be flushed (if you know what I mean) so we resorted to Jeff's mission days and my days on the boat and filled up a pot with water from the pool to pour down the toilets to flush them. Quite an end to our adventure in the jungle! But we were still able to have our pineapple and cereal for breakfast and cook some quick quesadillas on the gas stove before we left (with the help of the housekeepers we lit a candle from the BBQ grill and walked it over to the stove to light the gas burner).
We were all packed up and ready for our 3.5 hour drive to Alajuela to stay at the Hampton for the night so we can make our 7am flight tomorrow. On last trip up the dirt road we had to pass all of the dumptrucks and bulldozers fixing the road. That was a little experience it itself! One dumptruck started raising his bed and dumping his load of dirt when we were only a few feet behind him! We had to drive over his piles and pass him without getting stuck in the ditch. Jeff has been awesome behind the wheel!
Mikey on the free-fall repel with our guide, Eddy.
They fed us gallo pinto for breakfast and I'll be honest, it was some of the best Costa Rican food we've had here. It's basically just a seasoned rice and beans with eggs and Lizano salsa. It was delicious! (We might have to try it for "Hot Breakfast Friday" sometime soon)! Then we headed out to the river in a van, through the palm plantations and then switched into an old hummer to head up a seriously crazy 4x4 road. This thing could go up anything! We went up steep inclines, down steep hills, through narrow ways with cliffs a foot from the edge of the car, through a river and deep into the jungle where we got out and hiked 20 minutes or so to a little casita in the middle of the jungle where they kept their gear. We saw a green poison dart frog and found the plants they used to make the poison darts from. We harnessed up and started hiking along the "Via Ferrato" (narrow trail along the river). We had to be clipped in with our safety harnesses along the entire path which meant clipping and unclipping to go past each anchor point. The kids were awesome. Mikey refused help and did it all on his own for the entire hike.
First stop was the tarzan swing out over the river and waterfall. We even swung upside-down, no hands! It's a little scary! We zip-lined, rappelled, climbed a ladder up a cliff on the river's edge and even got to release from the zip line into a swimming hole. We stopped at a waterfall to swim and jump off the rocks and ended with a rappel/zip line and free fall/rappel from a platform in a tree. We were on the "course" for over two hours. All of the kids did amazing. No one complained or fought and everyone was SO brave! Even Mikey did the zip line release all by himself!
After a short hike back to the open-air "casita" they fed us lunch of fresh pineapple, arroz con pollo and steamed vegetables we hiked back out to the hummer for the trip back. The kids were so tired that they fell asleep (except Kira) in the hummer on the 4x4 road. We had to hold on to them so they didn't fall out while they were sleeping. It was an amazing day!
We traveled back home for a beautiful dinner. At Los Aires, you can arrange for meals to be made for you so we had arranged for a dinner when we got back. Some local ladies who lived nearby came in and prepared a beautiful gourmet dinner for us: black bean soup with patacones (smashed, fried plantains) for the appetizer. Grilled chicken with white sauce and rice for dinner. And Tres Leches cake for dessert. When we got home they had the table set and it smelled heavenly. The kids swam for a half an hour or so while they finished the preparations and then we had everyone shower and change for dinner. We could tell they had spent a lot of time preparing a beautiful meal and we wanted to make it special. The kids had such great manners and we actually sat and talked at the table. We talked about what would be awesome and what would be hard about living or serving a mission in Costa Rica. We practiced saying compliments in Spanish so each time they came to serve or take food away the kids could say something nice about the meal and the service. It was really memorable and a highlight of the day!
After dinner the kids watched Frozen (yes...again!) and fell asleep half way into it. We carried the kids upstairs and climbed into bed ourselves. We were exhausted!
Just a little bit after we had fallen asleep Jeff woke me up telling me that the power was out. It was a little creepy in this open house with no power. We got out our flashlights and lightsticks and walked around the house checking on things. We put lightsticks in the kids' room and stairway so if they woke up they wouldn't be scared. It seems like it wouldn't be a big deal to have the power out at night but it meant no A/C! It got hot quickly so we opened up the windows in the rooms to cool it off. No A/C and no fans in the hottest month in Costa Rica! We tried to sleep but saw light on the ceiling and heard footsteps in the gravel outside. I peeked out the window to see a man walking around with a flashlight. We assumed it was Jeffrey (the 18 year old "security guard" that watches over the house at night) but we were still a little nervous. (Also we had found a large kitchen knife in the bathroom of our private room when we returned from ziplining. Bizarre and maybe creepy)?! Jeff went out to check who it was while I stood guard in front of the kids' bedroom door just in case. It turned out to be Jeffrey who was a little freaked out himself. He said the power usually comes back on in an hour or so. Again we tried to sleep but the jungle is noisy at night! We tossed and turned until around 4am when the howler monkeys starting howling. Everyone was awake by 5:15am and swimming in the pool by 6:30am.
Another major inconvenience of not having power is that you also don't have water at the house because they use a water pump. That means each toilet can only be flushed once and we had to brush our teeth with the water in our water bottles. We couldn't wash dishes and the food in the freezer and fridge were thawing fast! I was glad we had made the kids shower before our fancy dinner! A few of the toilets really needed to be flushed (if you know what I mean) so we resorted to Jeff's mission days and my days on the boat and filled up a pot with water from the pool to pour down the toilets to flush them. Quite an end to our adventure in the jungle! But we were still able to have our pineapple and cereal for breakfast and cook some quick quesadillas on the gas stove before we left (with the help of the housekeepers we lit a candle from the BBQ grill and walked it over to the stove to light the gas burner).
We were all packed up and ready for our 3.5 hour drive to Alajuela to stay at the Hampton for the night so we can make our 7am flight tomorrow. On last trip up the dirt road we had to pass all of the dumptrucks and bulldozers fixing the road. That was a little experience it itself! One dumptruck started raising his bed and dumping his load of dirt when we were only a few feet behind him! We had to drive over his piles and pass him without getting stuck in the ditch. Jeff has been awesome behind the wheel!
Riding in the hummer up to the starting point of our adventure. Well, the drive was definitely PART of the adventure too!
The jungle road in.
My BRAVE girls!
Talkin' smack.
Swimming at the waterfall.
My little hiking buddy. Mikey was awesome! Never complained and just kept going and going. 7 hours!
Until we got back in the car and he crashed pretty fast.
Love this kid! He has NO fear!
Afterwards Mikey said "I'm only 5 and I wasn't scared to go upside down. Dad is a grown up and he was scared!"
Calvin LOVED it! He did everything without any help or fear. He was like a mini adult!
Mikey on the zip line.
Calvin dropping into the water from the zip line.
Isaac dropping.
Jeff's turn!
Woo hoo Kira!
Way to go Kate!
Our awesome dinner at the house when we got back that night. You can see the kids swimming in the background. They never stop!
Gustavo got some palm leaves and wove these katydids for each of the kids. They are so cool!
Mikey dropping into the water. He had to do this all by himself. He ziplined into the waterfall cave, turned around, when he got to the middle of the pool below he unclipped his safety harness and pulled the lever to release himself into the pool 15 feet below! He wasn't worried or panicked one bit!
Our awesome dinner. The kids were SO good and had excellent manners. Great job guys!
The kids attic bedroom.
Mikey on the free-fall repel with our guide, Eddy.
Calvin's first time repelling!
Isaac's first time too!
Amy getting ready for the repel.
Calvin jumping off the waterfall.
Kate leaping off the rocks into the water below. This girl has conquered so many fears this year! She told me, "I really only have one fear, Mom. I'm afraid of dying. And that includes A LOT of things!"
Mikey on the last free-fall. All by himself! The guide is obviously belaying down below.
My favorite person in the whole world!
You guys are having an amazing vacation! Sounds like the driving has been an adventure in and of itself.
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