Costa Rica: part 1-The Great Escape

I can't believe it's exactly one month since we got back from our Costa Rica adventure! So much happened, that there is no way I want to trust it to the mental storage of my brain...which after 4 kids is a little low on storage space and sometimes a little glitchy.

There was A LOT of planning and prep that went into our trip. So many spreadsheets, word documents, and to do lists on full size legal paper. But it was worth it.

Wednesday
-we left baby B with our cohabitors (no that is not a word), her favourite auntie and uncle. The tears started coming, but let's be honest. I still had three screaming kids I had accompanying me to Calgary, so no time to feel sorry for myself.

-we drove down to Calgary with no shortage of bickering from the backseat. It's like they wanted me to be excited about my soon to be kidless status.

-my in-laws met us at my parents in Calgary and whisked them away for 5 days of fun. More tears were shed, and the first thing out of my mouth was "so....now what do I do?" Gordon wasn't driving down to Calgary until after work, so I did some yoga to kill time (which I totally hate but felt like it would be a good zen start to my vacation). 

-Gordon arrived and we went out to dinner with my parents. I'm not sure the last time we had dinner with my parents, sans kids, but it was definitely pre-kids. Being able to eat dinner without interruptions and not having to explain to the waitresses why I only want half a glass of chocolate milk with dinner (when, yes, I'm fully aware I am paying for a full glass) CANNOT be overstated.

Thursday
-we SLEPT IN...until like 730.

-I do not fly well and was NOT looking forward to the flight. Let's just say that I was really glad I grabbed an extra plastic bag for your carry on liquids at security.


-we headed to our hotel in Houston (king size bed!!!) for the night and walked to a little gumbo restaurant, where I crossed something off my food bucket list-a shrimp po'boy

Friday
-we had a morning flight to Costa Rica, and it didn't take long for me to see a sight that made me almost break down at the thought of leaving my kids. There was a little boy and his parents ahead of us in the security line, probably about 2 years old. His parents were trying to explain to him that he needed to put his stuffie in the bucket to get xrayed, but of course he didn't want to part with it. Me ugly crying was almost imminent, but then I quickly made myself picture what it would be like taking our 4 kids through security at the airport...and well... that dried up those tears pretty fast. 

-I managed the flight with all of my stomach contents intact, but still felt horrible. Those weak sauce ginger pills did absolutely nothing. None of this was helped my the fact that we stepped off the plane and into a fiery furnace, or that's sure what it felt like. It was so hot and humid that even the paper felt damp, and my hair was starting to take on a life of its own.

-we picked up our rental car and started making our way to our AirBNB on Lake Arenal. The first stretch on the highway was smooth, paved road. I very naively thought to myself "hey this isn't so bad". That is until our trusty Google companion led us onto what would have been the most direct route, but mostly it was 16km of unpaved, uneven, horrible "roads" interspersed with ginormous rocks. It was like riding a mechanical bull, and I feared for the life of our low-riding rental. Anyone else we saw was in a vehicle equipped with 4-wheel drive, and probably went home and told all their neighbours about the stupid tourists they saw in their little sedan bumping along. It took us half an hour to go those 16km. From that point on we decided to take the scenic, but less bumpy route.

 

-not only were the roads incredible bumpy and undeveloped in some parts, they were also super windy. Between the plane ride, and the roller coaster roads, my digestive system was in rough shape.

-we met our host a little cafe, and had some lunch (well Gordon did) overlooking the lake. 

-our AirBNB was a little cabin in a rural area, overlooking Lake Arenal and a thick jungle floor. It would be dark by 630 there, so we spent our evening listening to the crashing in the jungle, and watching the trees move without ever seeing anything, just like a scene in Jurassic park.

-our big excitement of the night was finding a scorpion in our room, that we managed to catch, and I'm pretty sure I disposed of. There was a skin it had malted (or so we thought) on the floor as well, but when we went to clean it up, it had mysteriously disappeared. We kept our suitcases closed after that.