Our Big Fat Crazy Hiatus: April 2011

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Costa Rica- Our Tamarindo Home, Sunset Catamaran Cruise, And Jungle Zip- Line Tour

What can I say? Our Costa Rica home in Tamarindo was close to the beach and town and very comfortable. We loved it! The pool was popular after a day of surfing in the hot sun and the TV shows in Spanish subtitles were a hit too!

We spent most of our time in Tamarindo but took a few day trips. One was a catamaran sunset cruise in Flamingo Bay and the other was zip-lining a few hours from our home in the jungle area northeast of Tamarindo. The roads were scenic with lots of ranches, mango trees dangling with fruit, and little towns along the way. We even saw a a horse festival along the way! Costa Rica is such a beautiful country.

On the boat cruise, we met a wonderful family from USA who were very kind to us. Christopher almost lost our key to the condo that night, but it was luckily found by the taxi driver! We loved the zip-lining tour! We went from platform to platform in the jungle and saw some toucans and monkeys along the way. After that, we went tubing down a water-slide,did horse-back riding in the rolling hills, and got covered with volcanic mud at a spa! It was so much fun! The pictures tell it all!

Our home for 3 weeks- # 1 Pueblo del Mar, Tamarindo, Costa Rica.

Shannon helping Christopher with homework in the downstairs area.

Shannon sending an e-mail to her Dad.

Mother and daughter in front of the main entrance to our condo.

Brenda reading a good book in the cozy air conditioned room!

View from the upstairs window of the lovely flowering trees!

Shannon showing off the room she shared with her brother.

Making supper!

Shannon helping Christopher with Math and French homework.

Here are the kids walking down the dirt road leading to town where we walked to the beach every day.

Nice pool just steps from our cozy home.

Christopher diving into the pool while Shannon looks on.

Shannon looking radiant in pink with the lovely flowering tree overhead.

Chris and Shannon goofing around outside our home.

John in the background and his family friend in the foreground.

Shannon enjoying the boatride.

Here we are relaxing along the way!

Catamarans are such a good place for chillin' out!

Brenda happily viewing the sights!

Christopher and Shannon snorkeling.

Shannon sharing her fish stories!

Chris lost his mask to the ocean so he tried out the googles.

Shannon and fellow traveller on the boat.

Captain Chris!

We sailed into the sun-set!

Shannon and Christopher suited up to go zip-lining in the jungle!

Christopher was the first one to head out!

Brenda at one of the platforms ready to go to the next tree perch!

Shannon zipping along!

Brenda follows along...

And Christopher too...

Here are the kids on a swinging bridge way up in the trees.

Here we are clinging to a large tree platform!

The kids head up the path to slide down a long slide in the jungle.

Shannon whizzing along...

Christopher going at break-neck speed!

Shannon takes off in a trailer and Chris and I took the horses to the spa in the jungle.

Christopher heads off on his horse.

Breada riding along down a hill.

Christopher in the centre (with a red helmet) enjoying the view.

Here we are covered with volcanic mud and after we showered off and soaked in pools of different temperatures.

Shannon by a huge Costa Rican native tree.

We enjoyed a sauna, a mud treatment, and then soaked in these lovely pools..

Heading back to our shuttle bus via a trailer pulled by a tractor where we saw lots of iguanas and birds on the way.

Costa Rica- Surfing in Tamarindo And Trip to Flamingo Beach!

Wow! We had a busy pace in Europe and saw so much. The flight from Paris was very long on Air France. We had a super tight connection in Atlanta where we ended up running through the airport to make our connecting flight to Liberia, Costa Rica time! Phew! We were rewarded by Costa Rica's beautiful beaches and wondful two bedroom condo with a pool.

Our home base was Tamarindo, a small surfing town. After only two days, the kids told me they loved it so much they wanted to stay a extra week! So, I cancelled our trips to Arenal and Monte Verde but we still planned to go to Manuel Antonio for our last week. Three weeks in one place was heaven! The town had a very slow pace, I had a lot of naps, read a few books (always a good sign that I am relaxing), the kids took surfing lessons about every second day, and we had a few day trips. We decided to do the zip-lining day trip, a catamaran cruise, and a day trip to Flamingo Beach. Otherwise, we walked the 10 minutes to town to look around or buy groceries, went to a movie at the mini movie theatre, went to the beach, hung out in the cozy condo with a only pool steps away or watched TV. It was a very relaxing time and we had a blast!