For spring break this year, my wife and I decided to take our three kids (ages 16, 14, and 11) to Costa Rica. We had been kicking around the idea of visiting Costa Rica for several years, since reading about the Pearce family’s adventures in the country. Besides, I had never seen a rainforest before, so this was an opportunity to take a very different type of vacation.

Saturday March 28

We decided against renting a car, and instead relied on drivers, tour operators, and our feet to get us where we wanted to go. Our driver from the airport, Carlos (I hope I’m remembering his name correctly), saw a sloth in need of aid while driving and stopped to help him out. So cool!

It was about a three hour drive from the airport in San Jose to our destination in La Fortuna, so Carlos graciously found a good place where we could have lunch. For our first meal in Costa Rica, we all had the typical casados, which is basically a platter of rice, beans, chicken, and salad. Our driver had olla de carne, which is like a beef and root vegetable stew. It looked so good that we found a restaurant that served it in La Fortuna at dinnertime. It’s still our favorite Costa Rican dish.

When we travel, we usually try to use credit cards where possible. But cash seems to be still dominant in Costa Rica, and their cash is beautiful.

Sunday March 29

On our first full day in Costa Rica, we went with a tour company (Red Lava) to do a full day hike around the Tenorio Volcano. We hiked up the mountain and could see the rainforest canopy from above.

We also saw a lot of wildlife, as you can see in the collage of photos below. Clockwise, from the top left: toucan, “blue jeans” poisonous frog, macaws, caiman, and a venomous viper snake in the center.

This guy sold fresh coconuts for a dollar each. He would carve the top off, make a hole, and stick a straw in it so you can drink fresh coconut water from them.

Monday March 30

We took another tour with Red Lava, this time to the Arenal Volcano.

We got to see both a two-toed sloth and a three-toed sloth!

And the tour guide found one of these guys for us:

And here is the famous hanging bridge at Arenal:

Tuesday March 31

It was raining in the morning when we woke. The power went out for about three minutes. Then we donned our ponchos and walked from our hostel to the Sloth & Wildlife Nature Walk tour, where we saw more wildlife. From the top left going clockwise: 1) that colorful frog we saw the previous day, but resting and not showing its colors. 2) a hummingbird. 3) a well-camouflaged lizard of some sort. 4) a well-camouflaged frog. 5) a really neat water-collecting plant.

Of course, we saw more sloths. I just didn’t include any more pictures of them.

After the tour, we had lunch at a local soda, or small Costa Rican restaurant, then had a driver take us to a coffee/chocolate farm tour. From the left and going clockwise: 1) chocolate fruits. 2) squeezing the juice out of sugar cane. 3) unripe coffee berries on a coffee plant.

Wednesday April 1

We couldn’t stand our hostel, where the five of us crammed into a single cramped room with a tiny bathroom, and with dead bugs on the beds, so we ate the loss and moved to a nicer hotel (not hostel) across town. It was orders of magnitude better, with big beds and huge bathroom.

This day we went on a boat tour, where the guide showed us the wildlife along the river. We heard howler monkeys, saw crocodiles (or were they alligators or caimans?), and neat rainforest birds. I even saw a Jesus Christ lizard run across the water! (but it was so fast that I was the only one who saw it)

Thursday April 2

Our new hotel, Hotel Coati, offered to make us a nice breakfast (for a price, of course). Since we had to leave early this morning, we took them up on the offer. The breakfast was wonderful.

After breakfast, we were picked up by Arenal Rafting to go white water rafting. They make money partially by selling photographs, and we didn’t buy any, so I don’t have any photos of us doing the rafting.

Afterwards, we walked around La Fortuna.

Friday April 3

On our last full day in Costa Rica, we went on a horseback riding tour.

We hiked to La Fortuna Waterfall for the second time.

And we had dinner at Soda Viquez in La Fortuna.

Saturday April 4

All vacations come to an end eventually. We had the same driver from the first day, Carlos, drive us to the airport. We didn’t rescue any sloths this time, but we did have good conversation between his broken English and our bad Spanish.

The airport in San Jose is very nice.

Final Costa Rica Vacation Cost Breakdown

$4,180 Flight to and from 46%
$2,367 Tours/Guides 26%
$1,166 Lodging 13%
$722 Food 8%
$475 Miscellaneous spending/grocery/gifts 5%
$140 Transportation 2%

Grand total for 5 people and 8 days: $9,050