Two more days of adventure! Today we started out with yet another fun breakfast then headed to to a waterfall repelling activity by La Fortuna. For breakfast I loved the shredded potato fried cake things. Hash brown cakes?
Ride over to the repelling hike area!
On our canyoneering, rappelling adventure we rappelled down 3 waterfalls, went on a great hike through the rain forest, jumped in a water hole and got pummeled by water power. https://www.desafiocostarica.com/
I was hoping for longer rappels, but what we did was fun. There was even a little bit of zip lining too. At one point we stopped and the guy had us sit on a type of natural, curved staircase. He blocked the water at the top and once we were all seated he moved and the water pummeled us. So crazy!
https://youtube.com/shorts/SJPZhESvZUU?feature=share
After the adventure we ate at their buffet place. It was nice to not worry about lunch!
It was POURING! Thankfully we didn't have any rain during our hike!
While we were canyoneering, Lynn and Marv did a chocolate tour which sounded really fun. We met up at a clinic to get our COVID test to get back into the USA. We were told it was about $60, but then found out it was $80 per person. A big OUCH! They were quick and efficient. Though it took them quite awhile to get our test results back! We were all negative...YAY!
After the test we stopped at a tourist trap and found a few fun items. Since purging tons of stuff and basically becoming a minimalist...though I've always been bent towards that, gift shops aren't very exciting for me. I don't really want to buy anything. But it's fun to get stuff we'll use like socks, or a t-shirt. I found some cute wallets and hacky sacks for some upcoming Christmas and a birthday present.
We saw these signs here and there and I could not figure them out! How are the rodents supposed to know to not go up the side of the mountain, or that they aren't allowed there?! But then we saw a sign that was CLEAN and I saw the hand trying to feed it. Ahhh! Though Haley did see one with her awesome vision and told me what it was before I could see the sign for myself.
More snacks! One Pali we went into (maybe it was this one) I didn't have my mask on, but the security guard wouldn't let me in without one. Lee rain in the rain back to the car to grab one for me. Oh, something that was cool at a store is that it had a temperature reader and hand sanitizer all in one machine! Seriously guys....the best secret is getting ice cream treats at Pali! They're only about $0.50 each! Don't go out for $7 ice cream while in Costa Rica or Nicaragua.
We stopped at a shoe store. Shanna wanted to buy some knock-off Nikes and she found some cute ones!
A fun row of shops that we always drove by but never stopped at.
That night before we went out to eat Elden did a back dive into the pool and scratched up the back of his shoulder poor guy.
We ate at this cute place, Moya's Place in Nueva Arenal. In the 1960s or so, Arenal was a town there, but they decided to create a lake and hydroelectric power. Arenal was covered in water and Nueva Arenal became the "new" town.
The books behind us were up for grabs. Take some, leave some.
Haley found a gem on the shelf! The Book of Mormon!
That night we saw this HUGE slug. It was the kind of slug that would fill my hand up and more! Too bad you can't tell from the picture its size. So huge!
The next day we did a river raft float which was really fun. After the float the company also provided lunch for us. On our way back a guy at a roadside stand sold these lychees. And we bought some. Oh, I also got some money out on an ATM for the kids so they could have some Costa Rican bills/coins. Their money is called Colones. Because of the bank we have we don't normally have any fees or anything. I did two transactions of 4,000 colones. About 669 colones makes $1. So I didn't get much money. But for some reason my fees were about $6 per transaction!
Rainbow tree. We saw these in Hawaii as well.
On to the river float!
It rained some on the river trip, but thankfully it wasn't too horrible. We did see lots of fun things...iguanas, monkeys, alligators. Our guide showed us plants not to eat and also some monkeys/gorillas that act crazy when the weather is going to get bad. He also told us a little about COVID and the effects on the people there when things shut down in 2020. Sounded pretty rough for them. Especially with tourism closed down. Sounded like most of them just helped each other out however they could. He said it was hard as well when the government still wanted to get their tax money from the citizens, even when people didn't really have an income.
We saw bats too! Here are a BUNCH of them!
Lunch at Rincon!
After, Lee, the kids and I went to an animal sanctuary. This place houses rescued exotic animals that were mistreated. Maybe all weren't exotic, but it was more than cats and dogs! It was fun to see the different animals, but the facility wasn't super nice. But I'm sure it's hard when there isn't a lot of money or donations! Thankfully these people could rescue these animals.
I'm sure I've seen these somewhere in the states, but I remember buying one in Nicaragua back in 2010...these avocados are HUGE! At a MaxiPali. Haley bought some shoes here for about $5.
That night we headed in to town to eat at Moya's Place again. On the way down the driveway, some hopped out to clear a branch covering the road. The place we rented was called The Red Sunset. On the description it reads that you'll come up a stone drive to get to the house. So I'm thinking like a cobblestone type drive way. Wow, it was an all out HORRIBLE mud, gravel road!
A bit more fun that night before we took off in the morning.
Last morning!
Before I went to bed I found Shanna like these. And she caught some 24 hour bug. Poor girl. Thankfully it was the last day and she was feeling a bit better by the time we got to the US that evening.
Spying some fun cars on the way back to the airport.
YES I did! I want to go back!
We enjoyed talking to Elder Robertson at the airport! He had a good first week in Arizona! He served with Elder Bues and Brewer for a week, then went back to the mission home to join the group of new arriving missionaries and get the new missionary orientation. Then he was with Elder Bues as his trainer. He is sharing the apartment with one other set of elders I believe. He's loving it!
Back in the US!
The Costa Rica airport. Very fun!
It's so beautiful there. I want to go back!
We left a couple pair of shoes in Costa Rica...maybe a couple other items as well, so we had a little room in the one carry-on we brought. So fun coming home with these goodies! I really like the Yipy's and teh Sponch. The Chiky's are fun too. I sent some goodies and fun Costa Rican socks to Elder Robertson. Though later I found out that he can't wear fun socks! That's too bad, but totally fine. Ahhh...Costa Rica was awesome. I TOTALLY recommend this destination if you want to go out of the country but want some comforts like others speaking English, paved roads, and clean drinking water. Oh, I also heard from a couple people that the roads are really narrow in Costa Rica. For us they were fine. We have lots of narrow back Virginian roads, so the roads there didn't phase us. It was great they were paved! Now I'm sure narrow roads in Italy are a whole different beast! Looking forward to heading back to Costa Rica sometime soon!
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