Costa Rica - Ziplining and Night Tour

On Tuesday, we woke up to a very rainy day! We walked up to the main restaurant for the breakfast buffet. We had a little time before our pick up time, so we relaxed at the hotel. Avery hung out in the hammock.

We got picked up by the Sky Adventures bus for our ziplining around 10AM. We had a reservation at 10:30AM. It rained off and on while we were driving there. Only Matt and Morgan were going to zipline. Avery and I only signed up to do the aerial tram with them, then we could watch them do a zipline and head back down to meet them once they finished.

They waited in a long line to get geared up!

And then we waited in the line to get on the aerial tram. When they say it takes about 2.5 hours to do the ziplining, I think that time includes all the waiting in lines!

At the top of the mountain, we took pictures on the "Hand of Arenal". It was a little foggy/cloudy so you can't see the beautiful view we had!

They start off with a short practice run to teach them how to brake. Then they were off! Morgan got a little nervous at first, but she loved it! We were a little worried she wasn't heavy enough to make it all the way across. I was standing up on the top platform with a girl and her friend Cameron. Cameron didn't think Morgan was going to make it and the girl got mad at him - ha! But, we were all happy to see her make it across!

Matt said on the longest one, they made Morgan go with a girl named Hazel so they could make it across. I guess one of the women in their group didn't make it across and then slid back towards the middle instead of grabbing the line and stopping herself. The guide had to go out get her!

Avery and I took the aerial tram back down to the bottom of the mountain.

Matt and Morgan lucked out that it didn't rain on them too much while ziplining! Once they were back at the bottom of the mountain, we caught the bus back to our hotel.

We had some time before our night tour, so we swam in the hot springs at the hotel, had lunch and drinks at the swim up bar.

Just one of the many yummy drinks the girls got at the hotel

There were different levels of pools at the hotel. This was the medium heat one. The highest heat was at the top and then it fed into the others, until it ended up in the area by the swim up bar. I couldn't sit in the hottest level too long! But it was nice to have the waterfall massage my shoulders and back!

We were picked up at 5:40 PM for our Papa’s Place night walk tour. We had Raul for a guide and he was great! We walked through the rain forest in the dark with flashlights and umbrellas while Raul pointed out all kinds of things lurking in the dark. We saw so many frogs, a few eyelash vipers, spiders, and birds. We did get rained on and it was a little muddy, but it was a lot of fun! I took no pictures of us, but we have lots of cool pictures of frogs! :) Raul said that whatever animal you spot first is your spirit animal. Avery was the first to spot a frog on the path! Matt also did really well at spotting animals... Raul tried to recruit him for a job! ;)

Costa Rica - Hanging Bridges, Waterfall and Costa Rican food

We started the day off with the breakfast buffet at the hotel. They had some interesting options and some more Costa Rican foods. They also had a smoothie station, where you could pick fruits/kales/spinach, etc. and they would make it into a smoothie for you.

We got picked up around 9:00 for our tour for the day. Our first stop was Mistico Hanging Bridges. This is a hike through the rain forest where you cross over 5 hanging bridges. Our guide pointed out animals along the way. Our binoculars came in handy today! It rained off and on, sometimes pretty heavy!

The bridges swayed more than I remembered when Matt and I did this 18 years ago. Or maybe I'm just more aware of it! I was worried about Avery because she's really afraid of heights. But, she did great!

In this picture you can kind of see one of the other hanging bridges lower in the trees that we walked on.

After the hanging bridges, we went to a restaurant for the typical Costa Rican casados for lunch. I didn't know what to expect, but it was really good. Luckily, they had other foods for kids, so Avery was able to get noodles.

Then, it was off to La Fortuna Waterfall. Over 500 steps down... and back up! It was a tough hike back up all those stairs, especially after hiking all morning at Mistico. We all made it... some of us (me!) slower than others! Morgan was worried that we were going to miss the bus, but we made it with plenty of time.

Morgan was the only one of us that braved actually swimming in the water. It was really rocky and slippery to get down to the water. I didn't want to wipe out! I did see a girl wipe out and land hard on a rock!

We got back to the hotel and we went to the hot springs and grabbed some drinks at the swim up bar. Matt got the mango chili margarita... and it was SPICY!

We got cleaned up for dinner and went to the restaurant at the hotel. It has a mix of Italian and Costa Rican dishes. We ordered the special red snapper Costa Rican dish, which included a 'fire show'. The food was delicious! Morgan, Matt and I shared the fish and steak entrees. Avery had pizza.