Costa Rica - Vamos a La Fortuna!

Our last breakfast by the beach in Tamarindo! We had an early start since we were getting picked up at 7:30AM for our transfer to La Fortuna. I love breakfast with a view and the relaxing sound of the waves.

We settled into the van for our trip! We used CR Travels and Tours for our transfer. I found them on a Facebook group and they were great!

We stopped about halfway at Llanos de Cortez waterfall to break the trip up. The water was freezing cold! Only Morgan went for a full swim, the rest of us just waded in.

Our driver stopped at this spot for a scenery break... beautiful and SO windy!

The girls got a kick out of how windy it was up here!

We stopped off for some good views of Lake Arenal. Also, super windy here!

Along the way, the driver was searching for animals to show us. We did get to see a few toucans in the wild!

We made it to our hotel in La Fortuna around 1:30. We stayed at the Arenal Springs Resort and Spa. Upon arrival and check in, they gave us a Welcome Drink. The girls got a Shirley temple juice drink. I got Prosecco and Matt got a beer. We were in Room 104, which was in the first row of suites and only a short walk to the pools and restaurant. They have golf carts to take people to/from some of the farther out rooms. They are currently doing renovations, so we did have a little noise from that during the day but it wasn't bad. I had read before coming a lot of negative reviews about the construction noise, so I was glad that it didn't bother us (especially since our hotel room was right by it!) We took a golf cart with all of our luggage to our room, but otherwise we walked everywhere we wanted to go. 

We walked back up to the main area to grab some lunch at the restaurant. The food was good! We snoozed in the room for a bit. We had a Junior Superior Suite, so we had two queen beds and a twin sofa bed in a little alcove with a sink and refrigerator, along with a patio and hammock! The room we had was recently updated and really nice. Matt ended up sleeping in the little alcove on the sofa bed (he's a snorer!) and the girls and I shared the two queen beds.

Then the girls played volleyball outside our room. There was a large play area with a volleyball net and soccer goals. There was also a playground for the littler kids and a "reading" area. The spa had balls for the kids to use.

Our hotel had mostly hot springs pools. There were also freshwater and cool pools for the kids, but we mostly stuck to the hot springs. There was a swim up bar, so we grabbed some drinks there.

We were all exhausted this night that we decided to just get room service for dinner.

Costa Rica - Shopping, Beach time and FIRE!

Saturday was a relaxing day that started out with the breakfast buffet by the beach! We got a table closer to the beach this morning!

Then, we walked to the farmer's market to check out the local vendors. On the way, Morgan took a big tumble on the street and cut up her knees and hands. :( 

There were a lot of stands at the farmer's market - jewelry, clothes, soaps, food/produce, pottery, candles - so many things! Luckily, it was covered by tarps so it wasn't too terribly hot.

The girls found some really cute bracelet sets!

We went back to the hotel for some more beach time. We rented a boogie board and beach chairs. It was brutally hot again!

We stayed at the beach until lunchtime. Then, we walked down the street to the Ocean Restaurant. We sat halfway between the beach and the "inside" area. Morgan got a pineapple passion fruit drink that was delicious! There were some iguanas, lizards and squirrels roaming around.

After lunch, we went to the larger pool at the hotel. The had this water feature with little waterfalls that I made the girls stand in for pictures. :)

We caught some of the NCAA tournament in Spanish at the swim up bar.

We got cleaned up for dinner and then hit the beach to watch the sunset. It was a little cloudy, but still beautiful.

We had dinner at Namu. We had reservations and they gave us a table right by where they do the fire and aerial silks show! The food was ok, not my favorite. I got a chicken kebab that looked like lamb meatballs, which was really strange. (I even asked the waiter to confirm it was chicken!) The show was pretty cool!

For the finale, they had us walk out to watch them on the beach.

This is a video of the woman doing a part of the aerial silks show.

This was kind of a crazy part of the show where the guy was juggling the fireballs and accidentally dropped one and it rolled under the chair of someone sitting up front! Luckily, he grabbed it fast and she wasn't burned. After this happened, Avery moved from the front to the back of our table! :)

After dinner, we came back to the hotel and packed up. We are heading to La Fortuna early Sunday morning!

Costa Rica - Beach and Boating in Tamarindo

On Friday, the girls slept in a bit. Still recovering from our long travel day on Thursday! Matt snapped this pic of them sleeping so cozy! They get along so well when they aren't awake - ha!

We had breakfast at the hotel buffet (included with our stay.) There were quite a lot of options - fruit, omelets, breads, juices and Matt's favorite - rice and beans. You can sit right by the beach! After breakfast, Matt and Avery went on the search for a small ball to play catch with on the beach. They finally found a small Peppa pig football for $8 (everything else was $20+). While they were doing that, Morgan and I rented a boogie board and got chairs on the beach. The beach was not part of the hotel, so we had to pay $30 for two chairs and an umbrella - well worth it for some shade! We hung out at the beach for most of the morning. It was beautiful and hot! Morgan did a lot of boogie boarding. Avery did some body surfing thru the waves and a little boogie boarding, too.

Playing catch on the beach

We went to Surf Shack for lunch. Most places didn’t open until 12:00 which surprised us. Surf Shack was a cute little open air place with decent bar type food. They had the standard kids menu so both girls were happy. And they had Fanta!

I'm a sucker for photo ops... luckily the girls oblige me!

We stopped off at the Venezia Gelateria after lunch for a sweet treat. So many interesting flavors.

We came back to the hotel and rested for about 30 minutes in the AC. Then it was off to our catamaran boat cruise. We did the Marlin Del Ray sunset cruise, which left at 1:30. We walked down the beach to the meeting point. Then you jump on a little boat that takes you out to the bigger boat. The five minute little boat ride was super bumpy, but we made it! They make you ditch your shoes when you get on the catamaran. We got spots up front by the nets and grabbed some drinks before they set sail.  

Morgan was getting a little too sunburned already, so we made her cover up.

She moved to the top of the boat in the shade.

We sailed for about 1 hour 45 minutes, then stopped in a bay. We all swam in the ocean and some people snorkeled. It felt good to get in the water. 

Afterwards they served lunch - BBQ chicken, rice, chips, cookies, beans, pico de gallo and fresh fruit. All very good! There was a little more swimming after eating before they took off. Morgan did a few flips/jumps off the front of the boat. They had an open bar the whole time. The girls got virgin daiquiris, pina coladas and Morgan even tried a mojito. 

We made it back to Tamarindo just as the sun was setting. Such a fun afternoon!

We walked back to the hotel and swam in the pool for a bit. It was already dark and the pool was mostly empty. 

They had a bridge with a waterfall feature

Everyone was getting tired so we went back to the room and showered. Avery and I went across the street to get a pizza from Nari. She was starving (not as much food that she liked on the boat). Pizza was ok, but it hit the spot. Randomly, the electricity went out in Tamarindo for a few minutes. It was pitch black. Then, the generators started and lights around the hotel came on and eventually the lights in our room came back on too.

Oh, when we got back in the room after the boat cruise, the maids had left these creations for us - so cute!