We (I) survived our 4 flights in 3 days in order to get to Costa Rica, the flight from Iguazu was our most turbulent yet…we’ve been lucky that most of our 20 out of 26 flights have been manageable but this one was sweaty palms and squeaky bum time.

With a quick stopover in Cancun, Mexico, we arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica and I knew it was going to be a good one.

I’ve been looking forward to CR since last year when we started researching where we’d like to go, so 12 months later, we’re finally here. I read that it wants to be carbon neutral by 2022, it has very ambitious green credentials and it cares for its environment like no other country – even the airport closes at 6pm.

We stayed one night in a hostel in the outskirts of San Jose, Laura our host was wonderful and friendly and warm and we had the best breakfast on our trip yet (as voted by all four of us). Lots of people (especially in the tourist industry ) speak English.

The next day our car was delivered (another big 4×4) and we set off for La Tigra Rainforest Lodge, the kids (and me) were especially looking forward to staying in a treehouse. It was a wooden log structure built in the rainforest and the creature sounds especially at night were astonishing. We hiked through the day and at night we went with our torches to find where all these creatures were hiding.

 

 

The jungle was deafening especially at twilight and it was very humid.

I woke up in the night because I thought my phone (which was under my pillow) had come on because I could see a bright light – it was only when I saw the light moving across the bed I realised it was a bloody insect with two really bright lights on its back!

The kids are still happy and get along really well, muffling to themselves about their plans whilst we walk through the jungle. We spend a lot of time talking about home and all the things they’re gonna do when we get back – we have the next 3 years worth of birthday party’s planned, who’s coming, where they’ll be and what presents they want.

I really like CR, the people, the weather (even though we’re on the cusp of the rainy season and we’ve experienced the most awesome thunderstorms, it’s still 28* in the rain). We got stuck in traffic when some trees were struck by lightning and fell over across the road – it was nae bother to the locals, along came a digger and tractor and within 30 minutes we were on our way.

La Fortuna is a tourist town, lots of Americans so the prices for all the activities are quite high. It’s billed as an adventure town so – when in Rome. Henna and I did one of the longest, highest and fastest zip wire courses in the world. 8 lines, the longest is half a mile long through the rainforest treetops, it was brilliant.

 

Another tick on the bucket list as we swam in La Fortuna waterfall and its blue lagoon yesterday, it was 550 steps to get down to it.

We’re staying in a little but very stylish boutique hotel with a pool and jacuzzi and we can still can hear the jungle sounds all around us. Volcano Gold (hotel) walk the walk but doesn’t talk the talk, it lacks the warmth and homeliness of many of the other places we’ve stayed.

 

There’s lots of hot springs in the rainforest and the big hotels will charge you an arm and a leg to go in them – but hey, the Crossfield’s are in town so…we seek out how to get to the natural hot water springs river and sit for hours in the beautiful, gushing hot water. It didn’t take long for the usual afternoon thunderstorms to arrive and we sat as happy as pigs in shit in hot water whilst the cool rain bounced on our heads.

 

In true Hazelwood style, I lost my flip flop to the hot springs river, John my chivalrous husband tried to chase it and slipped on his arse – hilarity ensued.

 

 

All four of us are enjoying our hiking, sweating and covered in insect repellent, no moaning from any kids or grown ups. We’ve seen some incredible animals including frogs, birds, insects, snakes, sloths and iguanas.

 

Another 4 hour drive for somewhere that was only 100km away later and were in the Monterverde Cloud Forest. We’re staying on a farm with a lovely host who speaks no English.

The drive here was perhaps the worst one we’ve had in 5 months. It was proper off roading and we were lost! Bloody Google Maps let us down and we ended up driving through farm land with no real roads. We love our little farm cabana now we’re here safely, no tv, no wifi just hills, forest and clouds as far as the eye can see.

A hike through the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve found us watching the mesmerising humming birds and a snake slid ‘through’ Henna’s sandal and over her foot. Hysterics occurred.

 

Our next and final stop is 5 days in The Manual Antonio National Park. Like the rest of Costa Rica it’s totally switched on when it comes to tourism, great you might think but it’s ability to appeal comes at a price, a high one. Everything is geared towards tourists and it all costs, quite a lot.

 

We’ve not been to a beach for quite quite some weeks so we were all looking forward to finding the ‘hidden gem’ that is Playa Biensez.  After all the beautiful beaches we’ve been to in the last 6 months, this is in the top five because it had the warmest ocean we’ve ever swam in, it really was like bath water.

 

 

Our hostel (Jungle Villa) is pretty cool, it’s in the jungle, monkeys everywhere, the owner describes them as ‘terrorist’ they can be troublesome as the chew through cables and steal food from the fridge which is in an outdoor communal kitchen, the owner is Dutch and the hostel has a big swimming pool!

 

Our final Edventure in Costa Rica was a Mangrove Boat Tour in Manual Antonio, it was a bit steep at £100 for the four of us but the kids loved it, especially when the monkeys came on board for a feed.