We arrived in Costa Rica, about two hours late (due to an unruly passenger we had to turn around for in TX) and were pretty sad to see the city was dark.  The sun sets here about 6pm, but, it rises at about 5. 

It was no wonder we had woken up by 6am to a glorious sight outside our hotel room window.  The sky was brilliant blue, and the volcano was various shades of deep green from the coffee fields.  Since we did not have to catch our cab until 9am we spent a lot of the morning outside enjoying our beautiful scenery.  The kids used their nature journals for the first time.  Each drawing some aspect they wanted to remember about waking up in the morning in San Jose. 

We went downstairs and had breakfast, continental style, which was quite filling and very delicious! Fruit, muffin, toast and goat cheese, filled us up until about 3 o’clock when we finally arrived at Casa Linda.

After breakfast we ventured outside the back of the hotel to find another spot of paradise.  A view equally as beautiful, and a coffee field with a self guided tour— in English!!  The kids loved walking through the path and discovering all the cool plants and animals along the way.  Leaf cutter ants, and orchids were among the coffee plants, and we even found a chewing gum tree! 

The plane ride out of San Jose was expected to be a little bumpy.  It had it’s moments, but overall it was a beautiful ride where we flew low over the mountains and along the Pacific coast.  That was so beautiful. 

We arrived in Puerto Jimenez to find out taxi driver.  He had a Toyota pick up truck.  That’s it.  After we piled the suitcases in the back, we then piled the kids in on top of them, and Matt for safety.  I rode in the back with Malena and we went to the grocery store.  It was fairly normal grocery store, except there wasn’t a lot of food, and the cans were really dusty and dirty (probably from the road outside).  We had a really fun time going through the produce counter and seeing all the various things we could get—and did. 

Then we piled in the truck with groceries all around us and headed for Casa Linda.  The road was dirt and pot holey, but quite an adventure!!  There were cows everywhere and I was surprised that the breed around here seems to be Brahma.   We crossed bridges I had to close my eyes to drive over, and even places where there were no bridges, so we just drove through the stream!  It was very cool!!  Of course, as it was happening I was thinking—what mother in her right mind would take her kids out into the middle of nowhere—

But, when we pulled into the house of Casa Linda, all of that went away.  The bamboo house sits with a complete view of the beautiful blue ocean, waves crashing, palm trees, scarlet macaws squawking overhead.  The house is VERY Swiss Family Robinson, and we love it.  My favorite part is you just chuck your compost out the kitchen window for the hermit crabs to eat!  The kids think that is especially funny, since they imagine me doing that when we get home!

The beach is covered in hermit crabs, so Malena made quick work of getting her ’pets’ gathered and into a pop up bug house I brought.  They also spent hours yesterday building hermit crab ’hotels’ which were clearly not the best accommodations to the crabs, as they left rather quickly. 

As the sun set we used the yogurt drink and fresh fruit to make smoothies and had a breakfast for dinner type of deal.  Later, William came over to talk about our tour in the morning.  He is taking us through the rainforest to a waterfall and to look for animals.  He only speaks Spanish, so we should have an interesting day.

We ended the evening on the front porch listening to the various animals.  Audrey and I went for a walk on the beach armed with a flashlight.  We found a raccoon in a tree and were disappointed it wasn’t a coati.  We looked around in the tidal pools on the beach, and even found a ’Halloween crab’ as Malena calls them.  We found they pinch really hard!  Once back on the porch we watched this little opossum in a tree...or he watched us...until we went to bed.

We slept like we often do on vacation, Malena and me, Cade and Audrey and Spencer and Matt.  Malena and I got the primo location, on the front overlooking the beach.  We awoke by 630 to the sounds of the waves and  scarlet macaws and other birds in their various chorus’. 

Today we start our waterfall adventure day.  I took so many awesome photos yesterday, but these are the best!  Enjoy!