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On our way to Drake Bay

We’ve been posting lots of videos and photos of our latest adventure with Chris’s mom, Davia, but I wanted to fill you all in on where we actually went and what we did…

The adventure began on Wednesday, April 25, when Chris and I left early in the morning to start the 4-hour drive from our town of Uvita to San Jose to pick up Davia at the airport. Getting into San Jose was relatively painless and we found Davia right away (hurray!); however, getting out of San Jose consisted of getting lost and backtracking for a grueling 2 hours. Chris’ brilliant idea to stop at a car rental office where they spoke English, knew the roads, and dealt with crazy American tourists all the time is what eventually saved us and got us on the road to Puerto Viejo. We arrived in Puerto Viejo late that night and passed out in our colorful, air conditioned room.

We were in Puerto Viejo for 3 full days and thoroughly enjoyed our time there…we ate some excellent food, lounged on the beach, snorkeled, visited botanical gardens, ate more excellent food, visited an animal rescue center, held a baby Howler monkey, had some delicious/organic/local chocolate, bought jewelry, were offered ganja, and relaxed. All in all, we had a wonderful visit to this little Rasta-influenced port town!

We left Puerto Viejo early on Sunday, April 29, and drove north and in-land to the town of La Fortuna, which is conveniently located at that the base of the Arenal Volcano. We stayed in a little cabin a few miles outside of town, where we had an amazing view of the volcano and plenty of bird watching. We visited a huge/powerful waterfall, hiked in the hills surrounding the volcano, and saw some very cool animals. We only had a day and a half in La Fortuna, but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!

On Tuesday, May 1, we drove back to San Jose through the mountains (which takes about twice as long as you think it will) and dropped Davia off for her flight home, then we hightailed it back to Uvita. It was an amazing trip (although, as always, over too soon) and an incredible opportunity for us to see more of this very cool country we’ve been residing in.