From "Pura Vida" to "Al Vida" !

Our last morning at the Villa Tranquilas was a perfect "R and R" kind with a laid back "Al fresco" chai and breakfast, lots of pool fun and a home-made frittata brunch. With our bags packed with washed clothes (thanks to the  on-site laundry in the villa) and our hearts packed with tons of memories of good-times, we were all set to begin the last leg of our beautiful  3 hour drive from Quepos to San Jose with a souvenier shopping stop in the lively beach town of Jaco. As if we could capture the entire trip's worth of fun-times in an evening of photo session; Jay and Chinmay were on a mission with their fancy cameras, lenses and tripod! The parting dinner had to be a good one; "Pho" seemed promising based on Tripadvisor reviews and the non-pasta, 'non-casada' menu with Vietnamese fare. With over a mile of walking and half a mile in the cab, we arrived to find that the restaurant was closed! Fortunately, there were multiple options nearby and we settled for a below average Falafel at a Mediterranean restaurant followed by gelato. Back at the hotel, it was time to say 'good-byes' with unanimous heart-felt wishes for another trip to be planned much sooner than 6 years!

CHILLING IN THE POOL AT THE VILLA TRANQUILAS

MASTI AT THE BEAUTIFUL VILLAS

'AL-VIDA' PICTURE AT THE HOTEL LUISIANA

PHOTOGRAPHY AT ITS BEST- HOTEL LUISIANA

THE KIDS ENJOYING THE PLAYGROUND AT HOTEL LUISIANA

With not a single dull moment, plenty of unprecedented exciting activities, extra-ordinary like-minded company, just enough relaxation, plethora of natural beauty and inexhaustible fun, Costa Rica is high up there on our best vacations list!

A girls morning out- Tantalizing taste buds style!

Woohoo! It was the morning of the much awaited "Spice tour" at the "Villa Vanilla", a privately owned spice farm 10 km from Quepos. Adya and I had tentatively decided to do a small girls' outing when the trip was in the planning stages. While a spa day seemed intuitive, neither of us are "spa creatures". When I read about this tour in the Villa Tranquilas tour options, I knew this was the perfect "girls outing" for us, "culinary creatures" and it did not disappoint! We were ready at the scheduled pick up time of 8.30pm outside Maria, the Villa manager's office not realizing that "Tico time" can be off by 10 to 40 minutes! We still hung out with Maria as there was no point going back to whatever was cooking with the dads and the kids! Giselle at the Villa Vanilla started the tour with what goes into growing Vanilla beans, a tedious time consuming process that totally justifies the steep price of this delicate spice married to "Cacao" which we the chocoholics know as the fruit that gives the cocoa! The white meat encasing the cocoa beans tastes nothing like chocolate, was deliciously tart. A few workers were manually scraping off the bark of a particular tree that yields pure cinnamon. Walking through the beautiful farm, we could appreciate the bountiful flora of this place with orchids that completely altered our very limited idea of orchids, heliconia so exquisite that they appear fake, vanilla vines wrapping around trees with mountains in the back drop on a crisp and sunny Costa Rican morning. Our fellow travelers were culinary enthusiasts just like us, their enthusiasm echoing in the "wows" of their voices and the blissful expressions on their faces. The walk through the stunning farm ended in a gazebo like hideout overlooking stunning mountain vistas and believe it or not, it happened to be our "kitchen-cum-dining area"; the paradise for our taste buds when Giselle presented us with 4-5 delicious little treats made by the local pastry chef using home grown ingredients, most of which we learnt about on the tour. Flavors were bursting from every bite of the smooth and just perfectly tart cheese cake, cinnamon tea was had a tad bit of the sweet aroma from the cinnamon and the 'cocoa nibs' in the mildly sweet cookie left an indelible and insatiable mark on the taste buds!

All seven of us set sail on the "Planet Dolphin" catamaran in the afternoon. The weather could not have been more perfect; the fresh breeze from the vast and endless Pacific ocean was refreshing for some of us. However, others could not agree on this so much especially after the effects of the anti-emetic started waning off. Parishi thoroughly enjoyed the first half of the excursion including snorkeling in the ocean with Chinmay, jumping into the ocean from the water slide, but was toast towards the end during the jaw-dropping dolphin sighting in the ocean. Back at the villa, we decided to order in Pizza; the fresh fruit and pasta salad on the ship were more like a snack.

                                   ALL ABOARD THE 'PLANET DOLPHIN' CATAMARAN!

                                                        SUNSET FROM THE SHIP

                                                          CHEERS WITH 'CACAOS'

                            THIS CACAO AIN'T READY TO BE HARVESTED FOR COCOA!

                                                                     HELICONIAS

                                                               A RIPE CACAO

NATURE'S MARVEL- HELICONIA

PARISHI-CHINMAY SNORKELING

Manuel Antonio National Park

We had the entire morning to ourselves; to just relax and take it easy, the first of this kind on our trip so far! A leisurely breakfast was followed by fun in the pool and then we headed into town again to grab lunch before starting our Manuel Antonio National park guided tour with Iguana tours. Elgran Escape, although a sea-food restaurant had plenty of vegetarian choices on its menu. Although expensive, the setting was beautiful and the veggie fajitas and avocado egg rolls were mouth-watering and succulent! We could barely u understand Jose's jumbled up narration in the park; besides the heat-humidity combo had dulled our senses further! The smallest and the most frequented national park in the country was packed with locals and visitors; Christmas break being one of the busiest seasons. Our wildlife encounter experience reached its zenith at the MA park on sighting a sloth an arm's length away descending from the top of a tall tree, traversing a cable to go to the tree across the road and in doing so, tripping and falling and climbing back up! The sloth sighting was no less than a celebrity sighting with gazillion camera clicks, gasps of excitement from spellbound spectators! We were definitely in for a treat; this had to be an important highlight of our Costa Rica trip! The white sand beach was spectacular and unique with howler monkeys and raccoons being regular visitors. The 30 minutes beach fun ended with a sudden heavy downpour that had us all drenched as we had to walk what seemed to be almost another 30 minutes to get out of the park to the bus. Adya and I stopped at the "Maxipali" supermarket to pick up some grocery for our Tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwich dinner at the villa that night. All of us were game for a chill evening "home" and could not have asked for a better comfort food dinner!

3-TOED SLOTH GOING FROM A TREE TO ANOTHER IN MANUEL ANTONIO NATIONAL PARK

TREADING THE MA PARK ON A HOT AFTERNOON

THIS BEAUTIFUL BEACH WAS A PERFECT RESPITE!

OMG- Zip lining is exhilarating!

We decided to go with Extremo in Monteverde for our zip lining excursion, since they were flexible about letting the kids do it as well. Monteverde rain forest happens to be the birth place of ziplining and canopy adventure. A mixture of excitement and nervousness had created a weird sensation in our stomachs, evident on our faces! While Chinmay and I had zip lined in Alaska over 4 years ago, this was Costa Rica and it ought to be different! Kahan was clueless to what lay ahead of him and was super excited to be "Curious George" going from one tree to the other! He was enjoying all the attention he was getting during the prep and orientation from fellow travelers marveling at how 'brave' he was! For the guides, his name was "Batman" and he didn't complain! Parishi's nervousness only lasted till she went on the first line and then she wanted to keep going! Vihaan was the dare-devil amongst all of us, save Chinmay who also went "Superman style"! We had to zip through a series of cables of varying lengths and height, speed (Some of them were super fast!) with lots of uphill walking through the rainforest between cables. The kids mostly went tandem with the guides and we went solo except for the really long lines when they coupled us up. The weather was on our side, the mystical Monteverde weather of patches of sunshine and clouds until the last and the longest 1 km cable when it had started pouring heavily. While the Tarzan swing was out of question for Adya and me before we had started, we gathered enough courage and decided to give it a shot anyways! However, my courage melted away as soon as I was harnessed and ready to jump from the platform and I backed out! But once Parishi did it successfully, she wasn't giving up on me! I could hear shouts of "Mommy, if a kid could do it, you can do it too! You have to, mumma!" I couldn't let her down and besides Adya was shouting from down below, "Shukan, it's not bad at all, just do it!" The first free fall was petrifying, and it was all thrill thereafter! The adrenaline rush in the forest was so much that it was quite perceptible and audible with screams of fear and excitement! I have to admit, I was so glad I did the "Tarzan Swing" and a little proud too!

READY-SET-GO!

CHINMAY ZIPLINING 'SUPERMAN' STYLE!

After a quick bland lunch at the cafeteria in Extremo, we were on our way to Quepos to begin the last leg of our trip in the Manuel Antonion area. The drive was beautiful throughout and having a big luxury bus to ourselves was pretty cool! We all instantly loved our accomodation at the Villa Tranquilas, a 16 unit vacation rental most of which were part of fractional ownership. We had an adjoined villa with two units connected, 2 kitchens, 2 separate living rooms and 4 bedrooms upstairs between the two villas. We felt very much at home in the spacious tropical setting with beautiful grounds full of well manicured flora and a couple of swimming pools right in front of our villa. We had picked up some basic grocery from the nearby store, "Maxipali" and were looking forward to a leisurely breakfast on the patio dining table! We went into the Quepos town, which was 5-10 minute cab ride for dinner and ended up eating at "Dolce Vita", an Italian restaurant with mediocre food.

"A walk through the cloud"; exploring the rain forests

With three activities lined up back to back through the day, it was hectic for sure but filled with incredible natural beauty and beaming with fun and excitement for all of us. A guided tour through the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve with our passionate guide, David helped us appreciate the immense bio-diversity of this area.

The cool, gray, misty world of the cloud forest has almost 900 species of epiphytes; most tree trunks are covered with mosses, ferns and other plants. The "Ficus" is an interesting tree that grows from upside down as a predator to a tree and in the process "eats" up the who tree creating a "hollow" within it! The collision of moist winds with the Continental divide here creates a constant mist whose particles provide nutrients for plants growing at the upper layers of the forest. (Monteverde spans the continental divide extending from about 1500 mts on the Pacific slope and 1350 mts on the Atlantic slope. )

After a hearty lunch at the "Morphos" restaurant, it was time to go to the second excursion of the day. The excitement was already building in all the three kids as we drove through the rough roads to the family owned Las Brisas farm for our afternoon of horse back riding. Although, the three siblings Catalina, Luis and Robin hardly spoke any English they were extremely helpful in making this a safe and fun experience for all of us. Needless to say, the kids had a blast "commanding" their respective horses to go faster, slow down and cracking up at the sight of them attending to the calls of nature! Kahan was securely harnessed with Chinmay on the mighty "Pinto" and was thoroughly enjoying his ride. The vistas all around us were breathtaking with lush green mountains, forest, views of the countryside, Santa Elena town, La Fortuna and Guancuaste province in the distance! The family who owned this huge farm welcomed us back graciously with fresh squeezed lemonade. Catalina took us to sample some fresh coffee from the locally grown coffee cherries.


The kids enjoyed the hands-on sugar cane juice making, the end product was enjoyed more by us than them! After equally warm "Adios" and "Mucho Gustos", we were headed back to
the hotel to freshen up before the next incredible activity- Night walk through the Santa Maria reserve. As soon as we met our guide, David and got our flash lights we were welcomed by a mama sloth and baby sloth on the top of a tree. The mommy was busy scratching herself while hanging in its usual position, the upside down position to get rid of the insects on her body. This
was as close and as good as it gets in spotting a sloth; the third and the best spotting on our trip! It was really neat walking through the forest, sometimes taking short cuts when David got information about a nocturnal creature that another guide spotted somewhere. A skinny long
vine snake, tarantula, a wiper snake, owl, napping Brown Jay, possum, "Daddy long leg" spiders, stick insect, leaf carrying ants were few of the inmates that we met up close in the thick of this amazing forest. Despite a long action packed tiring day Parishi and Vihaan kept up their untiring explorers' spirit, managing to walk through the muddy paths with their flash lights turning off when a creature was spotted per David's rules. Kahan rode on dad's shoulders for the most part. We
had a late pizza and spaghetti dinner at "Bonna appetit"; the Gorgonzola pizza was delish!

WALKING THROUGH THE MONTEVERDE CLOUD FOREST RESERVE

HORSE-BACK RIDING THROUGH THE LAS BRISAS FARM

SUGAR CANE JUICE MAKING

Love at first sight with Monteverde

One of the highlights of our rainy Xmas morning in downtown La Fortuna was lunch at "Don Rufinos". The "forest lasagna" was oozing with the cheesy goodness of fresh mozzarella and ricotta and the bursting flavors from caramelized onions and sautéed mushrooms. The cold Gazpacho was delicious and refreshing and another ice cream cone at "Pops" was a perfect end to a nice meal!

A short car drive took us to the boat at Lake Arenal, where Adya and indulged in coconut water from the road side vendors. The 45 minute boat ride was followed by an hour and a half car drive, which was interesting to say the least. Most of this drive was on a narrow, windy and unpaved "road" ( for lack of a better word!). Nonetheless, it was absolutely scenic with patches of clouds and sunshine and lush landscapes and small villages. Santa Elena is the gateway town close to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve and brings back memories of a "hill station" town in India, many of which we would visit growing up. I was instantly in love with everything about the afternoon; the very friendly locals, drivers, guides, the shopkeeper at the restroom stop, the unique play of sunshine and clouds and this quaint town perched up overlooking the Gulf of Nicoya. Our hotel, "Ficus Sunset suites" was a pleasant surprise. With excellent location, walking distance from the town, beautiful lobby and restaurant, very modern and well appointed huge rooms and bathroom, an equally spacious balcony with spectacular views of the sunset, clouds and the Pacific Ocean meeting the horizon, this place exceeded all expectations. The facilities could have been better with inconsistent hot water in the shower being the only major inconvenience. Breakfast was basic with toast, scrambled eggs, fruits, coffee/tea and juice, but quite sufficient especially with an appetite that refused to wake up as early as us to jump start the activities of the day!

DELICIOUS FOREST LASAGNA AT DON RUFINO

CANO NEGRO BOAT RIDE

Cano Negro and the "Pura Vida" spirit

About 5% of the entire planet's bio-diversity can be found in this small country. Tucked away in the northern most part of Costa Rica, on the border of Nicaragua lies a wetland called the "Cano Negro wildlife refuge". It is hands down the best place to see some native Costa Rican birds and animals in their natural habitats. An hour and a half bus ride took us to the small town of Los Chiles from where we boarded the boat on the river Rio Frios. Our knowledgable and nature-loving guide, Francisco and the "hawk-eyed boat driver", Evan made this a trip of a life time for us spotting and helping us view the wild life throughout the three hour long boat ride. White colored Igrets, Roseate spoon-billed, kingfisher, black-collared hawk, several male and female Anhingas, black vultures were some of the birds we saw in their marshland homes. Iguanas, crocodiles and green lizards were their reptile cousins lazing around! Our excitement knew no bounds sighting a two-toed and 3-toed sloth, a big group of howler monkeys and another family of white-faced monkeys doing acrobatics and jumping from one sky-soaring tree
to another at times with a baby in-tandem. Spotting these is far from easy with all their camouflage in action! With an abundance of un-spoilt nature around them, their freedom has no limits- "Pura Vida" in the true sense!

"Pure life" is the literal translation of Pura Vida, but it goes way beyond that. My take home from this trip and from Francisco today is this essential spirit that most locals seem to harbor, an important life lesson that life is good and being grateful for our surroundings regardless of personal wealth and possessions. The positive energy that this simple and catchy phrase emits out in the universe is probably what keeps the Costa Ricans so content or vise versa!

An evening at the Baldi hot springs with multiple unique hot water springs, falls , pools and water slides and a nice elaborate dinner were a perfect end to this memorable day!

CANO NEGRO WILDLIFE RESERVE

A REPTILE FRIEND SIGHTED RELAXING!

IGUANA FAMILY HANGING OUT!