Costa Rica - The Final Chapter

More of Geoff's nature photography. Hazel and I "caught" this crab in the pool. It was actually already dead when we got to it. We later got one out that was still alive. But, it didn't hold nearly as still for pictures.
Family portrait on the beach. This was our last day to play at Playa Flamingo.

Hazel and Geoff dug a really deep hole.
Then we had to go and get cleaned up for the wedding. It was perfect weather for a beach wedding.

Hazel ran away.
I chased after her.

And then I chased her some more.

They had little cones of flowers to throw, instead of rice. Hazel thought this was awesome. She wore the cones as little armbands, but I don't have a good picture of it.

The wedding was very nice. But my favorite part was the looky-loos. Notice the couple between Jim and the right-hand post. And the dude bobbing in the ocean.
There were appetizers and cocktails on the beach while Jim and T had pictures. Hazel took the time to dance.

And then a guy came by with horses. This is actually a very excited face. Like so excited she could barely breath.
A bit of a smile. Not many two-year-old gringas can say they have ridden a horse, at sunset, on the beach, in Costa Rica.

The best family shot I could find.

Notice Geoff's crazy eyes? I think he was done at this point. Hazel was still happily eating chicken.

This shot may look blurry, but this is actually how everyone looked at this point. I thought it was super-late. Like midnight. It was actually like 8:30pm. The party starts early in Costa Rica.

All in all, we had a fabulous time in Costa Rica. Hazel is still talking about it and would like to go back. Hazel and I (and Jenni and Grandma Marilyn) leave for San Diego on Saturday. We will see if the whirlwind of parks can compete with full days at the pool.

Costa Rica - Part 3

Thursday, August 28: Obviously, we swam. We also decided to go on a trip to Tamarindo. This is the most developed of the towns we saw in Costa Rica. We were going to do some shopping but just after we started out it started raining. Hard. Harder than we had seen all week. And we had seen some big rain. Geoff went to get the car and Hazel and I (and the camera) huddle under some shelter. Then we went to look in a store and Hazel, despite adamantly denying the need to use the potty, peed on the floor. In the bathroom, we were so close. And then started whine-crying. Which is the absolute worse. So, we left without getting anything, after my kid peed on their floor. Luckily, it was raining a lot so maybe they just thought it was rain. Or that we were jerks. And we walked around the Tamarindo mall and got some ice cream. Then we went back to the hotel.
This is the only good picture I have of the day. It does not even begin to show how much rain there was.

Friday, August 29: Swimming. Reading books. Naps. Swimming. Books. TV. Oh, let me discuss the television situation. Remember, I love TV. It is a staple in my life. Hazel also loves TV and only knows about TiVo. We always hit a point in our vacation where she asks for this show or that show and we have to explain that we can’t always make it appear. Anyway, no TiVo. But, we did get to watch awesome television either in Spanish (dubbed) or with Spanish subtitles. Personally, I liked to watch the subtitles. But, sometimes the subtitle readers get gypped. But, it is still a fun way to learn words in another language. Also, we were watching “Anti-trust” on TV and half-way through it just cut out and was “Law and Order” because, yeah, that show is not on enough. So, I missed my beloved TiVo. But, I still got to watch some TV and read 6 books, not just Friday, the whole trip. It was a beautiful thing.
By this point in the week, Hazel was exhausted. Finally.
These birds were everywhere. We fed them pancakes at breakfast. Which I am sure contributed to the being everywhere... Anyway, I love how angry this little guy looks. Loook at his little yellow eyes. Geoff does a great job at the nature photography.

Saturday, August 30: We went on a canopy tour with the wedding group. We met at the fabulous Paradisus Playa Conchal, which made our hotel look pathetic and small until we realized it was a crazy cart ride to go anywhere on the hotel grounds and they beach was more crowded and less wave-y? And then we once again loved our hotel. But, I digress. So, we rode a bus. Hazel loved it, I wanted to barf. When we got to the starting point they strapped us in to harnesses and given the barest minimum of lessons on how to ride the zipline. Hazel had fun playing with the helmets, she especially liked this blue one.
She also enjoyed the gloves we had to wear to lessen the chance of zipline burn.
We asked if Hazel could actually go with us on the zipline and they said sure.* They got her all harnessed up (this was the worst part-only because she wanted to wear her beloved blue helmet and it was too big to be actually safe):
They did explain that someone would have to actually go with her. Because we were just going to push her really hard and hope for the best. It was great. And then it started raining. Which was less great, but we still had a great time. Hazel was super-brave.

This was our cute and shiny family in our helmets (and sunscreen and bug spray-thus the shiny), all ready to go in the canopy.

This was the very first run and I didn't quite have a good method of holding the kid. Plus, I was a wee bit nervous taking my only child on the giant zipline in the middle of a freakin' jungle. I don't know if they have safety regulations there! And, I forgot to brake. Whoops.
Geoff also took Hazel on a couple of the lines. By this point we were a little less nervous about it, and Hazel had a better idea how to hang on.

If you click and look at the bigger picture of this shot you can see how wet and dirty Hazel got. The wire had grease or dirt or something and when I applied the brake (my hand) we would get a dusting of grease or dirt. But, she did not complain and was a trooper about anything. This was near the end when we were all pretty soaked.

And we saw two monkeys in a tree, and then at the end we saw another monkey, right by the building, and he pooped and that was the highlight of Hazel’s zipline experience. This is the monkey who pooped. It is amazing to me to see monkey just out in the wild. It is not a normal thing for Utah.
Plus, in typical Hazel fashion, on the bus ride home she decided she didn't need to wear a shirt. A couple of Jim's friends weren't wearing shirts so she figured she didn't need to wear them either.

Then we went back to our hotel, went swimming, had a nap, the usual.

We went to the rehearsal dinner Saturday night. It was delicious and lovely and one of Jim’s friends was far more disruptive than Hazel, so I was pleased. And Hazel fell asleep and then we went back to our hotel. All in all, a great day in Costa Rica.

*At the top of the first platform I asked a guy if he had kids and he said one little girl. Then I asked if he would let her ride the zipline. He said, “No, way.” I was ready to get down and then he clarified that she was only two-months old. And then I felt a little better about taking my kid on the canopy tour.

Costa Rica - Part Dos

Tuesday, August 26: We swam a lot. And we went to dinner at the sub shop. Because, when I think “tropical vacation”, I think “sub sandwiches.” There were not a lot of food choices. And then more swimming. And playing in the sand. It rained really, really hard at night and our power kept going on and off and on and off and on and off. And so on. And so forth. And every time the power would come back on our air conditioner would beep and the light on our TV would flash and the pool lights would flash. It was less than ideal. I have no pictures of the annoying power surges. But here are Geoff and Hazel playing in the waves.

Hazel was constantly sandy. Seriously, I have no idea how she got so sandy. She would rub her face with her sandy hands and rub sand on her legs and anyway, she was sandy.
Wednesday, August 27: We went to the Monkey Park. Or as I like to call it “The Sad Zoo.” Not sad for me, as you can see.

I am sure the animals were well taken care of but it was not up to first-world standards. But we got to pet the friendliest Chacoan Peccary ever. He was adorable and had soft ears like Nacho. It had a pig nose and body but spikes like a porcupine. Weird little animal.

There were also monkeys (of course) and a bunch of different birds and a raccoon and some weird animal that kind of looked like a cross between a raccoon and an anteater. There were a bunch of these things and the babies could get out of (and back into) the cage. It just did not seem safe. Also, a crocodile and a dog (maybe a fancy kind of dog, but there were no signs), I don't think this is rainwater in his cage, I think it was all pee. Cause, man, it stunk. But notice the excellent "museum hands" on Hazel. Also, you have a good shot here of the lack of barriers between us and the animals. Sure, there were cages but you could reach right through/over them. We honestly could have touched every animal in the zoo. But, we did not.

And then there was an awesome butterfly house thing. This was the tunnel leading to it. It was very cool. Like a magical little tunnel to fairyland. Or butterflyland*. And one of Geoff's fancy pictures of a butterfly.
We even got a butterfly to sit on Hazel's head. And it was awesome. She would not hold one in her hand and was hesitant to have it on her head, but the butterfly was patient and we finally got a picture.


Oh, and we went swimming. And I read books in a beach chair in the shade.

*Blogger thinks "fairyland" is a word, but not "butterflyland". Stupid Blogger. I don't think IT is a word!

Costa Rica - Part 1

So, we are back from Costa Rica. It was fabulous. Our hotel was right on the beach. It was also the perfect Wilde family beach. Beach chairs in the shade for me, a long beach (with no pokies) perfect for sand castles for Hazel, and excellent body surfing waves for Geoff. He would have also liked to do some skim boarding but we didn’t take his board and we didn’t see any to purchase. In fact, we didn’t see much of anything to purchase. Costa Rica is pretty remote. Barely any restaurants, almost no stores, one paved road, that kind of thing. I hear other places are more built-up, but not where we were staying (Playa Flamingo). But, the beach was fabulous. Our hotel was fabulous and the pool was, what else, fabulous. The kiddie pool had a thatched roof over it, so even though Hazel spent every waking moment swimming, she didn’t get a sunburn.

Aaaah. The joys of Photoshop. But, I liked this picture and our faces were in the shadows. Now we just look crazy. But not shadowy.

The Costa Rican people (Ticos) were probably the nicest people I have ever met. Without exception everyone was friendly and helpful and nice to my baby. Which is all I ever want on a vacation.

Sunday night: We took the red-eye to Atlanta. Or as I like to say, “The Midnight Plane to Georgia.” The flight went from ‘no-problem’ to ‘our-we-going-to-get-on’ in hours. And it was nerve-wracking, and sucked. But, we made it on. The last three, not sitting together, seats. But, we made it. Hazel slept a little and kicked the lady next to us repeatedly (not so much kicking, just stretching out in her sleep).

Monday-Part 1: We arrived in Atlanta at around 6:00am Atlanta time and then had to hang out until our flight to Costa Rica at 10-ish. I don’t remember the actual time of anything… Hazel did NOT sleep in the airport. Geoff and I both took turns doing the head-bob. It was miserable. However, the Atlanta airport had these fascinating displays of contraband items. Like a polar bear rug, a snake in a bottle, a stool made out of an elephant foot, and, best of all, a narwhal horn. NARWHAL! Seriously, this was the best part of Atlanta. I guess we have never been in that concourse before because I don’t remember seeing the displays before. And then we ate some grits and then got on our plane. And it was blessedly empty. We all got some “sleep” on the plane. The only one who was really invigorated was Hazel. Because she is little and can sleep anywhere.

Monday-Part 2: I think these need separate sections because they are so vastly different. We left ATL and it is a giant airport, with a train. And air conditioning. And 3.5 hours later we arrived in Liberia, Costa Rica. LIR is little. With no air conditioning. We got to walk down the stairs from the plane, no jetway. Then we hit “customs”, there were two lines. The first one the dude just looked at us and stamped our passports. Then the second one, some guy grabbed my suitcases for me (I had two of the suitcases and Hazel) and then cut me in line, had the guy stamp something and then we were through. Seriously, we didn’t talk to anyone. **Remember this story when I get to the return trip in Atlanta** This was the first of many times people would be lovely and nice to us.

Then we got our rental car. We had a Kia Something. 4WD. Diesel! The guy showed Geoff how everything in the car worked. (not that he remembered) And then they gave us directions to our hotel (stay on the only road, basically) and directions to a delicious restaurant. (see picture with Hazel drinking her delicious blackberry smoothie) And we had food. And it was delicious. And we saw cows and a dog. So that was great. And then it started raining. Not a light drizzly but RAIN! Buckets and sheets and cats-and-dogs. And it rained almost until we got to our hotel. And then it let up. And we probably did something like swim or nap or whatever. But I don’t remember. I think it was nap. We were really tired.
I had to take a picture of Geoff's awesome volcano chicken. It was beautiful and delicious.

But now it is late and Hazel is still awake. She spent the evening with Aunt Jenni and Nova while Geoff and I helped move Auntie Michelle. And Geoff is grumpy. Which means I better get off the computer and help.



More later. Maybe tomorrow. We have a lot of pictures.