Are We There Yet? Travel Log

Im doing this post entirely from my phone so if there are no photos it's because I didn't figure out how to get them uploaded. We arrived in Montezuma with no hotel reservations, but a few ideas. Unfortunately none of them panned out. We did find a hostel right on the beach but the rooms were sparse and the kitchen terrible. We enjoyed the beach setting for one day, but the noise and uncomfortable rooms had us looking for a new place at dawn. Luckily, we got to move to Luna Llena, our first choice, and I am very happily relaxed on the large porch lounging couch while listening to howler monkeys get closer. We were told that they will visit us here at least once a day. Yesterday we spent all afternoon at the beach. Cora was in the water for four straight hours. Tate built a fire pit and gathered wood (our children: water and fire). Steve and I went to buy food for dinner and by the time we were done shopping a storm blew in. It rained hard for several hours. All we could do

The ride to Santa Elana was very nice. Having the boat trip in the middle broke it up and the mountain views were gorgeous. We were in and out of the cloud forests and drove by many coffee plantations. We had never seen coffee flowering before and the smell is really nice. Very fragrant.  Our first choice hostel had a good room available so we are very happy here for two nights. Tina´s Casitas. Stave making lunch while I sit in the hammock There are lots of dogs here. Cora made friends with Snoopy and Charlie. They don´t like Tate though. They snarl and chase him. It´s very funny to watch. The bad thing is the transportation to get anywhere from the Monteverde area is really expensive and it's like they have fixed it so travelers have to use that expensive transport. The public buses are at 4:30am (!) or 2:30pm which makes you too late to get the ferry to the coast. There is one at 6am but it would take us seven hours as opposed to three because of the route. In

Yesterday we got up with no plans for the day. We made some breakfast, used the Internet cafe and called the debit card company. We are still in a holding pattern with that because we don't want to give up our cash line. I am keeping a close eye on the account but at this point we think the card got turned in to a bank. We decided to spend the afternoon at Baldi Hot Springs and included dinner in the tickets. We spent the afternoon lounging around in the thermal hot springs, which were varying degrees of temperature. There were about 20 of them  Steve and I took cat naps while the kids played on the watercourse.   Tate was very popular because when he came down there was a huge splash when he hit the water. Dinner was ok. Kinda like cruise ship food. After that the pools were lit up and most of the people were gone so it was really relaxing. This morning when we woke up the top of the volcano was visible. It peeked in and out of the clouds all day. I hope we can s

We went whitewater rafting today on the River Picuare. We had to get up early for a 6am pickup. After a two hour bus ride we had a hearty breakfast at the base then we rode in a van up into the mountain so we could raft down. There are not words for how awesome this day was. We basically went between a mountain and a volcano. Both covered with dense jungle vegetation. There were about 40 rapids and gorgeous deep canyons and a lightly cloudy sky so we didn't fry in the sun. Our guide (who looked like a Costa Rican Adam Sandler) was so great. We could not have asked for a better experience. One of those "it is awesome to be alive" days. No pictures though. Our camera is not waterproof. Right now we are relaxed and tired and on a 3 hour mini-bus (with the tour company we rafted with) ride to Volcan Arenal with people from Japan, Canada, Austria, and our Costa Rican bus driver. I'm listening to some Javier Mendoza and loving the travel life. Cora asl

I'm having a hard time getting used to the money in Costa Rica. We were able to use American dollars in panama but here they use the Colon. The exchange rate is 500 colons to the dollar. Yes, that was 500! It's hard to wrap your head around paying 1500c for water or getting 200,000c out of the ATM. I'm gonna catch up with some pictures now. Here is La Costa de Pepita front desk area and restaurant. Our front porch and Cora in her bunkbed with a mosquito net. Yesterday morning we had a delicious breakfast here at the hotel then walked about a kilometer to the Jaguar Rescue Center. Absolutely amazing! We got to hold and play with monkeys, pet several different types of sloths, Tate made friends with the little squirrel, Lino, and it rode on his back most of the time. This is the most I've ever seen Tate interact with an animal. Cora was in absolute heaven. Some of the monkeys were babies and would just crawl up on our shoulders. We also saw a hawk

Again, this computer will not take an SD card. However, I am drinking the best coffee I've ever had while writing this so it's mas-o-menos. (good and bad) We were only able to spend the one night in Bocas del Toro because we made reservations at a specific hotel in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica and they only let you cancel if the can rebook. Thus, for the third day in a row we were on the move. That is really exhausting so I'm glad we are in one place for at least three days now. It took us about five hours to get here from Bocas. We first had to get a water taxi to get back to mainland. They were very busy that day so we had to wait an hour for that. Then I splurged and paid for us to get a direct minibus to the border. Otherwise that would have been a taxi then two different busses to get there. Then we spent 30 minutes getting visas and stamped out of Panama. After that we walked across a rickety, rusted bridge into Costa Rica. From there another office for cus