June 30, 2019
It was dark when we arrived and the kids were beyond exhausted that first night so we were excited to open our curtains the next morning to see San Jose, Costa Rica! We had a view of the National Soccer Stadium. During breakfast we met our guide and hopped on a bus with another family to head towards Arenal with a couple of fun stops along the way.
We made a pit stop for the most amazing strawberry smoothies.
Our first activity was the LaPaz Waterfall Gardens where we saw lots of animals and incredible waterfalls. I enjoyed the waterfalls and the frog house the most!
Because the frogs are nocturnal, they were all sleeping on different leaves...it was like hide and seek trying to find them as they were so camoflauge!
After the waterfalls, we were headed to our hotel in Arenal to settle in before checking out a nearby hot springs. With an hour left in our drive, we came across a roadblock. Something we had been warned about when first arriving in Costa Rica. The week before, several protests had started and people were blocking the road with semi-trucks as a way of protesting the new VAT tax. We ultimately made the difficult and safest decision to turn around and drive back up the mountain to try a new route. Up and down the mountain, 3 roadblocks and 6.5 hours later we finally arrived at our hotel by 11pm. Exhausted and feeling car sick we got into bed as quick as possible.
In the moment, this experience in the bus felt pretty miserable, however, we were all reminded that we can do hard things and that when traveling, especially in another country, you never know what's going to happen and you just have to roll with it. The kids were amazing in the bus and I was super proud of all of us for how we handled the less than ideal situation on the first day of our vacation.
