Old Dog - More New Tricks!
Our Christmas vacation in Costa Rica was so much fun. When my son invited me on this trip, he asked if I wanted to go ziplining. Since I’ve gotten older, I have a fear of heights that I never used to have before. Because of this, I knew ziplining would not be for me. My granddaughters tried to talk me into it, but I knew I wasn’t cut out for this. Instead, I decided to stay at the beautiful Air BNB while the rest of the family embarked on this thrilling adventure.
Although my plan was to enjoy the house and its beautiful grounds and read a book, I had a bit of excitement myself when I locked myself out of the house on the side balcony. Luckily, I had just gone to the bathroom, and I had my cell phone in hand. The balcony had glass sliding doors. Because we were in the jungle, there were so many insects – particularly moths that would fly into the house as soon as you opened the door. To ensure I wouldn’t let these critters in, I closed the glass doors once on the balcony. Immediately, I heard the lock click and I knew was in trouble. I didn’t realize that the doors would automatically lock. I stood there for a long second thinking about what to do. I then noticed that there were landscapers on the grounds. I screamed in English for help. Because they didn’t know what I was saying, they simply waved “hello.”
I finally got one of the landscapers to come to the adjacent balcony. We were arm’s lengths from each other but there was a gap between the railings and at least a six-foot drop to the bottom floor. I could feel myself starting to panic. Then, quite naturally, I shifted to a “Lucille Ball” mentality. I had an app on my phone that did English to Spanish translation and vice versa. I knew how to ask the landscaper his name in Spanish, but I did not understand his answer. We shared my phone back and forth translating information about keys and locating the manager and codes for the front door. In between translations, I was pacing the floors. Frustrated and desperate to get off the balcony, I swung one leg over the railing when, to my surprise, my son called. God is good! My son gave me the code for the front door. I then translated the code to the landscaper – who then was able to get into the house and unlock the glass doors. What a crazy mess!
There were no tricks in this adventure – just an old desperate dog! The tricks and adventure come later in this trip with pictures to prove it. Read on!
The next day, we went on a Chocolate & Coffee Tour with the Don Juan tours in La Fortuna.
Chocolate begins with the cacao bean.
Costa Rica is one of the birthplaces of cacao and is known as one of the countries in the world where high quality cocoa is produced. Cacao was Costa Rica’s leading export before bananas and coffee took over.
We had fun learning about chocolate production and making our own chocolate bars.
Costa Rica is also famous for its aromatic coffee.
In 1829, the country’s coffee production overtook that of tobacco, sugar, and cacao to become the country’s biggest export.
My second excursion on this trip – not including the balcony disaster – was the Eco Termales Hot Springs. I have never experienced hot springs before. It was a pleasure to walk easily into the water without having to get acclimated to cold water.
After our hot springs experience, we had a typical Costa Rican dinner at the resort that included rice, black beans, plantains, pork, chicken, and so much more.
The next day, we went on a guided tour to find sloths in the Bogarin Trail.
The guide had a high powered binocular system. He took this picture by placing the camera lens on my phone on top of the binocular lens.
This was an amazing tour that included more than just sloths.
Our guide pointed out both red and green poisonous frogs that are quite small and prevalent in the area. Here’s a picture of one of the green frogs!
After the sloth tour, we headed to Mistico Arenal Hanging Bridges.
This was beautiful and somewhat scary since the bridges swayed with every step taken.
You may be wondering what the suspense is for the new tricks I mentioned in the title of this blog. Well, it was Christmas Eve, and our last excursion was the absolute BEST.
We went TUBING!
Now when I signed up for this, I envisioned a slow-moving river – a nice relaxing stroll with beautiful scenery on both sides. Well, it was beautiful – but far from slow moving!
I laughed and screamed with joy. I got stuck on rocks and had to shimmy myself off. I twirled in all directions and had such a fun time.
At the airport, my son asked each of us what was their favorite experience. Hands down – for me, it was TUBING! I’ve never done anything like this before and I was so happy to do it with my son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughters.
Old dog – new tricks – can’t wait for what 2023 has in store!
Let me know in the comments below if you have ever been to Costa Rica. If so, did you do some of the same excursions or something different? Have you ever gone tubing before? If so, where did you go.
Hope you are inspired! God bless all!
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