Trip to Coco Beach

We made it to Coco Beach, about 10 minutes from our Villa, for some souvenir shopping. Our cab driver Luis dropped us off for a few hours to shop. It is a small town a few hours was plenty of time to get it all done. Makayla had brought some school supplies to give to some needy students in Costa Rica. This was personally the highlight of our outing, maybe our trip. Luis took us to what is equivalent to our ghetto where very poor people live. We parked the car and got to meet several boys who were out playing soccer. We had to move quickly because the whole village started to come to see what the Gringos were bringing them. Their ages ranged from 8-12. We gave them all of the school supplies we had and asked them to share with their brothers and sisters. Were they thankful to have these pens, pencils, paper and other school supplies.... pretty humbling and touching experience to meet such people. With the struggles they face these boys had happiness and joy in their eyes... amazing!

Tamarindo Beach

Tamarindo Beach was about 1 hour drive from where we stayed. It is known for it's world renound surfing there. We were told that it would be crouded and that we could find a more secluded area, but we didn't find it too crowded at all, I guess we were comparing it to our crowded beaches. So we stayed there for the day, some of us surfed, body boarded and played in the sand.

This is a picture of from the coast.

Here is Makayla surfing on a longboard.

Mo getting up on her board for the first time, only after a local named "the magic man" touched her board.

The girls playing in the sand.

zip line

We had a wonderful time in Costa Rica! We stayed in at Villa Ocotal, which is in Guanacaste. Near Coco Beach for anyone familiar with the area. We enjoyed hanging out by the pool at the villa and we also got out several times for some exploring and fun.

Our first outing was a big one, mud baths, natural volcano sauna, horseback riding and zip lining through the jungle. This was a packaged deal through a mountain resort in Costa Rica. It was about a 1 1/2 hour drive to this mountain resort from our villa. The mud bath was interesting, refreshing... something I've never done before. We washed off in a natural hot spring. Then we continued to the natural volcano sauna. The heat that came in was unbelievably hot and smelled strongly of sulfur. After all of this we changed into our regular clothing and had an outstanding lunch which was made from all the resources right at this resort, no supermarkets needed. Needless to say, it was probably the best meal I've ever had. Finally the grand finale... we horseback rode to the top of the zip line route. Horses were fun, I could tell mine had been up the hill a few times that day, but I did manage to get him up to a gallop for a while. Made me miss having one of my own to ride. Then once we were at the top my panic set in... I was the only one who wasn't nervous about it... until this point. Once I got past the first one my adrenaline set in and I was okay, but I was super nervous about my 3 year old though, panic set in and then never left. If she could have been in my arms the whole time I would have been okay, but she had to leave me to get across with one of the workers. This was too hard for me... then at times she was at the other end for a while waiting for a worker to come along to ride with her... panic... finally the guy took her and I down to the bottom (Ahead of the group) near the last few lines... he had to get back to print the pics he took of us. I was relieved. All and all great fun, but the least nervous one (me) had the most trouble...lol

Here is Charlotte, she looks a little stressed doesn't she? She was... hard for her mommy to watch.

Can you see any adrenaline flowing? I think this was after the second line. There were a total of 11 lines.