Day 3: Hiking & Kayaking & Hot springs, oh my!

Pura Vida!
Sorry for the delay - the internet went out on us last night, but looks like it's back & working this morning!!
What a day yesterday it was!  We started off with a lovely hike down to the base of La Fortuna Waterfall.  Even the trek down was precarious, but the view at the bottom was the reward...and it was spectacular!  Kids went into the water, swimming a bit, and other climbed rocks and sat and admired the beauty of nature.  Remember what goes down, must go up, so hiking back up was a great stairmaster work out.

Hiking down to La Fortuna waterfall...remember we'll have to come back up...

La Fortuna Waterfall

After the hike, with our Tour Director, Mario!

After our leg work out, and some ice cream (!!), we headed to Lake Arenal for some kayaking.  We were actually fortunate that it was cloudy, otherwise I'd probably have some fried kids right now.  They still got some sun today thru the clouds, working on our tans.  Unfortunately we couldn't see Arenal Volcano due to clouds, but the cruise around the lake was marvelous!  Kids had a blast!  We took group shots, stopped for a swim, and then made the long trek back.

Kayaking on Lake Arenal

Brooklyn & Brianne ready for fun!

Sam & Mychaela did a nice job rowing in sync...and singing!

A.J. - King of his boat!

Kelsey & Regan taking a break.

Back to the hotel we went for lunch (which kids said was their favorite meal today).  We went to a coffee store where the owner, like everyone, asks where we were from - Iowa.  But this time, he actually knew of the Quad Cities as he used to supply coffee for Java Java and The Rock youth center/Church!!  Small world!!  He turned us into coffee snobs and told us how to look for good coffee, and we got to sample some.  Shopped a bit in La Fortuna town and then heade to Baldi Hot Springs.  There were many pools to enjoy at differing temps & depths & designs. And after a long day, it's good for your muscles!

Baldi Hot Springs

Was a bit humid today, but nothing like Iowa summers.  Kids summary at the end of the day of their favorite part was La Fortuna waterfall.  They're all amazed that we just finished Day 3 as it sometimes feels like we've been here a week because of all the stuff they've done.  Overall favorite things have been Poas Volcano on Day 2 and La Fortuna Day 3.

We're super excited for today, Day 4, as we have our school visit today!!!!!
So stay tuned, feel free to comment, and hopefully we'll have internet at our next hotel, bunkbed-ville, then drug town, then swans...(inside jokes that the kids told me to post!!)  :)

Pura Vida to all!  Stay warm, Iowans!!
Happy Belated St. Patrick's Day!  Erin go bragh!

Day 2: Amazing nature!

Sloths and frogs and spiders and turtles and iguanas...oh my!!

What a day we have had!!  

We had an early start to our day and headed out to the Biodiversity park - amazing!  First animal we saw was a sloth!!  Kids so elated!!  It's like a big jungle with different sections reflecting the different regions of CR.  We saw another sloth later - Bonus! Saw multiple iguanas.  Cool frogs - gross tarantulas (my opinion)...but all of sudden we started to hear noises...sounded like Jurassic park come to life.  Sure enough, over in the kiddie zone were robotic dinosaurs...and a playground.  Well, we couldn't pass up a playground, now could we?!!?

Dinosaurs in CR - who knew?!?

Playing in the kiddie zone at the BIOparque! Pura Vida!

 After a few hrs, there, we headed out of San Jose and into Costa Rica - gorgeous!  So green...amazing vegetation!  Winding roads we a little much, but we all survived.  Our main stop was Poas Volcano, which isn't always easy to see.  Boy, did we luck out - the kids got some gorgeous shots as we could see right into the crater!

Poas Volcano!

After lunch, we headed to Sarchi to see how the ox carts are made, did some shopping, and then wound our way towards the Arenal region.  We have an amazing hotel with little cabanas - kind of feels like we're camping!  One room had a few bugs too many, so we took care of that and they are much happier!!

Weather was gorgeous - a bit chilly at the volcano, but sun was shining!!
Tomorrow is another amazing day: La Fortuna Waterfall, Kayaking on Lake Arenal, coffee plantation and Baldi Hot Springs!

Pura Vida!!

Day 1: San Jose

Welcome to Costa Rica!  We arrived safe & sound....after a mad dash thru the Atlanta Airport. So proud of the kids on their packing skills - all in carry-ons!!  It was a quick 2 hr flight to Atlanta, then 4 hrs down to San Jose.  We were met by another guide as ours was finishing another tour, so Empe took us to our hotel (lovely), got us checked in and then took us exploring!  And exploring we did!!  We grabbed some much needed water and headed for lunch.  Then, being the adventurous souls we are, grabbed a city bus to head down town.  Kids had many modes of transport today: plane, train, mini-van, bus...such world travelers in a short amount of time!
We hit the market downtown so the kids could get beach towels, then off to the supermarket for sunscreen & bug spray...all things that don't fit in that darn 1 qt baggie...but you can have pocket knifes?!?!  The logic of it all....
We wandered around the main square, saw the Teatro Nacional, Catedral, and a bunch of pigeons - big highlights today!  Caught the bus back...on a Friday at rush hour...super crowded.  Met our travel partners, the Canadians, at dinner.  Think it will be a fun mix...all girls with them, so AJ and Mario, our Tour Director, will be the kings of the Costa Rican jungle!
We are one hour behind, so Mountain time, as they did not observe Daylight Savings time.
Kids (and I) had a great day - we're a bit tired, but that's good for a first day.
Tomorrow proves to be a great one with 2 volcanos and a rainforest!
Pura Vida!!

Sam & Mychaela's first meal in CR:  Chicken Nuggets & French Fries :)

Pura Vida!!

 

Costa Rica here we come!!

Friday we're off for our Spring Break trip to Costa Rica! It's a 10-day trip. I have 7 students going - 6 girls, 1 boy.  We're paired up with a group of 17 from Canada.  We have great flights (Moline-Atlanta-San Jose) and we arrive by noon.  

We've been prepping & planning for this for quite some time, so it's finally becoming a reality for us and we are excited!!
As you can see from the shirts above, we picked a great blue this tour.
Keep up in your thoughts & prayers for safe travels, great new friends, and an amazing adventure!!
Follow along!
Pura Vida!!
~steph :)

Day 20...21: Homeward Bound

LIS --> EWR --> ORD --> MLI

Sadly, all good things must come to an end...and our 20 day journey is about to conclude! We have had such an amazing time...and seen some amazing things...and done some amazing stuff... it's hard to believe this journey started almost 3 weeks ago and now we're done...

The above picture is with our friends from Colorado.  It's our human version of the Spanish flag.  :)

After a bit of a delay by a jerk in Lisbon, we made it to our gate in time to say good-bye to our CO & MO friends before our flight to Newark. 

The kids were all seated together across the row from each other. Ready for our long flight.  It was a pretty decent flight with fairly decent food too.   I was up in Economy Plus...score!... and ended up with an entire row to myself...heaven!  All our seats had personal tv's in the back of the seats with movies on demand, but most of us slept thru them .

We had a 4.5 hr layover in Newark during which a huge storm rolled thru, thus when we went to leave, planes were backed up.  While we were waiting, we were allowed to use cell phones and I found out our flight from Chicago to Moline was delayed 2 hours!  Ugh!!

So, once we got to O'hare, we headed to our gate to find our 9:10 flight delayed until 11:10 due to a late aircraft from Omaha, so off we headed to the food court, only to run into a HS classmate of mine that I haven't seen in years, who was also on our Moline flight.  Small world!!

So, our 20 day journey turned into 21 as we arrived right around midnight to an awesome welcome home committee complete with cookies!!  :)  All our luggage arrived adding to the excitement of it all.  :)  A good time was had by all!

Over all, I feel quite blessed to have had the priveledge of taking some amazing kids across my favorite country.  They never once complained. They were up for everything and anything...including many evening adventures for ice cream.  They were the best group of kids for this trip and I couldn't ask for any better attitudes and better kids!!  I enjoyed watching them all become life-long friends as the boys didn't really know the girls, and vice versa, prior to the trip.  It was cool to watch them get along & bond & really enjoy each other's company.  They will always have these memories with each other for the rest of their lives...and I feel sooo lucky to have been a part of the adventure... They will be a hard act to follow for the next group.

~steph :)

Day 19: Sintra + Cascais = Paradise

What a lovely few days in Portugal it has been.  When asked, the kids immediately agreed they were happy that we did this extension to Portugal...minus the cow incident...poor things...

Today's half-day excursion took us to two lovely towns along the coastline.

Our first stop was in the lovely village of Sintra, nestled in the hills, where we visited the National Palace (above).  We have seen many Royal palaces along our 20 day journey, but this one was still different than the others...with it's ceiling of geese, another with magpies, huge kitchen & the two big chimneys, and gorgeous chapel...all amazing!  We got some time to wander the town, try some quejaida pastries (delish), and then see a fire brigade parade...nice little Sunday surprise!

We then headed through a gorgeous national park to the beautiful beach town of Cascais.  It was a bit windy today, hence the picture above with everyone trying to keep their skirts from blowing over their heads...luck would have it that pretty much on every day the girls wore skirts, it was windy...crazy timing of it all!

We did a stop in the town of Cascais and just enjoyed the ocean breeze, the sailboats, and the view.

We had our bus driver, Evo, drop us off in center city Lisbon, so as to have some time to wander.  After lunch, I headed up to Hard Rock...yep, got the t-shirt!!
After a train ride back to Estoril (that's where our hotel is), the kids hit the beach for some last minute portuguese sun and rock jumping.

We had our last meal as one big happy family.  Here the kids are with the other 2 groups on our extension from Colorado & from Missouri.  These guys all got along splendidly throughout the whole trip and had some good laughs at their last dinner...which was beef, by the way....poor cows... lol

We said some good-bye's tonight, but as all our flights are within 10 minutes of each other, we'll be seeing them until we get on separate planes to the US.  We thanked our AMAZING tour director, Fran, for all the knowledge & wisdom he imparted on to us over the 19 days with him.  What a fascinating character he is!  I hope this trip has helped inspire the kids to continue traveling and learning, because that's what it's all about.

Our travel day starts in about 9 hours, so I need to get some sleep.  Parents - we'll call when we hit US soil, as well as when we're leaving Chicago to confirm our arrival Monday night.

Thanks for following along on this amazing journey!  We have appreciated the comments people have left - it's fun to see who's following us and joining our travels!

See you all soon!!
~steph :)

Day 18: Lisbon!!

Well, after our night train adventure, we were hungry, so we headed to TelePizza for a quick, semi-cheap lunch.

We stopped here, at the Tower of Belem, where many navigators set sail from.  As you can see, it was a gorgeous day in Lisbon.

This statue is for all those explorers. It's situated along the riverfront of the Tagus river.

We also went up to the top of the city for some great views of the entire place....awesom!!
After an afternoon of touring, we were all pretty pooped and headed back to our hotel, checked in, grabbed dinner, watched the Spain v. France....good day....

 Our nightly adventure started us down on the beach - cold sand, cold water...

...and it ended at a BP station that was closed, but had a window over there on the left for you to order.  Ordering ice cream thru a drive-thru menu...good stuff!!

Our hotel is a few yards from the beach - it's a nice place - good food - expensive wi-fi...so I must jet!
Tomorrow is our last full day in Europe....sadness reigns in the kingdom...
Tak more soon!!
~steph :)