Our Honeymoon in Costa Rica

We stayed the first couple of days in the DFW airport at the Hyatt.  We went to Rainforest Café for lunch one of the days. 

The second day in Costa Rica we took a shuttle to the Observatory Lodge near the Arenal volcano.  We had a great view of the volcano from our room- it was neat just to be outside and watch the top of it glow at night.   We even heard it rumble a couple of times. We also saw some “wildlife” around the lodge– including a lightning bug (which had “eyes” that lit up as opposed to the other end of the bug), some birds, and howler monkeys.  We took a couple of hikes around this hotel– on one hike we saw a lava flow area where we stood and had a good view of the volcano as well as the lake.  While in Arenal, we also went on a horseback-riding trip to the canopy tour site.  On the canopy tour– we zip-lined from one tree platform to another, and on the last zip we even got to hang upside-down!  We also enjoyed the hot tub (the pool was a bit cool) and candlelight dinners at this hotel!

The first night and last night in Costa Rica (CR) we stayed a hotel near the airport in San Jose.  The hotel provided a good breakfast (Kyle especially liked the bread pudding.)  The hotel was beautiful with a view of the Poas volcano and lots of interesting/pretty plants.

The fourth day we traveled to another site around the Arenal volcano and stayed at a kind of fancy resort place with unlimited access to the hot springs!  The hot springs were neat...with a

The sixth day we traveled to Samara beach where we stayed at a hotel with kind of an apartment set-up.  We even had a little kitchen where we made breakfast after we went to the grocery store and bought things like a yummy papaya and pineapple.  OH!- one day Jessica pulled the shower curtain closed and a tarantula fell off and onto the floor!  There was also an iguana-type animal that lived outside one of the hotel rooms.  At Samara, we generally spent the afternoon at the beach, came back and jumped in the pool for a few minutes, and then spent the evenings walking around the town and having a nice dinners– one time we ate at a waterfront restaurant.  It was neat to walk on the beach at night when the water was at low tide and we could walk much further out than we could during the day.  We also liked watching for crabs on the beach and chasing them around– they’re pretty fast little boogers!  One day, we went kayaking out to a little island where we went snorkeling.  While snorkeling, we saw bright blue fish, a neat sea urchin, and a small octopus (that we touched and felt its suction!)  While kayaking back we saw a big sea turtle swimming too!  Another day at the beach we went surfing!  We took a lesson and also got an hour of practice time on our own after the lesson.  It was tough, but lotsa fun and we did manage to get up on the board some of the times...especially when the the instructor was pushing the board...and telling us when to go...and when the waves were smaller.  It was a bit more difficult when we went out on our own and the waves were bigger and we had no instructor! 

On the ninth day, we traveled back to Alajuela and stayed at the same hotel where we spent the first night.  That night, we walked around downtown and had dinner (Jessica’s seafood soup had whole crabs at the bottom of the bowl!) The morning of our last day, we went to a zoo where we finally saw monkeys a little closer than when we saw them from the road swinging in trees. 

Comments?   kyle@kyleandjessica.net    or    jess@kyleandjessica.net

fun waterslide, lizards running all around, and thermal pools and waterfalls!  From this site, we took a trip to a cave and got very muddy as we got on our hands and knees to crawl through tight spaces...we also saw lots of cute bats.  I wanted to take one home.  

For more pictures go to our photo album page.