Nate and I were able to get away to celebrate our 15th Anniversary! We chose Costa Rica and could not have been happier with our decision.
We left Saturday afternoon and spent the night in Miami! We stayed near the airport at the hotel with the food truck we discovered during our unexpected layover on the way to the Bahamas last year! We departed for San Jose bright and early the next morning!
We picked up our rental car and headed towards our first destination, La Fortuna, which was about a 3 hour drive from the airport. We arrived at our hotel (Amor Arenal) which was the most beautiful and luxurious hotel we've ever stayed out. Our room was absolutely stunning with a great view of Arenal volcano and the rainforest. We explored the grounds and had dinner at the hotel restaurant where we were surrounded by amazing views of Arenal. Although kind of hard to see, we spotted a toucan!
The next morning we started the day with ziplining at Sky Adventures! This was a crazy cool experience ziplining over the rainforest!
From here we headed to the Arenal Observatory lodge to walk the trails and climb the 146 step Nest Tower (which was pretty wobbly) for 360 degree views of Arenal.
Next we grabbed lunch at Soda El Turnito. Soda is a term used in Costa Rica to refer to small, family-run restaurants that serve traditional Tico (Costa Rican) food. We tried to eat lunch at these type of places whenever possible!
Our last stop for the day was North Fields Coffee and Chocolate tour. We got to follow the whole process from growing to processing and even got to taste various types of chocolate and blends of coffee! At the very start of the tour we tasted cacao seeds (pictured below). I didn't realize (or maybe just never thought about) how a fermentation process of these seeds starts the process of making chocolate!
We headed back to the hotel to freshen up before heading back out to dinner. We ate at a restaurant just down the road from our hotel, Bongos. We both enjoyed our food!
Our first stop the next day was the Mistico Hanging Bridges. We got there early to beat the crowds and pretty much felt like we had the place to ourselves! We didn't see much wildlife, but we enjoyed the bridges, the views and the sounds of nature! When we were finishing up, so many people were arriving on tour buses!
From here we headed to check out the free hot springs we had read about (El Choyin)! We precariously parked on the side of the road and climbed down below a bridge. It was so warm and relaxing, and totally a spot the locals go.
Next was lunch at Soda La Hormiga. This was our favorite food of the whole trip! The smoothies were so good, too!
From here we headed to see La Fortuna Waterfall. The water was freezing but Nate braved it and went all the way in while I just put my feet in! The 530 steps down felt like nothing compared to the 530 step climb back up! :)
We finished up the day enjoying the pools at our hotel and dinner at Que Rico! We both had the taste for pizza, and were super happy with this place!
The next morning we took a quick hike along the Nanciton Trail on the grounds of our resort before checking out. From here we headed to Manuel Antonio, which was about a 5 hour drive without stops. We powered through most of the way, stopping only in Tarcoles to see the crocodiles and Jaco for a much needed iced coffee.
We finally arrived at our hotel, Arenas Del Mar! First impressions were great, it was absolutely beautiful and we got to see a sloth up in a tree on our way to our room! Our room had a great ocean front view!
We had a nice dinner at the hotel and did our best to avoid the overwhelming emergence of the Halloween crabs! I couldn't get a video of the crabs to load for some reason (probably for the best) but the picture below will give you an idea of how many were just outside one door!! Thank goodness our room was on the 4th floor and the crabs were not making their way up there!
I loved starting my mornings with coffee and a view!
We spent the first half of the day at Manuel Antonio National Park! We saw tons of wildlife and even got quite close with some monkeys, one of which snatched a package of baby wipes straight out of the bag of the people in front of us!! We also enjoyed exploring some of the beaches only accessible through the National Park. 
We did not have a guide but were able to listen in on other groups! Would have had no idea there was something to look at here. Perched on that middle stubby branch is the common potoo, also known as the Pajara Estaca (stick bird). During they day they camouflage themselves on broken branches.
After a fun morning we left and had lunch at El Avion. The restaurant was built around an old cargo plane and has beautiful views!
We spent the rest of the day relaxing back at our hotel's private beach!
It started to rain so we went back to our room to change for dinner. We "enjoyed" a windy/rainy/humid dinner under the tent on the beach! ;)
The next day was our last day at the resort. We had breakfast and spent the morning soaking up the views from the infinity pool.
We started our drive back towards the airport and stopped in the town of Quepos for some souvenir shopping and lunch at Soda Sanchez.
What should have been a 3 hour drive took about 6 hours due to a terrible storm that caused the main road to San Jose to be closed. We sat for quite a while in stand still traffic before we knew the road had been closed. We then had to turn around and back track a little bit before taking the long way around!
We finally got back to San Jose and checked into our hotel near the airport. We ventured out to McDonalds for dinner before returning our rental car and crashing at the hotel before our early 6 am flight. McDonalds in Costa Rica has fried chicken on the menu. I was afraid I would regret not trying it, so grabbed that to go. It was really good!
We were both pretty happy to see a Starbucks at 4 am at the airport the next morning! :)
We are so beyond blessed to have had this much needed time away together! It wouldn't have been possible without our parents loving on the girls while we were gone! Can't thank you guys enough!
