Little Chickens

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Arrival In Costa Rica

The start of this adventure was a 3:30 am wake-up call to get the airport by 4:30. As per custom I was stopped by security because I don't seem to 'get' the whole no liquid thing. Security let me slide with my four individual applesauce containers. After that it was 3 easy flights to San Jose. At 2 pm we arrived to lush green mountains just as we remembered from our first adventure in Costa Rica 13 years ago. Our next stint at the car rental wasn't so easy. Apparently there was a brawl before we arrived and everyone at Europcar as well as the police were involved. We sat there for 2 hours waiting for our car. Xavier met a pal and so began his immersion back into Spanish. Unfortunately so did mine. My Spanish has gone from bad to very bad.

The car was received and we ventured through Alajuela up to our moutain Ecolodge, Tacacori. We drove straight up and had a lovely view of San Jose. Martin decided that we needed to get some exercise so we walked to find some dinner which took us to 6pm or in Costa Rica pitch dark. And so we walked home up the mountain in the dark and got back safely after dodging some cars and motorcycles.

The kids were up early and so we had breakfast, got packed and showered by 8 am. We stopped at Costa Rica's version of Byerlys and noted that Costa Rica has become very expensive since we were last here. I quickly spent about $100 dollars on snacks. Yikes!!

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Mexico 2009

10 hours after we left our house we arrived at Xpu-Ha Palace in Xpuha, Mexico, one hour south of Cancun. We were dropped off at a beautiful open air lobby in the jungle and handed a hibiscus scented wet towel and a glass of champagne. We were then carted off to our two story thatched roof room in the jungle. After we arrived to a beautiful, clean room a bottle of red wine and a fruit plate was delivered. We changed and had dinner at the outdoor restaurant where there was not only a cat begging, but also a sweet faced raccoon. Because we were so tired we went back to our room and went to our very comfortable beds. Quinn woke us daily at 6:30 after he peered out the window and announced it was morning time and we all needed to get up. We ventured out to check out our environment and found a beautiful water park complete with 3 swift moving water slides. We also discovered a fresh water estuary with a rumored manatee. Xavier and Martin were fortunate enough to get bikes but because they didn't have tricycles Quinn and I walked. On our tour we found the deer sanctuary, turtles, crocodiles, flamingos, bird dome, monkeys, margays and coatimundi (my personal favorite). We were able to see the croc feeding. They eat two raw chickens every two weeks. Martin and Xav also saw the snake feeding where Xavier somehow was not disturbed watching the pythons eat live mice. The hotel also boasted a couple of cenotes, or underground rivers where plenty of fish and turtles were waiting to be fed, which we obliged daily. If we could we would come back to this hotel annually. It was far better than the rest of the places we have stayed. The service was fantastic and the grounds were beautiful. Xavier made two friends-Koya and Mason who both happened to be from Alaska. Xavier and Mason held down the kids club and they spent their time together biking all the paths. Xavier noted that "Mexico has a lot of dead ends." The beach in front of the hotel was unfortunately devastated by the 2005 hurricane and all that was left a very rocky, unswimmable beach. We had to walk to another hotel property to get our beach time. And it was a good thing we got some beach time because apparently Quinn chose to eat sand rather than eat the plentiful food the resort provided. While Xavier was at the kid's club Quinn happily hung out with mom and dad.
Our second week we ventured to Playa del Carmen to the Iberostar Quetzal. The lobby again was breathtaking and the grounds and paths and jungle were fabulous, but then we got to our room. After our last hotel this room was a dump. I tried to get over it and focus on the grounds, the beautiful beach with the typical Caribbean white sand and clear waters, and the sound of howler monkeys. Xavier again made another friend, Brady from Chicago, and they spent their days at the kids club with Michelle who thankfully loved their energy. I would periodically hear shouts of "no Xavier" "don't do that Xavier" as we sipped our new favorite the Banana Colada. The ice cream stand was right at the entrance of the beach and Quinn announced one day that he would have "fresa" ice cream. While Martin and I enjoyed the banana colada unbeknown to us Xavier had found coca-cola at the kid's club. Aye caramba! We knew then why he was running the beach 100 miles per hour. He tried to reason with us that since we were drinking so much beer that he should also drink soda pop all day. That kid doesn't allow much to slip by him. Here we enjoyed the howler monkeys, peacocks, other big birds, agoutis, flamingos, chickens and RATS! Ugh! One night after a good number of drinks I heard a thrashing in the jungle and look to see what I thought was a small coatimundi and then realized was a big rat.
It was so nice to get away from the cold and get some warmth and fresh air. We all enjoyed our time away but two weeks was a little excessive for the kids.