As I sit writing this post about our 2016 January trip to Costa Rica, it is already January 8th of the following year, 2017. Wow! I have not made one single post in 2016. :( However, I am determined once again to get the blog caught up because my kids love when I have printed blog book for them to look back and reflect on all our family memories.
Our blog this year will mainly be filled with pictures and not a lot of descriptions because it will be hard to remember all the details throughout an entire year of not having posted anything.
January 2nd through the 9th we took our annual family vacation to the gorgeous Dreams Las Mareas resort in La Cruz Gte., Costa Rica.
They screamed through their snorkels when they saw water snakes.
We had cute monkeys at our resort.
A strawberry daiquiri break from all that digging in the sand.
We had a jet tub on our balcony where the kids loved taking baths after a long day of playing in the ocean.
Costa Rica was full of tons of new creates for the kids to discover from snails, 100s of hermit crabs, different birds, monkeys, and their favorite were these little slugs or snails or jelly fish (we're not sure) that would pop up from he sand.
Gorgeous evening sunsets from our room.
Simon planned another spectacular adventure day for us like he has done the past couple trip. This year we took up a full day of traveling to the country of Nicaragua. Wow! What an adventure that was to cross the border from Costa Rica to Nicaragua. It was a little intense with the Nicaraguan army standing with guns and 100s of cubans lining the border on the Costa Rica side wanting for months sleeping on the streets trying to cross and make their way to the states. It was very eye opening for Ava and Dylan (and Simon and I as well). No pictures were allowed to be taken of course.
We made it across the border where we were greeted by our very friendly and welcoming tour guide, Rudolfo. He started our tour off with a local Nicaraguan, delicious breakfast in the city of Rivas.
After breakfast we toured the local village and...
... got to see some of their various markets but also go to see first hand how poor their country is.
Took a little convincing but they finally let me try out the tour bike. It was much harder than it looks.
Next, it was onto the sites of an erupted volcano crater that has filled with rain water and is now the Apoyo Lagoon between Masaya and Granada.
I loved these cute little tourist cars they had.
The second volcano we traveled to was an active volcano, Valle de Roca in the city of Masaya. It had last erupted in 1772.
Here's Rudolfo helping the kids pick out a piece of lava rock to take home.
Rudolfo surprised Dylan with a sling shot that he purchased for him in Granada so that Dylan could shoot rocks into the volcano. I'm pretty sure we wouldn't have been able to do this in the US.
Of course we all then had to take a few shots as well.
I'm pretty sure we also would never have been able to get this close to looking straight down into an active volcano in the US either...
...nor would we have been able to tumble huge rocks down into the active volcano. The kids could have played here for hours but, Rudolfo made sure we didn't stay too long because it wasn't safe to breath in all the volcano vapors.
Onto our next destination was a horse carriage tour through the city of Granada.
The kids each took a turn at driving the horses.
Granda was full of colorful buildings and old, burned down churches.
We stopped at a chocolate factory where there kids smashed up some cacoa beans and...
...Simon and I took different chocolate liquor shots. Ave took a drink of her soda to feel included.
Last but, not least before heading back to the Dreams Resort in Costa Rica, we took an amazing boat ride across Lake Nicaragua.
Over the years of giving tours, Rudolfo had be-friended some monkey's living on the islands and knew the tricks for getting them to jump into his boat. Grapes!!
One monkey was fond of my backpack carrying the kids snacks. The kids thought this was hilarious.
Such a cool experience to be so close to wild life.
After a big snack, we dropped the monkeys back off at their little island. It was a long day in Nicaragua but, worth every minute of it.
Big game of chess with dad.
This photo was photoshopped by our good friend Al. That would be amazing if Dylan could truly jump that high.
It's always sad when our vacation is over. We loved Costa Rica.
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