Day 3 - Costa Rica: The Zip Line

Day 3 started out much like Day 2. The birds and monkeys started making noise about 4:00 am. This time, I woke up early. After Kevin got up, I took some picture from our floor and then we went for a stroll on the beach.

I thought these were monkey footprints, but now I'm thinking they belong to a raccoon, since we saw one on the beach the first night.

The cacti were scattered on the hills.

We really didn't see many shells on the beach. it was mostly rocks and coral. I was going to bring some coral home, but then read later that it was illegal to remove anything from the beach. I really didn't want to end up in a prison in Costa Rica!

After our walk, we came back to the room and had breakfast delivered. Can I just say that their version of skim milk is...interesting. It did not taste right. If it came from the skinny cows that we saw on the way to the resort, I can understand why!

This was our day for the zip line. The day that Kevin has been dreading for two months now - ever since he picked the activities that we would participate in for the trip. For those of you who know him well, he is terrified of heights! He started plotting ways to either avoid or survive the adventure. Some of those included "maybe it will rain that day" or "maybe I'll ask for some medication from the doctor to help me through it". Neither of those happened.

We headed up to the lobby to meet up with the group. When we got there, we were asked to sign a waiver releasing the resort from any injuries that we might incur on the trip. Nice! Then we loaded up the buses and drove about 20 minutes to Witch's Rock Canopy Tour. As soon as we got there, we were sent to the office to sign another waiver, saying we wouldn't sue them if something happened to us. Kevin was feeling pretty confident at this point!

After signing our life away for the 2nd time, we were sent to get our gear on. It was extremely attractive and quite comfortable.

They geared up everyone, which took a little while and then said "is everyone ready to rock and roll?" Uh, are they going to give us any instruction?! We hiked up a hill and when we got to the top we got about 3 minutes of instruction - you brake with your right hand, hold on to the straps with the left, and don't put your hand in front of the thing on the wire. We felt confident and ready - ha! They snapped a shot of the entire group and we began. Check out the expression on Kevin's face. It's classic!

At about the 3rd zip, they took the individual pictures.

Kevin took this picture at the beginning of the longest and highest zip and then again about half way through.

There were a total of 11 zip lines, 2 suspension bridges(very difficult for Kevin), 4 ladders to climb and a lot of hiking! It was definitely a workout! You'll have to ask Kevin about getting stuck at the first zip and then taking out one of the workers towards the end. He did it, though! As you can see from the picture, he was very relieved when it was all over! I loved it! I am already researching places to zip line around here. I'm thinking it's going to be a girl's outing.

We went back to the Four Seasons and were very happy to lounge by the pool the rest of the afternoon. With the helmet and equipment and hiking, we got pretty hot - not to mention the fact that is was 90 something degrees.

There was a market on the beach where I bought some more "authentic" handmade items for the kids.

That evening was the Awards dinner. It was held at the golf course clubhouse. It was dark, but what we could see was beautiful. After dinner, they introduced each person and told of their accomplishments for the year. They also announced the next trip planned for 2012. Needless to say, I will be encouraging Kevin to qualify for that trip. It will be at the Four Seasons Resort in Nevis, West Indies. Can you blame me?!

Day 2 - Costa Rica

Day 2 began kind of early. The birds and other creatures start making noise about 4:00 am. I didn't hear them, but Kevin said it woke him up. We got up and walked around the resort a little. Then we went to breakfast and sat outside at the restaurant. We had a bird friend join us. It was their blue jay or magpie. It was pretty big and really pretty.

After breakfast we went to the pool. I went to the pool boy to ask for some towels, but they wouldn't give them to me. They asked where we wanted to sit and then proceeded to set up our chairs with towels neatly tucked in and then used another towel and rolled it up to make a pillow. They put a table in between our seats and brought us cups of ice cold water. Every so often they would come by and see if we needed anything. During our stay, here were our poolside amenities: ice water every time we emptied our cups, Popsicles, cold wash clothes, someone would come by and offer to clean your sunglasses, someone would come by and offer to spritz you with Evian, samples of a frozen cappuccino and a strawberry/banana smoothie plus we ordered lunch there a couple of times. Oh, and popcorn shrimp came with popcorn and shrimp. Really. We also had our first celebrity citing that morning at the pool. It was James Hetfield from Metallica strolling by on his way to breakfast.

After we were at the pool for a while, Kevin's group decided to play a little beach volleyball. I was very excited to play. Unfortunately, I was on the only girl. We won the first game, but lost the next 2. They did have 1 more player than us and they had all men. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Sorry to let you down guys!

Down on the beach, there we 2 guys selling pottery. I went over to look at it. I was talking to 1 of the men and he was telling me how he made the pottery and fired it for 40 hours. He showed me his name on the bottom and then showed me another piece with another name on it and told me that his friend made it. Kevin and I picked out a couple of pieces and bought them. Fast forward to Sunday. While in the gift shop at the zip line place we saw a shelf of pottery that looked exactly like the pieces that we bought. Wow, those guys have been busy! :) I didn't bother to look at the price. I didn't want to see how much I had been ripped off. Fast forward to Monday. We went to the other beach and there was another guy selling the same pottery. I asked him "did you make that?" and he said with a big smile on his face "Yes!". I said "no you didn't". I showed him - ha! I did end up buying some bracelets that "he made". Right!

After purchasing our pottery that was hand made by the man on the beach, we headed back to the pool. There was a planned boat outing, which we weren't going to go on, but changed our mind when we found out that the catamaran had 2 levels, so we could get out of the sun. Plus they were serving lunch and going to watch the sunset on the water. While waiting to leave, the moneys appeared on the beach again. I went down to get a picture, but they were moving too fast. Then a guy on the beach got my attention and was yelling "parakeet!" I was looking, but didn't see a parakeet. I did see 2 monkeys above me. He keep saying "parakeet" and then said that the monkeys had a parakeet and were eating it. Nice! I took a picture, but it's hard to see the parakeet in it's hand.

The boat was on the Pacific side of the beach. While waiting for the boat to come to shore we had our 2nd Metallica front man sighting. I tried to discreetly take a picture of him. Tacky, I know. Back to the boat...they were trying to get the boat as close to the beach as they could by riding the waves in so we could get on. In the process of doing that, the dinghy tied to the side of the catamaran was shoved into the side of the boat and flipped over. I think at least 1 person bailed when they saw that. 2 of the men from the boat jumped into the water to try to flip it back over and bail out the water. All of this took place while there were still waves crashing in. Fortunately, no one was hurt. We boarded the boat and there were couches and chairs set up all over the place like a lounge. There was also a bar and buffet.

We sailed to a cove where most of the people got off and went snorkeling. About 5 minutes later, most of the people got back on the boat. Apparently, there were jellyfish in the water stinging them. We lounged around there, ate and chatted with people. After about an hour we cruised around until the sun set. While we were cruising, a pelican decided to hitch a ride with us. Then he/she decided that the buffet looked pretty good, so he jumped up on the table, stepped in the salsa and left. Needless to say, they removed the salsa.

The sunset was beautiful. We did not see a green flash, though. We were so glad that we went!

We came back to the room and it was clean. Whoever cleaned the room did not like how I had arranged all my products on the sink, so it was rearranged. They also did not like where our shoes were, so we had to search for them. Apparently, shoes belong in the closet. We took a little snoozer, because it was such an exhausting day - ha! After that we went to dinner - celeb sighting #3. Kevin and I went to the outdoor restaurant and got a romantic little corner table overlooking the beach where someone had paid to have dinner on the beach with their honey. We had the Brazilian buffet where they bring around a bunch of different types of meat to your table. I tried most, but not all! The breeze was blowing and the stars were out. It was a lovely evening.


When we got to the room there was a note from the manager apologizing again for the ceiling fan incident (he had already called twice to see if everything was ok). His note said "Dear Mr and Mrs. Gabhart, We hope you have a wonderful stay with us. We sincerely apologies (that's how he spelled it) for the inconvenience you had regarding the ceiling fan. please do not hesitate to contact us if you need anything else. Warm regards, Gustavo Monks". He had delivered a bucket of beer along with chips, salsa, guacamole, and trail mix. Unfortunately, we were so stuffed from dinner that we didn't eat any of it. Plus, we don't like beer. It was a really nice gesture, though. We were supposed to go back out and meet up with some of Kevin's coworkers, but were just too tired. Again, it was an exhausting day - ha!

Day 1 - Costa Rica here we come!

We learned several months ago that Kevin had been invited on a "work" trip to Costa Rica. The thought of going some place tropical and warm during early March had me running to get my passport. We lined up the grandparents to come stay and got everything in order and the time finally arrived for us to leave.

Friday, March 5th our morning started at 3:00 am. We left for the airport at 4:15 for our 6:15 flight. The roads were empty. When we got to the airport the line was out the door for American Airlines. This immediately put my hubby who travels in a panic. Apparently, there was a group of college students heading to Belize to build a house and there were also college students heading out for Spring Break. What happened to driving in a car for 14 hours for Spring Break?!

Anyway, we got checked in and through security with time to spare. As we were waiting we ran into our friends Leigh and Dana and POG as they were getting ready to head out for a concert and chatted with them.

We flew into Miami and it was only in the 50s brrrrr! We waited for a couple of hours , met up with several of Kevin's coworkers and then boarded the plane for our flight to Liberia, Costa Rica.

From the air Costa Rica looks pretty barren. We flew over an active volcano that had smoke coming out of it! We also flew over our resort. We didn't know it at the time, but we did get a picture!

We landed in Liberia and went through immigration in a very warm airport. After that, our pampering began. We were greeted by the resort staff who had already pulled our luggage and loaded it on a cart. We went through customs and then headed out to the bus. We were greeted by taxi drivers all swarming wanting to offer you a ride. We proceeded to the bus, our luggage was loaded, we were offered a cold, wet towel and an ice cold bottle of water.

The drive to the Four Seasons Resort at Peninsula Papagayo was about 35-40 minutes. The terrain was rather barren, but we found out that we were there during the dry season. We really only saw fields and mountains, with a few homes scattered here and there. Once we got to the resort area, everything changed. it was green and lush. The entrance reminded me of Jurassic Park.

We saw monkeys in the trees and a huge iguana crossing the road. Since we were on a peninsula, there was water on both sides framed by mountains. It was absolutely picturesque.

After arriving at the resort, we were greeted and led to the welcome reception. They offered us another wet towel, juice, free sunglasses and a snack buffet with majorly awesome guacamole.

Then we were given a quick tour of the facility and taken to our room. Our room was fabulous! The view was amazing. Our luggage was delivered there.

We decided to order room service since we hadn't eaten since 5:30 am. While Kevin was ordering room service, I heard a banging noise and then a loud crash. Our ceiling fan crashed to the ground within 3 ft of Kevin. Yikes! We called and reported the ceiling fan mishap and waited for someone to come fix that (?) and for our food.

When they brought room service, they took it out to the patio and set a lovely table. We ate and then headed out to check out to the beach on the Pacific side and met some more of Kevin's coworkers. While we were there we saw monkeys in the trees. That was really cool, but a little unsettling! We also learned that Kim Kardashian and Reggie Bush were staying at the resort.

That night there was a dinner on the beach for all of the attendees and their spouses. This dinner was under the same trees that the monkeys were in - also a little unsettling. The night was beautiful and the food was wonderful. After eating, we were sitting around and talking and a very cute raccoon came up to the buffet to check it out. One of the ladies in the group decided to give the raccoon a roll. Then we noticed that there were monkeys in the tree directly above our table. I immediately put my hand over my glass.

We thought they had left and then we heard a group of women screaming. We looked over and and saw something really nasty on the table next to us and then saw a stream of liquid falling from the air. The monkey had decided it was time to take a potty break. Nice! But, really really funny. Luckily, no one was hit.

We called it a night and headed back to our room. When we got there, we had our 1st "amenity" waiting for us. It was a beach bag from the resort. I love free stuff! And that was just day 1!