Oops! I did it again. I waited to blog my last trip right before leaving for my next trip. We leave for Peru in August but this blog post is about the beautiful and amazing Costa Rica. Since Costa Rica is such an adventurous place, there were many times that I wasn’t able to bring my big camera. Boo! But when I didn’t have my big camera, I at least had my iphone. So there are some things I will talk about during this blog that I unfortunately won’t be able to show any pictures, but you can head on over to instagram and use #ashleymichellecostarica to view photos from these times.

While in Costa Rica, we visited three places–La Fortuna (arenal volcano), Monteverde (cloud forest), and Nosara (beach). All three were completely different and all three were definitely worth the trip. We visited Costa Rica in November which is unfortunately right in the middle of rainy season, but we were incredibly lucky because it only rained for 1/2 day while we were there which is unheard of. Before we left, there was an 80%-90% chance of rain every single day.

The first 1/3 of our trip in La Fortuna was through a travel agency, Eco Terra which we bought through Groupon. I have never traveled using a travel agency because I prefer my travel experiences to be more authentic and I have never bought a Groupon travel deal, but I must say this one was excellent! Although I do think that you have to be careful about the Groupon travel deal you choose. We liked Eco Terra because they are specifically for Costa Rica and the people organizing the trip live there. Everyone with Eco Terra was so amazing and the things they planned for us were so fun! I must admit, it was really nice not having to worry about anything because everything is already planned out for you. We stayed at the Casa Luna Hotel in La Fortuna and it was gorgeous! We could not have had a more perfect view of the Arenal Volcano and the grounds made you feel like you were in the middle of the rainforest. The villas were very private and each night we were there we had a bottle of wine on our porch while overlooking the Volcano. The next two pictures are Casa Luna and our view.

We went on a hanging bridge tour which was really cool. When doing this, definitely go with a guide because otherwise, you are just going to be looking at trees. Guides can spot animals, birds, insects that the normal person could not spot. They also tell you about them as well as about all of the vegetation. It is very interesting stuff.

After our first hanging bridge tour (we took another one in the Monteverde Rainforest), we headed back to town where there was a parade in progress. We didn’t stay for long because this is the day it was raining and we were starving but it was pretty cool to witness even for only a few minutes.

Costa Rica is super eco friendly and they take recycling to another level. Love this!

We had a couple’s massage in the middle of the rainforest! It doesn’t get much better than this. They asked us if we wanted to listen to music or the forest and of course we said the forest!

After our massage, we had a little bit of time and we felt like getting some exercise. Our hotel had bikes for us to use so we asked for recommendations to ride them. They told us there was an amazing waterfall about 3km away. That sounded like the perfect distance since we only had 1.5 hours of daylight left. {Side note: Costa Rica gets dark REALLY early…like at 4pm.} As we were starting our bike ride, we noticed that the ride kept getting hillier and hillier and that it wasn’t really hills we were climbing but mountains. The ride was absolutely horrible especially on our non-gear leisure bikes. 3km had to have been 2-3 times that. It wasn’t the distance that bothered us though, but the mountains. But at least that meant we got to take lots of picture breaks. There were definitely some cool spots along the way. By the time we got to the waterfall, it was almost dark. We had to sneak in because they were closing. We were so exhausted from the ride up the mountain, we were not so happy to learn that we had to climb down a 20 minute mountain full of stairs to get to the waterfall. But the waterfall was so beautiful and the ride back down the mountain was amazing! It took us 20 minutes to get down the mountain that had taken us over an hour to climb. I rode my brakes the entire time.

The next day we went with our guide to hike to the Arenal Volcano or at least the spots we were allowed to hike. Our guide told us all about the history of the volcano and of course about the flora and fauna on the way.  Eric remembers the guide telling us the snake below is a coral snake but I googled coral snake and that is not what they look like. At any rate, it is a baby and it is poisonous. I remember the guide telling us that these snakes will not attack unless you touch them so we actually could get very close to it. Although cropped in a little, this photo was taken with a 35 to give you an idea of how close I was.

We spotted a Toucan!!!! I was so excited about this. Isn’t it absolutely beautiful? I shot this with my 70-200 of course.

This is an absolutely HORRIBLE picture of both of us but it is the moment that counts right? This was as close as we were allowed to hike to Arenal Volcano. Below is other views from the area we hiked.

The next day, we rented a car and drove to Monteverde. Monteverde is basically on the other side of the volcano so we had to drive around it which I believe was about a three hour drive. Of course, you can get a tour bus for this but um it is wayyyy more fun and adventurous to drive yourself. The roads are like nothing you have been on before. You absolutely MUST rent a four wheel drive vehicle–its not even an option. The roads are dirt roads but are incredibly bumpy because of all the rain. And they are incredibly curvy and narrow because you are driving around a volcano so there are a lot of ups and downs. I have no idea why I didn’t take a picture of the roads (if you want to call them that), but I so wish I would have. I drove all over the country of Ireland and I thought those roads were scary, but they were a piece of cake compared to the roads in Costa Rica. I felt like I was on a ride at an amusement park. It was definitely an adventure and probably one of my favorite parts of the trip. The below picture shows some of the gorgeous views we saw along the way.

After an adventurous drive, we finally arrived in Monteverde. I was sooo excited about my adorable Airbnb find here. A cabin in the middle of the rain forest. Yes please! When we arrived, we were surprised with fresh baked bread (still warm) and coffee from our host. How sweet is that! Oh, and when I asked our host for an address for the house, she sent me a hand drawn map with a photograph of the path we should walk on to get there once we arrived. It amazes me that places still don’t have street names but I absolutely LOVE it and hope these places never change. Adventure rocks!

The next morning on our way to another hanging bridge walk and hummingbird gardens in Selvatura Park, we decided to follow another handwritten map (because in Monteverde all the maps are handwritten without street names) and take a way that looked much shorter than what people were telling us. There looked to be a road that went straight there. As we followed it, the road became more narrow and more bumpy. We were basically on the edge of a mountain and were completely out of any tourist areas that Monteverde has. We passed a house where some local lived. They were standing outside and we stopped to ask them if we were going in the right direction. They did not speak a lick of English and the older, father-figure guy was completely hammered. It was sort of hilarious….and scary at the same time. We continued down our path until it got worse…..like really worse. I think this road used to be there and with all of the rain, it completely washed away. There was a gate and we contemplated opening it but as we looked further down the road, we realized this gate was there for a reason. As we were preparing for a 3-point turnaround on a 5 foot wide road, we see the drunk man walking towards us. I think his intentions were good and he was trying to tell us we needed to turn around, but I for one was a little bit scared. At any rate, we made it out alive and to the park and the hummingbirds and cloud forest were quite lovely. PS-Taking pictures of hummingbirds is extremely difficult.

The first time we saw this animal, we were excited. But after about ten times of seeing this animal, we were not so excited. They are the racoons of Costa Rica and are always around tourist areas because they like to go through trashcans. I bet the people in Costa Rica laugh when they see how excited we get over seeing this creature.

We saw all of these animals out in the wild. Just kidding! We were at the Serpents & Frogs Display and then the Butterfly Garden. But it does sort of look like it is in the wild right? It was very interesting being able to see these creatures close up and hearing all about them from our guide.

On the way back to our cabin one night, we stumbled upon the most perfect place to watch the sunset. This spot should be in a travel book because it is absolutely amazing! Tons of people (tourists & locals) gather here each night. Those skies, this place, that light=love.

The entire reason I wanted to go to Costa Rica was to see monkeys. I’m sort of obsessed with monkeys and I wish I had one as a pet. Anyway, we had finished up visiting the first two places on our trip and I was extremely disappointed I hadn’t seen any monkeys yet. We only had the beach left and I was beginning to believe we just weren’t going to see any. As we were driving out of Monteverde to Nosara, we decided to stop at this art store we had driven past everyday while in Monteverde that looked really cool. As we got out of our car and were walking towards the store, Eric spotted the monkeys! It was an entire family of them with babies and all. I was so excited that I could hardly contain myself. We took pictures of them for a good 30-45 minutes. We just couldn’t stop watching them move all around and swinging from the branches. I could look at the pictures of them forever. Once again, thank goodness I brought my 70-200. These are Howler monkeys by the way and make the loudest noises you have ever heard. PS-That art shop we were originally going to sucked.

Another amazing adventure and one of the top three things we did in Costa Rica was canyoning. Of course, this is one of the adventures I couldn’t take any pictures but check out #ashleymichellecostarica on Instagram to see more. Canyoning is sort of like repelling, but it also includes, walking, scrambling, climbing, jumping, and swimming. Basically we repelled down a group of waterfalls which are the canyons and walked through the river or climbed until we came to the next waterfall to repel. Eric had heard from a friend before we left about this adventure so we knew we wanted to partake. We came upon a place that offers this adventure and we expected there to be a group of 8-10 people. We were wrong. It was us and our two guides. I think this is probably different during their busy season but we were there during rainy season. At any rate, we headed off through the forest until we came to the first waterfall. I’ve been repelling plenty of times before so I knew what to expect….I thought. I thought we would be repelling down the side of the waterfalls and then walking on a trail to the next waterfall. I was wrong. We repelled in the middle of the waterfall with water rushing down around and on us while we tried to maintain our footing on the slippery rocks underneath. Once we were close to the bottom of the waterfall, the repelling rope ran out so we had to jump from there into the water. Then we waded the river until we came to the next waterfall. And the whole time, we were surrounded by the rainforest and all sorts of animals. It was so crazy and so exhilarating! Definitely a must do if you are an adventure seeker.

At this point in most people’s Costa Rican adventures, they will head to Tamarindo. This is a beach town where everyone seems to go. I had heard mixed reviews online about how touristy it was and I for one am not into touristy areas. I want my adventures to be as authentic as possible.  After a couple of recommendations, we decided Nosara was the right beach town for us. Although I guess it is still a tourist area because all of the restaurants shut down in the off season, it still feels authentic and has zero tourist shops, etc that I saw. You still feel like you are in the middle of the jungle which is what I wanted. As we were driving along the coast to get there, we were starving and saw a beach shack. At first, Eric didn’t want to stop there because there were only a few people there and it was literally a shack on the ocean. After I assured him that sometimes these kinds of places are the best, he agreed to eat here. The name of the place is Barco del Amor. The fish was amazing and was caught that morning. We met the owner, ordered from her, and then she headed back to the kitchen to cook our meal. All other ingredients/sides she grows in her garden. LOVE these types of places. They make me happy.

While in Nosara we stayed at the absolute best hotel called The Living Hotel. It was amazing! Each room had their own private front porch so even through there were other rooms near you, it seemed very secluded. They have a spa (which we didn’t have time to partake in), a juice bar with fabulous food (as did all of Nosara), a pool, and an outdoor yoga studio. The staff was extremely helpful as well. Absolutely LOVED this hotel.

This is a squirrel that was climbing in a tree next to the pool at our hotel. I had no idea there was such a thing as orange squirrels.

When you are in Nosara, you feel like you have your own private beach and this is the entrance. In Nosara, hotels are not allowed to be built on the beach so the beach is completely surrounded by the jungle. In order to get to the beach, you have to walk on a 1/4 mile trail through the woods. It is awesome!

The other side of the trail from the beach.

Nosara is a beach town that besides a few “hotels” and restaurants, you feel like you are on your own private beach and jungle. It is also an extremely healthy town. Yoga is very big here as (as it is in a lot of places in Costa Rica), but the Nosara Yoga Institute is here so it is an even bigger deal. The pictures on the website do not do the Yoga Institute justice. It was absolutely stunning. We decided to take a yoga class while there. The class was outside on the top of a mountain and it was awesome! Eric had never done yoga and I was so proud of him for volunteering to do it and for getting so into it. He did amazing! I suppose when in Nosara, you must do as the Nosarians do. After the class, we went to the pool at the Institute and had a delicious smoothy. We weren’t technically supposed to be there but we ran into a yogi who was learning to be an instructor there that we had met on the beach the day before and she let us stay with her. The food here looked so delicious as well! Nosara seriously has some of the BEST food I’ve ever had in my life. Everything is organic and fresh. We went to this amazing burger place that I can’t remember the name of right now. It was outside and there were eight stools surrounding a bar in the middle of the jungle. That was one of the best random dinners we had. So, so delicious! The last night we went to a gorgeous and delicious restaurant called La Luna. We sat outside on couches and watched the sun set over the water. We sipped on wine and ate the best ceviche of  our lives. Seriously romantic. If I had to pick a place to live in Costa Rica, it would be Nosara purely based on the food.

Overall, the trip was absolutely perfect and Costa Rica is amazing! Go here. I would highly recommend everything we did. We wish we would have had time for a white water rafting trip and had spend one more day in Nosara. Besides that, I wouldn’t change a thing. Now the questions becomes, can Peru live up to Costa Rica?