Costa Rica
Our friends S. and Dave take an international trip every year. The last time we went with them was in 2005 when we went to Dominica / Martinique.
This year they were going somewhere much less exotic than their usual fare of Egypt/Africa/Bhutan/etc and they invited us to accompany them to Costa Rica. We said yes!
They decided on a much longer trip than us and by the time we joined them they had been there about two weeks. We left on a midnight flight the day after Christmas (I don’t know why all the flights seemed to leave at that time) and they picked us up in a rental car at the airport in San Jose (the capital of Costa Rica).
The flight actually felt short (5.5 hours to San Salvador, then another hour to San Jose) compared to our last flight with Jack to the UK. We spent the day in San Jose, napping at the hotel and seeing the local sites (namely the mall!). The next morning we made the long drive to Arenal, which is famous for its volcano and hot springs. The volcano is not currently active, but we did enjoy the thermal pools.
While we were there, we went for a walk in the rainforest called a “Sky Walk” because it traversed a lot of suspension bridges, a great way to view the forest below. There were waterfalls and a butterfly garden as well. Jack amazed me by walking the whole way (2.2 miles) by himself!
The next day, S. and Dave very kindly offered to babysit Jack while Chris and I went ziplining. They took him to the pool and played cards while Chris and I had a fantastic time zooming along ziplines over beautiful forest and rivers. We were even lucky enough to see a sloth.
After 3 days in the Arenal region, we drove over the mountains to Herrad
ura on the Pacific Coast. We rented a condo for a week which worked out very nicely. We spent time on the beach and at the pool. I really liked the pool.. it had a large section that was very shallow, perfect for Jack, with a wall between that and the deeper part that Jack could sit on.
While there, Chris and I went scuba diving (S. and Dave babysat again! Thank you!!) during two half days. The dive shop was very close by and it was just a short boat trip out to the bay where we went diving. I was able to complete my open water certification which I was really pleased about. The diving there wasn’t that great.. not very good visibility.. but my main goal was just to get my certification and I did that.
We also went to Manuel Antonio National Park and saw a ton of monkeys a couple of sloths. We visited a bridge famous for its view of crocodiles and saw quite a few. We also saw iguanas, and went on a night walk to see frogs and 
snakes (mostly enclosed in terrariums). We also visited a baby sea turtle sanctuary and got to release just-born baby sea turtles onto the beach.
We all drank a lot of batidos (smoothies) in different delicious flavors, like cas and guanabana.
Our last night was spent back in San Jose, where we ate at the mall food court and played video games in the arcade. Our flights home were uneventful.
All in all a really fun trip.
