Our Costa Rican Vacation Part-1

Costa Rican sunset.

We’ve been home for several weeks after spending time in paradise and I’m still dreaming about our relaxing vacation in Costa Rica. The natives greet you with “Pura Vida” which means pure life. I take it to mean simple living without regrets and that’s exactly what we needed. I love to plan our vacations by researching all the details, sites of interest, places to eat, shop and so on. For this trip, I decided not to plan anything; just go with the thought that the entire trip would be spontaneous. This vaca turned out to be the most relaxing time ever and that’s just what we needed.
We thought about dropping our time pieces in the ocean to remind ourselves that time was back home. We slept in without waking up to a buzzing alarm clock. Instead, that annoying buzz was replaced with the sounds of the ocean waves crashing up against the sand. We even paid a little extra to have breakfast delivered to the room every morning and honey, it was worth every penny.

Here is the view from the back of the resort.

Our view from the room. Ahhh.

Relaxing in the pool with my friends.

The resort was filled with beautiful wildlife and they felt right at home in their natural habitat. Mango and Papaya trees were sprinkled all over the region, which provided food for the animals.

There were monkey’s all over the resort.

Native bird. Costa Rica has lots of wildlife.

Iguana checking out what’s for lunch.

One of many mango trees on the resort.

We rented a car and drove to a few nearby beaches where we spent the day relaxing by the ocean and eating at family owned diners. Yes, there were all sorts of excursions available promising adventure and a total exhausting day but we said to heck with zip lining, mountain climbing, cross country hiking trails and told our friends to take lots of pics for us to add to our photo book. We stayed at Occidental Papagayo All-Inclusive Resort which in my opinion is the best bang for your buck. The resort was breathtaking and the staff was extremely accommodating.

We spent a day at Playa de Flamingo which is a beautiful beach with lots of surfing waves. Donald beat me to the massage table on the beach so I watched him turn into a noodle under the trained hands of his masseuse. We had the most mouthwatering ribs and fresh chips and salsa at Marie’s beach restaurant.