Samara, Costa Rica - Days 2 & 3

Tuesday, February 12

Good news! The septic system at the original airbnb we booked for this week is fixed, so we were able to move in this afternoon. The new house is outside Samara about 10 minutes, up in the mountains. Staying in town is convenient, but there’s nothing like the solitude and serenity of a house in the jungle away from the noise of town. The views from this house are incredible, and the place itself is very unique with dark wood and stone tile throughout. Pura Vida, for sure!

There’s as much living space outdoors as there is indoors. Two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a kitchen inside is the perfect amount of space for our family. Aden and Tory are sharing a room, but they seem to enjoy being together. A large covered patio stretches over a living and dining area outdoors, and an infinity pool wraps around the side of the house with our very own private cabana. It’s pretty sweet.

Once we settled into the new place, we spent the rest of Tuesday lounging around the pool. It was so relaxing! Aden has become quite the swimmer the past few months, and we were all impressed to see him swim the entire length of this pool without assistance. Amazing skill for a five-year-old!

After a while, Andi and Aden ran out to a little convenience store a few miles away for popsicles while Tory and I laid in the hammock and did school. She’s been journaling about our adventures everyday, so I will try to post them here as well.

For dinner, Andi made a chicken stir-fry and we ate on the patio by candlelight. The kids were practically dropping from exhaustion after swimming all day, so Andi and I put them to bed and then did some outdoor yoga. It was completely dark outside aside from a few dim area lights. As Andi and I laid there in corpse pose on the patio floor enjoying the quietness, we heard something rustling a few feet away and realized it was an armadillo! Andi shined a flashlight on it and the armadillo ran back into the trees. Honestly, I was relieved to discover it was an armadillo and not one of those raccoon-like animals we’ve seen running around here! After the armadillo sighting, our yoga session was less eventful. We finished up and hit the sheets early. It was a perfectly peaceful ending to our second night in Costa Rica.

Wednesday, February 13

Today is one of my favorite days of the year - my birthday! Andi and the kids said I could pick anything I wanted to do on my special day, and I decided I wanted to go for a hike and go to the beach. We woke up bright and early Wednesday morning to meet our guide from Samara Adventure Tours. We could have easily hiked on our own, of course, but I’ve come to love and appreciate small tours lead by a guide so he/she can share information about the nature and animals we see on the trail. Andi and I did a similar tour in the Costa Rican rainforest last month when we were here for his work trip, and it was very interesting. We saw animals we would have never spotted on our own, and learned all kinds of information about plants and trees native to the area. I was hoping for the same today.

Promptly at 6:30am, we hopped aboard a shuttle bus with our eco tour guide named Berny and four other people who would be on our hike as well - two ladies from France and a couple from New York. We planned to hike a 2.5 mile loop on the Samara Trails.

During our hike, we learned about the spiky cedar tree. This tree developed spikes on its trunk over time to defend against mammals eating its leaves.

The same tree grows these pretty white flowers Tory is holding. We learned that the more brightly colored flowers are attractive to dayturnal pollinators and white or dull-colored flowers are typically pollinated by nocturnal animals because they use their sense of smell, not eyes, to find food sources. Bright colors don’t really matter to them. The spiny cedar’s flower also contains a fluffy brown cotton with seeds that either float away or the seeds are eaten / carried off by birds and that’s how the tree’s seeds are spread. Very interesting!

Some of us were more interested in hiking and exploring the forest… I’ll let you take a guess who wasn’t into it.

We hiked to the top of the mountain to take in a scenic view of Playa Samara, and then continued on our 2.5 mile loop. I’m glad we opted for the early morning hike as temperatures were really starting to heat up! A quick check of my watch said it was already 88 degrees by 9:00am.

Tory, Aden and I studied animals we’d find in Costa Rica before our trip, and one of the insects Tory chose to research was termites. We checked out books from the library and she even completed an animal book report about them before we came, so she was excited to see a real termite’s nest in the forest. Our guide told us there’s only one type of termite found in Costa Rica, and each nest contains the queen termite as well as worker termites that build the nest out of saliva, mud and wood and soldier termites that defend the others from predators. When the nest is eventually abandoned by the termites, birds will often re-purpose it for their own nests. Going forward, every time we walked by a termite’s nest Tory shouted “termites nest!” for all of us to see.

Later on the trail, Berny stopped to point out a large, thick vine called a monkey vine. The young woman from New York asked if the vine was strong enough for her to swing on, and Berny said yes - it is one of the strongest vines in the forest. I had a bad feeling as she shimmied up the vine to try it. As her boyfriend took a video of her swinging he suddenly slipped over the side of the cliff, sliding all the way down to the bottom of the forest floor. Holy crap! Time seemed to move in slow motion as we all stood there and watched him cling to the bushes and leaves on the side of the mountain. From the bottom the man yelled, “I’m ok!” and Berny quickly rushed to guide him back on the trail. Luckily, the man only suffered minor scrapes on his legs and elbows. As Berny cleaned and bandaged the man’s wounds, Andi and I exchanged glances over the kids’ heads. That could have been WAY worse than it was. In the end, I think the man’s pride was the most bruised.

For the record, I never felt like the Samara Trail was dangerous at any point, and we definitely weren’t putting our kids in harm’s way by taking them on this fairly easy hike. Also of note, Berny was a licensed and medically trained Costa Rican eco tour guide. He told us later that only guides with a special badge like his are professionally certified and trained. Later, Andi and I had a conversation with the kids about being aware of our surroundings while hiking or even walking down the street. The man fell because he was paying more attention to his camera than he was to where to he was standing. An accident like that could have happened to anyone, though Berny said it was the first time in all his years of guiding that someone was ever injured on his watch.

After the hike, we ran a few errands around Samara and grabbed lunch to-go at the Nature Center in town — an outdoor food court with many different restaurant options in a square. Everyone was able to get what they wanted to eat: Aden had a hot dog, Tory opted for a quesadilla and Andi and I ordered from the Mediterranean restaurant. I had a falafel bowl with cucumber, tomatoes, cabbage, hummus, and falafel balls (I have been craving a falafel for weeks, so this was the perfect birthday lunch!) and Andi ordered veggies with shrimp.

After lunch, we headed to a “secret” beach nearby called Playa Barrigona. Supposedly Mel Gibson has a home somewhere on/near here. We soon found out why it’s so secret — different than Playa Samara in town, this beach was empty! We had the entire span of sand and surf to ourselves. We played for hours and then watched the sunset. Yesterday, we made a family pact to watch every sunset together on this trip.

Afterwards, we came back to our airbnb on the hill, showered up and made dinner. Andi cooked egg roll in a bowl with hamburger, cabbage and rice and then the kids surprised me with a special chocolate birthday cake that read Feliz Cumpleanos (Happy Birthday) Heather. Andi, Tory and Aden sang Happy Birthday to me and then we all ate birthday cake and ice cream in the candlelight. “There’s one more birthday surprise,” Andi said, “look under your placemat.” Underneath my plate I found two tickets to see John Mayer in Minneapolis. How awesome is that?! I was super surprised.

I read to the kids and put them to bed while Andi cleaned up dinner dishes, and then we headed to bed ourselves shortly after.

I know I’m not suppose to say what I wished for when I blew out my candles, but I’m going to tell you anyway: I wished to always spend my birthdays somewhere warm for the rest of my days on Earth. Today was the perfect birthday celebration with my very favorite people. If this is any indication, 38 is going to be an awesome year of adventure.