Pura Vida in Costa Rica

 This summer I started reading and so for my birthday a few months ago my mom asked me what I wanted... I told her all I wanted was to go on a trip with her and sit on the beach and read. So thats what we did this past week... I packed my bag with four books and mom had her kindle with unlimited books and we headed to Costa Rica! 

auntie annes pretzels to start our red eye flight out of Vegas. We sent this photo to jack because before leaving on his mission last summer he was obsessed with this place. 

Red eye flights equal buying new contraptions to maybe help aid in sleeping on a plane. We both got a little bit of sleep on our first flight and then our layover in Houston we found a comfy bench where we got a couple more hours. 

then we made it to paradise. I honestly don't think we did much our first day and a half... we were exhausted from our travel night so I think we were in bed by like 5 or 6 haha. 

my favorite place to read was this day bed on our porch...

This was our view. The resort was a little weird at first... not very friendly for walkers. Very hilly and because of that there were shuttles constantly driving on the little roads taking all the old, fat lazy people around the resort. So we had to constantly watch out for cars while walking everywhere, but we got used to it. By the end I actually really enjoyed the resort and how remote and in the jungle it felt. 

So many hermit crabs!! The wildlife here was amazing. Lots of iguanas, hermit crabs and regular crabs, monkeys and something called a pizote were all around the resort. The ocean life I swam with consisted of tons of puffer fish (so cute), sea turtles, starfish, lots or urchins and eagle rays!

Black sand beach dt the active volcano near by. It is technically rainy season right now on the west side of Costa Rica (where we were) so we were a little nervous we would be stuck inside all day, but that was not the case at all. There was one rainy morning the whole time we were there and even that cleared up pretty quick. There would be some quick afternoon thunderstorms that would roll in but really the weather was literally perfect. Actually a lot hotter than what I was expecting which was a nice surprise. 

Our beautiful resort. 

lots of pretty shells. 

Sunday morning we went kayaking with some other hotel guests. this is Anderson our activity guide from the hotel. He was super funny. 

Kayaked around our little bay. 

Second book of the trip... seemed fitting. 

Sunday was also spa day... duh! massage and facial were 10/10 and the ladies were so nice. 

Sunset on our walk to dinner. This is taken at the top of one of the hills you have to climb to get over to the main dinner spots. 

Monday morning started out with our ATV tour through the jungle. Highlight for sure. Ya know people keep asking oh did you zipline?? and I'm like no... boring! been there done that, but this? this was epic and I would do this every time I go to Costa Rica. 

The mud puddles were our favorite part. We would give ourselves room in between the person in front of us (there was only one other lady on our tour, I guess its slow tourist season right now) and then we would lay on the gas and gun it through these huge puddles and drench ourselves. It was fun. The howler monkeys were insane! literally sounds like a big scary monster is chasing after you. 

I threw this towel on the chair beside me to save it for mom, but I guess this little guy thought I was saving it for him. So cute. 

third book of the trip... I think mom and I did this trip well - the perfect combo of activities like snorkeling and ATV and spa and what not mixed with a good amount of time of doing nothing but relaxing and eating and reading. 

more playing with the crabs

Last day calls for early morning snorkeling - immediately after getting in the water is when I swam up on two eagle rays and a sea turtle. The ocean really is the best in the earlier hours of the day. 

And room service awaited me back at the room before we had to pack up and leave :( Life is good living on the beach, endless margs and delicious room service. I could get used to this. Anyways - once again this trip just proves I belong by the ocean and with the iguanas. Thanks mom for coming on this reading trip with me :) I would go back tomorrow if I could, but mom and I realized on our way home we can't be too sad because our next beach vacay is only about 5 weeks away soooo like I say always - lifes good.