We Did It!

Sometimes you just need to peer over the edge of a volcano and realize it's not going to erupt in your face. We literally and figuratively did that this last month! 

Fear can be such a paralyzing emotion. When our personal world started imploding over a decade ago, my once-optimistic personality started shifting. While I didn't want to become a negative Nancy, life had dealt us several hard blows in succession and things just got tough. Survival became our number one goal. Life felt out of control, so I started finding things that I could control. 

Dreams of familial international travel were sidelined due to financial and health obstacles. When those dreams started resurfacing a few years ago, fear was the first emotion I felt. There were too many things that could go wrong with this dream.

Thankfully, I have a life partner who balanced out some of that negativity.
(Sara, thank you... just for everything.)

We did a three-week test run of sorts to Florida a couple years ago. Could we be gone from home that long? Could we work and school remotely effectively? Would Lainey be ok with a different routine for that long? We learned some things on that trip, but mostly got affirmative answers to our questions. Literally on our drive home from Florida (it's a longggg drive from Michigan), we started planning and dreaming about this month-long adventure to Costa Rica. 

Numerous fears crept in over the planning process, but because we had started the planning process so far in advance, we were able to overcome those fears one at a time.

But then a couple days before we were leaving, the fear of failing miserably on this little experiment made itself known. On our endless list of things that were slowly getting crossed off our preparation checklist, somehow "learn to drive a stick-shift" never got completed. Costa Rica is known for its crazy roads. It can be so bad in some places, that it's generally recommended to just not drive at night. The van that we had rented for the month on these crazy roads was a stick-shift, and I had never driven one before.

Small detail, I thought.

With less than 24 hours before we were taking our family to a different country, all-out panic set in as I realized my huge oversight. I couldn't find anyone with a stick-shift (well anyone that would let me practice on their car that is). I spent an hour on YouTube watching instructional videos on how to drive a stick-shift, but then a friend came to the rescue and let me borrow her car for 30 minutes to learn.

The day before we left.

After a hugely successful travel day to Costa Rica, I put my very recently acquired new skillset to work as we navigated through some unique city traffic and then up the craziest curviest roads to peer into Poas Volcano. (Success.) As we approached the rim of the volcano, we were literally above the clouds (the brightest, fluffiest clouds ever). And I just distinctly remember the symbolic feeling of peering into the volcanic crater. It was beautiful and powerful and mesmerizing and way less terrifying than maybe it should have been. 

We were going to be alright.
We were going to more than alright.

And then one day led to the next, and Sara and I just kept giving each other fist bumps and high fives. Sometimes those were paired with yells or whispers of "we're doing it!" and sometimes they were wordless, but we knew what each other was saying.

Thankfulness.
Pride.
Empowerment.
Hope.
Joy.

Our van (that we affectionately named Señor Coco) took us from Alajuela to La Fortuna to Bejuco. He then carried us on side trips to Quepos, Manuel Antonio, Dominical, Jaco, Esterillos, and some very remote places in the middle of the rainforest.

We saw volcanoes (Arenal and Poas), walked along Costa Rica's famous hanging bridges (Mistico and Rainmaker), toured coffee, chocolate, and spice farms (Hacienda Alsacia, La Iguana, and Villa Vanilla), swam in volcanic hot springs (Baldi), saw the most beautiful waterfalls (La Paz and Nauyaca), saw crazy wildlife (sloths, toucans, macaws, crocodiles, iguanas, manta rays, and monkeys), bungee jumped off of a hanging bridge, ziplined, and went to a beach every day (Bejuco, Esterillos, and Manuel Antonio).

We figured out a way to school and work remotely, and also still have tons of McDonough and Spitters visitors join in on the fun. 

There were hiccups of course along the way, but none that derailed the adventure. While this adventure is technically finished and complete, we are energized and know that the adventure is only just beginning.

"Re-entry" has been tougher than I thought it would be for myself. The whole adventure was JUST SO GOOD, and I wasn't quite ready for it to be over.

It was just seriously awesome.

Thanks for joining the adventure with us. May we all peer over the edge of our volcanoes and see them for all their scariness and beauty. Here's to climbing your metaphorical volcano! When it's not erupting, look over the edge!

(Literal volcanoes are sweet too. Go see one if you can!)

Kids Saving the Rainforest + Villa Vanilla

Weekends are for adventures, but we decided to spend Saturday relaxing instead. On Sunday, we headed over to Kids Saving the Rainforest near Quepos/Manuel Antonio. KSTR is a super cool organization that was originally started by two 9-year old girls and has since grown significantly. They take in hurt or abused animals and try to rehabilitate them to release them back into the wild. We toured their facilities in the morning and learned all about their monkeys, sloths, birds, and numerous other super cool animals.

Then Owen and Sara were able to have the unique experience to spend the rest of the day volunteering at KSTR. As our time here in Costa Rica winds down, this felt like the perfect way to give back to this beautiful country. They spent most of the time prepping and feeding the animals. Owen was quite taken by the experience, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he ends up back here on his own when he’s older. 

On Monday, we journeyed back to the same area to do a tour of a beautiful spice farm called Villa Vanilla. Mom and Dad Spitters came with, and we were all thoroughly impressed with the experience. One of the reasons pure vanilla is so expensive is that all of the vanilla flowers (that eventually turn into vanilla beans) have to be HAND POLLINATED. I guess the only bee that can pollinate these flowers is virtually extinct. Also, fun fact, imitation vanilla comes from BEAVER pheromones. Ew.

We ended up on one of the best overlooks. It was this beautiful hut overlooking the mountains where they served us delicious treats and drinks made from the farm. Pura vida indeed!

Owen and Grammy spent the afternoon zip lining, while the rest of us hung out in Jaco one last time. I got my first tattoo too! (More on that later!)

Owen LOVES sushi, so we ended up at Tsunami Sushi in Jaco Walk. Ok, we’ve had a fair amount of sushi, but these rolls were out of this world! Owen and I both said it was probably the best sushi we had ever eaten! So good!!

Packing day Tuesday! :(:(:(:(:(

Rainmaker Hanging Bridges

After a morning of working/schooling, we headed out to Rainmaker. Rainmaker is another trail with hanging bridges close to Quepos/Manuel Antonio. We almost skipped it, because we had already done Mistico. I’m so glad we didn’t!

We got there midafternoon and had the trails virtually to ourselves. It was quite the uphill hike at first, and then we got to a series of sweet hanging bridges. They were considerably more…um…rustic ;) than Mistico’s. We quickly realized that these bridges were literally hanging and weren’t attached on each side to the platforms. It added to the experience, though, for sure. 

No people. Just my fam in middle of the rainforest, walking from platform to platform across multiple hanging bridges. So amazing!

After the bridges, we hiked alongside a river with five or six waterfalls along the way. Each waterfall had the most perfect little swimming hole beneath it. My sister-in-law Jessie found a rope on the first one and quickly scaled it up! The next waterfall pool had a perfect sitting spot for all of us beneath the waterfall. Lainey kept wanting to touch the waterfall and giggled each time.

It was quite a hike, but Rainmaker was definitely a highlight for our whole group!

Rainmaker is definitely not accessible for strollers/wheelchairs. Lainey and I almost hung back because of that, but then we maneuvered my nephew’s child-carrier to make a piggyback work for Lainey and me. It worked awesome, and I’m so glad we were able to partake in the experience with everybody. We’ll be researching some more carrier options in the future for trails like this that aren’t quite stroller accessible.

We headed to Jaco the next afternoon to do an aerial tram through some more rainforest. 

The day after was the last day for Scotty/Jessie/Lincoln, so we spent the day relaxing by the pool in the morning and our perfect Bejuco Beach. It’s been so great to share this experience with so many!

Nauyaca Waterfalls & Dominical

We got more visitors a few days ago! Our siblings Scotty and Jessie (and our nephew Lincoln) arrived on Saturday, and then my in-laws Chris and Candi joined the fun on Sunday!

Weekends are for adventures, so we headed out to Manuel Antonio National Park again. The beach there remains my favorite. It just reeks of paradise. We didn't see as much wildlife this time, but the monkeys were out in full force. We also earned our first matching family sunburns (womp womp).

Sara lost her Apple Watch here on the beach. We searched everywhere for it, and she was super bummed about losing it. But then, when we were at lunch, Sara got an email that somebody had found it! They used her emergency contact info on the watch to send us a message. Frequent theft is one of the few negatives of Costa Rica. That's what they say, anyways. We haven't experienced that at all thankfully, and even experienced the opposite here with Sara's watch. Super thankful for the helpfulness of a stranger!

The hike is just long enough, and the heat is just hot enough, that by the time we were ready for the hike back from the beach, we had some tired kiddos. If you visit Manuel Antonio, go as early as possible to avoid the heat.  

We started the next morning with a trek to Nauyaca Waterfalls. We drove as far as we could in our trusty van (Senor Coco), and then hopped in the back of a 4x4 truck to drive the rest of the way. Oh man, another CRAZY road! Straight up alongside the twisty dirt road of the mountain. 

When we arrived to the falls, it was breathtaking! Easily a highlight of our whole trip here! We explored the upper falls and then headed down to the lower falls that had the most refreshing swimming spot beneath it. IT. WAS. AWESOME.

After about an hour of hanging out, we noticed a Tico scaling up the falls. We noticed he had a rope with him and was attaching it to a few spots. Another Tico then joined him, and they both started scrubbing a few spots on the falls. We realized that they were prepping spots for people to climb UP the falls, so they could dive off the top. After scrubbing for a while, they both looked out to all of us and beckoned to us all to come climb and jump! Chris and I took off for the rock platform at the bottom of the falls. They then instructed us where to place our feet (where they had just spent time scrubbing), and we hoisted ourselves up the waterfall, with water gushing in our face! We reached the jumping spot halfway up the falls (about 35-40 feet) and launched ourselves into the pool below. KILLER.

There are two entrances to Nauyaca. Make sure to do the one labeled "Nauyaca Waterfalls/Cataratas Nauyaca" and not "Nauyaca Waterfall Nature Park", unless of course you want the more challenging hike at the Nature Park. The hike in is hard, and if you hike, by the time you get there, it will be crowded. Take the truck ride instead. It was half the fun for our group! It takes you right to a walkway and then a set of steps down to the falls. Lainey has been having new aversions to steps and different walkways, so she ended up riding piggyback most of the way. She also totally hates colder water too, so she had no interest of getting in the water.

If you're already in the Nauyaca area, do yourself a favor and head down to Dominical. It's an earthy beach town that has some great beach and eating spots. It's worth a morning or an afternoon for sure. We stumbled on Fuego Brewery and all just absolutely loved our meals (along with the killer views).