We’ve settled into a bit of a routine, which is perfect for my A-type personality. On this trip, where we’re somewhat “flying by the seat of our pants,” a little structure is comfortable. I know, I know… but I can’t help it.

Each day starts relatively the same. Ken and Noah get up around 7am local time (9am EST so Ken can work). They have breakfast, watch cartoons in Spanish, and Ken gets to work. I get up shortly after, make myself some coffee, and I organize Noah’s school work for the day. Noah and I then have school for about an hour or two. And no, I’m not torturing him! The other day he was practically in tears because we haven’t done MATH in awhile. I swear, sometimes I wonder if he’s my kid. I haven’t been doing math with him because I HATE MATH. But, I bit the bullet eventually. Ugh. Anyway, after school Noah and I will go on a walk or head up to the pool. Each time we leave the house Noah asks, “Can we look for lizards?” Ken and I have started to tell him “no.” 🙂 The pool or walk is followed by lunch and then errands, sometimes into town or down to the market. Then, relaxing around the condo. Sometimes back to the pool or down to the beach. At night I cook dinner, we’ll play a game or watch a movie, and for Noah’s bedtime we read Harry Potter. Like I said, a nice little routine.

Sprinkled throughout this routine are exciting moments; we are in Costa Rica after all! On Sunday after my last post we came across a STICK BUG!!!! Not one of the small New Jersey ones. This one was larger than Ken’s hand. I swore it was a regular, old stick that was stuck in a spider’s web. Then Ken poked it. It moved. It was NOT A REGULAR OLD STICK!!!!

On Sunday we experienced our first thunder and lightning storm. It was serious. Like Florida storms, but louder and brighter. Noah was a little scared, but still went to sleep easily. And, we never lost power!

At the pool we’ve seen various people staying at our same condo complex, as well as the Security Guard. All are friendly, and have described Noah as a “little fish.” The kid LOVES the water! He’s getting better and better at swimming, and he no longer uses his swimmies at all!

Ken and I have joined a gym, Crossfit Coco Beach. Nothing fancy, but as Ken describes it we have “all the equipment we need packed into a tiny area!”

On Friday Noah had his first “quiz” for school, which he did wonderfully on, and Ken started to work with him on Spanish phrases. We went to bed relatively early that night because on Saturday we had something planned! We were headed for: Congo Canopy Tours!!

On Saturday we were picked up by a lady from the tour company and driven into the jungle. We booked horseback riding and a tour of the animal sanctuary. Horseback riding always sounds like a good idea, then you ride for an hour and your tush reminds you: You’re not a rider. You never were a rider. You’re in pain. Despite this reminder, hearing Noah shout over his shoulder: “This is the best day ever!!” Made it worth it.

And, while we didn’t see any monkeys on our trek, we did hear them! And they don’t howl so much as they grunt and growl. We did see an enormous cactus, a Guanacaste Tree, and a termite home. Our tour was over an hour and the entire time we were followed by a dog named Congo. Dennis, our guide, shared that Congo follows him every day, on every tour. That’s at least 4 times a day, every day!

When we finished with the horses, we were waiting to go into the animal sanctuary and a few white-faced monkeys came around. Dennis got us some sunflower seeds and Noah was able to FEED THE MONKEYS!!!! It was adorable. The monkey reached down and held Noah’s hand. Amazing.

In the sanctuary our guide told us about how and why all the animals are there. It seems like people constantly try to keep wild animals as pets. Humans don’t learn. And these pets eventually get big or act wild. They can’t survive in the wild now, so this sanctuary is there to help. We saw monkeys (3 different types), turtles, snakes, and birds. All once kept as pets and abandoned by people who realized they made a mistake.

Once our tour was over we had lunch in the open-air lobby and watched film of the zip-line tours the company offers. Noah said he’d be interested, so we may be back!

We returned to our condo around 1pm and headed to the pool to relax and float. We came back to the condo, lounged around, spoke to Abuelo for his birthday, and went to bed. Tired, but full of happiness.

On Sunday (yesterday), we made our way down to Luna de Playa for breakfast crepes. After, we decided it would be a nice morning for a walk along the beach. The three of us turned down our usual street to access the beach (Pelican Way – a change from the first day Iguana Drive!). We heard some rustling in the trees and looked up, expecting to see one of the many birds in the area, but we were met with something else. Something larger. Hairier. Louder. HOWLER MONKEYS!!!!!! A whole family of them!!! We were amazed. Truly lucky. We stood watching them in awe for awhile. This was a good day, and it wasn’t even 11am!

We eventually left the monkeys and got to the beach. Along our walk to the end of the horseshoe we came across mollusks, crabs, and a fish – out of water!! Ken picked him up and got him back into the ocean. It took our little buddy a few minutes, but he eventually made his way back out to sea. We walked to the end and there was a beautiful little waterfall spraying cold rain-forest water. We found sea snails, hermit crabs, and tiny fish.

On our walk back, we scoped out the monkeys again, stopped and had a strawberry smoothie, and (of course) looked for lizards. The afternoon was spent relaxing in the condo, then out at the pool. For dinner we took a ride into town and tried a new little place, Soda Teresita. We sampled their Casado (a traditional platter which is made up of similar things no matter where you go: meat/protein, rice, beans, “salad”, and a side – this can be a beet salad, potato salad, tuna salad… anything). Ken had beef, Noah had pork, and I had fish. Each were delicious. We also tried Jugo de Chan. Different, but yummy.

After dinner, we realized it was close to sunset, so off to the beach we went. It was cloudy so the sunset wasn’t as beautiful as other days, but we saw the clouds lit up in various pastel colors and a rainbow. So, who can complain?

Did I say we fell into a routine? I guess we did: breakfast, school, and grand adventures.

Until next time… 🙂