Day 7 – 2 April 2011

Alexis woke up middle of night but fell back asleep pretty easily. We got some much needed rest that as, as she slept again until about 6:00. Nicole needed more sleep so we walked around for an hour and a half. As I was just about done with the walk and heading back to the room, I saw Rob & Christina on their balcony and told them we'd see them one last time at breakfast. We got Nicole up, showered, and I took down the clothes that were still wet to finish drying on the chairs by the pool. The warm sun would help finish those drying before we had to leave.

We ate our last breakfast and Alexis said all her goodbyes to her 75 new friends at the Riu. They all enjoyed seeing her every time she came in and the wait staff was always kind and helpful to us during every meal. We're going to miss seeing them, as well.

We finished packing in the last hour we had, and got a call from our transfer driver that he was here an hour early. When I went to get them from the pool to let Nicole finish the packing in peace, Alexis fell asleep and our clothes were dry for the most part. We were scrambling to get all the bags ready because leaving early wasn't a bad thing. Luckily, I found a luggage cart in the lobby and brought it back into the room. We piled all the bags on the cart (and still had to carry a few), went to push it out the door and the bags were too wide on the cart to fit out the door…figures. We unloaded the cart, pushed it outside the door, and reloaded – let's try this again. Checkout was a snap as we turned in our room key and towel cards. We went to ask where our driver was and he was actually standing next to us.

He went to get the van and we stuffed it full of luggage and passengers – "Vamanos!" He informed us that it would be a four hour drive, as we were already informed from what we've ready read and heard. I sat in the front with Nicole and Alexis in the middle row of seats. The driver and I would strike up conversation here and there about various topics. Most conversations consisted of him speaking his semi-bad English and me talking in my semi-bad Spanish. After getting out of the bumpy roads leaving the hotel, the roads were very good and there were no problems…for the first half. The second half of the trip was heading up into the mountains on winding, rocky, dirt roads. The view got more and more extraordinary as we got higher up the mountains, but the roads bumps and turns were becoming too much for Nicole. We took a few minute break on the side of the road and she got some water. The driver took the turns a little more gracefully after that. Alexis was still struggling to get to sleep, but wanted to and needed to really bad. Nicole was trying to lay down on the seat to relieve her nauseous feeling. We came up over a ridge and were able to see Arenal Volcano in the distance – what a beautiful view. The rest of the ride was uneventful, despite the roads continually being bumpy. Alexis was able to fall asleep as her entire body was bouncing up and down in the car seat; we have no idea how she did it but it made the ride much more enjoyable for everyone. The only downside was that there was less than an hour left in the trip.

When arriving at the hotel, it was like being in an old rustic cabin setting. The air was much cooler (by about twenty degrees), and less humid. Everything seemed built from wood and it was tucked back in the forest. Since we hadn't eaten since breakfast, we headed down to lunch to get some food while the hotel staff would take our bags to our room. We had some sandwich/pasta dishes that were pretty good, but nothing that was too spectacular for the price we were paying…oh, well. Alexis made friends immediately again, even though she was fussing from being stuck in her high chair. We got to the room and we didn't have our own cabin like I was picturing. Instead, it was a building that had a few rooms in it. We went inside ours and it was beautiful. The room overlooks the forest, has hard wooden floors and a sun room. This room is much better for Alexis because we don't have to turn the air conditioning on and there is plenty of space for her to move around on the floor and pull herself up on furniture.

After settling in a bit, we planned to go to the hummingbird garden near the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. We chose the cheapest form of transportation, which was to walk. The walk was less than two miles and we confirmed it was only about a twenty minute walk. About halfway there, we realized maybe this wasn't the best idea, as almost the entire walk was uphill. This was a good workout from sitting in the car all day, but maybe a bit too much. Admission was free and contained an array of feeders that attracted many hummingbirds to come eat. It was spectacular seeing the birds, so we were both glad we went. Alexis even enjoyed looking at them and waving to them. The walk back was downhill and very much easier.

There was an hour and a half before we were scheduled to go on a night hike through the trees which was in and around the forest right near our hotel. For lack of a better time, I got a taxi and went into town to the supermarket. Alexis needed milk and we needed to get her some food that she would eat because she's been very picky on eating since the first few days in Costa Rica. I was able to get the milk, half a watermelon, can of mandarin oranges, bunch of bananas, and a box of pineapple bran bars (I had no idea how these would work out). Lesson Learned: In Costa Rica, you are supposed to weigh your own produce and tag it with a label before bringing it to the register.

We strapped Alexis in the backpack and headed down for the night hike. The guide was very knowledgeable, but there wasn't too much out at night for us to see. There were a few spiders, and other insects, but no mammals. Most birds were too hard to see with just the flashlight or were too far away. We did learn a few fun facts about Costa Rica and the wildlife there. Alexis feel asleep in the backpack during the beginning, but that didn't last very long. She was fairly restless and fussy for the remainder of the hike. This was probably one of the very few low points of the entire trip.

After getting back around 1930, we were all very tired and tried to get food from the restaurant to bring back up to our room. The waitress and I carried it back to the room as we got ready for bed. After dinner, we tried to put Alexis in her crib and she went down very easily. She must have been extremely tired, but already this crib is working out ten times better than the crib we had all of next week. Now, let's see how long she lasts so we can get some sleep, too.