Pura Vida “Dubara” - a revisit

​ After our last breakfast buffet overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Manuel Antonio, we were picked up by our ultra-spacious van for our last destination on this remarkable Costa Rican journey.   The scenery outside the window never got boring as we passed through small coastal towns and lush green villages. The unplanned shopping stop at the huge souvenir store, …. in …. was a full of delightful Costa Rican artifacts, colorful gift articles, delicious chocolates and other local treats. We did go overboard and could have taken even more stuff home if only we could fit it in our suitcases. After some refreshing ice cream  🍦 there we continued on the longish drive. The rainy check-in at the Peace Lodge lobby around 2.30pm gave us a sneak peak about the expanse and uniqueness of the property and all that it had to offer. We all agreed we could have used an extra day at this paradise, but were content with our time especially with the heavy downpour for the most part of our super s...

​ With a couple of days left on the trip, the mornings get longer and the activities more relaxed. Another decent treadmill run listening to Adam Grant’s podcast followed by an ocean front breakfast and a slippery walk down the Monkey trail in flip flops (bad idea by the way) 🩴  with Anu. The kids enjoyed a round of mini golf with Chinmay.  We were booked with Terra tours for the chocolate/coffee tour. Our guide, Bryan sounded very passionate about the cacao plantations while explaining the process of pollination, cacao fruit harvest, separating the cacao beans, fermentation, drying, dehuskng etc. We were informed beforehand that this was the tour where we would get to sample a lot of goodies. The tart meat around the seeds tasted delicious and the anti oxidant rich cacao nibs smelled divine, chocolate in its purest rawest and most natural form.  Drink of the Gods lived up to its name- cacao nibs crushed with a bit of brown sugar and mixed with cnammon, chili, drop of ho...

​ The breakfast buffet was adequate although not the best of the 3 so far; made to order omelette station after a morning treadmill run felt well deserved and the Al fresco seating with the family overlooking the ocean made these 3 breakfasts quite memorable.   Our transport with Manuel’s Manuel Antonio park private guided tour picked us up promptly at 10.20am and took us to the park entrance where we met with our friendly and tall guide Ali with his curly locks ted on a ponytail. With Al’s expert guidance we were able to spot some cool spny tailed iguanas  🦎 , sloths hanging out on the tree tops, a snake and cappuccin monkeys. Learning about the behaviors of each of these creatures combined with the anticipation when he adjusted and perched his scope ready for us to view made it all the more fun for the kids and us parents.  The 2 mile walk through the national park introduced us to less than 2% of this habitat, the rest of it is uncharted territory for obvious preserva...

​ The ala carte breakfast at Senda was full of fresh ingredients, the starter of fruits and banana bread piece was a nice little preview of the rest of the meal.   Selvatura zip line tour bus transported us to the large Selvatura park that has orchid gardens, reptile park, Sloth sanctuary, hanging bridges and of course the famous zip line.  There were 13 cables of varying heights and lengths, the longest ones being #6 and #13. Walking through the rainforest with all the gear attached to us from one platform to the other which were at times several meters apart was a great cardio. The excitement amongst all 8 of us was at its peak as we zipped from one cable to the other riding on top of the tree top canopies. Flying through the top of the cloud forest paradise lands an incredibly exhilarating experience. We were sent in pairs and triples for the 2 longer cables. My determination to skip the Tarzan swing was shot down by peer pressure and I am glad I did it! It was definitely n...

​ A 5K run through the Tabacon Hot Springs resort grounds kick started the day and kind of helped justify the omelette and other breakfast goodies. Phillipe from Odyssey tours was there to pick us up promptly at 10am albeit in a 7 seater car. Some miscommunication on their part extended the journey from Arenal to Monteverde by an hour or so, most of that wait was by the Lake Arenal waiting for the 3 other tourists to be picked up by their transport so our group could board. Our 45 minutes personal boat ride was pleasant; our captain was eager to point out the snow egrets and other birds to us. Parishi took one of her many naps that day stretched along the seat of the boat. The much larger and cozier car that picked us up from the lake took us on a 2.5 hour ride to Monteverde. However, the magical verdant scenery and worthwhile stops made the ride seem like an excursion in itself. Our stop at the sugar cane plantation was a call back to simpler times in India and we all enjoyed operatin...

​ After another satiating breakfast at Tabacon, we were picked up by our guide Jacob for the private Arenal volcano  🌋  hike. It was more of a nature walk through the rain forest trail 1968 with multiple stops as Jacob narrated fascinating facts around the volcano. Until it first erupted in July 1968, nobody knew it was a volcano and mistook it for a mountain catching people off-guard and destroying the towns around it with a death toll of 80 humans and several more cows due to the toxic gases from the eruption. The weather Gods had been kind enough for us all throughout the trip so far despite this being the wet season in Costa Rica. While we were not even once able to sight the Arenal volcano on our 2012 visit, we had our fair share of sighting ranging from the crater covered by the cloud to an almost unobstructed view of this 5000 ft towering glory. The fresh pineapple  🍍  at the end of the hike was a refreshing treat.  Constantly changing landscape + weath...