Hilles in the House

Sarah: This past week we have had the pleasure of hanging out and traveling with David's parents, younger sister Jenna, and her friend Ashley. The Hilles wanted to take advantage of visiting us one last time before we no longer live in Costa Rica, so this time we planned an adventure down on the Osa Peninsula. All pictures on this blog are from the Osa.

Adele warmed up to Nana the first morning, when she dug into a suitcase full of her new 6-9 month clothes and toys. Adele was the excited "kid-in-the-candy-store" and found that she just didn't have enough hands to hold onto everything that she wanted to at the same time! After a morning in the city, we headed out to QERC and enjoyed a couple of rainy days, complete with a hike to the waterfall in some pouring rain.

Though our time at QERC was short at the beginning of the trip, we were eager to get on with the adventure and head down to the tip of the Osa Peninsula. David had found a good deal on renting a house for 4 nights; however, after a long day of driving, ending with some rough and bumpy roads to the middle of nowhere, we were all a little skeptical of what we'd find at our final destination. We were all completely blown away at the sight that awaited us. The house was incredible, sitting on a cliff that overlooked the ocean, decorated with beautiful art, a pool at the edge of the cliff, and an amazing layout with complete open air that felt like we were outside even when we were inside the living room. There were two bedrooms, each with an outdoor shower, lined with beautiful tiles and rockwork and lights for a nice way to cool down in the evening. Jenna and Ashley stayed in the main part of the house, in a loft that overlooked the living room, pool, and ocean.

Our first day there was fairly rainy, but it didn't matter as we woke up to the wonderful sounds of howler monkeys, scarlet macaws, and toucans right outside our windows. We got up to find black-and-green poison dart frogs hopping along our driveway and knew we were in a good place. We spent a lot of the day lounging around, taking turns bouncing Adele (her new favorite way to spend time), and watching the birds and monkeys that would travel in the forests around the house. In the afternoon we went for a walk on the road through the forest, where we saw more monkeys and even a baby coral snake!

For meals, with the exception of the first night, we took advantage of the option of having the local caretaker's wife cook for us, and she made us a feast at every meal. It was good Costa Rican cuisine! The first night we went to the nearby hotel and had a very fancy meal to celebrate Jenna's birthday.

Our second day was nicer weather and we jumped on the chance to walk down the path to the beach. We added a sloth and an agouti to our animal list, and enjoyed some time walking along the beach. Our third day was even nicer weather, and Ashley tried her hand at surfing while David and his mom and Adele and I walked to a small waterfall. We also got lots of pool time in with the hot sunny weather.

Adele did great with the traveling and even got to a point where she was fairly used to her car seat. She still preferred being with me, but if I was able to leave her happy with others, she hardly missed me while I was out of sight. She always woke up happy and enjoyed spending time with Nana and Popa first thing in the mornings.

We headed back to QERC last Saturday and spent one last evening together before Jenna and Ashley traveled into San Jose very early Sunday morning to return to the states. The rest of us had 2 more full days at QERC, where David enlisted the help of his parents to put in some manual labor in the nursery. It was a great way to spend time together and get some more things finished up around QERC. We had to say goodbye to the Hilles on Tuesday morning, but were thankful for such a nice vacation with them!