by Chris Bordelon

Created on: June 16, 2009   Last Updated: June 23, 2009

Our family adventure in San Jose, Costa Rica

My wife April (32), our daughter Destiny (13) and I (33) wanted to take a new kind of family vacation this year. So we looked around and agreed on Costa Rica. I for one, was a little shaky about the whole out of the States travel idea. I guess, I was expecting to get there and be an outcast with everyone looking at me wondering what I was doing there.

Well, we arrived there at the airport and I was in for a big surprise, there were a lot more Americans then I would have thought. When we first arrived we had our passports stamped, at that time we were told to keep them on us at all times, I thought to myself, okay sounds good to me. We got our rental car after a little bit of a wait, but it wasn't that bad. We arrived at our hotel somewhere around 2:00 PM.

I wasn't sure on what to expect from a hotel in another Country, I guess my expectations weren't very high. Man, was I wrong, we stayed at the Casa Conde Hotel & Suites, I later found out this hotel has a rating of 4.6 stars out of 5, not to bad in my book. The best part is we found a great deal on the price, it was only around $80 a night.

This hotel has so many things to offer for all of us. My wife loved the massage and treatment rooms and the beauty services. As for my little girl she couldn't get enough of that pool, which I must say myself was very nice, it was clean, up to date, and wonderfully designed. Now for me I loved the work out room and the sauna. For the first few days we spent a great deal of time around the hotel, there was just so much to keep us busy.

After we had a lot of fun being lazy around the hotel we all went to the Spirogyra Butterfly Garden. I wasn't really looking forward to this one, but my wife and daughter wanted to go so I said why not. Again I was in for a big surprise, this place was amazing. It was full of plant life, bug life, there were hundreds of butterflies all around us, and it was very nice and peaceful. They kept the grounds of the garden maintained very nicely, but at the same time it had a real natural feeling to it, not like most parks or gardens would feel like. From time to time you could even hear some of the wild animals roaring from the neighboring zoological park. The streams that flow throughout the park seemed to be so natural as well, it was really a great place to spend the day with the family, for some relaxing fun.

Now it was my turn to pick something to do, and I am an adventure kind of guy. So I asked around and heard about this place that does a canopy tour in the rainforest. So off we went, we were guided through the rainforest, on trails that lead to a rope ladder that lies inside of a giant hollow Fig tree. Then we all climbed the ladder, at the top you are sent flying across the sky high above the rainforest tree tops, at speeds up to 40 miles per hour. We did this from platform to platform, we all loved it, this is a great way to get that rush of blood flowing.

All in all I was very wrong about the trip out of the States, it turned out to be the best one we have ever been on. We all walked away with something that will forever be in our minds.

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