I am so excited to be sharing details about my most recent trip to Costa Rica with you! You may remember I visited Costa Rica last year with my friend Brooke and we stayed at a resort, and it was a very different experience than my most recent trip! This trip was all about adventure and celebrating my friend Jon’s birthday. Both trips were equally relaxing though- the culture is Costa Rica is "pura vida"...pure life- all about taking care of the earth and each other, with no stress. LOVE THAT and it made both trips such a pleasure because Ticos (Costa Rican people!) are the nicest!

Oh, PS. this was the ultimate adventure vacay and the birthday boy had surgery a few weeks prior his arm was in a sling but he still did everything! V impressive!

We started the trip by checking into our four-story Airbnb villa that overlooked the city of Tamarindo and the beach! Not bad. Our infinity pool was all I needed, and I didn’t really care about anything else… but the rest of the house was amazing too! It also included a house staff that we hired to cook our breakfast and meals for us most days - so much nicer than having to cook and clean up after 13 people for every single meal.

Our first day was all about relaxing, getting settled, and playing in the pool! Then our second day we had a surf lesson scheduled! Out of all of our activities, I was probably most nervous and most excited for the surf lesson. I'm a swimmer but I had never tried surfing and salt water is not my favorite!

I am so happy that I bought this wetsuit off of Amazon because it saved my skin! After a couple hours of surfing on the beach and in the water, it’s safe to say that the spray tan was completely gone from the top of my thighs! Our instructors were from Kelly’s Surf Shop and they were like 20 years old, just living Pura Vida in Costa Rica - all so nice and so helpful; I was trying to pay as close attention as I could so I would remember everything they said and not die! Ha!

After a few painful failed attempts, I started standing up on the board and it felt like I was riding a massive wave when in reality it was like a 5 inch ripple by the time I got up on the board! Ha! It was a blast though! Surfing is definitely a full body workout – after a few hours I was completely wiped out and most of our group when done before our time was even over. I am definitely looking forward to my next surfing experience and hope I remember everything I learned!

The next day was a full day of adventures, and it started at 6:30am when a tour bus picked us up to drive us to our zip lining adventure! There’s nothing cuter than a ziplining harness and helmet! After ziplining we went horseback riding then white water tubing then we ended the day with a mud bath and natural hot springs. I'm not 100% sure, but I think the springs were heated by a volcano and are apparently THE thing to do in Costa Rica. After the mud bath my spray tan was completely gone, so that’s too bad, but it was worth it! The mud bath was one of my favorite activities because when else do you have an excuse to get completely filthy and then relax in a natural hot tub?

Honestly, the days kind of run together but one of my favorite nights was the night we went to dinner and asked our waiter where the best discoteca was. He recommended "Crazy Monkey" so we dragged the whole group to this random nightclub! I was definitely in a weird mood that night because there was a cover charge (like $2!) and one of the girls said "oh if there's a cover, we are definitely not going." I was like WE ARE GOINGGG and just started pulling out cash to pay for people - my mind was made up and we were doing it! It was so hot and so humid and we were all just dripping sweat, but having the best time dancing to some 90s hits! Half of the club was a DJ, and the other half was a salsa club! I did one salsa dance then remembered "I don’t know what I’m doing" and then tried to dance with a friend but our arms were so sweaty that we could barely hold onto each other! That night was my favorite because then we walked on the beach and ended the night with a glow stick pool party at the house!

I tried a lot of new things in Costa Rica, and I loved going on a trip with a group of people who were up for an adventure and willing to try anything! I didn’t know most of the group before going, but if they were friends with Jon, I knew they had to be good people! Thankful for another trip to Costa Rica! PURA VIDA!