Welcome to Uvita, Costa Rica!

We arrived safely here in Costa Rica on December 7. On time flights with lots of empty seats and one short connection made it easy-breezy to get into the country. No COVID testing requirement was also a plus (we had taken two tests prior to seeing my mom-and I've decided if I can avoid having something shoved that far up my nose again, that would be nice. lol!).

After six weeks of bouncing around week-to-week seeing friends and family in the states, it feels nice to be settled for a month. Waking up with the sun, sitting in our outdoor living room, sipping my tea, and watching the abundance of wildlife around with the ocean in the background is just where I want to be. It just feels soul-soothing.

We haven’t been to this part of Costa Rica before, Marino Ballena National Park (ballena means whale in Spanish) is full of undeveloped (my favorite) tropical rainforest beaches. Shade-producing palm trees line the beach with monkeys and parrots and steep hills for hiking.

But alas, Jim and I aren’t really “beach people.” What drew us to the area was the abundance of outdoor activities in the ocean (hello humpback whales and snorkeling at Caño Island), hiking the steep hills along the coast (the COVID pounds are already dropping away!), and the wildlife in the national parks (like Corcovado National Park—biological diversity that is unmatched anywhere else in the world in a similar-sized area). So stay tuned for a lot of posts with our adventures here!

For now, enjoy the view from our Airbnb, the toucans that visit us while we sit in our outdoor living room, and the monkeys we see on our morning walks.