Vacation Search

As we approach the new year our search for our new vacation spot begins. We are drawn to Europe this time, specifically Italy, Switzerland and Germany. We will see what it will be...

Goodbye Summer 2011

It is our custom to conclude our summer with a small trip away from home. This year we decided to switch directions from our previous couple of years and head to La Jolla, a small quaint town by the ocean in the San Diego area.

We arrived Saturday evening to the Hyatt after a much anticipated sushi dinner at Harney Restaurant in Oceanside. Since we were all pretty hungry, we agreed that it was tasty and satisfying.

Sunday we had breakfast at the regency club at the hotel, not quite like the Irvine or Anaheim spread, but pretty good. After breakfast we went to the Birch Aquarium at Scripps (although we had been there before), Alec was excited to go since he says he wants to be a marine biologist when he "grows up. "

Since the aquarium is kind of small we had time to take a little walk in the downtown area of La Jolla afterwards. Although a little overcast, but fortunately no rain.

As a farewell treat we decided to sample the famous Sprinkles Cupcakes from the owner and judge of Cupcake Wars. Ian had his favorite; Red Velvet and Alec and I shared a Key Lime Pie, although a bit overpriced we all agreed they were pretty tasty. We liked them so much that we have all already decided what our next flavor will be.

If time could be bought it would be difficult to place a price tag on our final weekend of this summer. In fact the entire summer was priceless and wonderful.

Until our next outing we will continue to share any outing and significant trip the Leyva family takes in this blog. For now looking forward to summer of 2012 in Europe.

We Survived

If we are not mistaken our last entry was while we were in Scottsdale about to go on our grueling, insane, excruciating hike. I had asked for anyone reading our blog to call the search and rescue team if we did not post within the week of that day.
We were stuck in the hot arid dry mountain longer than we had anticipated and were indeed concerned with our welfare, but since we knew no one would call search and rescue, we just got brave and continued our walk ;-)
OHHHHHH what a hike that was, unforgettable on so many levels!
To begin with it was over 110 F. with absolutely no shade!!! Our intention was to leave for the hike no later than 8:00 A.M. but we got a late start and did not get to the mountain until 11:00 A.M.
Since the heat there intensifies by the minute when we started the temperature was already unbearable to walk, however, since we saw a few other LIVING families walking down the hill we decided to brave it and walk like troubled soldiers stranded in the Iraq. Why did we do it? We don't know other than the view is beautiful, and the actual terrain is not bad.
We hope to return and hike under better weather conditions and without a nagging whinny child (the child is not who you may think it is ;-)
After our insane hike up the Scottsdale mountain we decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner at SWB a restaurant at our hotel. This made it all worthwhile. It was one of the most delicious southwestern meals we had ever had!
Even if we do not return to hike in Scottsdale, we have vowed to return and spend more time in this beautiful quaint dessert town that we are so in love with. Until the next one when we actually experience the reason for our visit to AZ.

Chillin by the pool

Today is the kind of day we will dream of when we are working and full of stress. We did so little we don't have much to blog. We got up this morning and had breakfast at the hotel, then we went to the pool and hung out for most of the day. The pool has a three story slide as well as basketball and volleyball nets. We read and just lounged until the heat and hunger got to us again. What a life!

The Hyatt we are staying at had a very interesting American Indian presentation this afternoon. It was brief and educational, so our brain did get some stimulation today...had it not been for the presentation we would have had a zero learning vegetative kind of day, not a bad thing when those come every decade if we are lucky.

Tomorrow we go on a hike hopefully early before the heat starts beating down on us (106 F. predicted for tomorrow). If you don't see any postings for a week after today, please call the search and rescue team and give them our description ;-)

Good Night until tomorrow.

Scottsdale Arizona

Yesterday we arrived for our second leg of our 2011 vacation. This time we are in the U.S., not far from home (relatively speaking), but a world away as far as weather, landscape and people are concerned. It is 107 F. degrees during the day and according to the locals it is "cooler" today, cooler, they call 107 f. cooler? I guess when you are used to 116 and over, anything below 110 is "cooler" It is however, extremely beautiful! Even more impressive is the Hyatt Resort we are staying at. Because we are Diamond members (frequent visitors) we were upgraded to the presidential suite, and although we have been staying with Hyatt in a number of different destinations this has got to the best room EVER! The room must be over 1200 sq. ft., 2 restrooms, kitchen, living room, and ample bedroom. The bar has been set pretty high today.... Nothing rustic about these accommodations for sure!!!
Tomorrow we will spend most of our day by the pool (over 2.5 acres of water) In the evening we will attend a Native American presentation and then go over to the fire pit to make some smores.
Looking forward to a chillin' kind of day.
Good Night.

Goodbye Costa Rica

Dear Costa Rica:
Thank you so much for hosting us this past week. Your people are amazing! The attentiveness and the help is impressive. We were also extremely blown away with the land and it's beauty. It is beautiful beyond what we expected. Rich, lush, green (thanks to the constant rain of course) and scenic. We had a wonderful time that won't soon be forgotten.
Now for a little constructive criticism: Please make your roads a little friendlier. Cars in each direction with inches to spare in a winding narrow road can give tourists heart attacks. As can the roads that are not paved. Perhaps your vouchers can ask tourist to bring neck braces for the whiplash that is inevitable while driving the unpaved roads. The tourism marketing for your country should also have people that are planning on visiting Costa Rica go on a black beans and rice fast for at least a year leading up to the visit. Since you know that the two staples of the Costa Rican diet will be part of EVERY SINGLE meal there (the black beans and rice are not bad by the way, but after 21 times in a week it is way too much!).
For those of us that like spice in our food. Please advise us to take little packets of Cholula, or Tapatio salsa, your Lizano salsa is not that good, it is too much like Tabasco (even the occasional Jalapeno that is found is kind of bland).
One important detail. Please let all the travel companies that you count on to advertise, that Arenal is no longer an active volcano, it is very disappointing to go there specifically for the volcano only to find out it has been inactive for the past six months.
Finally, make sure you advertise that non Spanish speaking travelers need not know too much Spanish. Your people are pretty good at communicating in English, besides all you need to really learn are two words: Pura Vida; if someone asks: How are you? Are you having a good time? Do you like Costa Rica? The answer can all be the same. "PURA VIDA"... Indeed it was, we loved you Costa Rica! We hope to be back someday.

A day at the park

We finally made it to Manuel Antonio National Park.
Last night the power outage was so bad we were forced to move to another section of the hotel where there was still power. As a result of the move we were upgraded to a better room. So yes we had rain, but something good came out of that. Also, once again unintentionally we saved the best for last. Manuel Antonio Park was a wonderful experience, to see monkeys, sloths and birds in their natural unaltered habitat. We had seen the exact same animals at the zoo or in other settings but as just mentioned seeing them roam around free was so beautiful. Our walk in the park was in the middle of the day in like 100 degree weather, with humidity of 100 %, we perspired what seemed like gallons of water within a few minutes. Even then it was an experience we would happily repeat. We also got to see the beautiful beach right at the end of the park. That too was awesome, and unique. We had never seen forest, monkeys and rare birds all in the same day/hour. Once again a wonderful day in the Quepos area of Costa Rica.

A day at the Beach

Today was the kind of day you wish for when you are stressed and full of work. All we did was go to the beach and frolic in the warm water of Manuel Antonio beach. Originally we had planned to visit the national park but we heard that we had to get up at the crack of dawn and be there by 7:00 A.M. to be the first to be allowed in. Since we have been getting up early every day of our vacation we decided to take a little break and leisurely have breakfast at our hotel (which is delicious). The restaurant is right by the ocean and has a 180 degree view of the beach. Awesome start to any day!
After breakfast we strolled to the beach. The water is warm and there is wonderful white/gray sand leading all the way to the forest right behind the beach.
Our day concluded with dinner at a restaurant nearby called Mariposa. It was so wonderful and the service was so great we have even included a picture our waiter took while we were there.
But our day could not end without a nice little storm with lightning and thunder and a power outage. So much so that we have no power in our room. Alec is all panicked and we are laughing because it reminds of of when we were young and lived in areas where that was common.

4th of July from Monteverde to Quepos

It doesn´t matter what part of the world we are at, we always feel a bit notalgic on the 4th of July. For the past three years we have been away from home on our independence day. That doesn´t mean we don t remember and celebrate in our own little way.
Today was our last day in the Monteverde area, we left and drove about 4 hours to Quepos the little town closest to Manuel Antonio National Park. Fortunately we saved the best for last. Our hotel: El Parador is gorgeous, it has a wonderful view of the ocean and the forest as well. We had only been at the property about 30 min. when we saw a monkey swinging from the trees and beautiful colorful birds. Its not the same as all the fireworks and the whole independence day experience,but it kind of made up for not being able to spend 4th of July with our friends and or family.
Happy 4th of July to all in the U.S.A.

Amazing Adrenaline Activity

On very few occasions do we get to experience the exciliration, and extreme sport adrenaline we felt today. As we were on the shuttle on our way to Selvatura Park where we were going to zip line and canopy walk, different thoughts were crossing our mind. What if the cable breaks? What if someone forgets to secure my harness? What if, what if? As we drew closer we could see the forest up closer and reality was smack in front of us.


We were harnessed, given instructions then led to the first platform that would initiate us to the most amazing and nerve wrecking experience of our life! At first we were afraid that this might be our very last extreme sport ever! We continued nevertheless, and followed instructions, since we were too far to go back...Zip lining above the forest of Santa Elena Cloud forest is an experience that will be difficult to top. As we were zipping above the tallest trees in Costa Rica we can assure you we were in one of the best places to practice this sport.


The Canopy walk was equally exciting but not as excilirating. Alec described it as "Magestic" It really makes you feel like you are on top of the world when the tallest trees are far below where you are walking. There are sounds you buy on a CD in the U.S. it's as if every one of your senses is being stimulated in a wonderful peaceful way. The walk along the hanging bridges will also be difficult to top any time soon.


Tomorrow we head out to Manuel Antonio National Park. While the U.S. is celebrating the 4th of July we will be traveling to another amazing spot in Costa Rica. We hope it is as beautiful as what we have seen today.

Pura Vida (for sure!)

On the road again

Today we got up and finally got a chance to see the sun in Arenal. Did not quite see the tip of the volcano but managed to see most of it.
After breakfast we drove to Monteverde, also known as ¨Cloud Forest¨. A drive that could have taken 2 hours, if the roads were wide and not curvy, took us four and a half hours! Most of our day was spent driving along the countryside, which is very green and peaceful. Fortunately we are on vacation and in no rush to get anywhere by a specific time, although we were happy to arrive at our destination after all those curves and narrow dangerous roads. Our hotel really feels like it´s in the clouds. A lodge with views of the extremely green mountains and not much else.
Tomorrow promises to be a much more active day. We are scheduled to go canoping, and hanging bridge walking in the forest.
Hasta mañana

Arenal

It has been aproximately 24 hours since our last posting and guess what? It s still raining on and off! That should not have been too dificult to guess, given that this is a Leyva Vacation Blog. Today we decided to ignore the rain and go white water rafting. An experience we had never had as a family or as individuals. For some an item on the bucket list, for others not so much....A fun, exciting, extreme experience for all!

The river is called Balsa river and the whole rafting experience lasts about 2 1/2 hours, which actually went by pretty fast. We rafted down grades 2 & 3 rapids which is slow and calm and intense at times as well, a good balance for us more fearful types. All in all a fun exeperience.

The main reason we chose Arenal as one of our stops in this country, was the volcano, that we thought was active, however, come to find out that it stopped erupting about six months ago. It was active for 42 years but stopped in preparation for our visit...No rain, no lava and no eruptions. See ya later arenal! Tomorrow we leave to Cloud Forest/Monteverde area, where we are scheduled to go canoping. Hopefully in dry nice warm weather.

Good night "Pura Vida Mojada"

Are we there yet?

It had been a few years since traveling to our detination took soooooo long. Last night we left home at aproximately 9:30 P.M. and we did not arrive at our destination until 6:00 P.M. local time (only one hour difference from Pacific Standard time). Thanks in part to our usual welcome at every single one of our destinations... RAIN, LOTS OF IT!!! It would not be a Leyva vacation without the typical downpour.... On this ocassion it came with thunder, lightning and buckets and buckets of torrential rain. We think we must of had a whole years (I can not find the apostrephe on this computer) worth of L.A. rain within a few hours here.

We had heard that Costa Ricans are nice welcoming people and they sure live up to their reputation, but ohhhh how slow they work and do buisness. It took us over an hour and a half to get our rental car. Over an hour to withdraw money from the bank. Everything seems to run in slow motion here. Every so often we want to play the fast forward botton! They are probably wondering why we are on fast forward.

It has been a long day for us and we are expecting to have lots of activities tomorrow, including white water rafting (the easiest level to start :-)

We hope to include pictures of our panic stricken faces as we raft down the local river.

Hasta mañana or as they say here:

"PURA VIDA"

Costa Rica here we come!

26 more days until we leave to our summer vacation in Costa Rica. We anticipate a wonderful eight days in the lush tropical oasis.

Summer 2011 Vacation

Summer breaks starts just a couple of months from now and we still have not made any of our reservations. Hoping to accomplish that this week. Will post our destination as early as the end of this week. We hope...