As our time in Costa Rica comes to an end, we have been talking about all the memories we have made. I have had several people ask me if we would come back here again, and the answer is absolutely yes! There really is something about their Pura Vida culture that is calming. We rarely see people in a hurry and wearing shoes appears to be optional. There is an overall lack of rules that you would think our structured personalities would hate, but it works here.
Here’s a slideshow of our favorite memories, as well as some fun stats about our time here.
Costa Rica Life in Numbers
Number of combined hours spent on Duolingo learning Spanish: 208
Number of minor earthquakes experienced: 1
Number of electricity blackouts: 3
Number of plumbing issues that resulted in water shooting out of our kitchen cabinet: 1
Number of kids riding bikes with helmets: 0
Percentage of seat belts that worked in Ubers: 75%
Number of times Jill mentioned something about the beautiful birds: countless
Percentage of locals in La Fortuna that returned our smiles: 95%
Percentage of locals in Jaco that returned our smiles: 25%
Funniest mispronunciation of Braxton’s name by the local kids: Trixton
Number of times we were startled by the iguanas: at least 10 (we eventually got used to them)
Number of times we have missed having a car: 1 (When Dave was asked to drive the Uber)
Number of times someone puked during a shuttle ride: 2
Number of bug bites: WAY too many to count
Number of days we have kept our daily journals: 52
Number of times we walked to the grocery store: roughly 21 – an average of 3x/week
Number of times someone declared “I’m quitting gap year”: 3
Number of times Alexis broke out in a spontaneous dance: roughly 52 – usually once a day
Number of times Braxton had to capture a creature that was inside our house: 7 (2 lizards, 3 cockroaches, a leaf bug, and an unknown flying beetle). This does not include bugs we decided to just leave alone. SO MANY BUGS!
Number of animals the kids named: A LOT! – favorites were Abu and Aladdin the cats, Biff the dog, and Carl the iguana.
On to a New Adventure
We leave for San Jose on Tuesday. We will spend one night there before we leave Costa Rica and head for Japan. We make a quick stop back in the United States and spend two nights in Houston. Connecting in Houston was the cheapest way to get to Japan, and a flight cancellation put us there for two nights. We don’t mind though, as my mom is going to fly there and hang out with us for the roughly 36 hours we will be there. Is that love or what? We are all super excited to see her! Japan, here we come!
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Ohh this is such a fun way to recap your time here!! I’ve loved seeing your lives in Costa Rica through this blog, and can’t wait to “see” Japan!!
That is so kind of your mom to meet up with you guys!! Will you continue to learn Spanish? Or will you start learning Japanese?
We plan to continue Spanish, but have started doing some Japanese too just to get the basics. Spanish will be part of their school for the entire year.
I can’t tell you how much I’m enjoying your blog. You must be so thrilled with your trip so far!!! What a huge collection of memories you will have as a family forever. I look forward to “riding along” with your help in the days and weeks to follow!!! Safe travels!!! Audios for now🥰👍🏻😎💕
Oooo I love the numbers recap! Such a fun and clever idea!
I have absolutely loved following your journey on here. Getting blog notifications in my email is always a highlight of my day.