Taryn's Mad Hatter Adventures

7/1/24

Our systems were definitely still on east coast time! I think we went to bed the previous night by 9:00 p.m. Costa Rica time, and were up and at breakfast by 7:30 a.m.!

Some beautiful scenery on the way to breakfast:

The breakfast buffet here is complimentary with your stay. I took this video on our last morning there. It is HUGE! And has so many options!

Here are our plates from the first morning:

THE FRUIT! So delicious! And the gallo pinto…I ate this every morning!

The restaurant as I mentioned before, is open air. We had some visitors!

The rest of our group was filtering in to breakfast. We got together and discussed the excursions we were all interested in taking, and then a few of us headed to the lobby area to book them for the rest of our time at this hotel.

Here you can see the lobby is quite small. This desk where the girl is sitting is where we signed up for the tours.

The girl who helped us was AMAZING! Super patient since we were complicated! We miraculously got every excursion we wanted.

They did have a little beverage station that had different flavored water each day.

Once we were all signed up, we headed back to the pool until it was time for the first tour at 2:00 p.m.

The amazing view from the pool:

The kids were starting to get hungry for lunch, so decided to order from Alambique Pizzeria.

Here’s the Hawaiian pizza:

Here’s the kid’s mini pizza:

They use a wood fired oven, and these were great!

Here’s the cheeseburger:

All of the food was really good!

This was our view during lunch:

I never got tired of this view and the quiet of the resort!

The ATV Tour crew departed for their excursion. I was not going on it, so I had my lunch at the pool bar.

Beef quesadilla:

This was really good! It was not ground beef, but chunks of beef.

The tour was booked with ATV Super Quads. Here they are getting ready!

My daughter’s view through this part:

Along the tour, they did see a sloth!

They also had a chance to swim in some hot springs.

My family:

(Almost everyone declared this as their favorite tour at the end of the trip!)

After they came back from the tour, we just hung around the resort a little bit, and then got ready for dinner.

We had private transportation scheduled to pick us up at our rooms at 7:00 p.m. to take us to dinner. We did make reservations ahead of time at Jalapas Restaurant! (You can view the menu at this link.)

It was about a 20-25 minute drive to get there. I had researched restaurants off property that would take reservations. This one came up several times and had great reviews on Trip Advisor as well. The views are amazing, but we missed that part because it was dark during our reservation time!

The first thing I ordered was Coke (in a bottle)!

Appetizer…Fish Chicharrones and Fried Calamari:

Appetizer…Salmon Tartar Patacones:

Chicken Fried Rice:

(This was DELICIOUS!)

Fetticini Alfredo:

Pasta Pomodoro:

Chifrijo:

Grilled Chicken:

I can not say enough amazing things about the staff at this restaurant! Everyone was kind and welcoming. Our waitress (the owner’s daughter) even split our checks for the four families, which as we know is not an easy task! Especially when there is a slight language barrier. We were so happy they accommodated us this way!

While we were waiting for our transportation to pick us back up, we were the last people in the restaurant. The owner came out and had a great talk with us! Everything from Costa Rican culture, the restaurant business, his family, and so much more! He really was the nicest man. He also asked questions about the United States, as he has never been.

Overall, it was a great day for everyone!

Up next…Day 3 in Costa Rica!