90-Day Mandatory Vacation

We are here in Panama on a tourist visa, which means we can be here for 90 days with no problem. However, at the end of that 90 days, we must exit the country for 72 hours and then we can re-enter for another 90 days. We just encountered our first 90-day mandatory vacation. This time we chose to go to Costa Rica.

I thought that Costa Rica would be very similar to Panama because they are both small, Central American countries that share a border. However, it was quite different. Attitudes, landscape, nuances of the language, and even the food were different.

Day one we took a cab to El Museo de los Ninos. It was so fun. They had at least 35 exhibits which included exhibits on airplanes, marine life, astronautics, light and color, body health, fossils, etc. Did I mention that this museum was in the old penitentary? It was quite entertaining!

We chose to be touristy tourists on this trip, and so we took a day excursion. First, we went to see the ruins of Cartago, which used to be the capital of Costa Rica before they moved it to San Jose. Lots of ghost stories regarding the ruins and the Catholic cathedrals there.

Next, we went to the Irazu Volcano, which is the tallest, active volcano in Costa Rica. It was extremely cool. No, really, it was probably in the 40's. The week earlier there had actually been snow on the top of the volcano. It was also very beautiful! We got to walk down into one of the smaller craters of the volcano. And in the largest crater, there was a lake which was a beautiful green due to the minerals in the water. Awesome.


From there, we got to have a traditional Costa Rican breakfast at a small restaurant, and then we headed to the Sarapiqui River where we got to ride a boat down the river. We got to see iguanas, howler monkeys, American crocodiles, cattle egrets, toucans, a sloth, squirrel cuckoos, and numerous other birds. Keep in mind, this was not a zoo, but these animals were in the wild. . . in their natural habitat. Again, very awesome!

We got to go on a horseback ride - short, but sweet. Aivlyn thought that was the best thing EVER! And at this place, they also had a butterfly house, a frog sanctuary containing poisonous frogs, and a snake house. Interesting!


Last day, we went down to the Mercado Central. What a crazy, busy area. Store after store after store. And in the middle of the sidewalks, people would lay down black plastic, and set up shop selling CD's, purses, hats, underwear, etc. You name it, you could find it. Whew! We didn't stay there too long because it was too crazy.

We thoroughly enjoyed our first mandatory vacation! And made some great memories doing it.