Thank you all so much for the sweet comments on my wonderful engagement news post! We are so excited and I am quite overwhelmed (in a good way) at how much goes into planning a wedding on a very little budget ๐ I will definitely be posting about it as we do this once I get caught up on this recap of Costa Rica! Read part one here.
I left off when we were leaving the first resort and driving to the second resort, Hotel Mountain Paradise in La Fortuna which is close to a 4 hour drive from Guanacaste. Keep in mind, the speed limit is MUCH slower than in the U.S. so the entire trip was only about 90-100 miles but took much longer than it would here. I was exhausted from laying on the beach all morning (tough life) so I slept most of the trip until we reached sight of the volcano!
This resort felt like we were staying at someone’s cabin. It was an adorable little community-type resort where all the rooms were in house/cabin’s. I don’t know how I forgot to get a picture of the inside, but the rooms are so cool. They are HUGE with crazy high ceilings and bathrooms bigger than my room in my apartment. If you go to their website you can look at the inside of the different suites.
Our view from the back patio of our cabin:
The pool area:
Once we napped a bit and took showers, we headed out to a local restaurant for some authentic food!
Their little restaurants are called “sodas” and the food is so amazing and SO CHEAP. For all 11 of us, our bill was just over $100 including beers and drinks.
Our first full day at the second resort was extremely rainy and chilly, so we made the best of it by going straight to the rain forest and hiking it! It was a pretty amazing experience to say the least. The pictures do not do it justice. We had to ride a super old school bus up and into the starting point to hike, and the ride alone was the most adventurous thing I had ever done! (Clearly a city girl here)


Not sure if I mentioned this in my first recap but Costa Rica had coke “light” instead of diet coke and it was UNREAL. The best thing I’ve ever tasted. I literally only crave diet soda right after a sweaty workout (I don’t always give in, artificial sweetener police.) and so after hours of hiking this was the best reward ever along with salty plantain chips.
We had a quick lunch in town and bought more wine for the wedding. I don’t have a picture but John and his mom ordered hamburgers and it came out a burger with literally ham on top of it. It was hysterical at the time, and I am actually dying laughing thinking about it now.
After an amazing shower and some resting, we all met up again for the night before the wedding dinner. It wasn’t exactly a rehearsal dinner since Kate and Tyler didn’t get to see the venue beforehandย (they just had to trust their wedding planner who was ABSOLUTELY amazing) but it was nice to get both of the families together before the wedding. They set up a super special dinner fort us at a restaurant way up on this hill that overlooked the town and was very quiet. Sadly I can’t think of the name at the moment (since it’s been 2 months now!) but it was really special!




Saturday was John’s sister’s wedding day! After breakfast, I laid out by the pool by myself for a few hours since it was the only sunny day at that part of the trip. It was gorgeous!
Then we headed to Kate’s room to get ready for the wedding. She gave us these gorgeous silk robes to get ready in while we did our hair and make up and had John take our pictures.
It had rained for most of the afternoon really hard and just as it was time to go to the wedding, it cleared up! Woo! The wedding was held at one of the resort’s restaurants that was half inside, half outside.
The ceremony was nice and short and then we ate and drank!




Thanks to Kate & Tyler for planning an awesome trip and wedding!
The next morning was our last breakfast together and we said our goodbyes to the awesome waitstaff, especially this guy!
John, his mom and I had a long trip back towards the airport so we had a driver take us back who was awesome and let us make a few stops along the way. First stop was this awesome place we kept seeing a million signs for called Toad Hall. It’s a tourist place where you can eat and get souvenirs and also stay. We saw this cool bird, got some coffee and gifts and a fresh coconut off the street to drink from!

Once we got back near the airport, we checked into the Hilton that was a stone’s throw from the airport. It was our last night to just relax and unwind, so we had a delicious lunch then followed it up with some pool time.

Once the sun went down, we were absolutely exhausted so we went back to our room and just got pizza for dinner. Pizza Hut’s cheeseless pizza for me!

Our flight the next morning wasn’t until the afternoon so me and John’s mom caught a few hours of pool time before packing up.
John and I hit up the last breakfast buffet and ate until we couldn’t move.
Best trip of my life. I WILL be back for you, Costa Rica. Next up: Cancun, Mexico in 2 weeks with my FIANCE! ๐ ๐ ๐