El Castillo, Costa Rica – This afternoon, we made the drive to our “new Costa Rica house”, this one at the base of Arenal Volcano in the tiny village of El Castillo. It was a three-hour drive. The middle part along the northern shore of Lago Arenal was spectacularly beautiful.
But it was book-ended by long stretches on uber-bumpy roads (in accordance with my theory that the really good places are hard to reach).
I have been pleasantly surprised at how well the twins are handling the long car rides. They do sleep, but rarely for more than an hour at a time. When they are awake we point out interesting things out the window, sing Christmas carols and ply them with snacks. And when they start to lose it, they get a lollipop.
It’s actually pretty effective, and they endured the whole ride without a break and without any meltdowns. Whether I will ever be able to get Jingle Bells out of my head is a different issue.
We didn’t take a break, but we were slowed down by a traffic jam. And what, you might wonder, would cause a traffic jam in Costa Rica?
