I had not included my daughter in any of the trips I had done up to this point partly due to scheduling issues and concerns about safety in a minority of cases (really just South America), whether warranted or not.  However, with a summer vacation approaching, and after some discussion with my daughter and her mother, we decided it was appropriate to let her have her first experience abroad.

My borderline obsessive approach to safety is enhanced even more when my daughter is involved. After some discussion and research, I settled on Costa Rica as a place that would be both enjoyable and relatively safe for a daddy-daughter trip.  I began rethinking a bit later when I saw news reports of increasing crime levels in Costa Rica, including in the areas we were planning to go, but stayed the course.

I was advised by the Costa Rican consulate after an inquiry that if only one parent is traveling with a child, having a notarized letter of permission from the non-accompanying parent is a good idea but not required.  This was done as a last step a week or two before departure but I found a suggested template online, (as there is no standard form as least for the USA), filled in the information and got it signed and notarized with her mother at the local public library.  I packed it away in my luggage, and was never asked for it or needed it again, though the immigration official in San Jose did look both of us over and asked “Es su hija?” to which I responded “Si.”

I have been known to do no more planning than to select a location where I think is safe and interesting enough and then book a plane ticket and hotel, show up and figure out the rest once I am on the ground.  I thought with a child accompanying me a bit more planning was called for to ensure we make the most of the trip, and she stayed interested in engaged.  In reality, as all she really wanted to do was zipline and hang out by the hotel pool, so a great deal of planning was not necessary except to make sure that we left the hotel.  I am not going to spend several thousand dollars to sit by a pool all week.  We can do that well enough at home.

We did get in plenty of time hanging out at the pool, and saw plenty of monkeys there, I think of three different species.

Wildlife of all kinds is nearly everywhere in Costa Rica.

Not a great photo, but sloths weren’t too hard to see either.  This one is hanging from power lines in Manuel Antonio.

Ziplining was a must-do for my daughter.  Being afraid of heights I will say that I was not all that keen on it.  However, the company that arranged the ziplining activity was very safety conscious.   Making your way up, down, and across the platforms is far more uncomfortable than the ziplining itself.  We were clipped in to protect from falls and closely attended by the guides at all times.

This wasn’t planned, but after the buzz of ziplining I talked my daughter into parasailing.  Again, there were some moments that made me slightly nervous, but overall a good experience.  The take off for parasailing is the most exhilarating part, after which you are just 300 or so feet up in the air in a harness looking down.  We landed in the water and the operator’s jet skis came out to retrieve us one at a time.

 I place both ziplining and parasailing in the category of “glad I did it, don’t really need to do it again.”

We had several days of hanging out in Manuel Antonio visiting the beaches, trying ice cream and various foods around the town, and taking a catamaran tour.  I consciously avoided going to San Jose because I understood parts of it were dangerous and even the best parts don’t really exemplify the Costa Rican way of life.  We did stay a couple of nights in a hotel near the airport and took a one day tour of a coffee plantation, La Paz waterfalls, and the Poas volcano.  Never having seen an active volcano up close, that was a worthwhile experience for me.  La Paz waterfall was nice, but since the last waterfalls I saw were Iguazu, it wasn’t really up to that level.  The hike out to La Paz waterfalls were a bit long for my daughter as well.

The clouds over the crater at Poas came and went so the bottom of the crater was obscured at times, but we got several good views of it.

I enjoyed Costa Rica as did my daughter, but I found Manuel Antonio too touristy.  I was expecting that to a degree, however.  Traveling with my daughter was fun as was giving her her first view of life outside the United States.