Costa Rica Part 2: Mud Buddies

Maya is one of those kids who can't keep clean. Sure, all little kids are messy. But Maya's the type who, at any given time, and despite my best efforts, has ketchup on her cheek, peanut butter in her hair and dried yogurt all over the front of her shirt.

So far, Jane doesn't seem to share this trait with her older sis. In face, I often forget to use a bib when feeding her because she so rarely needs one. And if you've met Jane, you might be wondering, "If she's so neat, why is all of her clothing stained?" Because they're all hand-me-downs from Maya.

So, a vacation to an outdoors-y, rugged place like Costa Rica is pretty much perfect for Maya. As for Jane, if she wants to keep up with her sister, she'll just have to embrace getting dirty.

And embrace it, they did. Mud, sand, dirt, juice, beans, rice, you name it. They were in it.

Three months later, I'm still finding sand on her head.

Best Christmas Day ever.

One of the highlights of our trip was a visit to Rincon de la Vieja, one of the country's many volcanos. We did a hike through the national forest there, and got to see a different kind of mud — the hot, bubbling volcanic variety.

Sign translation: Don't touch.

One creator of hot, stinky gas meets another.

Smoke monster.

The hike at Rincon ended with a visit to the area's hot springs, where the no-longer-bubbling volcanic mud is slathered on your skin, before taking a dip in the naturally heated springs.

At first we weren't sure if our 3-year-old would enjoy or appreciate this spa-like experience. Then we remembered that it was, at its core, mud and water. It might as well have been Goldfish and grape juice.

You missed a spot.

I really needed this.

And speaking of water, there's sort of a lot of it in Costa Rica. Who knew? I'll tackle all things H2O in my next post.