Wanderlust.. A Recap of My Travels | Central Massachusetts Photographer
I recently had the opportunity to travel to Costa Rica & Panama with my brother-in-law to celebrate his 30th birthday! I also took my baby bear on an international trip last year to visit him in Scotland and thought, what better time to share all of our adventures together? So here is little recap of my travels to Aberdeen, Scotland in 2016 as well as my travels to Guanacaste & San Jose, Costa Rica and Panama City, Panama in 2017.. just my thoughts and photographic memories :)
Travels to Scotland
In April 2016, I packed up my 8-month old, all of her baby essentials, and boarded a plane by myself to fly out to Scotland for the weekend, no joke! Fortunately, my daughter has always been fairly easy going and did not add any stress to the travel portion of our trip. We arrived safely (although not without some drama!) and got to explore Aberdeen, Scotland with my husband's brother while he was there for work. Among experiencing Aberdeen's naturally bi-polar climate, we got to explore some of Scotland's amazing castles and walked to one of the city's famous parks! My favorite things about Scotland include its friendly and inviting culture, the daffodils that are literally everywhere, and the beautiful landscape we were able to take in everywhere we went! My tips for future travels to Scotland, pack in preparation for snow, rain, & sunshine all in the course of a day trip and be prepared to drive on the opposite side of the road! Overall, I would love to explore the rest of the United Kingdom!
Costa Rica & Panama
In March 2017, I took a trip with my brother-in-law in celebration of his 30th birthday! He originally wanted to take my husband (his brother) but due to work and school commitments, he was unable to attend. I said I would love to go to Costa Rica, not thinking it would be possible to leave behind my 18-month old and all the responsibilities of the house to my husband to be out of the country for 6 days. Luckily for me, my husband loves me sacrificially and arranged for me to have a little vacation! So off we went, to explore and adventure in Central America. We spent the first 3 days in Guanacaste, Costa Rica and did some really fun excursions including white water rafting, zip-lining, a 400-meter water slide, horseback riding, and also enjoyed the mud baths and hot springs available at the base of one of Costa Rica's many volcanoes! Unfortunately, I was unable to bring my camera to all of these activities but there is something to be said for living in the moment and enjoying everything first hand. For the second half of our trip, we drove to San Jose, Costa Rica and also visited Panama City, Panama. Our trip was during the dry season but there were plenty of beautiful scenes to take in! One of my favorite parts of the trip was trying to figure out which fun facts we learned were real or not!
Fun Facts from our trip:
- San Jose, Costa Rica was the 3rd city in the world to have electricity installed
- The National Tree of Costa Rica is spiny and leaf-less
- The Trans-American Highway (Route 1) runs from Alaska all the way down to Argentina, and travels through Costa Rica
(Hint: 2 of the 3 facts above are not true.)
Besides our little joke of fake facts, we enjoyed traveling throughout Central America and seeing some different ways of life. I definitely wish that my Spanish skills were stronger, it is not easy to be in a country where you don't speak the language! Here are a few highlights from our trip!
Following this beautiful vacation, I had an immense yearning to be home with my family. Maybe it is because I was on vacation without them, but I found myself looking forward to the daily routine I missed while I was gone. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and I think we all need that every now and then! I still have an extensive bucket list for traveling but until I venture again, I will try to find the beauty & adventure that is available in my own back yard!