Yesterday was date day for us (the day my wife and I set aside for just us… the kids go to a babysitter… or in this case are left home with their nanny and we go out and spend the day with each other.)

Back in Utah, we usually just have a date night. That’s because it’s difficult to find an all day babysitter. We also generally just go to a movie or dinner or sometimes get a massage or visit the temple or something. All of the activities we generally consider in Utah only take a couple of hours.

Somehow, here it has migrated into a date day instead of a date night. During this trip, our first date day was the horseback riding. I planned that one.

Kristi planned yesterday. It was a blast. We went to Xandari in Alajuela. Xandari is an upscale hotel/spa/nature area owned by an excentric gringo who does all of his own art and design on the place. It has a very special atmosphere.

We started with a massage. The massage rooms have only three walls and a thatched roof. The fourth wall looks over an immaculate garden of several acres. It was very nice to have a massage while occasionally feeling the warm Costa Rican breezes as though we were completely outside. The sounds of birds making happy noises contributed to the effect.

My wife chose a 90 minute massage. We had one the day before, so 90 minutes ended up pretty much turning both of us into jello.

Then we had a one hour facial which included a hand treatment in warm gloves. I remember the therapist asking me how I liked it at the end and it took a full minute before I could use speech to answer her question. It was fantastic!

We then had an awesome lunch at the hotel. Our server was our driver’s niece (small country) so we had fun exchanging embarassing stories about Francisco (our driver). I had ceviche de camarrone (shrimp marinated in a lime, onion, tomato and cilantro sauce) for a first course and tacos de alambre de pollo (a special kind of Costa Rican chicken taco which is muy deliciouso) for the main course.

My drink was pina in lecha (pineapple juice in milk) which is another Costa Rican specialty (although my favorite is guanabana in leche). A coconut flan for dessert topped off the meal. We ate outside overlooking the Alejuela valley and watching the various wild life play.

The rest of the afternoon was spent swimming and laying around the pool-side. I’ll have pictures up either here soon.

If you ever make it to Costa Rica, I highly recommend a day at Xandari. It is a very unique and satisfying paradise embedded in the larger paradise called Costa Rica.

-James D. Brausch