Selva Verde Family Adventure Trip Review

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	Selva Verde Family Adventure Trip Review By Kurt Kutay, Director of Wildland Adventures April 15, 1998

During Spring break April 1998, Wildland Adventures Directors, Kurt and Anne Kutay, and their 8-year old son, accompanied a group of 9 parents and 9 kids from Brighton Elementary School on our Selva Verde Family Adventure. Since that year, the Selva Verde Family Adventure follows the same route but uses some newer, and better, accommodations.

Seattle to San Jose

Up until that moment, the first day of our Selva Verde Family Adventure was an uneventful series of flights on American Airlines departing from Seattle at 7:30 AM with leisurely connections through Dallas to San Jose. In fact, so many US carriers are flying into Costa Rica, including American, Continental, Delta and United, that it is an easy, one day journey from home. For this family adventure, most of us met at the airport pre-dawn, sleepless in Seattle. As owners of Wildland Adventures, a Seattle-based adventure travel company, Anne, Tarek and Kurt Kutay (that's me), easily convinced five other families from Brighton Elementary School, to accompany us on a 10-day overland journey through rain forests, cloud forests and tropical dry forests to the tropical Pacific coast.

Seven kids in our group are in 1st and 2nd grade, with one kindergartner and a 6th grader. Besides our kids and their school, the most obvious thing we seem to have in common is a relaxed style of travel and a serious quest for fun and adventure. Of all the various occupations we represent, perhaps the most notable, and most relevant for our purposes, is our musical director, Steve Mostovoy, and his 7-year old son Sammy. When Steve's not recording Disney and other movie soundtracks, he's running a Latin salsa band and giving educational concerts about the roots of Latin music and culture to elementary students. Steve brought along his coronet. I wonder what cultural doors our kids, and Steve's musical talents, will open for us on our journey?

"We all went in the Jacuzzi at the Grano de Oro-- It was cool!"
~Tarek Kuaty, 8 years old

"We went to the airport when it was still dark to go on the plane to Costa Rica. When we got to Costa Rica it was dark there too! Jeff found a rhino bug. I thought it was cool, mom thought it was gross. "
~Kelsey Powell, 7 years old

One family had traveled to Guatemala a week before this Spring break vacation started and another had to fly into the country two days early since there was not space by the time they booked the trip. They spent extra days at the beach. The first time we all met was tonight in our downtown digs at the lovely Grano de Oro Hotel. Everyone gathered around the outdoor Jacuzzi and celebrated-the kids in their hot pool with strawberry frappes, and parents with our own tropical drink sensation. Gathered together, laughing, under the stars, in the rooftop garden spa of this restored, colonial-style home turned boutique hotel, we all anticipated this was going to be one of the best vacations of our lives.