We loved Costa Rica... it was such a fun vacation and the beaches were so pretty. I have this problem where I only like to go to places were there are beaches... because that means lots of laying in lawn chairs, reading books, and sipping diet coke. What more could you ask for in a vacation? Heres a few highlights:
We stayed at The Marriot in Los Suenos... the view was amazing. The staff was great, good restaurants, and they all spoke great English (thats was a definite bonus for us).
The first night we were there we laid out in a hammock... so romantic. Needless to say it was our first and last romantic night on the hammock because our backs were eaten alive by mosquitos... I think Cameron only had about 30 bites.
Zip lining through the jungle was a blast... and a bit scary. The first run I went down I didn't quite understand the "break system," which turns out to be your back hand. I feel bad for the guide person that I basically took out on the platform. Cameron got all adventurous on me and went upside down... that looked a bit too scary (or stupid) for me.
We loved taking a cab into town and trying out the restaurants. Lets just say some were good and some were very bad. Some were literally on the beach... others had cats roaming around licking our legs. Some had great seafood... others came with human hair cooked inside. I guess that is just part of the fun when leaving the country?
One day we checked out this surfer beach called Hermosa Beach. We were one of the few on the beach... apparently because its not to safe to go in the giant waves and huge sea current unless you are on a surf board. But we still had way fun and we felt a bit heroic trying to safe the puffer fish. We found him washed ashore and still breathing. We found this big stick and Cameron tried to get him back to the water. Despite our life saving efforts he did not swim back out to the ocean.
We had a blast horseback riding. We rode for about 45 minutes and our tour guide rocked. He knew so much about Costa Rica and we learned so much. Then we got off our horses and went on this hike to a waterfall and natural pools. He could spot wildlife out of nowhere and he even made me eat a termite for some protein (I think he thought we were on Survivor Man). He held a poisonous frog and clipped a lizard to my ear. Here's the bad part- we had to hike back and there was no stopping to see wildlife on the way back. It was like we were training for a marathon or something. Word of warning... it hurts to be riding a horse when it is galloping.
We took an hour and a half cab ride to Manual Antonio... a national park. The cab ride there was super scary since the roads were so bad, the cab drivers are the worst ever, and ours only knew how to say 'hello' in English. I was racking my brain back to my 8th grade Spanish class but was not coming up with much. But we made it and it was so worth it! The beach was so amazing and we saw tons of animals! We found us a tour guide and he took us through the jungle... pointing out animals and telling us all about them. We spent the next few hours hanging out on the beach.
Monkeys were climbing all around in the trees right above our heads.
This little guy is a sloth... he was very sleepy.
And now we can say we have been in a car accident in a different country. Our crazy non English speaking cab driver was on the phone and writing down a phone number (no, I have NEVER done that) when he slammed into a cab in front of us. He blamed it on the cow running across the road. I blamed it on the fact he was looking down and writing while driving. No injuries though... just some great pics and memories.
This was a great steak house but we were the only people there... which made us bit nervous. Maybe the cats drove people off?
After dinner we went across the street to go to Pops, this little ice cream shop. The only problem... only high school students with no intention of helping non Spanish speakers work there. Somehow we ended up with 3 cones? But give us some credit... we got 2 of them chocolate dipped.
After enjoying 3 cones some giant rain storm blew in. We had to run across the street to catch our cab and we were drenched... not to mention that my feet were so slippery that my sandal went sliding across the road.
Our favorite day was when we chartered a boat to go over to Tortuga Island. We rode in this speed boat and the captain was not about to go slow over the giant waves. We were literally taking air off our seats for 35 minutes- it was quite the experience. But once we made it to the island it was so beautiful and fun. We hung out on the beach, climbed the rocks, swam around, and just relaxed.
One day we went to check out the crocs... they were huge!
We spent our last 2 days lounging by the pool... gotta love vacations! I think the thing I loved most was having Cameron all to myself for 10 days... I loved it!
Me and Cam
The Halls (still recovering from their sleepover on the street the night before)
The Hendersons (They also slept on the cold hard street... poor things!)
After we went to the mall and Brooke decided to open her big mouth to the straight iron guy in the middle of the mall. Next thing you know he is putting curls in my hair and trying to get me to buy a straightener. It was such a great deal... "I give you red straightener for 175.oo, best I can do for you. Give you red for same price as black." Um.... no thanks, that is not a deal. Thanks Brooke!
We have been having some weekend dates at Club Sport lately... it doesn't get more exciting then playing ping pong and working out on a Friday night. That being said... I have become very competitive in our ping pong games because he beats me so bad EVERY game. And after he wins there is this annoying gloating session where he reminds me how good he is at ping pong. So on Friday night I beat Cameron... in only one game... but I'll take it. Cameron claims he was taking it easy on me. You know what I have to say about that... yeah right.
