Our Costa Rican adventure continues….
Everyday while we students were busy studying spanish, Sandra would scout out the area. She'd find a different and delicious place for us to eat and if needed would preorder for us so the food would be ready after school. If it was a beach day she would rent lounge chairs so we could sit by the ocean under some shade without having to figure out where and when. And the best part is she would ask around and price compare for outings.
She booked us for two excursions that were definitely spectacular: a evening sail on a very large boat that included amazing food, an open bar served by very handsome argentinian surfers and spectacular flamenco music played by young guitarists. It was a beautiful afternoon and just what we needed!
The other outing was to the turtles. We went with some other people from the school for a total of 9 of us. Costa Rica is famous for it's leatherback & green turtle nesting areas. We were able to go to one of these beaches where the turtles return year after year to nest. There we saw three baby turtles come out of the sand and make their way to the water, which was so cute! Than after waiting another 20 minutes we followed a turtle out of the water, up the beach, under a tree where she proceeded to dig herself a hole. The turtles dig a very big hole, looking for the right dampness of sand so they can lay their eggs. This young lady found the conditions to be satisfactory and continued to dig a smaller hole within the larger in which to lay her eggs. We were all able to watch her not only dig, but deposit her eggs in the secondary hole. It was pretty impressive. Granted, it took a very long time and the beach had seemingly millions of "no-see-ums" biting at every available spot, but we survived and our reward was worth it.
Poor Sam, he has the most sensitive skin in the family. He gets rashes at the mention of perfumed soaps or having the surf board rub him in the wrong way. The other day after riding he literally had blisters on every finger where he put his fingertips on the surfboard. His skin burns in the shade so he gets sunscreen reapplied every hour, much to his frustration. I feel bad for the little guy. He said yesterday, "I don't' know why I have to learn Spanish, I'm never going to use it. I don't like the weather in southern countries. I like to snow ski."
Does that mean he won't come visit me when I live in a yummy, warm, climate?
Last weekend the Reyes' had to get scooting back towards San Jose to grab their flight home. I thought it would be fun to head to the cloud forests since I had heard great things about them and the are much closer to San Jose than Tamarindo. So I looked up airbnb.com, found a house, rented it and got some directions, and we were off on Saturday morning.
Did you know that Costa Rica has no street names or house numbers? At all? The directions to the house were, "go to Monte Verde and the house will be next to the Trapp family lodge." Hmmm, where's the Trapp family lodge? We drove for what seemed like forever, until we got to the worst. road. ever. We had to go up to a cloud forest on a 1.5lane road made out of….rocks and dirt. Granted we chose the bad road over the good road, but both roads were horrible. We went maybe 20 miles and it took us 2 hours to get up this darn thing in our little rental car. But we made it. And we found our house - which was exactly where they said it was.
We dropped our bags and headed up to the Biological reserve up the road to take a hike, hoping to see wildlife. We saw a little wildlife, but mostly just enjoyed a walk in a gorgeous jungle. We headed out for dinner afterwards as we had an early appointment for zip lines in the morning.
I will update the blog with pictures when I get back to the states next week, as the internet is so slow and my pictures are uploading at a snails pace.
Tomorrow we're skipping school and going to a national park called PaloVerde by boat. Friday we're heading to a rodeo in the village next door and then Saturday we say goodbye to Tamarindo and head to Arenal for the night.
Everyday while we students were busy studying spanish, Sandra would scout out the area. She'd find a different and delicious place for us to eat and if needed would preorder for us so the food would be ready after school. If it was a beach day she would rent lounge chairs so we could sit by the ocean under some shade without having to figure out where and when. And the best part is she would ask around and price compare for outings.
She booked us for two excursions that were definitely spectacular: a evening sail on a very large boat that included amazing food, an open bar served by very handsome argentinian surfers and spectacular flamenco music played by young guitarists. It was a beautiful afternoon and just what we needed!
The other outing was to the turtles. We went with some other people from the school for a total of 9 of us. Costa Rica is famous for it's leatherback & green turtle nesting areas. We were able to go to one of these beaches where the turtles return year after year to nest. There we saw three baby turtles come out of the sand and make their way to the water, which was so cute! Than after waiting another 20 minutes we followed a turtle out of the water, up the beach, under a tree where she proceeded to dig herself a hole. The turtles dig a very big hole, looking for the right dampness of sand so they can lay their eggs. This young lady found the conditions to be satisfactory and continued to dig a smaller hole within the larger in which to lay her eggs. We were all able to watch her not only dig, but deposit her eggs in the secondary hole. It was pretty impressive. Granted, it took a very long time and the beach had seemingly millions of "no-see-ums" biting at every available spot, but we survived and our reward was worth it.
Poor Sam, he has the most sensitive skin in the family. He gets rashes at the mention of perfumed soaps or having the surf board rub him in the wrong way. The other day after riding he literally had blisters on every finger where he put his fingertips on the surfboard. His skin burns in the shade so he gets sunscreen reapplied every hour, much to his frustration. I feel bad for the little guy. He said yesterday, "I don't' know why I have to learn Spanish, I'm never going to use it. I don't like the weather in southern countries. I like to snow ski."
Does that mean he won't come visit me when I live in a yummy, warm, climate?
Last weekend the Reyes' had to get scooting back towards San Jose to grab their flight home. I thought it would be fun to head to the cloud forests since I had heard great things about them and the are much closer to San Jose than Tamarindo. So I looked up airbnb.com, found a house, rented it and got some directions, and we were off on Saturday morning.
Did you know that Costa Rica has no street names or house numbers? At all? The directions to the house were, "go to Monte Verde and the house will be next to the Trapp family lodge." Hmmm, where's the Trapp family lodge? We drove for what seemed like forever, until we got to the worst. road. ever. We had to go up to a cloud forest on a 1.5lane road made out of….rocks and dirt. Granted we chose the bad road over the good road, but both roads were horrible. We went maybe 20 miles and it took us 2 hours to get up this darn thing in our little rental car. But we made it. And we found our house - which was exactly where they said it was.
We dropped our bags and headed up to the Biological reserve up the road to take a hike, hoping to see wildlife. We saw a little wildlife, but mostly just enjoyed a walk in a gorgeous jungle. We headed out for dinner afterwards as we had an early appointment for zip lines in the morning.
I will update the blog with pictures when I get back to the states next week, as the internet is so slow and my pictures are uploading at a snails pace.
Tomorrow we're skipping school and going to a national park called PaloVerde by boat. Friday we're heading to a rodeo in the village next door and then Saturday we say goodbye to Tamarindo and head to Arenal for the night.
Comments