Goodbye Santa Teresa, hello San Jose

Well we are on the final part of our trip. 😕

This morning we did our usual relaxing around the house. I finished my book and Bryan did a little swim. Around 10 am we went down to the Couleur Café for breakfast. 

I had a very good iced coffee, yogurt granola and fruit. Bryan had a smoothie and eggs Benedict. 

While we were waiting for our food, in walked Javier - our surf instructor from yesterday. He said hi and told us that he was just telling his buddy that he had 2 surf lessons yesterday and the first one went really well and were good (us!) and the second one was really bad and they had no fun and complained and criticized his instruction. Ironically he said they were also from Minnesota. 

After breakfast we went back to the house. We got the ok to do a late checkout but their cleaning lady would come at the normal checkout time (10am) and work to get the house ready for the next guests. While she was cleaning we weren't going to be able to use the bathroom or kitchen. But that was fine. We hung out down by the pool to be out of her way. We also saw a HUGE iguana on the tree right by the pool. He had to be about 3 or 4 ft long. And he made a ton of noise moving around. 

We had also done a little shopping and enjoyed our last moments with the house before checking out around 2 pm. 

We had a bit of time before we needed to be in Tambor so we got some food and drove into Mal Pais for a bit. Then made our way back to the rental car return and said goodbye to our 2nd vehicle "mighty manny". We were waiting for our flight at the airport when 2 bright red parrots flew over us. So that was pretty cool. 

We were on our plane by 5 and landed in San Jose by 5:25. On the flight we flew over Tortuga Island where we went snorkeling. We could see the rainbow bridge and the beach on the island and the different rock areas that we snorkeled around. So that was cool. A lady on our flight was also staying at our hotel so we took a cab with her. We basically just checked in and left right away to go to walk over to the City Mall. It's pretty close and we found our way with no problems before it got too dark. We walked all of the level and ate in the food court. We even stopped at Wal Mart next to the hotel before coming back to the hotel. It was about 7:30. Crazy that at 5 pm we were in Tambor. 

We already printed our boarding passes for tomorrow. So we should be all set. 

We'll be headed back home tomorrow.

Surf lessons!

This morning I woke up at about 2:30 to Bryan shining a flashlight out of our bedroom into the trees because he heard something. Not sure if it was a different "something" than what we normally hear. But I think I fell back asleep quickly. I don't think he did. I got up around 5:30 and went and read on the deck and left Bryan sleeping for about another hour.

We left to go into Santa Teresa about 7:30. We had breakfast at The Bakery and order tons of yummy food and I had a very good latte. We've had some really good food and great service this trip. Everyone has been extremely nice and welcoming and again today was no different. 

We had surf lessons scheduled for 9:30 and we got to the surf shop about a half hour early. Our lesson was with Javier and he was great. Pretty funny, French and joked around a lot. We had a good time. I have only surfed in Australia with Mesa and Bryan had only wake surfed so we were not experts. We spent some time on the shore going over the basics and when we got to the ocean the waves were big and the current was strong. We were not taking the huge waves but rather were about two breaks in from there. I feel like the waves and current were bigger and stronger than what we did in Australia, but I didn't have to paddle back out to get where I needed to be again. I could just hop the waves. Regardless, it was still exhausting. For the first few attempts Javier pushed us into the surf. I got up on the first push and Bryan was pretty close. I feel like he improved while I got worse. I think the more exhausted I got the less I could remember from our lesson. 

Javier just kept telling me to slow it down and do the steps he called : cobra, down dog, back leg, front leg. And when I slowed it down I think I got it. I did about 4 in a row where I rode the wave in and had to jump off when it got too shallow. It felt great. I didn't get much time to watch Bryan but from what I could see he was improving. We were both paddling ourselves in and unless Bryan was off balance he would usually get up. The hard thing was that we were both on the same size boards. Mine felt big and for a beginner but it had to be a bit more unstable for his height and weight. I think he did a great job from what I could tell. 

Of course we both swallowed a ton of salt water. Got beaten by the waves and each had to cover our heads to make sure our boards didn't wack us in the face. I said I just wanted to leave with all of my teeth, and I did that. So I say it was a success. 

We made our way in around lunch time. It was low tide and he said we could go back out on our own again at high tide at about 3:30. We had the boards but we were both so exhausted and beat from being in the sun all morning and getting our butts kicked by the surf and the current. We both had little naps and tried to cool down. 

We went back into town to return the boards and eat dinner.  We hit up a nice little pizzeria on the beach where we (again) had a nice view of the sunset. I had a few Imperial beers and we shared a pizza. It was delicious and probably our cheapest meal we've had yet. 

Came back to the house around 7 pm and had a night swim in the pool again. Felt nice and cooled ourselves off a bit after a long day. 

Tonight is our last night in the house. Seems like it went by so quickly. I feel like we live here and other than us missing Cru and Ella baby, I feel like I could stay longer. 

Santa Teresa is such a cute little surfer town and surprisingly has some amazing food and cute little shops with friendly locals. We have really enjoyed our time here. 

We have a good part of the day tomorrow to hang out so it's not over yet.

Playa Hermosa

Today we really woke up early. Our Howler Monkey friends were really loud and close by right around 5 am. Bryan had already moved out to the deck but I stayed in bed to listen to them and watch the sunrise.

Again Bryan was in the pool by 8 am. While I spent my morning writing and reading like usual. 

We decided to go down and check out Hermosa Beach today. This is actually the beach closest to our house. It's been known as one of the most beautiful beaches in Costa Rica and also for some great surfing. 

We decided to walk down to the beach instead of drive and we ate at one of the closest little restaurants. We both ordered fantastic smoothies and I had a salad that I was a little disappointed in. But Bryan let me eat some of the fries that came with his sandwich. 

After lunch we went to the beach. It was super hot out (like every day) and there were a ton of surfers out. We had fun watching them out on the big waves. 

I was a little concerned with just leaving our bag and towels on the beach so I sat by our stuff and Bryan walked the beach. We tried to find our house from the beach but you couldn't see it. We can see the water and the surfers from our deck but I guess we would need to be a bit further out in the waves to see the house. 

After the beach we cooled off and relaxed at the house. I read a little more and napped a bit. 

We went back out around 4:30 to go into Santa Teresa for some shopping and dinner. We ate at the Mexican restaurant, Habanero, right on the beach. Right when we got there we saw the cutest little puppy just hanging out on the sidewalk. She was tiny. Pretty skinny but super adorable. Where we had another spectacular view of the sunset. This part of the beach was less crowded and we had a nice meal with 2 for 1 margaritas. We both ordered the tacos. I had the diablo chicken and Bryan had the Pastor Beef. Mine was pretty spicy but it had great flavor. And their chips came with 4 different salsas. 2 spicier ones, a pico de galo and a carrot salsa. That one was a bit different. It tasted like carrot and was kind of bland. But an interesting idea. 

When we finished our dinner I hoped to see our little puppy friend and give her the piece of chicken I saved (& cleaned off so it wasn't spicy) but she was gone. So I gave it to another little dog that I saw. That one was also super cute. I guess you could say I am missing my puppy snuggles. 

I ended up buying a new swimsuit. I probably didn't need one but it will be good for tomorrow- we're going surfing. Plus every day when I get up and "get dressed" it just means putting on a swimsuit. It is too hot to wear anything else. Everyone just walks around town in their swimwear and it's totally normal. So I feel like it will be my outfit for tomorrow.  

When we got back to the house we did a little night swimming in our pool. It felt pretty good after a minute. We still feel like we go to bed pretty early but we just feel tired after so much sun, the heat and probably because we are up at 5 am. 

So it's 8:30 now and I'm likely going to bed.

Monkeys for days

Today was a pretty chill day. We both got a lot of sun yesterday during our tour that we didn't really feel the need to do much today.

Bryan was in the pool by 8 am and around 8:30 he spotted the monkeys. It was our friends the howler monkeys. They were traveling up the trees in a line and there were about 15 of them that we could see. A few younger babies in the middle of the group. It took them about 45 minutes to an hour to move up the trees past us. It was really cool to watch. 

We spent most of the mid day just relaxing at the house. In and out of the pool. I spent some time reading and Bryan had a nice long nap. 

Just before we were getting ready to go into town we saw the monkeys make their way back down the trees. This time on the other side of the house. But from our view they were a lot closer. It appeared to be the same group. We counted about the same. We really enjoyed watching them. 

When we got down to our car we had a bunch of leaves all over it from when they jumped over it. In addition to the leaves we had monkey poo on our windshield. They were still up in the far side of the trees when we were leaving. 

We went into Banana Beach for the sunset and food. They have a cool beachside diner. So we had a great spot to just hang out. I had a few drinks and Bryan had a yummy fruit smoothie and the food was pretty good too. When we were about to go this guy started doing a fire show. It was pretty good. He used a bunch of different things to spin the fire and even extinguished flames with his mouth. It was fun to watch. 

Came back to the house after that. Can't see the monkeys in the dark but I feel like they're still there.

Montezuma & Isla Turtuga

Surprise surprise we were up again at 5:30am with the Howler Monkey and our other friends in the trees.

But I don't terribly mind. It's nice to be laying in bed, listening to the sounds with a spectacular view. 

This morning we hit the road and drove to Montezuma. We did a day tour out to Tortuga Island 🐢.

We got to Montezuma terribly early but that gave us time to go hang out at the beach. It was already quite hot out. 

Our tour started at 9 and we road the boat around the peninsula with about 30 other people. We had a few guides deom the tour group with us as well. We stopped on our drive out to see the Cocolito Falls and the Rainbow Bridge rocks that formed to create a beautiful arch. 

From there we wrapped around to make our way to Tortuga Island. We did 2 stops for snorkeling just straight out from the island around different sections of rocks. We saw all sorts of fish, but no turtles. There were a few fish we really enjoyed. One that looked pretty simple and kind of blue gray but when it turned just right and caught the light it had these bright neon blue spots on it. It was pretty cool. We also saw a baby shark, a moray eel, puffer fish and a few star fish. Hoping that our GoPro was able to capture some good footage. On the second stop we swam through more schools of fish. Little ones and big ones. Bryan got in before me (while I finished my Imperial beer) and I swam out going the opposite way he did around the rock island - figuring I'd meet him in the middle somewhere. When I was on the far back side with hardly no one around I saw a HUGE long skinny fish with kind of a platypus shaped mouth. It had to be longer than I was. But then it swam past me and it got lost in the cloudiness of the water and I looked up hoping someone else saw it and no one did! Looking at the guide on the boat later I believe it was a crocodile needlefish. 

We had about 45 minutes to an hour at each snorkeling spot and after that we went to the island to eat lunch. The lunch was delicious and then we had about an hour and a half to ourselves. We spent the time hanging out on the beach and swimming and checking out the shells and stuff that washed up on land. The whole time on Tortuga Island we saw no turtles. We also saw no pigs like I believe Heather saw when she was here. 

After our free time on the island we took the boat back to Montezuma. We didn't really need to spend any extra time in town because we had done that earlier before the tour. We made decent time back to Santa Teresa and ate at Burger Rancho before going back to the house. 

We caught a fantastic sunset at the house. We couldn't exactly see the spot where the sun goes down but it sure lit up the sky! And when those stars come out it is phenomenal. I wish I was a better photographer than I am because it is amazing. 

Taking it pretty easy now because a long day in the sun wore us out. I'm sure our howler monkey will be letting us know he's around soon enough also.

Santa Teresa - beach & a sports bar

This morning, again, we were up with the sounds of nature. We're unsure but we may be hearing a howler monkey. We haven't seen it but it definitely sounds like it's one.

I tried to get a little more sleep and gave up around 6:30. 

Bryan was already gearing up for the game and had on the Packer Preview and whatever other shows after that. I resigned myself to having it be a "Packer-filled-day". 

Bryan did go down and clean the pool and brush off the deck for any fallen leaves. So I got down there as the sun was just starting to clear the top of the house. That sun gets hot quickly.  We spent most of the morning in and out of the pool and then around noon we drove into town. 

We found a spot to park the vehicle and then stopped into the Sports Bar to be sure they'd have on the Packer game at 2pm. They would be. 

We spent the next hour or so walking the beach and checking out some of the shops. The beach was really nice and not too crowded. It was going into low tide and there was tons of room for people to play soccer and whatever else. Many people were out surfing and the water was soooo warm. It was nice to be out in town and check out the beach in the daylight. 

We got back to the Sports Bar (it's literally called Nativo Sports Bar) around 1:30 or so and grabbed a seat at the bar. They had the sound on for a soccer game but had pregame stuff on another tv. At 2 they switched over the tv and had the sound on for the game. We ordered some food right away and that was pretty tasty. I had a hummus wrap and Bryan had a burger. 

It was ugly. I left to go walk around in the 3rd quarter when the score was 24-0. Atlanta was killing them. There were quite a few people at the bar and a mix of Falcons and Packer fans.  I had a nice walk on the beach and then came back at the end of the 3rd and stayed for the rest of the game. 

We walked around a little more of the beach after the game was over and then stopped at the grocery store to make some dinner tonight. We are making spaghetti.

Edit- while eating dinner we are almost certain now that the sounds we've been hearing is a holler monkey. This is by far the closest he's been to us. We still couldn't see him because it's pretty dark and the flashlight didn't reach him. But he's really making a lot of noise. 

That's going to be about it for tonight!

Full day in Santa Teresa

The post for today will likely be short.

This morning we woke with the sun and sounds of nature around 5:45am. It was a beautiful morning with the sunrise and no clouds in the sky. 

It got hot out real quickly though. We had breakfast in the house and I tried laying in the sun to write in my journal.

I basically got dressed today by putting a swim suit on. We were in the pool before noon. 

The pool was nice and cool and felt great. We ate our leftovers from dinner for lunch today and then went back in the pool for a bit before getting ready to go out to dinner tonight. 

We had reservations for a Japanese place called Koji's. It was delicious. We had some jumbo shrimp, seafood fried rice and a few different sushi rolls. Very tasty. 

Got back to the house and I sort of tripped coming up the stairs so I lost about half of the food walking in. 😕

Going to bed now since we will likely be up super early again with the sunrise.

Driving, flying and arrival at Santa Teresa Beach

Today started early for us. We got up just after 5 am to finish packing our bags and checking out at Nayara.

We had a good time here and enjoyed our stay, even though we feel certain that Bryan got some kind of food poisoning. 

They had packed us a few box lunches since we would miss breakfast. That was nice. 

Our drive from La Fortuna to San Jose took about 2.5 hours but we made good time and didn't really hit traffic until we were coming into San Jose. 

Our flight to Tambor was crazy. It was this little tiny plane. Only the pilot, co-pilot, Bryan and myself and 3 other people. The whole flight took about 25 minutes. 

We got our new rental vehicle for this week and so far so good. Not as big as the last one but it seemed to work with no issues. 

The drive from Tambor airport to here was just about an hour. Only one little issue of trying to redirect ourselves but we made it and did so in good time. 

Took it pretty easy tonight. We were pretty tired after our early morning. We were shown the house and then went down to Santa Teresa to eat and get a few groceries. 

We ate at this Wok place that had good noodle dishes like Pad Thai. Bryan had some Japanese style noodles. Very good. Will check out more places right on the beach when it's a bit earlier in the coming days. 

Now time for bed, I can barely keep my eyes open.

Rainforest hike, hanging bridges & zip lining

Whew, today was a busy day. This may get long.

After our usual breakfast we only had a little time before we went off on our Sky Adventures tour. 

We started with a 3 hour hike in the rainforest. We had an amazing guide, Andre, in addition to 4 very nice people from Utah. 

We lucked out with probably the most beautiful day in the Arenal area. Clearest views of the volcano by far. We could see the steam rising from the peak! 

The hike took us over 2 hanging bridges that would sway when you walked. The first one was 150 ft high and the second was 230 ft high. They offered some really cool views, I even spotted a lone bright flower off in the distance and Andre thought I had a good eye. But it was easy since everything else was green. We also spotted a large hummingbird there too. 

Eventually we got to this big waterfall. It was pretty. Not as large as the La Paz waterfalls. But impressive just the same. We even got to see another tour group do the swing over the top of them. It looked cool but I was good with being on the ground looking up. 

Our guide also pointed out all of the flora and fauna of the area. We saw tons of leaf cutter ants hauling their leaf pieces into their colonies. He even explained how the colony is made up of the queen, the warriors, the leaf cutter (worker) & the minima ants the are like quality control and clean off the leaves as the worker one hauls them away. They only want to bring in a certain type of fungus. 

We also saw the white throated capuchin. There were a bunch of them jumping in the trees. Andre also showed us two venomous snakes, the eyelash viper, and a venomous spider, the wandering spider. All of these we would never have seen without a guide. The snakes were tiny. Even though they were bright colored, they were coiled up and up in tree branches. Plus they weren't full grown. At most he figured these were no longer than 6 inches. Even though they can grow to be about 2.5 ft. The spider was tricky, it was living in the hollowed out part of the handle where you walk out onto an overlook. He was huge and super gross looking. He said he had a leg span of about 6 inches. Eww I just got the creepy crawly shivers writing about him. I have a picture but I didn't take it. Andre did using my phone. 

Then near the end of our hike we came across a group of white nosed coati. They look like raccoons but are a bit bigger and have these big tails that kind of stick right up. 

Lastly, we very briefly saw a toucan. It was one of their smaller species and just as I was about to focus on him for a picture he flew up and over us, into another tree that was a bit more hidden. Still pretty cool to see though. 

After our hike we had only a short break for lunch. We packed our own from the hotel so that worked out well. 

Then it was off to the zip lining portion of the trip. We had the same people from Utah with us but also another few groups who had only come up for this. A couple from Seattle and a group from Houston area and another couple that must have caught up to us later because I don't remember seeing them until about the 3rd line. 

We first had to take the tram  up and then we had to do a safety run but then we were off for the main runs. They had 7 lines total. The longest one was 2493 ft and the highest one is 656 ft high. I think they said the fastest you ever get moving is about 60 mph. It was a lot of fun. Bryan wore our go pro on his helmet so I hope we got good video. One of the last main runs went through the trees and then peeked back out before getting to the end. It felt like a jungle tunnel. It was pretty cool. I think our group had a lot of fun. Again we had great guides. The guys all seemed to really enjoy their jobs and had fun too. I don't think a single person in the group screamed going across either. During our hike we could sometimes hear someone screaming. So I had prepared myself that it might be me when it was our turn, but it didn't happen!

Just at the very end of zip-lining, as we waited for the rest of the group to finish, we spotted a pale billed woodpecker. It was pretty big with a large red spot of feathers on the back of it's head. He was pretty vocal, so we likely wouldn't have seen him if he hadn't been making so much noise. 

After the tour we went back into La Fortuna for dinner in town. We went to this pizzeria right by the town center park. I had an Imperial beer, we ordered some chicken nachos and a pizza to share, oh and Bryan got a huge 2 liter water. But our bill was only about $22. Not bad! By far our cheapest meal we've had. And it was delicious. 

Tonight is our last night in this area. We leave bright and early tomorrow morning to catch our flight and make our way over to our tree house on Hermosa Beach. Now I'm off to pack!

Tabacon thermal hot springs

This morning Bryan seems to just continue to feel better, which is great.

We slept in a bit later this morning and didn't get to breakfast until about 8 am. Didn't really have anywhere we needed to rush off to anyway. 

Spent the morning and early afternoon relaxing by the pool. It was a beautiful day. We ended up chatting with another couple from Inver Grove Heights for a while. That was kinda fun. 

Around 3 we went to the Tabacon Resort to check out their natural thermal hot springs. It was really quite unbelievable. They have a huge space and it felt a bit like a maze with paths going from pool to pool. The further back we got the hotter the pools were. 

We found a few spots that we really liked. One pool had a nice Waterfall coming down where we could lean back into it for a nice back massage. The other spot we had to swim under a bridge and get back there. This was probably the deepest pool we found. It never really got full of other people either. We went back up to this spot after going through all of the other pools and it was just before dusk. While I was off to one side of the pool I looked up behind my head and a giant lizard 🦎 was there. Staring at me with his big yellow eyes and creepy claws. I freaked out a bit and went further over to sit by Bryan. At one point the lizard jumped and fell into a little bit of the water and barely escaped the current coming right toward us. But he made it and then just sat there and hung out for a bit. Meanwhile I saw a rustling down to the side even a bit closer and another lizard appeared. This was a different kind, he looked smaller but I would guess both were about 2 feet long. Their tails seemed to be longer than their bodies. But this second lizard kept getting closer and then he turned and scurried away super fast. We pretty much sat in this hot pool until dark and I know the one lizard was still hanging out there when we left. Kind of creepy but glad he stayed where he was. Of course we had put our electronics into our lockers so we have no pics of our creepy crawly friends. 

The Tabacon grounds also had a regular pool other than these hot spring pools and we did hang out in that for just a bit. It even had a water slide! 

We ate dinner at the restaurant on their grounds at 7 pm. It was a nice buffet and a good variety from some of the food we've been having at our own resort. 

Made it back to our place for the first time driving in the dark. Bryan did a good job even though we swerved for a dog running along the side of the road! Darn pups!

Now to relax and go to bed. Will have a busy day tomorrow!

La Fortuna

Well I think it's safe to say Bryan had food poisoning.

He slept a fair amount last night and eventually was able to keep some fluids down. I know he woke up a few times during the night and took some more medication but seems like he slept for a fair amount after that. 

I went down to breakfast by myself at 7 am. When the staff asked if I needed a table for 2 and I responded "No, just 1, my husband is sick", the table nearby said I could join them. That was very nice but I said no thanks. I didn't want to interrupt their own time and besides I had a newspaper I could read and coffee to enjoy. They were almost done eating anyway. 

I had some fruit, toast and crepes with strawberries and blackberries. It was delicious. I finished up eating so I could go make it to the yoga class at 8:15. The space they have that is really cool. It feels a bit like a treehouse. With a bunch of open spaces so the breeze comes in and you can hear the sounds of the trees moving nearby. The class was a different style compared to what I normally do back home (& by normally I mean I haven't been to class for about 3 months). But it was still nice. 

After yoga Bryan was awake and appeared to be feeling better. He ate the banana I brought him back from breakfast and was able to keep some Powerade down. 

He felt ok enough to take a drive into La Fortuna. He wanted to just pick up some peanut butter and bread and some more Gatorade drinks. We found all of that and just sort of walked the town a little. There is a big square in the center of town with a nice park and large church that has the Volcano framed nicely just behind it. The clouds had covered much of the top so it was good that we saw it fully clear on the day we drove in. 

We headed back to Nayara and Bryan took a nap while I sat out on the balcony to journal and read. 

Later in the afternoon we went back to the pool for just a bit. I had a super yummy drink with Pisco in it and ordered the chips with salsa and guac that we had delivered to us sitting in the pool. It was really good but should have had more chips. 

This evening Bryan really seemed to be feeling much better but we still just decided to order room service and take it easy. The food was good and Bryan still hadn't puked anything up so we then went out to try out the private Jacuzzi. It was so relaxing but very hot. Couldn't really sit in it too long, but I'm sure Bryan could have. But we just went back to the room to get a good nights sleep and hope he's really back to 100% tomorrow. 

I think given how quickly everything hit him and how quickly he's recovering it is pretty likely that he got a bit of food poisoning. But I'd take that over a flu any day.

A day of relaxing

Today was our first full day in one location. So we decided to take advantage of that and spent the whole day here at Nayara relaxing.

This morning we had a very large breakfast buffet. Everything was delicious. After breakfast we had noticed another couple taking pictures in the trees so we learned that there was a sloth up there. Super cool to see him. 

After that we walked around the grounds a little and then decided to go to the pool for a while. It started out a bit cloudy, but it was still hot out. When the clouds disappeared we were really hot. We spent a lot of time in the pool which was pretty warm. They had a cool swim up bar and eventually I ordered a few drinks. We spent a large portion of the time chatting with another couple here from Denver. Today was their last full day so they had a few recommendations for us. 

We left the pool later in the afternoon and Bryan wasn't feeling great. Now he's really feeling ill. Throwing up. Poor guy. 

I went to the gift shop and found some Gatorade. He's finally asleep now. Hoping he can get some rest and then see if he can keep any fluids down a bit later. 

Hopefully he'll be on the mend soon. 🤞🏼