Saturday, November 19, 2011
Three crazy gringos.
Recently, Will and the Pink Princess came to visit me in CR. While we suffered many transportation set backs we managed to have a pretty amazing time. On Wednesday, they were due to arrive at 11:50am. I was regularly checking the American Airlines website for flight updates and was a little nervous, knowing that they had a tight connection in Miami, and of course their first flight had left late. I get the text saying they are on the ground in Miami and just reply, "RUN!" They arrive at the gate, plane still sitting there, and 7 minutes to spare, only to be told they cannot board. I'm going to end that part of the story there, and not rant about how incredibly stupid it is that they weren't allowed on the flight because their last flight was late, not because of anything they had control over. STUPID!!
When they finally arrived at 5pm and all of our plans for that afternoon were shot, I showed them around my (at the time) current place of employment and then we headed across the street to show them my work crew's normal Friday night watering hole. I figured it was a good time to introduce them the local beer. We then headed to house for homemade chifrijo with the fam.
The next morning, we got up way too early and started the drive to
Manuel Antonio. Sadly, the transportation issue continued and we hit nasty morning rush hour traffic. Then, we passed a bike race (which was actually really cool to see up close) which caused traffic to grind to a halt as the cyclists blasted by in the other lane. When we finally arrived at the park, we had less than an hour before we are supposed to be at the marina for our sail boat. So, we ditched the hiking plan, found some food, and headed to the marina.
We hop on the boat with about 20 other people and head out to sea. The boat crew immediately starts passing out beverages ("happy juice") and we enjoy our drinks and the view while desperately trying to stay under the awning to avoid being soaked by the rain which was totally logical given that we were going snorkeling later). On the plus side, I did get some good pics. Though, the pictures can't begin to do justice to the awesomeness of waves crashing on the rocks.
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| Just off the Quepos Marina.... |
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| .... taken from the boat... |
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Super cool lookin' lizard.
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Didn't realize until a couple shots in that this guy had a friend with him. Two for one!!
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We saw several of these guys....
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... but they were always very high in the trees and hard to get good shots of.
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Pretty butterfly that was not cooperating. This is the best shot I could get of its pretty blue wings.
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Lizard hanging out in the hole of tree.
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Pretty bird!
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Lizard
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| Tiny little crab! |
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These little caterpillar type things were hanging ALL OVER the place. Couldn't have begun to count them.
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Took our guide quite some time to find this guy. We were starting to get a little annoyed and ready to move on, but glad he was persistent because this little guy was pretty cute!
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Porcupine Tree (Somehow I feel like that's not the scientific name, but rather the name tour guides use for dumb gringos)
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Because we never see raccoons in Indiana.
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Lizard
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Best shot I could get of the Howler Monkey (or Congo). But we did get to hear them howling a little which is actually the more impressive part of this monkey.
Super cute dude who decided to pose for me. Thanks monkey!
Adorable little pair.
I need a snack!
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| These little guys were adorable and fast! |
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| We got really lucky... |
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| ...A couple of them came down really close.... |
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| And we were able to get some great pics! |
We headed back to the beach house for some of my Tica Mom's delicious homemade ceviche and then drove down to the beach for what was SUPPOSED to be time to relax and swim. After chilling on the beach for a little bit, we decided it was time to get in the water. I've been to this beach many many times and it's usually fairly calm. That day I was a little bummed I didn't bring the surf board down, because there were actually some waves for once. We splashed around for a while body surfing in the waves. At one point a huge family of evil little pizotes (there were easily 15-20 of them) came down threatening to steal our stuff. Pink Princess and I ran from the water to the beach to scare them away before anything disappeared. Will supervised from the water... thanks Will!
We headed back into the water for a bit but finally decided to get out to go for walk along the beach. Again, the waves were pretty strong... Pink Princess and I were walking in when a strong waves came. I jumped, but the force of the wave still knocked me to the ocean floor, which in that area was a little rocky. I came up from the water and had the following conversation with the Pink Princess..
Me: Is my back bleeding?
Pink Princess: No, is my face bleeding
Me: (turning to look at her) YES!! Yes it is!!
We head to the lifeguard station and wait as the lifeguard (who I'm pretty sure had NEVER seen blood in his life) and the other random beach employee try to open the bag of plastic gloves, clean the cut a little and proceed to tell Pink Princess that she will definitely need 2-3 stitches. We pack up our stuff hop in the car and after intense security clearance, manage to make it to the little nurses station. The nurse lady cleans it up a bit explaining how to care for it (all in Spanish) while the Pink Princess stares at me waiting for the translation, terrified that we are going to have to go to a hospital to get stitches. As I suspected, no stitches required, just a nice bruised and cut to make the pictures for the rest of the trip extra sexy. (Need permission from Pink Princess to post the damage, it's just mean if she doesn't approve).
We head back up to the beach house and decide it's probably a good idea to take it easy the rest of the afternoon. (Beach run canceled due to Pink Princess face plant!) That evening we have dinner at Los Amigos and head to Le Loft. Pink Princess was (of course!) super excited to "go out" in CR. I could write a whole post about Le Loft, but since this post is already forever long, I'll sum it up like this... If wish you to be the most swankified place in town, bathroom attendants are a good idea, so well done. However, a better idea would be toilet seats!!!
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| Will, enjoying the sunset and fresh air. |
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| Sunset at the beach house. |
The next morning we take it easy and eventually hike down to a different beach with lots of rocks and gorgeous crashing waves.
We finally get on the road on start making the trek up to Arenal. We get to the hotel after a loooong stressful and treacherous drive and they do in fact have our reservation (impressive because I booked it by giving a guy I met on the side of the street my credit card number to make me the reservation - Will totally believes I speak Spanish now!) We spend the evening relaxing in the hot springs sipping on a couple cervezas and call it a night.
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| Arenal Volcano. This was the view from the balcony of our room. |
The next morning we headed to the zip lines, where they did NOT have our reservation (even though I booked that with a travel office - apparently guy on the side of the road is the way to go with reservations) but luckily were able to get us in.
Then it was back to San Jose, with a couple stops on the way for Queso Palmito and other road side deliciousness.
We managed get a little souvenir shopping done in my favorite market and to swing up to visit "base" where I would soon be working an living and then headed back for dinner with family. The next morning was a super early day to catch their flight home. It sucked to say goodbye, but we had a blast.
So... who's coming next?!?
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Labels: Costa Rica
