Costa Rica- Day 8

It's a good thing I still have Costa Rica to blog about... we haven't been doing tons in St. George lately.

Jon has been sick :(

ANYWAY Day 8 in Costa Rica was a little bittersweet.

You see, we are starting to end our journey.

We spent half day at the beach... then had to say goodbye...

On our way back to San Jose, our GPS told us to stop at the crocodile river.

And we did indeed see the crocs.

We wished we would have brought a dead chicken with us to throw at the crocodiles...

kuz all they did was sleep in the mud.

Boring. I wanted blood and guts.

Or at least a ferocious battle.

Is that asking too much? They are crocodiles after all!

There is a beer can laying in the mud, you see it?

It gives perspective as to how BIG these guys were.

The rest of the day we just felt soooo American.

We stopped in Jaco at this fancy, schmancy American resort and marina.

They spoke perfect English, and there were a bunch of fat, rich Americans there-

it felt like home ;)

The ride to San Jose was kind of rainy...

But our hotel in San Jose was beautiful!

The nicest hotel thus far.

It was so CLEAN and just felt like America!

The best part... was that their wi-fi password was "ObamaUSA"

Hahaha...

We even had Papa John's pizza for dinner.

Costa Rica- Day 7

We slept in (but not really kuz the sun comes up at 5) and headed over to a Spice Plantation.
We drove quite a ways... which looked like it headed into the middle of nowhere... and it kind of was- BUT it was the coolest thing ever!
We got a small briefing of what they grow there; chocolate, cinnamon, oregano, black & white pepper, vanilla bean and then we got samples :) My favorite part!
Then he took us to their store... but it was just a cupboard. Hahaha

A cocoa tree... I'm gonna plant one in my yard.

AND of course, the rest of the day was spent at the beach!

This boy makes me laugh- he loves, loves, loves his boogie board.

But $5 to rent a boogie board is a great price for an ever-entertained husband :)

Here he is in action...

And I cannot tell a lie- I love boogie boarding, too :)

I couldn't resist this little old man pushing his snow cone cart along the beach...

We had to get one, and it was amazing! He poured sweetened condensed milk over the top.
DEE-RISH-ISS

Apparently Tanaya had a weakness, too... for the coconut milk seller :)

AND as characteristic of Costa Rica, it rained at 4pm...

Costa Rica- Day 6

The next day we woke up, still salty and sandy from the previous day...

(refer back to Day 5... we had no hot water...

 and I just couldn't bring myself to get a brain freeze in the shower)

BUT we were able to upgrade our room for the next day, which made us all so happy. 

Especially kuz this room had 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a living room, and a full size kitchen.

It was heaven!

That morning we went to the local Farmer's Market and got some rockin' fruit...

(lookin' a little sunburnt...)

Jon eating his litchi...

Baby bananas, the cutest thing in existence

Then we headed over to Manuel Antonio- a national park where you can hire a tour guide to show you cool animals... but we saw them on our own, thank you very much!

This monkey wanted to come home with us!

But most importantly, Manuel Antonio is known for their beaches!

Jon was in LOVE with these waves!

I've never seen anyone so giddy about getting thrashed around by ridiculously strong waves

Those waves were kinda big...

Do you see this? This is a "hamburger"... at least that's what it said on the menu!

Pretty sure that this patty was breaded, fried, compressed mystery meat... chicken maybe?

Oh, and there was a small piece of ham on it...

Maybe that's where they got "hamburger"

Kinda funky- oh well :)

And MORE beach!

Check out his eyes! 

He's cute... :)

Remember our beautiful kitchen I told you about?

That night we MADE our own food- which was quite the gift to our stomachs!

Tim and Tanaya made these beautiful salads...

complete with mango and star fruit.

Bon appétit!

Costa Rica- Day 5

So the sun in Costa Rica liked to come up at 5 am... so we could RARELY sleep past 6:30!

Some vacation, huh?

But day 5 we got up, ate breakfast, got in our swimming gear, and headed out on a boat to Tortuga Island.

(I love what the wind is doing to Jon's hair- hahaha)

The scenery along the way was just bee-uuu-ti-ful!

We went snorkeling...

That's my brown bum, and the fish- courtesy of Jon Brame Photography

Our boat driver found some starfish!

Time for lunch! 

(Looking sunburnt already... trouble)

And of course- some good ol' sun time on Tortuga Island

Exotic bird- check.

After we got back, we commandeered the pool showers at the hotel we checked out of earlier that morning- and hopped into the car for a long drive back to mainland Costa Rica.

We were told that the last ferry off the peninsula was at 8 pm- which was the time we were shooting for. We had OODLES of time (or so we thought). We drove carefully, stopped, ate dinner, took our time, and made it to the ferry at 6:55...

We got on board and expected to wait an hour before we went anywhere- but the boat started moving!

Last ferry was at 7 pm and we had barely made it!

Thank goodness! 

Who knows where we would have been sleeping on the side of the road, otherwise!

By this time, my stomach was having problems with the Tico cuisine.

So I bought something familiar to my stomach- Skittles.

Hahaha, they were a whopping $2... but SOOO worth it :)

We got into Quepos really late that night... and our hotel didn't have AC or hot water.

 We were all a little cranky... but things got better the next day :)