Arenal Hanging Bridges

6 hanging bridges out of a total of 17 bridges. This was our first actual hike in Costa Rica.

Vie from Copacabana

The heat beat us while shopping so we decided to take a rest at Copacabana restaurant.

On our way to Tamarindo

On our way to Tamarindo

Costa Rican Candy

I'm a bit disappointed with the lack of foreign candy in Costa Rica, but at least they have this egg. Props to Alicia for turning me onto this gem.

Day 10: never take paved roads for granted

Today was our longest driving day, but also the easiest driving day.
Despite all the tourism here, Costa Rica has some crappy roads and we
will never take a paved road for granted again. And to top it off,
another roadkill victim is a frog.

So we're finally here at our last pit stop in Playa Hermosa at the
nice Villas Sol resort. We're staying in the hotel that has a majestic
view of the ocean. We took a quick dip in the ocean with its mild
waves and cool, clean water. And for a brief moment, it rained and the
raindrops made little ripples in the water. Just as we got out, sunset
snuck through the clouds to end our day.

Tomorrow we're off to Tamarindo to do as the turistas do. Canyoning
will be the following day and our last day will be spent in Nicaragua.

Hasta luego!

--
Sent from my mobile device

Villas Sol Hotel & Beach Resort

The view from our room

Day 9: Waterfalls, beaches and hammocks

Happy Mother's Day!

Today was our chill day. Maybe it's the laid-back, beach town aura... but today we didn't feel like doing anything.

Mornings around here is low tide, very low tide. And now I understand why they say you can walk 200 yards out to the nearby island.

When we finally got our butts out of bed or hammock, we drove into town to hike Montezuma Falls. At the start of our hike we saw two monkeys just hanging around and couldn't believe how two small animals produced such loud noises. After climbing up the first waterfall, we trekked along the river hopping from one rock to the next to make our way towards the second. We were a bit misled by another hiking group who told us that we should walk up the hill to get to the second waterfall. And of course this led to another set of hikers following us to a path that led no where.

After backtracking, we followed the river to the second waterfall and it was awesome. It flows into a deep pool, great for a post-hike swim. At one point some hikers at the top of the falls, created a man-dam and blocked the water from flowing down. When they finally got up, I was able to snag a few action shots of the water flowing down.

After our hike, we headed "downtown" for a quick bite to eat. With nothing but time to kill, we decided to explore Nicoya a bit and made our way over to the lazy beach towns of Santa Teresa and Mal Pais.

The beaches here are amazing. The coastline looked like it had no end. It grew into the jungle in such a way that when people walked out of it to hit the beach, it was like crossing into unknown territory. This was quite the perfect way to end our lazy day on the beach.