Pura Vida, Costa Rica!

Well it's officially over. We have conquered Costa Rica and I will say, it was a way fun adventure! Beautiful place, perfect weather, tasty food, and great people. We stayed in the town of Tamarindo and it only rained 2 days, which is GREAT for the rainy season so we were very happy about that. I would recommend Costa Rica to anyone- it was that much fun! (Many pictures below...just so you know, but not as nearly many pictures as we have took)

The plane ride there I got bumped to first class, so Nick let me take it. SO on the plane ride home I also got bumped to first class and I gave it to Nick. He was so excited! One of the first things he said to me once we got off was, "They gave me steak!"

We stayed in San Jose the first night then rented a car and drove 4.5 hours to Tamarindo. It was a very windy road but really pretty. It was nice to see the countryside of Costa Rica.

This is where we stayed. It was called Casabambora (www.vrbo.com) and Joey, the owner, was so nice and helpful with all our questions and help we needed. He really keeps this place in tip top condition.

Nick had me longboard surf. I haven't done this since living in San Diego so it was really fun. Yeah, my waves weren't that big, but I still got up and surfed all the way in several times.

These little ants were everywhere. Just minding their own business, walking their own path, and carrying leaves to their home. It was neat to see.

We got a flat tire from all the pot holes and terrible roads that Tamarindo had. So Nick and I changed the tire. Well Nick changed it, I just winded the bolts off and on.

One day Nick took a hour long boat ride to go surf Witch's Rock and Ollie's Point. They are famous surf spots in video's and Endless Summer. He got baby jellyfish stings all over his body from the warm water! We had to rub vinegar on his body to keep them from itching. Surfer's term for this: Sea Lice.

The sunsets there were immaculate!

The beaches there were warm and beautiful!

Nick is out there in the white shirt. He had some really fun surfing days and I had great times on the beach tanning. Such a relaxing vacation!

We took a Catamaran (spelling?) ride around this island to go snorkeling on the other side. Then it started pouring down rain! The waves were huge and Nick got a little seasick, but the cool part was....

We saw a school of Humpback whales!! They were jumping, and flipping their fins, and smashing their tails in the air. It was so hard to take pictures and due to the rain, I only brought my Canon Powershot, so I couldn't zoom in as close as I wanted to.

They also threw in fishing lines and we caught a Jack fish. I am not sure what that is, but it was a big fish that they let go back into the water. Apparently they taste bad.

Then we went horseback riding in the valley. It was funny because my horse didn't really like Nick's horse and any time Nick's horse tried to pass, my horse would start trotting. We got a kick out of it. But the view up there was amazing! You could see all the way to the ocean.

Yeah, the helmet they had us wear gave my hat a funny shape.

During horseback riding and ziplining we saw monkeys! They were just as curious in us as we were in them. Just staring. There was a whole family in the trees at this point so we took some pictures.

Here is Nick ziplining. IT WAS SO FUN! I could have sang a whole song for how long some of these lines were. You could see the whole canopy- and birds were flying right by you! Pretty cool experience.

Another monkey we saw.

Nick was trying to find a surf spot and got us mini-lost. This road let us to this river, then the road continued on the other side up stream a ways! Do we go or not?

These are Joey, the land lord's, dogs. They were so nice and just followed us everywhere when we were at home. This night we were watching the sunset and they wanted to watch it with us.

This is a cool surf shop and a photo-op came to mind...

And here we are at the airport headed back to the U.S. of A. Such a great time and a great trip! I am so glad we had the opportunity to go and it was a well deserved vacation for both of us. We made friends from Quebec and went on a double date one night, Nick's surfboard smacked his chin and split it (so he superglued it) and we made sure we relaxed everyday! Now back to real life but with good memories!