Hotel Estela De Fuego Playa Flamingo

... what was going on. There were small manta rays in the water. Although I am sure they were more scared of us, there was a general fear of getting into the water. It was really cool to see that they genuinely seemed to enjoy riding the waves! I even got some really cool pictures of them playing around in the water. After some trepidation, we took the plunge and decided the water was too inviting to let some little manta rays spoil our plans!

Today we ...

... food doesn't seem to compete with everything else the country has to offer. While not bad, there just isn't much to it. Even the Ticos we ask seem to have a difficult time coming up with a suggestion when we ask them for suggestions about what to eat. There is one dish they all eventually get to called Gallo Pinto, which when described doesn't seem like much; basically a mixture of black beans and white rice. Yes, I know it doesn't ...

... I began my search, low and behold the airfare from LA was great! We decided to limit our visit to two areas since we only had one week (remember, I've learned my lesson the hard way about trying to cram too much into a week's worth). And technically, Susie doesn't go back to work until the 28th, but I have just recently (very recently, as in last week) managed to save up 5 days worth of time off. So we're spending some days at the beach on the nortwestern ...

... that it must be due to the ample population of wealthy foreigners that reside here on a full or part time basis, but that was not the case. These animals actually came from some of the poorest homes that we have seen thus far. On the very first day out on the road with Dawn, we quickly began to understand what put Playa Flamingo apart from the rest. Dawn works tirelessly driving around to all the local homes, down the craziest of ...

Tonight was a weird night, the "paradise" we have built up had some rocky times..lol, especially to Raf...We decided to go to Dragonfly and would walk and not take a taxi, there was like 20 of us..well the sky eventually opened up and we were trapped under some really **** poor umbrellas..we finally got some taxis to come by and pick us up...which freaking weird as everytime I have walked down that same street I would get asked "Taxi?" like freaking 50 times ...

Yesterday was a day of perfection. We went toward the basically abandoned beach at Playa Zapotal that Sonny had found the other day. Driving through rivers over incredible rocky and washboard type roads and then............there was a family of howler monkeys. Oh my goodness from oldters to babies. RIGHT THERE. Then in the tree we saw what I thought was a 3 toed sloth but turned out to be something called a Tamarandua (or ...

... were a bit anxious about what this might feel like coming from less touristy countries. However, we fortuitously planned our trip during the beginning of the low season for tourist travel so we were pleased to find that we never felt too crowded (we also didnīt go to the popular touristy beaches on the Pacific Coast so that helped!) In fact, on the hike I described earlier, we hiked into a waterfall where we had it all to ourselves for a good 45 minutes before ...

... and the thought of giving some away is considered heresy! This place was another world - I had not yet seen just how many eggs they were dealing with (Though I still donīt think that justifies anything). We left Jaun and had not walked twenty meters when we came across our first Turtle nesting. We watched her through the whole process for twenty minutes or so. It seemed so uncomfortable for her, I had not realised that before when I had seen it happen on Caletes. I had a ...

... more halting spanish. Tamarindo is pretty touristy and busy so got a taxi to Avellanas. Best spot so far really beautiful not too busy and nice small fun waves. Walked for 1 hour to playa negra along the beach got sunburnt and met a couple of crazy americans from new jersey who couldn't believe we walked everywhere. Had a couple of surfs with them and a very scary car ...

... when I'll go back for a couple of days. Now I'm in Costa Rica, since about 10 days. I live with a tica family at Playa Flamingo, which is a beach resort in the northwest of the country. I'm going to school for four hours a day and the afternoons we spend at the beach or going on trips. The lifestyle is quite different, although the families got almost everything we've got too. Like big SUV's, microwave, TV's and even Playstations ...