Hotel La Finisterra Playa Hermosa

... the cold showers here upon returning...

all in all it was a nice relaxing time. Every 3 weeks or so we get a couple days off, so we shall see where 3 weeks brings me next time!

as of right now i am mostly using the lab/data computer...and as such, am unable to post pictures and stuff...but as soon as i can, ill have some wonderful tropical beach shots for you....they may not all be poscard worthy...but they are still fairly nice!

-R

... and circles! Also, we bumped into a car accident on one of the roads down to the Coast, and as the cars were blocking the path we had to wait for over an hour. The funny thing is that in accidents here (even when there are no victims) the police has to arrive and take measurements and notes. It took the police guy one hour to arrive and then he was investigating the scene as if it was something out of CSI! By the time we reached the ...

... on a passé la soirée et partagé des tuyaux, vu qu'ils faisaient le chemin inverse au notre. Ils nous ont notamment parlé de Tortuguero, la « mini amazonie. » Le lendemain, on décide d'aller faire un tour sur la côte pacifique à Playa Hermosa qui n'est pas très loin et essayer de faire une plongée. On va au terminal de bus pour se rendre là-bas, pas de bus avant dans longtemps. Coup de bol on croise un type qui y allait en voiture et nous a proposé de nous y emmener ...

... tonight. This morning, we hiked over hanging bridges and down to a really powerful waterfall near the lodge where we´re staying. There are tons of hiking trails all over the grounds. But, our best activity yet came this afternoon when we did a 4-hour waterfall rappeling tour near Arenal. We went with ...

... which made pretty good Pizzas...we still love pizzas. One day we got energetic and hiked up a steep dirt road into the jungle. We were told to look for a path off to the left that wound through the jungle, but we couldn't find it. What we did find was a large padlocked gate with a hole just big enough for us to squeeze through, well I only just squeezed through it, Mandy made it quite comfortably. Once through, the path took us deep into the jungle. Here we saw our first sighting of ...

... plenty of time at the reserve before the rains began. And everything started out smoothly. The bus was only fifteen minutes late and all the kids were more or less on time as well. When one mother not coming with us grabbed my arm and looked into my eyes beseeching me to keep an eye on her daughter and bring her back safely, I easily extracted myself and assured her that Fernanda would be fine. Once on the bus, all the kids stretched out on the back seats, as far away from ...

... out separate...once we drove about 10 minutes out of the way to take a man with a package home, once we dropped him off the driver turned the bus around and we went back the way we had just came. It was aweful, but what could we do? Luckily the guys in the seats behind us were our age and from Wyoming, so we made the best we could out of the situation. Having said all that, I would have taken a 20 hour bus ride to get to where we are now ...

... in Tamarindo for the past three months working in real estate. Even though she was making a lot of money she said she couldn't take it anymore and had to move back to Escazu. Other locals told me that they can no longer afford to live in the area and don't know how they will be able to get to work as their rents keep getting raised and they need to move further and further away. I ...

... foot iguana with a white head that shows up every afternoon for fruit. In the backyard, howler monkeys swing by at their pleasure. Just off the balcony there's a hornets nest that Marc seems particularly proud of. Underneath the roof overhang, just around the corner from our balcony bedroom there's a family of bats. Marc has two big black dogs, probably just to keep these other creatures in check. Each morning with a dog on his left and a dog on his right they swim into the Pacific ...