Hotel Villa Baula Playa Grande

... sweet neoprene shirt you get to<br>wear that makes you look like you're good even when you suck). But, I<br>was pretty terrified when we got to the beach. <br><br>First, we practiced hopping up on the sand as if we were in the<br>water. All we could think about was that hilar scene in Forgetting<br>Sarah Marshall - if you don't know what I'm talking about, please stop<br>reading and go rent that movie. Now. Then it was time to tie on our<br>leashes and take our boards ...

... The beaches are nice and relaxing though, and seeing as I am quickly running out of money, we are probs just going to stay here until I fly out of San Jose on Friday. Can´t believe it´s already been a month! <br><br>Update: We found a decent hostel for $9 a night<br>called Bahia Paradiso or something like that. The owners are totes<br>crazy but totes friendly and it is clean and new and near the beach.<br>Since then ...

... us to the town of Tamarindo where a small boat took us out to the big boat. It was really, really nice. The young man who is the owner of the boat told us his story of how he had gone to grad school in California to become a lawyer. His uncle convinced him to come to Costa Rica to work and he ended up staying. He has been here for ten years now, got married and spends his life taking tourists sailing. Talk about a ...

... Ricans is a t-shirt, shorts and thongs. (Yes, Deb, I just used the word thongs for their footwear and I will continue to use it just because I love the fact that it irritates you so much). It was really neat to see what a simple lifestyle they led. <br><br>We made it home and then ended our evening with another late dinner at one of their gourmet restaurants while sitting outside under the stars. <br>

... one of the restaurants with a saxophone player walking around and serenading us. <br><br>Lynn and I snuck into the swimming pool tonight after it was closed. We didn&#8217;t have to climb any fences or anything like Mary and I did in Calistoga though. This pool is gigantic with all of these little thatched cover giant umbrellas that sit over the chairs along the side and all the beatiful tropical foliage. It was really great to have this gigantic pool all ...

... went on permanent siesta! Anyhow, Malin and I thought it was pretty amusing and we didn't have the heart to tell the owners about our experiences...even the humungous spider I had to kill (it wouldn't die, similar to my Hermosa Beach rat jihad). The owners were vey proud of their place and were super cool to boot...we spent the evening with them sharing stories over beers. The father of the owner kept urging us to go to this volcanic island in the middle of Lake ...

... nur 4 km von La Fortuna entf**nt. Die Anlage (Eintritt 28 USD) v**fuegt ueb** ca. 20 klein**e und groess**e Th**malbecken unt**schiedlich** Temp**atur sowie 2 Pool Bars, dies allen inmitten tropisch** Gärten. Das heisseste Becken hat 47 Grad heisses Wass**, was ziemlich "heizt". ;-) Nach einem feinen Nachtessen im empfehlensw**ten Restaurant "Montaña de Fuego" ging ein wass**reich** Tag mit Vulkan-Beobachten zu Ende. An diesem Abend mit mehr Lava und Gesteinsbrocken als am Tag zuvor.

... pushing me back towards the monkeys (was I destined to live on the tiny island with them?). Eventually made it back and after lunch went for a good long swim and a chill on the peer. Chilled all afternoon reading, swimming and talking to a few backpackers. Saw a sight that made me feel terrible on my way back to the hotel room; a puppy I had seen frolicking around for a few days (skinny as a rake) was foaming at the mouth and walking erratically in circles and growling (I guess ...

... both green and orange), fresh guava, and fresh bananas. I've also had the opportunity to practice riding a motorcycle and a horse. I've swam in a river to cool off and practice my diving. The town has no commercial enterprises except for a few convenience stores, so there really is nothing to do. For that reason, I've never gotten so much sleep in my life. <br><br>Free Time<br><br>My free time is generally spent sitting on my front porch in a rocking ...

... long and around 800 lbs. Some of the facts were hard to discern because it was all being translated in whispers for us, though I was really proud of myself for being able to catch 75% of some of the sentences in the original Spanish. We arrived when she was in the middle of digging her hole, maybe a meter deep, then we got to watch her lay the eggs. It felt kind of intrusive, even though she seemed to have little awareness that we were even there. One ...