July 3

We left Monteverde around noon and headed down to Jaco. We took pictures as we headed down the mountains.

 

 

As we approached the Pacific side we stopped and peered over the crocodile bridge. It was pretty cool. There was a guy selling 'carne' - not any specific meat like chicken, or beef, or alligator - just carne.

We also saw lizards. Lots and lots of lizards.

Just like that we were in Jaco and we had to say goodbye to Juan Carlos. I think many people looked at Bella and I on our Mother-Daughter trip with some serious reservations. Many people on the tour ask us both with concerned tones, "How is it really going?" But it has really and truly been great. Bella and I travel very well together. I am so blessed by my kids. They are all amazing humans with whom I would happily spend all of my time with.

Here we are all together for the last time. From left to right: Pal, Gru, Lovely Thai lady, Usha, Bella, Juan Carlos, Patrick Ron, Me, RG, Sharika, Candace, Jeff, Jenny, John, Gustavo

Juan Carlos really loved talking to Bella. He looked after and gave her lots of advice and kind words. We both felt very lucky for having met Juan Carlos. He's a pretty wonderful person.

Here is our latest hotel. We are much, much happier here. It smells better. There are not bed bugs, and it feels much, much cleaner.

Bella celebrated our zip lining, goodbyes and the Pacific.

And now we are here.

We woke up to this beach. Our plan for today was to visit Manual Antonio National Park. In order to get tickets to the park one must plan in advance and purchase the tickets in advance as they limit how many people can get into the park on any given day. I was very invested in this experience and began planning when we bought our tour tickets. The tour we picked conveniently offered this excursion as a day trip. I was really excited. However, the departure time for us was 6:45 a.m. which meant we missed breakfast at our hotel. This is not the end of the world, but it meant I did not have my coffee and THAT is the end of the world. It is important to know what you need in order to sustain your life blood. I need coffee.

The driver showed up and there was a bit of confusion. This was not helped by my lack of coffee. When we finally sorted it out we jumped in the van and drove around for two hours picking up other people for the tour. TWO HOURS WITHOUT COFFEE. 

We were reunited with Carmen and Jeff. (We should add a caveat here to tell you that if you upgrade your tour you get nicer rooms and sometimes totally different hotels. When Juan Carlos left us we were separated from Gru and his sweet wife and Carmen and Jeff). We added a nice couple (?) who share a kid and appear to be longtime friends and maybe live together but have other kids with other people and lots of grandkids. It was complicated. I couldn't figure it out and I decided I did not care because I had not had coffee yet. We also gained some French people. 

Prior to us learning they were French, Bella commented to me, "I think that family is kind of rude." They were definitely aloof and doing their own thing. 

I overheard them speaking and said, "Oh, Bella, they are not rude. They are just French." 

She responded, "I don't see the difference." This lead to a long conversation about how French people are just different. Bella kept saying, "Wait, so the French are rude?? All French people?"

I kept saying, "No, they're just French. It is socially expected to be rude. They are probably really great people and if you spent a month with them you would probably really like them."

She remains unconvinced.

Carmen showed up in all of her glory. She was mad we were in the bus again. She was then mad when we had to get out of the bus. Carmen had eaten breakfast and was mad that we had not and we had stop to eat. She did not like the food. She didn't want to talk about Diet Coke anymore. Jeff really wanted to talk about Diet Coke.  She did not want to add more people to bus. She was annoyed that we had not seen a lot of animals, and then she was annoyed that we had seen too many of the same animals. She wanted to institute a check list system where once we saw an animal 3 times, we would no longer stop to look at that animal.  Jeff definitely then stopped to see EVERY animal and insect. She was annoyed it was hot. She was annoyed that Jeff liked all of the animals. She did not want to walk. The beach was too sandy, the tide was too high. What she really wanted was to be at her resort by the pool drinking.

The great thing about Carmen is that you always know how she feels and she feels a lot of things. And all of this being said, I really do like Carmen. She is hilarious. But she is also a lot. Bella may or may not have had a hang over, but definitely did. Carmen did not sit well with Bella.

Much to Carmen's dismay, we stopped to look at some sloths. But the were AMAZING.

Even Carmen was impressed.

See????

I love him.

After our amazing encounters with the sloths we walked a short way to the entrance of Manuel Antonio National Park.

Along the way I saw a green tree frog. These are the ones with the red eyes, who are poisonous. He was sleeping so we could not see his eyes. I decided not to wake him up.

And then we saw this cute little guy.

Here is the map to the park.

In addition to the wildlife, I always love the flowers.

The river was pretty cool. Look at the color! It has limestone deposits which causes this color change.

Check out the red crab.

I took a lot of monkey pictures. Again. And some ant pictures. Check out the little ants carrying their heavy loads.

I got a great picture of this howler monkey too. Bella is scared of the howler. She thinks his sounds are weird. He woke her up in the middle of the night and his face is scary. 

Our guide, Carla, was great at seeing animals and helping us photograph them. As a result, I got great pictures. We walked through the rainforest to the beach. 

Look at these teeny tiny mushrooms!

It was the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. The water was warm and perfect. We were able to spend about an hour on the beach before heading back through the rain forest. Bella tried to sleep on the beach but was attacked by a wave. This did not help her mood. She had sand in her ear, her shorts and her hair.  She informed me that she is done with the beach. This is unfortunate because tomorrow is planned to be a complete beach day. I guess we will see how this goes.

 

Bella let me take a picture of her breaking up with the ocean. I think she still looks cute, even mad at the sea.

These flowers fell from the tree above leaving beautiful flowers along the beach.

These little animals are the rats of the jungle - according to Carla.

The monkeys in this park are comfortable with humans and come very close. They also really like backpacks. They have banned food from this park because people kept feeding the monkeys and they all become diabetic.This monkey was jumping right above me and almost landed on my head!

When we got back to the park entrance we headed back to the bus and the restaurant where we had lunch. I have to say that when you are in Costa Rica the food is somewhat mid. Do not come here for the food. The fruit is great, but there are a lot of rice and beans. I LIKE rice and beans, but I am very, very tired of rice and beans. 

I bought a coconut water and the man poured a bunch of rum in it. It was not my favorite choice, but it is certainly creative.

Bamboo is an invasive species in Costa Rica.

Sloth pictures! We saw more sloths on this tour than anywhere else. We even saw mom and baby sloths. Some of these pictures are kind of hard to see the sloth and know it is a sloth, but it is. And they were very cute.

I took a lot of monkey pictures, but they were so cute. How could I resist?

These mangrove trees help the ocean and the rain forest. I loved their big, tall roots.

I was really glad we did this tour because we saw animals better than anywhere else, but we are both tired and a little tired of bus rides. I signed up to see as much as possible, so I am down for bus rides, but I think we are a little pooped. We were really glad to get back to our resort and take a shower. Then we ordered nachos for dinner, which was pretty great.

Ron has been one of the best part of our tour. He is so cute. Sometimes you meet someone and realize you need their friendship. You didn't even know you were missing this friend, but then you meet them and realize, 'holy shit. I have waited a long time to be your friend.' Also, I am very happily married and Ron is very happily in a relationship with Jay, so please do not think I am somehow being unfaithful to Nic. 

We had dinner with Ron, RG, and Sharika. Bella accidentally paid for everyone's lobster. It kind of captures her day. Nothing was going quite right for her today. She ended it with buying some lobster.

We were pretty tired. I have kept us busy on this trip with early morning and pretty late nights. We are looking forward to our quiet beach day tomorrow.