Costa Rica: Tamarindo

No shortage of sunsets. No shortage of surf. No shortage of swimming. No shortage of shakes.

Plus, Nana's here!!!

 

 
 

 
 
 

 
 

Cost Rica-- Las Baulas National Marine Park

 A short walk up the beach and a wee tour in a boat, and voila-- birds, howler monkeys, iguanas, and CROCS!

What is: the Costa Rican Mouse?

The creature who visits you in the night and leaves you some colones when you lose a tooth in Costa Rica.

Costa Rica-- Snorkling in Playa Conchal and Playa Mina

Look, we're swimming with rays!

We even saw rays swimming in the waves just in front of us, while standing in knee deep water. Amazing.

 A few other fun fish were spotted in the rocks around these stunning beaches. 4x4 for access, essential.

 Still smiling, even with the jelly fish stings (could have been the baby turtle tracks we saw, working their way from the holes where their eggs were buried, zigzagging to the sea).

 

Costa Rica-- Playa Grande

 

 We used Mac Ride for getting to our local beach, and for getting to the nearby swanky pasta joint.
 
 "You can only take home 3, Mac."

Four days of bliss glamping at Flor Y Bambu.
Playa Grande and some nearby beaches are where the dwindling leatherback turles come to lay their eggs. We missed the night time hatchings at Playa Grande, but caught many a baby turtle track at Playa Mina. Even the tracks are adorably sweet.
The glamping was supreme. It felt like the jungle day and night. We played cards on the open deck every night, but we zipped up for sleep time as we were getting pelted by large hard shell bugs at night, the creatures attracted to our reading lights.

Tubing on the Rio Celeste

  
 
Fun fun and more fun!

Volcan Tenorio & El Rio Celeste

We had a lovely couple of days in Volcan Tenorio. Our lodge was in the middle of the jungle and the surroundings were stunning.

 We went on a 7km hike at the national park. The main feature was the Catarata de Rio Celeste-- the milky blue waterfalls we saw in our guide book. Alas, when we got to the entrance to the huge staircase down to the falls, they were closed and the entrance was blocked by la Policia (a tree was about to fall and was potentially dangerous). We carried on and had a beautiful, muddy hike.

 
 This is an interesting spot where two rivers meet, and each carries different minerals and so different colors. Blue river, meet brown river. Savvy, meet Mac.

 There was a huge geyser behind us, bubbling away. Stinky sulfur.

 The bridges were always for "una sola persona" so we alternated between kids and adults for crossings.

 So, what's that you see below? Well, we got chatting with La Policia when we saw them on our way back and after finding out we were Canadian, since there was almost no one left on the park behind us, and with a bit of Roberts children charm, they let us go down to the Falls, jumping through the police tape! Woot woot!
The area is marked off with wooden fences and there is no longer any swimming allowed (after a Costa Rican drowned and some foreigners got badly burned in the hot water in 2011) but the Falls were still stunning.
As thanks for their kind gesture, Savvy shared some of her "nerds" with La Policia as we climbed back through the tape. They asked if it was a special Canadian candy. We had to confess, all with silly hand gestures and ridiculously poor Spanish, that you can actually buy nerds in Canada Y Costa Rica. (The kids now have Glen hooked on nerds. He now famously burst into our tent while we were in siesta to shout: "We have a HUGE problem!!!" We thought there was a monkey in the tent or a lizard in his shoe...in fact, he had run out of his new crack cocaine.)

The next day we went tube-rafting down the Rio Celeste. Our guide was great. He was a local from a nearby farm and had tons of nature tips. He found us a Poisonous Dart Frog (Mac calls him a Poisonous Fart Frog). We spotted a green one which is very poisonous, but our guide explained it was the red ones who were really deadly. One red Fart frog has enough poison to kill 1500 people. Yikes. Anyway, our guide also gave us a local's tip-- the Falls' park entrance use to be at our lodge, which still has a covered over trail to the Falls. The trail is heavily overgrown, very tricky to navigate, and includes a steep-- with no stair case-- chute down to the water.
No park fee, no people, and access for a swim. Does our family have any member in it who might get up before dusk and make that rugged trek, stealing a skinny dip and a pic!?

 

Si.