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(This part of the Trip Log begins
when we left San José
and headed northwest to Guanacaste. After 2 weeks of busy-ness
and seeing many things, we knew we were ready for R&R so you won't
see a lot of activities in this last section - we did a lot of vegging
on the balcony and watching sunsets interspersed with a bit of beach
walking! You can enlarge any
picture in this narrative by
clicking on it - it
will open in a separate window and in many cases, show detail you can't
see in the smaller version. Many more pictures can be found here.)
Tuesday Jan 28   We had arranged a private transport from the Herradura
where we
finished the Road Scholar portion of our trip, to Liberia airport
(picking up Katie) to a grocery (so we could stock up while we had a
van) and then to Playa Hermosa where we will spend the next two
weeks. Paulo from CR Travels & Tours picked us up promptly at 9
(so we had time for a leisurely breakfast). The scenery, as we
moved from the city and through the mountains, was beautiful. We
stopped after a couple of hours for a bathroom break, then, after we
picked up Katie from the Liberia airport, we asked him to choose an
appropriate place for lunch. He did! We went to a cafeteria
- Mi Rancho #4 Liberia - that had a great variety of
local foods. It was quick, reasonable and also housed a
souvenir/gift section.  We then headed for a grocery store - stopped at the
Mini Luperon near us in
Playa Hermosa and they were really just a "quick trip" sort of place
without much produce and no meat, so he took us to the big Auto Mercado
in Playa del Coco, the next town south. That was a real
supermarket and we stocked up on our main needs, particularly produce
and meat which we knew to be lacking in Playa Hermosa. Finally,
we were ready to be delivered to the condo -
the outside gate of Hermosa del Mar is shown at the left. The
owner (Alejandro) had
sent me a QR code for the security folks to verify who we were and
Paulo was helpful in getting directions to the building and learning
where to find the big luggage cart to help us load everything into the
elevator! We were in a "penthouse" suite on the 7th floor -
Al Mar
Hermosa - with 4 bedrooms that would nicely fit our family of 8
once everyone got there. The "great room" is shown at the right,
though we really spent more time out on the balcony (also visible in
the picture). Below are the views from the balcony to the
left, to the right and then the first sunset! Definitely a good
place for relaxing and soaking up sun.     Wednesday, January 29 The next morning we slept in, had breakfast on the balcony then eventually dragged ourselves out and down to the beach - it's just a 5 minute flat walk. We saw a few birds (the whimbrel at the left we saw every time we were at the beach) and iguanas. On weekdays the beach was always pretty empty but a nice walk. We relaxed and read and went to bed early. Thursday January 30 Another lazy day. We went out to eat at the Ginger which is a rather upscale place only a block away. It's an Asian-Fusion themed restaurant that serves tapas. So we each had 2 small plates, a drink and decadent desserts - Pavlova and Chocolate Lava Cake. Friday January 31 Went back down to the beach today - still pretty empty but I took a few more pictures. From left to right sand patterns on the beach, one of the easy entry points for snorkeling (or climbing rocks and investigating tidal pools) and the sunset from the beach.    Saturday Feb 1
This morning I finally got enough energy to wander the grounds of the condo development. There is a nice pool with lounges, outdoor shower (good for getting beach sand off of our feet) and lovely landscaping. Some of the plants include a Double Pink Mussaenda and bougainvillea. This afternoon Kethra and Conner arrived and we all enjoyed another beautiful sunset - the picture is near the end of it!      Another
beach walk today, another beach picture and a new bird. This one
is a white-throated magpie jay that we don't see many of - the area in Mexico where we've
spent a lot of time (Nayarit) is just north of its usual range and Costa Rica is at the very southern
end. This afternoon, Bekah and Ryan arrived. Kethra and
Conner prepared a fajita supper tonight - below we see Katie and Kethra
cooking the meat (not pictured is Conner making the guacamole), the
group (minus me, who was taking the picture) ready to enjoy it,
followed by the requisite sunset.    Monday, February 3
  Now that Bekah and Ryan are here we can add
snorkeling pictures! They went out early this morning and enjoyed
it so much they were out in the water almost every following day except
on expedition days. The water in the ocean (and bay) is not
crystal clear like the Caribbean and around the rocks you typically
see different fish than on a coral reef, but there were enough
interesting things to entertain them, and then us when she shared her
pictures! The blue one on the left is a wrasse - probably a
Cortex Rainbow Wrasse (based on the yellow and the location) and on the
right is a King Angel fish.Tuesday February 4   Tyler, the last family member to join us, arrived
today. We went out to eat supper at La Casita del Mariscos on the beach. It came
highly recommended but we were not so impressed. The service
wasn't very good, they mixed up orders and even the food wasn't that
great. However, we did get to see the sunset AND a family of
Howler monkeys who were hanging in the trees right next to the
restaurant. We hear
them every morning and every evening but haven't seen them since we've
been here. As usual, it was hard to get a picture of any of them
since they tangle in the branches and don't usually sit still - but
this one is pretty good. I love how they use their tails! Wednesday February 5 Today was "expedition day" for much of the group. (Katie, John and I opted out of this one.) They went on an all-day adventure with Sweet Costa Rica. This included cliff jumping, white water tubing, going down a chute on the river, visit to La Leona Waterfalls. You see why I declined that invitation? LOL! But they all had a great time - they came home safely with some bumps and bruises but nothing major (helmets were provided). I'm not sure I'd have been able to walk for a week afterwards! They have loads of pictures and a video of the whole day. Here are a few of the souvenir moments.      Thursday was a rest day before our next expedition
day. Bekah and Ryan went snorkeling again. I forget what we
had for supper but we all gathered together and all (except
photographer Katie) are in the picture (on the left). Then on
Friday we all went off with Manny Fennell of Guanacaste
Journeys for a day of not-so-strenuous adventures! He was a
great leader - born and raised in Guanacaste but lived and taught in
the US for a couple of years so his knowledge of the area was amazing
and his English skills were terrific. We started at the Cortez
Waterfall - by getting there early we beat the crowds and had some time
to wander the area and take pictures before the other tourists poured
in. Notice the "rainbow" at the lower right of the falls.
Then we continued on to Fincaventura - a plantation that raises coffee and
cocoa as well as other crops.We had a leader from this business who took us around here - before we even got out of the parking lot he showed us monkeys in the trees, a snake and toucan. I didn't take pictures since none were very close and I already had quite a collection of those. Well, except for the snake and I didn't feel the need to go there! Below we have: our souvenir waterfall picture, a display of coffee roasts and you can see the trees in the back, and Conner grinding coffee for us to sample.            The views
from the parking area were lovely and Tyler took this photo of Barb and
John before we left for lunch. The lunch was great but apparently
none of us can remember the restaurant name or where it was! What
we do remember is that they served us casados with our choice of meat,
and pitchers of fruit juice - passion fruit juice and mint lemonade -
that were awesome! That evening most of us went to supper at Roberto's on the beach. That was a much
better experience than the Casita del Mariscos earlier in the
week. We all enjoyed the
whole day - and a sunset to go along with it!Saturday February 8 - Monday February 10   Five of the group left today, leaving Katie, John and I to resume our slothful ways,
lie around and enjoy the warmth for a couple more days! Here's a
sunset from Saturday night. Mostly we ate leftovers to try to
clear out the refrigerator. On Monday Katie and I made one last
trip to the beach. On the way back, we watched an iguana slowly crossing the street, pretty much ignoring people and
cars! Below are some of our other "last day" pictures.
Katie making her way around the rocks at the southern end, either a
neotropic cormorant or anhinga playing hide and seek with me (I couldn't see its beak well enough to
be sure which it was, only seeing the neck and head) and a spotted sandpiper.
It doesn't have spots right now because it's not mating season - this
is the sandpiper that bobs up and down (aka "teetering") and is pretty
amusing to watch.  
The only other thing
we did on Monday was pack. Not fun, but necessary. We left
Tuesday morning around 10:30 am and had plenty of time to get there,
get checked in and then have lunch before our afternoon flight and buy
something to bring for supper. All went smoothly. And here
is the end of our last sunset from Monday evening - how we like to
remember vacation!
 Click here to see the first part of our Trip: San José and Sarapiquí Click here to see the second part of our Trip: Arenal and Central Pacific Coast Click here to
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