Costa Rica - Day 6

 Kyle, Heather and the girls went back to the beach to go kayaking and boogie boarding again today.

Carlos, Megan, Roger and I walked around the National Park. It is the pride of Costa Rica and a beautiful rain forest/jungle with boardwalks and nice sidewalks throughout the area. We saw plenty of wildlife: sloths, toucans, monkeys, lizards, blue crabs, deer and varied plants and trees. There are three lovely beaches within the park so many bring their bathing suits and cool off in the ocean after touring. This is the first place that resembled Mexico - we had to run the gauntlet through all the souvenir shops to get to the park entrance! After a stop for guacamole, chips and cold beer we recuperated enough to do some shopping and go to lunch!

We called these "plunger mushrooms"

The roots of these trees look like fins!

Bright blue crabs were plentiful

This sloth is just "hanging in there"

I went to take a picture of one monkey and the second came up and gave him a hug!

Lots of lizards!

This is a termite nest - believe it or not we saw several that were huge!


Emily loved the elephant pattern in this sarong I bought her - she's going to use it as a tapestry in her room!
Her stuffed sloth is a snap bracelet!

Costa Rica - Day 5

No special tours today - just a relaxing day at the beach. We walked to breakfast at a local coffee cafe. There isn't much shopping opportunity close by but we browsed a few stores on our way home.

Then - back to the private beach here at Tulemar. It's embarrassing to admit how content Roger and I are just relaxing in a lounge chair! The girls, and especially Kyle, love this beach because of the great waves for boogie boarding but, once the tide rolls in they are too big and strong! Emily caught a great wave and it took her all the way up the beach to a lady's lounge chair - " oh, hello!"

We are so spoiled - we ordered lunch, had it delivered to the beach, ate at a table in the shade and played cards while the girls just played in the surf!

The news of the day - a boa constrictor in a tree near the resort pool! We haven't seen it yet. Megan doesn't want to be anywhere near it!! Our shuttle driver after dinner told us that guests called the front desk saying there was a snake in their villa! Hope it wasn't the boa!

There are a group of volunteers here at Tulemar that study the sloths and document their behavior. Since the sloths are nocturnal they work all night. They walk around with coal miner type lights, red so as not to scare the sloths. Seems like a very boring task to all of us but they are interesting to talk with. Sloths don't drink - they get their liquids from the leaves they eat. And they come to the ground about once a week to excrete their waste - about 1/3 to 1/2 of their body weight!
Wouldn't it be great to be able to eat all you wanted and then once a week get rid of half the weight you gained!!!

One more day and then this idyllic vacation ends!

Costa Rica - Day 4

We spent yesterday on this catamaran - fishing, whale watching and snorkeling. Glorious weather! They built the marina about 10 years ago and it has been great for the local economy. As evidenced by all the yachts!

This is the huge boat lift they were using to dry dock the big yacht!

We went out about 8 miles and started trolling for fish. Kyle caught two tuna and Emily caught a mahi-mahi. As usual, it is more about fishing than catching! The crew cooked them for our lunch, along with a wonderful salad, chicken and rice we had another feast!

Poor Samantha got sea sick, despite taking Dramamine, so she laid low most of the trip. Heather asked her if she wanted anything at lunch time and she said "shore!" She was a real "trooper" and felt fine within an hour of landing.

It was exhilarating riding in the net but would not want to be there in rough waters!

We followed a mother hump back whale and her calf as they leisurely swam along. The water was so clear you could see their dark shadows before they breached the water. How lucky were we!

The crew gave Emily some fish food to sprinkle in the water while we were snorkeling and as soon as she did the fish swarmed us! Just small yellow and blue ones but it was creepy! We also saw larger dark gray/black fish with bright yellow fins.

Another great day!!