Fun in the sun

Sarah: To continue on…last Wednesday we left with our friends around midday to head south to the beach. On our way out we stopped to look at some quetzals, which are phenomenal birds. Absolutely gorgeous. We then traveled to a beach called Dominical, and arrived just as the sun was setting on the ocean. Micah has a friend who spent some time in Costa Rica, and she had a connection through a church in Dominical. We hooked up with the church and joined them for their time of worship that evening, enjoying both the Spanish and the English translations. Micah and Kevin and Paul decided to stay at the church to sleep, and David and Stacie and I opted for a super cheap hotel on the beach. We decided that we’d enjoy our time better if we had a bed to sleep in rather than on the hard tile floor of the church.

Thursday we got up and the 3 boys went surfing all morning, and Stacie and David and I headed into Hacienda Baru, a National Wildlife refuge, to do some hiking. We had a great time exploring the area, and some of the highlights were seeing a Tamandua (an anteater) sleeping in a tree, lots of basilisk lizards (commonly called the Jesus Christ lizard because they run across water), iguanas, lots of skinks, and David saw LOTS of birds. But the highlight of them all was when a 5-foot snake slithered across the trail and we got a good look at it. Stacie and I were convinced it was a pit viper, but David claims it wasn’t poisonous. Still, we got a big thrill out of seeing it so close! Thursday afternoon Stacie and David went out to try surfing with the other three boys. The water was so warm it almost wasn’t refreshing! Close to sunset we all drove back to the wildlife refuge to check out the anteater again and look for monkeys, but we missed the monkeys again.

Friday the boys got up to surf again, and we all took off late morning and headed south to Palmar Norte. There we showed up at Liseth’s in-laws again (remember when we went there a few months ago with Liseth and Rigo?). Vera was absolutely thrilled to have us all there and even had one of her daughters there to help make us a special lunch. Unfortunately, her idea of a special lunch wasn’t exactly what we would have requested to have—we ate liver!! Being the good guests that we were, we all choked it down and praised her for making such a great meal. We toured their farm again and it was great to be able to continue that relationship with them. On our way back up north we stopped at a beautiful beach—Ventanas. There was no one on the beach, and it was beautiful! There were a couple of caves that you could actually swim through, but Micah was the only one brave (or stupid) enough to try it and he came back scraped up and talking about a near-death experience. We made it to Manuel Antonio in time to find a super cheap hotel to stay in, and as we were checking out the hotel there was a group of about 30 squirrel monkeys hopping around on the roofs and trees all around us! Later that evening after we ate, we came across a 3-toed sloth crawling right above us from a telephone wire onto a tree. I’ve never seen a sloth so close, and it was great to see one active since they sleep for 20 hours a day!

Saturday we got up early and headed into the national park with dreams of seeing more animals and beautiful beaches. We weren’t disappointed! We hiked all over and swam in the warm ocean at one of the beautiful beaches inside the park, and saw lots of exciting things. The highlights were seeing howler monkeys, white-faced capuchins (monkeys) really really close to us, a raccoon stealing some food off a picnic table, lots of lizards, tons of hermit crabs, a group of about a dozen coatimundis crossing right in front of us, another active 3-toed sloth, and a few more agoutis. It was unbelievable! Right after lunch we decided that we’d already seen everything and hiked everywhere, so we headed back to QERC. We made it back here in time to make dinner (with a minor setback of having the power go out for about an hour) and get a good night sleep.

Today we woke up and went up to the church, where there was a mass and celebration of two young people having their first communion. One of those kids was Liseth's son Diego, who was looking very handsome all dresssed up. It was a fun service to go to, and Diego was both embarrassed and proud to have us there to support him. Following the service was lunch and Bingo, but we hadn't known about that in advance so we decided to head back home instead. We ate lunch and played a game of Carcassonne, and then Stacie and I headed off for the waterfall. It was a gorgeous walk, with clouds rolling in and out. The waterfall was still very powerful and flowing with lots of water. Tonight we had a big dinner and then sat around planning our adventure for tomorrow...