Costa Rica Day 7: Canopy Tour

On our last day in Costa Rica we started the morning off with a zip-line canopy tour over the rainforest. I had actually been looking forward to this activity. In high school a group of kids went to cotsta rica for a science club trip and they got to do a zip-line canopy tour. When they came back they showed footage of the kids doing it, ever since then I have been dying to do it. So I was really looking forward to it. We had 11 different zip-lines on of them was as long as 3 football fields. It was so awesome to fly through the air, feel the rush of the wind and look over the whole rainforest. Very, Very cool. Some people would be scared to do it, but I was surprisingly ok with it. The scariest part for me was the platforms you had to stand on to wait for your next turn. They were made of what seemed to be very thin metal and you could feel them blow in the wind. One of them was longer and had a line for each person to stand on. I guess if all of us would have crowded around in one place it would have been to much weight and we would have fallen out of the tree. YIKES. At the end of the course there was a "Tarzan Swing" were you were strapped in and you just swung back and forth like Tarzan. That was a lot of fun. All of it was fun. What was not fun was going back to the hotel and packing up all of our things. So sad. After all of our things were packed and ready to go we took the bus down to the beach. We walked around some of the shops then stopped for lunch. All the restaurants were open and had an excellent view of the ocean. It was so relaxing, and a little bitter sweet to know we were leaving soon. After lunch we took a walk on the beach and enjoyed the water on our feet. We thought our transport was coming to pick Jeff, Camille, Mike and I up at 4:30 to take us to San Jose for the night. We planned to go back to the hotel and play a few games as a family before it was time for us to all say goodbye. Mikes parents and sister planned to catch the bus after us back to the hotel as they had some last minute shopping to do. So we took the bus back and told them we would see them at the hotel. When we got back to the hotel our bus was already there to take us to San Jose. We were surprised since we thought was were being picked up at 4:30, so Mike went to look at the itinerary again. It said 14:30.... military time.... 2:30pm standard star. YIKES. So we threw everything together and left. We didn't get to say goodbye to anyone. It was really sad. The ride back was about 3 1/2 hours. We played a few games of Ticket to Ride on the iPad and visited. We checked in at a hotel across from the airport. We were excited because the hotel had free international calling. I had been staying in touch with my family using facetime on my iPod but the signal wasn't always very good. It was nice to have a solid connection. I love going on vacation but I hate being out of contact with my mom while I am gone. When we go away I alway find a way to stay in touch with her. I guess I'm a momma's girl. After we got all caught up with family back in the states we went down to Jeff and Camille's room to play Purto Rico (a very strategy oriented board game.) Then we were finally ready for dinner. We walked across the street for diner. The food was great, it just took us 2 hours to get the food. That was not fun. After dinner we walked around a Casino just to see what it was like.... no gambling. We were good :) Then we had to get right to bed as we had very early flights in the morning. It was back to the USA.... The end of vacation is so depressing, especially when it means you have to say goodbye to family. We can't wait till the next time we get to go on a vacation with our family.

Costa Rica Day 6: Heaven/ Paradise on a Beach

After our nature walk we went to a local restaurant for some fresh fruit and fruit drinks. Then we headed back to the hotel. Mike, his parents and I finished up our game of pinochle. Much to everyones surprise we won putting us in the finals against Heather and Brandon. We had lunch together then, much to my pleasure, we went back to the beach for the afternoon. We swam, watched the waves, walked on the sand and took in the absolutely breath taking view. For a few short hours I might as well of been in heaven.

After a while we went back to the main beach area. The National Park where we spent most of the afternoon was very secluded and not very touristy you had to pay to get in. The main beach area was very tourist with shops, stands and water activities. We found a flea market tucked back behind some buildings. It was the perfect place to bargain for our souvenirs. It was fun to speak the little spanish I know with the people there, they were all so friendly and willing to give me a good deal. I got little toys for the kids I babysit, all of which make noise so I'm sure their mother wasn't to thrilled. I also found a cute pearl bracelet and beautiful bring blue sundress. I was pretty happy with my findings. After getting all the things I wanted, we headed back to the main beach. Just in time to watch the sunset.

It was once again, breath taking. After the sunset we took the local bus back to the hotel. We cleaned up and went to dinner. What type of food did we have for our last big family dinner in Costa Rica? Italian. Yep, we had pizza for dinner. I love mexican food but it is heavy. All the rice and beans sit in your stomach all day. I was happy to have a small salad and a few small pieces of thin crust pizza.

After dinner we went back to Mikes parents room for round two of the pinochle tournament. This was probably the highlight of my night. Not because we won (even though we did) it was watching all the other couples get so worked up over it. I usually am very competitive but since Mike and I have only been playing pinochle for a while I pretty much wrote us out of being contenders in the tournament. So I just played for fun. There were others however, who were very into it. I loved watching other people get so into a game. It may or may not have caused a little bit of contention at times, but I have played very little games myself where I haven't caused a little contention as well. It was a wonderful day, I was not ready to have to leave the Beautiful Manuel Antonia so soon after we got there.

Costa Rica Day 6: Nature Walk

When we went to Breakfast in the morning some of our family members who had been there for a while told us there was a large group of monkeys that came through the courtyard. We were sad to have missed it, how cool. All those monkeys just parading through the courtyard.

After breakfast we went to Manuel Antonio National Park for a guided nature tour. It was pretty cool. Our tour guide said it was one of the top 5 national parks in the world. I would have to agree, it was so incredibly beautiful.

We saw a lot of really neat flowers, birds and other small animals. We even saw several Tucans but they were to fast flying to catch a picture of them.

Three-Toed Sloth

Red-Eyed Tree Frog. Since they are nocturnal this is what they look like in the day when they are sleeping and trying the blend in....

This is of course what they look like at night when they are awake and hopping around.

I love this picture. This is a two toed tree sloth. Isn't he adorable.

When we got to the beach area of the park there were tons of monkeys hanging out on the trees and everything. It was like a scene from a movie. I kind of went on a picture taking frenzy. But these guys are just way to cute.

(These are bats)

This was honestly one of my favorite places I have ever been. It was like a little piece of Heaven on Earth. I was lucky that we were able to come back for some beach time later on in the afternoon.