Day 16 - Mangroves Tour, sunset, sloth, sangria

Today we went on a tour of the Mangroves. To be completely honest, we were a little disappointed. We didn't see anything that unusual or exciting, considering the cost. Usually, the kids are pretty entertained and interested, but not so much this time. Don't get me wrong, we learned and saw some interesting things about the environment...

The kids getting on our boat.

This is a pic of the mangroves. The roots systems are pretty amazing.

This is what a termite's nest looks like. We have seen them all over in the rainforest, I just thought that the big lumps were just the way the trees grew here.

This is a Jesus Christ lizzard. If you haven't seen one before, they are pretty fun to watch because they walk/run across the water.

It's hard to get the perspective but this crab was about the size of my hand.

This was a highlight of our day and trip. After the tour Stace and I were sitting on our deck. He freaks out and stands up. I saw it right away...this sloth was in the tree right in front of us. He hung out in the tree eating all afternoon. They are so fun to watch. Definitely not as slow as people always talk about.

Sunset from the same deck.

After the mangroves, sloth and sunset we took some Sangria to our neighbors to repay them for the same favor a few days before. We ended up at their house drinking another batch of Sangria while the kids all ate dinner together. Great experience for all!

Day 15 - Local beach

.Today the kids and I went to a "local" beach with our Costa Rican neighbors. Wow. You drive your car down a very crazy dirt road right on to the beach. We parked our car on the sand and set up right outside our trunk! Very different. I didn't take any pics because it started raining shortly after we got there and rained the whole time. The kids didn't mind, boogey boarding and playing for over 2 hours in the rain.

Did we mention that there are A LOT of crazy looking bugs and insects here. Here are just a few pics....

We thought this was a tarantula, but our local neighbors told us they only have those on the other coast. He said that this was a relative of the tarantula and it usually kills horses with one bite. We found it in our pool, floating in a kids' toy boat.

This shows how close we were to it! Stace picked up the boat and set it free, believe it or not. At one point it went for his hand.

On our road trip this grasshopper was outside our room. It was the size of my hand. Brody was trying to catch/chase it. We found out later that those spikes on it's back legs can cut you. Ouch.

We saiw this spider on our road trip too. It was near the patio where we ate breakfast.

We have seen so many more, just not pics to show. In our hotel in Uvita, when we were being shown to our room we saw a spider that was so big that I it didn't look real or alive. When we asked the girl who worked there if there were lots that big she said..."you are in the jungle"! We felt pretty touristy.

Day 13/14 - Overnight roadtrip to Uvita / Dominical

After a fun day at the beach we stayed at a place that felt like the middle of the jungle even though it was minutes from the water. We saw some crazy insects! (too many to post) We continued our adventure to Dominical the next day. Almost ended with a bang...literally. Read below.

Katie had misplaced our room and went looking for it. This is what she found instead. It is a turkey vulture which we see soaring overhead daily, but we don't normally see them fanning their wings, a few feet away. She ran to get us, so excited, and it just sat there while we took pics and observed.

These fan palms were all over the hotel grounds. This is one of the smallest ones.

Leaving the hotel we drove through a river. Stace was the little kid on this one!

We finally found Dominical. The frontage street runs right next to the ocean (see pic) and between lots of trees, sometimes you barely fit.

*****STORY*****

In town we stopped to eat at a very happening place, filled with young surfers, random locals, etc.. We saw the police but thought nothing of it. We had just sat down to look at the menu when a young guy comes up to me, taps my shoulder and says "there is a guy next door who is kinda crazy, he has a gun and says he is going to kill everyone. The police are there, but I thought that you may not want to have your kids here." It took a minute or 2 for the reality to set in (At first I couldn't even understand what he was talking about), but we got out of there pretty quickly. By the time we got to our car even the local waitress had fled the premise. WOW! Not what we had expected in a very small town well-known and popular with American surfers.

Moments after our crazy guy experience we found these adorable coatimundis. There was a fruit stand as you left town. We saw one coatimundi and immediately pulled over. The fruitstand owner fed it a banana and the next thing you know they whole gang came out.

Alex hand-feeding them.

Katie getting licked.

At that fruitstand we discovered a new fruit. The American nickname is "sucky-fruit". It looks slightly like a prickly strawberry. I peel back the red part to see a bit white ball that you "suck out". Thus the name.

Overall, the trip was pretty amazing (aside from the near-death experience)!

Day 13/14 - Overnight Road trip to Uvita / Dominical

We set out on an overnight adventure. We had some unforgettable experiences. Too many to include them all in pics. We headed to Dominical about 1 hour south with plans to see Uvita, a totally different beach town the next day. The signs are so bad that we completely missed Dominical and weren't positive that we passed it until we were almost the our 2nd day destination. So we flip-flopped our trip. Lots of fun stuff along the way... On the way down, we say these Brahma bulls in the middle of the road. We had to stop for them. After they wandered to the side, we pulled over to watch them. We saw a guy on a motorcylce pulled over too and thought he was watching too. Next thing we knew he was trying to herd them on his bike. They had escaped, but they we NOT obeying him. They kept going in 2 different directions. It was pretty fun to watch. VERY different than anything our kids would experience in the US.
The kids learned about some fun stuff about the local plants on our zip-line tour and they wanted to teach Stace. We pulled over (on the side of the dirt road) so they could pick the leafs of this plant.

After picking that huge leaf, the kids rolled it up to show Stace that it is used as a dye and turns bright red. They used to mix it with oils in India and use it in wedding ceremonies when they couldn't afford real Henna.

After passing our original destination, we arrived in Uvita, home of Marina Ballena (which means Whale Marina). We didn't see any whales (wrong season). Upon arrival we stopped at a local "soda" to eat. Have you ever eaten at a restaurant with a car parked next to you?

At the beach the kids found tons of sand dollars. Pretty exciting stuff for them.

After playing in the water, the kids and I took a long walk to an amazing natural phenomenon. The beach is called "whale" because they pass by but also because there is a rock formation off the coast they looks like a whale tail in aerial photos. At low tide you can walk out to the rocks and tide pools. We had to walk 25 minutes each way. It was so beautiful. I took way too many photo. This pic of Brody and Alex shows the tide on both sides of them. It is like the parting of the seas. Amazing.

They collected tons of shells and interesting things to show dad (nothing alive of coarse). It was so fun, until I slipped on a mossy rock and got pretty scraped up. I had my camera bag on my right so I sacrificed my left side with about 8 cuts from my shoulder down to my ankle (mostly on my shoulder and hand). Oh, well. It was worth it.

Alex ran to dad when we got back from our little adventure. Just a cute pic.

Day 12 - another day at home...random pics

Another day at home. Lots of pool, hiking around the neighborhood hills and playing with the kids and dog next door.

The kids have made up lots of games and contests.

Look, I'm still a kid!

We have seen this lady at the beach a couple times. She carries that cooler like it is nothing. OUCH!

While the kids and I were on the banana boat, Stace watched this guy clean the fish he just caught with a machetti right on the sand.

I think I forgot to mention that when he brought us to shore he DUMPED us!

While the girls were getting their hair braided this old man started to serenade Stace. Of coarse Stace had to start talking to him. It was pretty funny.

Day 11 - Manuel Antonio Beach...a fun filled day

According to Katie this was our most "active" day. I think she meant we did a lot of "stuff", and that was a good thing to her. We went down to the beach to hang out and maybe get the girls hair braided. We ended up going on a banana boat ride. It was my first one ever and more fun than I would have ever imagined. It always just looked so "touristy" to me. The kids loved it. He took us to the next bay and let us float around for a while. He dumped us once and Brody got a little scared and Katie loved the speed AND getting dumped. The girls got their hair braided and Brody had a sword fight with a street vendor while he waited (see pic below). After a fun day at the beach we went to see Wall-E at a small theater in a very American hotel. Another great day.

Us before take-off.

Just getting through the waves.

Check out that sign. Do they really not know?

Ta-dah.

Brody had a sword fight with a street vendor. The guy provided the fun dreadlock hats and Brody found the swords(sticks) on the beach. I think they both had fun.