We spent the week chillin at different beaches, practicing cooking Costa Rican dishes in our kitchen (we can make some bad ass refried black beans), oiling and lotioning, lotioning and oiling, trying to get as dark as possible. One of us succeeded, two of us burned...hee hee. Our first beach excursion was to Tamarindo, the "San Diego of Costa Rica." We thought it looked more like Santa Barbara. Either way, it certainly didn't look like Costa Rica. Pretty touristy, but a nice beach.
The following day we ventured out to a beach called Playa Conchal, that's shell beach for those who don't speak Spanglish. The best part was the taxi drive over there, as Carol and I sat confused in the back seat when the driver turned the corner and we were driving on a beach! Turned out she definitely knew where she was going and over the beach river and through the woods, there was Playa Conchal. The beach was created entirely of shells and the water was perfectly turquoise blue. Pretty strong riptide though. Carol can tell you more about that...
Yes, that is what it looks like. Too bad we missed the barrel roll she did all the way up the beach. I repeat, up the beach, not down the beach. She rolled uphill. After that maneuver, it was time for a massage...and a day at the pool. Our condo was attached to the Flamingo Beach Resort and Spa. The pool was flippin sweet. They had areas where you can put louge chairs in the pool and Mike spent most days there beaching and unbeaching himself on these platforms like a whale.
After several days of rest and relaxation, it was time to tackle the rainforest and canopies once again. We were picked up by a bus named the Congo Trail. It wasn't so much a bus as it was some converted army transport truck, where people pile in the back and hold on so they don't fall out up the hills and dirt roads. Well, it had seats, but they weren't very comfortable, because you sit sideways and duck when we drive through branches so they don't swat you in the face. More fun after the fact. When we got to the "Congo Trail," it was time to suit up in our harnesses. The dude who put on Carol's harness had only been working there for 2 days, so Mike took full advantage of heightening the experience by scaring the crap out of her. Quote "Mama who needs a harness when you're wearing gardening gloves. Just hold on tight." Check out Mama's face:
All in all, it was an awesome tour. They let us do some pretty crazy stuff, i.e. flying through the canopy like superman (well, I did, Mike didn't want to because you had to straddle a man). Also, you could fly upside down. Our last place made us sign a waiver...not this one!
After the canopy tour, they had an area with snakes, monkeys and butterflies. Carol was a champ, I was scared shitless, and Mikey got pickpocketed by a monkey...smart little bastard. Before we went into the monkey cage, the guide asked us to take out earrings (apparently monkeys like to take earrings) and anything out of your pockets. Mike moved some stuff to the buttoned up pockets in his cargos and literally within 30 seconds of being in the cage, we look up to see a monkey taking the cap off Mike's inhaler, sticking his finger in it and biting the top. It was impressive. As I type this, Mike is ranting about how impressive it really is, because "I'm from the streets...the hood of MV."
We had a couple more days of chillin and different beach explorations before Carol took off. It was great to see her. We had a really good time. When she left, we were so sad, that we shot-gunned our first Costa Rican beer. Really Mikey wanted to stab something with his shank, as usual. 
Originally we planned to take the public bus from Flamingo to Playa Samara, which on a map doesn't look that far. Apparently it would take 4 bus transfers and about 6 hours of travel on a sweaty public bus with chickens and humidity, but mostly just chickens. Instead we rented a car. It only took 2 hours. And we had AC. And no chickens. And by chickens we probably just mean sweaty locals... because we haven't seen any chickens on buses. Just on the side of the road. Next to buses. Pretty close though. I'd call it a wash...We got a recommendation to check out another beach close to Samara called Playa Carrillo. It's where the locals go. They say that a lot, but this time they mean it. The President even has a house there. We were the only ones there, except for locals of course, who brought their entire kitchen with them to the beach in a cooler. It was lined with palm trees and absolutely incredible. We spent the day there playing coconut bocce on the beach. Mikey took one for the team and got attacked by ants trying to get coconuts from the trees. You should see his wrist. It looks like Popeye just ate a can of spinach.
We decided to make the most of the rental car and take it on the rough journey all the way to the southern tip of the Nicoya Peninsula, Montezuma. Now people told us the roads were bad...so bad in fact that we couldn't take the route that we wanted to take because you can't get through during the rainy season. We thought they were joking until we saw the "good road." We only had to cross one river. Now we see why they recommend comprehensive insurance so heavily. Although, we did learn that getting a car stuck in a river is considered negligent. However, if you were to get rear-ended in said river, it would be covered under insurance. Also, we learned that tires are merely "accessories" and are not covered under normal insurance. When Mikey asked how much a tire would cost, the guy rolled his eyes, looked at the ceiling and said, "well, I'd probably charge you...$300 maybe." Since it seemed negotiable, we got "accessories insurance" as well. This "good road" was pretty bad after all and 4WD was definitely a necessity. Wish I had taken a picture of Mikey's face, everytime he got to push the 4WD button before we drove across a river or up a steep dirt road, fishtailing most of the way. Boys will be boys.
We're now safely in Montezuma for the next couple of days before we take a jet boat over to Jaco to check out the International Surf Competition. Today we hiked out to a waterfall with 3 pools you can swim in. The coolest part wasn't even the water...it was the cliff you could jump off. We'd heard from some locals that you can cliff jump off a 40 foot waterfall. We didn't want to tempt fate and be the first to jump off into a pool of unknown depth. Fortunately, some local teen came along after about 30 minutes of us wading and "jumping" in the kiddy pool with the other tourists and launched himself off the top. Mikey quickly followed, but I took a little longer to get up the nerves. We have video to prove that we both jumped off...one of us even a few times. Don't worry mom and dads, we've gotten all the adventure out of our system and there will be no more cliff jumping...at least for one of us.Hasta Luego!
Mikey&Marisa
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