Costa Rica Day 13 Manuel Antonio

Another amazing day in paradise! We had breakfast overlooking the ocean again and then got picked up for the day's adventure. 

Today we hiked up (and I mean UP) to a gorgeous waterfall called the Nauyaca waterfall.

The driver dropped us off for a 3km hike, the hike is mostly straight up, with a few downhill spots...just to be rewarded with more uphill around the next corner. My watch says we climbed 168 meters.

 This first waterfall photo was taken in front of the upper waterfall. Apparently all of those rocks were originally part of the rock face until they recently came down. Now they dont want people swimming up here...and I don't blame them!

 We were absolutely hot and sweaty after the climb and wasted no time getting in the water at the lower waterfall.

Of course, Cameron found a quiet spot where he could direct and redirect water flow and was in his glory for at least an hour over here. 

Our guide showed us the age reversing properties of the local rocks and mud 

 and we had a gorgeous picnic before heading back down.

The park has created a hospitable spot and these two macaus have made this place their home. They are absolutely stunning!

We were absolutely exhausted for the bus ride to "lunch" (it was 14:45 by the time we ate), which I take as a sign of a very successful day. We had a traditional lunch of meat, rice, salad and beans and then came back to the hotel.

 I will never tire of these views!

Cameron and I are now hanging out by the pool

This will be our last night here. Tomorrow we head back to San Jose to be in place for our flight home.

It's been an amazing adventure!

Costa Rica Day 11 Manuel Antonio

We woke up and had breakfast with the monkeys. It's hard to make out, but one of these monkeys had a baby with them.

It was adorable! There's a toucan in the greenery if you look closely

I took that photo from our balcony.

We said goodnight to a 15 year old last night, and this fantastic 16 year old woke up in his place.

We got picked up by our driver and went SUPing. We've never been before and it was so much fun.

easy come...easy go!

We did 3km in the ocean and we're all exhausted!

We had lunch at El Avion (the airplane restaurant) and then we spent a reasonably quiet afternoon before heading out for birthday dinner. We'd been scoping places out and Malcolm chose this place with an amazing view and burgers the size of his head!

What else would you want to eat if you're turning 16 and as hungry as a horse?

We were all in bed well before midnight, but Malcolm and I were awoken by the fireworks all around our room at the beginning of the new year. It was nice to sit up together and watch 2020 roll in.

Wishing each and every one of you an absolutely incredible 2020!

Costa Rica Day 10 ATVs in Manuel Antonio

We woke up this morning and enjoyed breakfast overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Our driver came to collect us and took us to our ATV excursion. We had an absolute blast!! 

We covered A LOT of ground on these things and topped 60km/h a few times.

We made every effort to get absolutely filthy and I am absolutely convinced that I'll be scrubbing dirt out of my pores for months to come!

Both boys had a ball and the parents did as well. In the middle of the ATV trip we did a short hike (less than a km each way) up to a fabulous waterfall and went for a swim. In no way did this make us any cleaner by the time we were done the excursion.

We'd had some minor issues with our first room, so we returned to our new room and THIS VIEW. 

I'm never leaving. Not ever.

We topped off this day with a dinner reservation to eat inside a train car.

Cameron was obviously thrilled.

Malcolm ate half a pizza and then ordered a hamburger. It's safe to say that he'll be taller than Dave by the time we get home from this trip!!

 

Costa Rica Day 9 Arenal to Manuel Antonio

We got up this morning and ate in the shadow of the obscured volcano before our driver came to pick us up for the 6 hour drive to Manuel Antonio.

We saw alligators (or were they crocodiles? The driver said crocodiles but they had very pointy faces...) along the way

and generally chilled out while thoroughly enjoying the fact that someone else was driving and navigating. With every rest stop the air got warmer and stickier AND I'M LIVING FOR IT.

We checked in to our hotel

and are immediately in love with this view!

We are steps from the pool and monkeys keep running past the balcony!

Cameron and Dave hit the pool while Malcolm and I came in to town and explored the shops and he started scoping out restaurants for his birthday dinner.

We ate dinner under the wings of this cargo plane

and overlooking the Pacific Ocean as the sun went down.

I think we had the nicest table in the entire place.

I'm writing this while sitting on our balcony listening to the birds and cicadas sing and the monkeys discuss life. I'm sticky and a little sweaty and this is everything that I want out of life.

Costa Rica day 7 and 8 Arenal

We had a quiet day yesterday with nothing planned, it was glorious.

You could almost see the volcano during breakfast. We walked down in to town and had a good wander around the local stores, touristy places and even the local chocolate making place. We definitely did not leave empty handed!

Today we ate breakfast at the base of the (very misty, seriously I can only assume this alleged volcano has been removed for maintenance) volcano and got ready for our nature hike.

Our driver brought us to the Danaus Reserve which is a secondary forest full of neat Costa Rican plants, birds, animals and bugs.

There's even a butterfly sanctuary right on site!

Our guide toured us all around and we saw all sorts of cool nature.

By the end of the tour it was absolutely POURING rain so the guide was all but sprinting to get us off the trail. We did see a sloth that someone on our tour group spotted.

We sat and enjoyed the birds for about 20 extra minutes

and then came back to the hotel. While we were sitting there, this GIANT cricket looking thing landed on Malcolm's arm, just out of his sight, but he definitely felt a large big land on him. He called an immediate code brown and started yelling and "dancing". We got it off and his blood pressure eventually returned to normal.

I'm really glad that we came in on a clear day as we have certainly not seen the volcano since then.

We had a quiet afternoon and then walked down to the town for dinner in the pouring rain. We leave Arenal tomorrow morning, and I'm hoping to leave the rain and damp behind when we go.