Costa Rica Part 6: Quepos

We woke up really slowly and fully enjoyed our first air conditioned airbnb. We came to Quespos because it had a famous national park with many creatures and beautiful beaches. We were told they only let a certain amount of people into the park so you would need to go early but since this was the off-season we could probably go anytime of day before 4:00 because it closed at 4:30. Anyway, during our slow morning we debated with going late that day or early the next day. (Now that it's been a month since we've been home, I'm really really missing these slow mornings) anyway, We got up went to eat breakfast (ahem, lunch) And we saw that there was connect four so we played it merely to make our kids jealous. They didn't seem to care. Anyway, that wrap had mango in it and it was good!!

Anyway, after our food we made our way to the Manual Antonio National Park. It wasn't far at all. When we thought we were getting close there were people stopping our car and guiding us to park and asking us to pay them money for parking and telling us that they would give us a personal tour. It was all so overwhelming and he hadn't even seen the entrance of the park. They started parking us in one space and didn't feel great about it so we left to drive around a bit more to see what our options were. We found a better, more legitimate place to park. But even as we were approaching the park we were surrounded by people claiming they could give us the best tour. Haha, He had loved the tours we had done so far in Costa Rica but we really just wanted to do this one by ourselves. We were glad we did. It was great to go at our own pace. (not to mention save a whole bunch of money)

It wasn't long before we were watching a family of monkeys jumping around over our heads. Two of them had babies on their back.

There aren't any visible creatures in this photo, I just like the layers of leaves.

Can you see the bright green eggs? Do you have any idea what creature they came from? I sure don't, they looked fake!

Poison Dart Frog

These red, black and purple crabs were everywhere!

Crabs racing.

We see deer all the time at our house but it was fun to see a Costa Rican deer. haha!

After hiking through the jungle, we came to the beach which is also part of the park.

Miniature alligators, only a little creepy!

It was actually getting close to when they were going to close the park and kick us off the beach but we explored this beach a little bit in the soft sand and collected some shells for our boys,

We then hiked out of the park but wanted to play at the beach for the rest of the day so we went to a different beach near our car and played for awhile longer. It started sprinkling rain a couple times but it was warm and pleasant and I liked the gray textured skies!

 

We stayed until the sun was down (we actually never really saw an exciting sunset since it was so cloudy but it was all good) When we got back to the house, we rinsed of our sand then went swimming in the dark. The owner of this airbnb was an accountant and had a pool business so he had a pretty cool pool. Anyway, I took a picture of it the next morning. ha!

So, the next morning we took a walk into town to find some breakfast and check out some shops. On our first anniversary we got a drinking glass from San Francisco, and since then we have tried to get a cup that reminds us of our anniversary Sometimes we get them throughout the year if we see something that fits, but overall, we have some pretty cool cups from our anniversary adventures. So that was one of the items we were looking for. Anyway, we ate breakfast at this bakery.

Max also got some ice cream and I got a passionfruit/pineapple smoothie. We then went out to the bay docking area.

We then walked back to the airbnb and packed up our bags and checked out. And we had some time to kill before our zip lining tour so we went to the Maxi Pali superstore which is basically walmart. We got a couple snacks and supplies and then randomly parked at a cemetery to eat the snacks in the car. We then walked around the cemetery in the drizzly rain and observed the headstones. Most of which were tiled with white tiles. It is interesting to me how the cemeteries in different cultures can look so different and how there are many different ways of people preserve their loved ones. I haven't traveled a lot but the countries I have been in, all had very different looking cemeteries. 

We then made our way to our zip line tour. This was another huge highlight. It was slightly rainy when we arrived but the rain went away. 

We had a quick little lesson then started hiking through the jungle to our first line. I believe there were about 10 lines we got to go on. Some longer than others. They were all incredible!

The sky bridges and stairs up the trees were more nerve-wracking than the zip lining. 

On top of the jungle!

We got to do a zip line race at one point and it was so fun. I totally won. See Max way back there in the distance.

It was so amazing! It was exhilarating yet you feel completely safe! The cool weather was perfect and the scenery was breathtaking!

For the last line, there was a tarzan swing, I was almost sure I wouldn't do it. I'm not one to enjoy free falling. But through a whole lot of peer pressure, I decided to do it...and here are videos as proof. I promise you it was scarier and higher than it looks. 

They fed us dinner at the end and showed us the photos they took! I'm ready to do it again! We then got in our car and drove 1 hour to our next and almost last location, Uvita!

Costa Rica Part 5: San Jose

So we drove a whole bunch while I tried my hardest to keep my stomach contents inside me and we finally arrived to the capitol city, San Jose around 11pm. And it sure was creepy! Everything is shut down, barred up and the only people out seemed quite questionable. When we thought we were near the airbnb we had booked, there was a sketchy nightclub right in front of us. Luckily when we called the airbnb, the owners answered (and boy were we grateful) and gave us much better directions that took us several blocks away. (Costa Rica doesn't really have addresses, even in the big cities) Anyway, we got there and the man (Who we found out was the owner's son) was standing on the sidewalk at an open gate, and gestured us to go in. We knew this location had gated parking which is why we chose it. Anyway, we felt much better knowing our car was secure and once we saw our room. Max hadn't eaten dinner and was super hungry. I still had quite the upset stomach and couldn't possibly eat. Many things close down once it gets dark in Costa Rica and I knew we didn't want to walk far this late at night. Luckily (for Max) there was a Chinese restaurant right across the street, it was open and when we walked in, it was huge and fancy and busier than we expected for 11:30 at night! So random, but we were so grateful! Anyway, We brought the food back to the room, Max ate and then we started a movie after midnight because we were feeling a little crazy.  The next morning we packed up our stuff and put it in the car. We met Mayela who is the owner of the property and she said we could keep our car locked up all day (even past checkout) while we explored the city. She also took this picture for us and showed us the murals she has throughout her guest house.

Anyway, we walked down to the central market and met up with Jairo. He is a friend and part owner of the house (along with our friend Lori) we stayed in the first couple nights. He is also an ambassador of Costa Rica and has lived all over the world. He wanted to take us out to lunch. We felt that he was a great person to know  and he gave us some tips for staying safe in Costa Rica. He had some really cool stories about meeting with the Prophet President Hinckley when the temple was being built in Costa Rica.

We went to part of the central market to began a tour of downtown San Jose. Jairo made sure we got there safe and told the tour guide, Angel, to take care of us. Anyway, the walking tour of San Jose was really interesting, we got to learn more about the history of Costa Rica and how Coffee saved their economy, we saw the not-as-touristy markets as well as their touristy markets. We tried new fruits, tasted some traditional ice cream, ate a raw turtle egg drink, saw their main bank, cathedral, theater, and post office. All while learning some history! Here we tried some of the fruits, and I can't remember the names of any of them. My favorite was one that looked like it had snotty grapes inside but it tasted so good!

La Bomba (The bomb-all the traditional spices mixed together to save time when cooking!

We got to drink from some big coconuts, however, that was the last thing I drank before I got super carsick the night before so after a taste, I couldn't drink it anymore.

And for some reason there is this drink made with tomato juice and a raw (unfertilized) turtle egg. I don't know why we agreed to try this. And I'm not sure why people would drink this regularly but Max and I both tried it and it was so weird. It was pretty spicy. We were told if we drank more than two, it would be a great aphrodisiac, but it really wasn't worth drinking more than one. Ha!

 

We were shown these statues outside the national bank and were told that this is the most realistic depiction of farmers in Costa Rica. They worked hard in the coffee fields to boost the economy, yet weren't allowed to enjoy the fruits of their labors which included improved schools, churches, the theater. They were in a lower class that weren't allowed in these places. I forget to get a picture but none of the farmers had shoes except for one. Luckily, it seems that the situation for the farmers has significantly improved since then. 

 We then made our way into their national Cathedral, which was beautiful.

We then made our way to the theater which was designed by Europeans so it had many intricate beautiful statues.

"Heroes of the misery." this statue was made by a Costa Rican artist and symbolized that the next generation, after the farmers and workers had built the theater, would be able to enjoy all of the hard work done by their ancestors.

Post office

 At the end we were given a meal and ground up some cocoa beans to make hot cocoa. It was a pretty exciting tour and we enjoyed learning more about the culture!

Max was always impressed with how large the bamboo grew, so here he is, being impressed!

 Ok so then the tour was over and we thought we would explore the markets more but we realized it was getting late and, with traffic, we would barely make it to the temple on time. So we shimmied back to our car and thanked Mayela for letting us securely park there all day and started our drive to the temple. We spent some time in traffic and the craziest thing happened. We were at a freeway exit, at a stoplight and all the lanes were full. We saw a guy walking down the middle of the road between lanes which didn't seem all the weird from what we had already seen in Costa Rica. he got really close to the car in front of us and it looked like he was going to get in so we were thinking oh, he's meeting up with someone, but instead of opening the door, he smashed in the window, grabbed the woman's purse and ran. All while this woman feels completely stuck in traffic. We felt helpless too, and max just honked as the guy ran away. It just made us feel so worked up and even though the crime was not against us, we just felt how violating and unsuspecting she must feel. We were glad we were on the way to the temple to help calm us down. In the rush of getting to the temple, Max wasn't able to change his clothes. So we went in minutes before the session was to start with Max in shorts and a t-shirt. Max apologized for his appearance and the kind man at the desk, looked at Max in his eyes and said "you are dressed perfectly, welcome to the temple!" We felt so much peace come over us. The Costa Rica temple is small and only has a couple sessions a day so if we missed this one we weren't going to have a chance to go during our trip. We were so glad we made it. Max enjoyed the session in Spanish, I chose to listen to the English translation so I didn't miss anything. It was perfect.

After the temple, we made our way to Quepos which was a couple hours of driving. On the drive we would pass huge restaurants along the road. It seemed pretty random. At one point we stopped at a restaurant to grab some food for the road. they were playing loud music and even thought the restaurant was empty, it was a super fun environment. We ordered our food then took a bathroom break. When I came back, Max shoed me away because he was up to something. Apparently while I was in the bathroom, one of the workers told Max he was the DJ and asked if he had any requests for music.   So Max thought it would be fun to have a song I loved playing and we could dance in the empty restaurant. After awhile I had no idea what was going on so I walked back over to Max and he confessed the plan and realized he had no idea what song to choose. HAHA. So it seemed like he had given up on the plan. So I reminded him of the song we danced to at our wedding. He remembered the song but not what it was called (All least that's what he says) so I reminded him. 

There was actually a back story to this back when Charlie was a baby, we got a baby sitter and saw a friend play in a band at a bar. I tried to get Max to dance with me and he was too shy. haha, probably the only time he's been too shy to do something.  so this was his way he wanted to make it up to me. Anyway this video is long and its mostly funny because the DJ guy was drunk and so funny! Also, I just want to point out that romance in marriage is often the wife reminding the husband how to be romantic. Real Life!

Then we kept on driving and finally made it into Quepos and were greeted by our airbnb host and shown one of our favorite homes he stayed in during out trip....