Last Days in Costa Rica!!

I can't believe we leave Tuesday already! It has been so beautiful here... even with the rain... i just wish we had been more prepared for rain... but we were not since it is supposed to be the dry season. I did not get to use my various camera lenses as much as I had hoped, but i did have fun taking pictures anyways! I doubt that i will post again, but if i get some really amazing photograph of something before we leave i will probably have to share it with you all! So here are a bunch of pictures from the last few days... There is a sunset picture over the ocean each night we have been here at the beach.

Friday...

We decided to rent a car so we could visit some of the less crowded beaches up and down the coast. We got an SUV a little bigger than the 4-runner. It is a Hyundai, i think... it is a diesel!! Many of our normal gas cars here are diesel, because diesel is cheaper here and they get better gas mileage! funny huh? and the best part? you forget it is a diesel, you can hardly hear it and you don't smell it!!

I had 3 amazing shots of the sunset i had to share!

This was the giant grasshopper that landed on my chest as i was walking back to the car... after i took his picture! He is about 5-6 inches long!!!!!!! He scared the woogies out of me! I screamed... and all the little people on the street turned and had to see what was going on!

Saturday...

Sunday...

This is a shack that we saw today! We couldn't believe it... as they say... location location location!

This is the beach we went to today before returning the car. We swam over to the island, it was cool over there... but we didn't stay long, the tide was coming in already, and it was hard swim with Alex on top of you!!

Playa Tamarindo!!

Here are a couple last pictures of the mountains before we got to the coast!

Playa Tamarindo mean Tamarindo Beach. That is where we are now.

The beach is beautiful... but the town is a little rediculous with touristy stuff. and roads in town are awful... so strange! The highway into town is really nice and new. Alex was so happy about the beach, that when our bus stopped to drop off some other people, he burst into tears because he wanted to go to the beach so bad!! We finally got to our hotel, and by then he was so tired and hungry that we ate and made him take a nap before we went to the beach. But the beach was lovely! Jerry and Alex went out and jumped the waves!

The sunsets are beautiful here!

MonteVerde, Costa Rica!

Finally our new hotel has internet! We spent the last few day (including my 32nd birthday!!!) at MonteVerde. On of the most amazing places on earth. Definately one of the most biologically diverse!!! Enjoy some pictures of MonteVerde area! Oh... it was still raining there... but the last 2 days we finally got SUNSHINE!!!

On our last full day there in Monteverde we went into Santa Elena the town nearby and walked around, we found the Orchid Garden. They have over 500 of the 1600 species in Costa Rica in their Garden. Only about 125 species were blooming now though... This one blow is the smallest orchid in the world... See the little flower? It is right next to my diamond!! Isn't it small!!!!? They actually gave us magnifying glasses to look at the flowers with... there were quite a few that were very small! This flower was actually about done blooming, soit was not looking so good.

We have internet again... sort of.

ok... these pictures areof our day at Volcan Arenal... when it did NOT rain in the morning... this was as close as we got to seeing the whole Volcano!
We took Alex Ziplining. We "ride" through the trees on a harness attached to a cable that can hold 7000 pounds!! Alex loved it! And was very proud to have all his gear on like mommy and daddy!




Everyone thought he was the cutest thing they had ever seen!!! We do too!






everyone thought he was falling asleep!




That evening we took a hike to the Volcano. Alex of course makes instant friends with all the tour guides! We still did not see the lava rocks coming out but we did hear them!




The next morning we took a hike through the jungle and crossed over a ton of hanging bridges that were lovely! He is on the back of the guide of course!

La Fortuna, Cost Rica.

Today it rained again... we did not get to do the hanging bridges hike that we signed up for! There were mudslides across the trail and stuff, i guess. It quit raining for a while in the afternoon, enough to go thru the bird and butterfly garden at the Los Lagos Resort we are staying at. We were almost done when it suddenly started pouring again! THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE THE DRY SEASON!!! Oh well... so Jerry got a massage and Alex and i rested in the room! Some photos from the day!