In my last post, I wrote about crossing the border to Nicaragua. The border is about 4-5 hours by car from Grecia. It was a long drive, especially for the kids. They were pretty good for the most part, though. We made up some fun word games to play in the car, and finally got Emily some motion sickness medicine which seemed to work great for her.

Fun in the pool

We drove straight to the border, without even stopping for lunch (just had oatmeal cookies in the car), but were delayed for about 45 minutes by an accident between a semi-truck and an SUV. Not pretty. There is actually a border that’s only about 3 hours away, but if we went that way, we wouldn’t get to stay by the ocean, and we thought we’d like that, so we took the longer route.

It turns out that the kids didn’t want to play at the beach at all anyway, and wouldn’t even get in the water because they were afraid of the waves. The water was kind of cold anyway. So we skipped the beach. Oh well.

San Juan del Sur is about 45 minutes from the Costa Rica border. Full of colorfully painted houses, and lots of restaurants, it’s definitely a tourist town (many people trying to sell you sunglasses and pottery while you’re eating dinner), but is small and completely walkable. It’s also very hot, and very dry this time of year. Fortunately, the hotel we stayed at (actually a cheap vacation rental inside Hotel Villa Isabella that we found on www.vrbo.com) had a swimming pool, which we took advantage of for several hours each day. Marie especially loved the pool, but all of us played in it for quite a while.

Fun at the playground

Because we didn’t have our car (see my last post), and were a little tired because of driving all the day before, we didn’t go on any excursions. We basically just walked around town, ate at restaurants, played at the playground, and watched TV in the hotel. But we had a great time being together and relaxing.

The kids are now big fans of Tom & Jerry and Scooby-do, which seem to have lots of reruns playing here – in Spanish, of course. Although after watching a few Scooby-do shows, the girls kept telling the characters in the TV to “just take off their masks” right from the start. They could see through those phony monster disguises, and had already figured out that that’s how every Scooby-do show ends.

Overall, we had a great time in San Juan del Sur. I wasn’t expecting it to be so dry, but I guess being the dry season, it really takes away the green. Our taxi driver was a man of integrity, and came to pick us up around 7:00AM to go to back to the border to avoid the longer lines that usually come a little later in the day. We made it through without too much trouble, and were so glad to get back in our own car! We also had the whole day to explore, so decided to take a few detours on the way back to see really amazing things, which I will write about in another post.

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Zip-Line Canopy Tour

Family Pre-Zipline

We ended our time in Dominical with a Canopy Tour (zip-line) at Hacienda Barú. They had 15 stations and we got to zip 8 times! It’s one of the more tame canopy tours, which was good for the girls, who were both brave enough to try it on their own (Marie went with Mom & Dad the first few times before she worked up the courage).

It was a blast! There’s nothing like soaring 150 feet above the rainforest floor. It’s beautiful and exhilarating! Our guide also spotted a large sloth in the trees, as well as demonstrated how soldier ants can work as temporary stitches for wounds. Interesting!

After that, we had lunch and then explored a little butterfly farm they had at Hacienda Barú. They even had our favorite – the blue morpho!

On to Manuel Antonio

Then we drove from Dominical to Manuel Antonio, about a 45-minute drive, through lovely groves of trees and what we think were pineapple farms. We drove all the way to Manuel Antonio Hotel, recommended to us by Denny. Unfortunately, they were all booked (it’s the weekend), but the receptionist found us a room at another nearby hotel, Verde Mar. They had one room available with a queen bed, and they brought in a roller bed for us. It was very tight quarters, but worked.

Our biggest complaint was that it was so hot! If only we had known there was an air conditioning unit in the bathroom, we would have had it on the whole time! Unfortunately, we didn’t discover that fact until the next morning after our showers and about an hour before we checked out. Oh well…

Into the Water

Manuel Antonio beach

After melting in our hotel after a long drive, the girls finally convinced us to go swimming. Once we got in the pool, we cooled right off and had a great time! Before too long, we decided to go explore the beach as well, which was right behind the hotel. Once we got in the water, we didn’t want to leave! The ocean water was so nice and warm, and the sand was so clean and nice – and just sand – no garbage, rocks, or even fish – all the way out into the waves! I maybe felt a twig or two the whole time we were there – oh and a nice leather hat someone must have just lost… I sent it back to shore. Hopefully the owner will find it.

We had fun for hours swimming in the ocean and riding the waves (as much as you can without a board). The sunset on the water was beautiful. You could see the colors reflecting on the surface and casting light onto the trees on the shore. Quite a sight! It was enhanced even more for me by the beauty of my wife standing in the middle of it.

I had our camera out for part of the time, but got tired of holding it and didn’t want to leave it on the shore, so I ran it back to our hotel so I could swim better. It’s supposed to be waterproof, but I thought it was best not to expose it to the elements unnecessarily. And I had a lot more fun once I put it away. But that also means you don’t get any sunset pictures. Sorry.

Monkeys!

After it started getting dark we headed back for dinner. But first, we had another quick dip in the pool. And while we were swimming, we heard some very loud noises. It sounded like a big guy with a loudspeaker was saying “WHOOOOO!” repeatedly.

In a few moments, we spotted some howler monkeys up in the trees! There were probably about a dozen of them, including some babies, and we got to watch them walk and jump from one tree to another. It was quite a treat! I went to grab my camera and caught a glimpse of the last one on video. I read that Howler monkeys are the loudest animal in the world, and I believe it after hearing them. For their small size, they can really bellow.

Dining on the Coast

Girls in Manuel Antonio Hotel

While swimming we also made some friends: Janet and her son Scott. We went to dinner with them that night and had a nice time.

The food here is very pricey though, no matter which restaurant you go to. Dominical and Manuel Antonio are very touristy towns – very fun, but hard to imagine living there. And everything seems at least twice as expensive as it is in Grecia. Cost is relative, though, so I’ll spell it out -  meals seems to start around USD $8-10 along the coast. (Of course, $30+/plate options exist.) Back in Grecia you can get a decent meal for $2-3/plate, and it’s hard to find anything over $12/plate. There are a couple very nice restaurants around that range, though.

Church in Quepos

Sunday we checked out of Verde Mar and went to church. We were given some very wrong directions by a hotel clerk, and ended up 20 minutes from where we needed to be. We drove back to the town and I stopped a man who looked like he might be going to church. He happened to be the Branch President, and he led us right there! It turns out we had just passed it without noticing – it was on quite a run-down little street.

We spent the afternoon relaxing in our hotel (Manuel Antonio Hotel), catching up on e-mail and blogs, and then had another expensive dinner that night (since that seems to be all there is). Tomorrow, we’re going horseback riding! Enjoy the video and pictures below.

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