Costa Rica Day 7

We were supposed to take a boat to a nearby white sand beach. Unfortunately, it was too windy and the trip was cancelled. We ended up staying at the resort all day.

Since we had nothing to do, we sat at the swim-up bar and waited for them to open. I had like 3 halves of a drink (every time I'd start a drink, a bee would fall inside it and I'd have to get another one) and then I felt drunk. It wasn't even lunch yet! 

I ate a small lunch and then fell asleep by the pool (for four hours!).

By the time I woke up, I was super brown and it was almost time for dinner. At dinner, we said good by to our favorite server, Jimmy. 

After dinner, we relaxed in the hot tub for a couple hours. Then we went back to the room to pack up our stuff. We had to be strategic in our packing because we were very close to the 50lb limit. We went to be sometime after midnight. We had an amazing trip, but I was actually looking forward to coming home and sleeping in my own bed. 

Costa Rica Day 5

On Thursday we woke up super early to go to Nicaragua!

Here we are at the Nicaraguan boarder.

One of our first stops was at a lookout spot in Masaya. The view overlooked Apoyo Crater Lake. 

As we were leaving the city there were people flooding the streets and jumping on to cars. If I understood the tour guide correctly, they were welcoming home Oscar Duarte, a Nicaraguan born Costa Rica soccer player. 

We drove up to Masaya Volcano National Park where we got to stand at the edge of a volcano. Unfortunately, it was difficult to see anything exciting because of the sulfur emitted by the volcano. 

We stopped for lunch which was good, but I rushed through it in order to go shopping! Everything is very cheap in Nicaragua. I bought two hammocks for $30. I'm glad I bought most of my souvenirs in Nicaragua!

There were two brothers from Costa Rica that were on the tour. They were about my age so I had fun talking to them during lunch and while shopping. When they saw my giant bag of stuff I bought, I was like, "Yeah, I'm a shopaholic." They found the word very amusing and even asked me later, "what was the word you said? Shopaholic?" LOL. I realized that my American consumerism mentality is soooo different than the Costa Rican values of simple living and environmental sustainability.

After we went shopping we got on the bus and drove to Granada. We took a boat ride to look at the little mansions located on tiny islands in Lake Nicaragua. 

Then we walked around the city of Granda. I LOVED the colorful buildings. I wish I could have spent more time exploring!

Then it was time for our 4 hour journey back to Costa Rica. 

One of the main reasons why we wanted to go to Nicaragua was to get another stamp on our passports. Friends and family members at home "warned" us that Nicaragua was dangerous. We were a little nervous to go because we didn't know what to expect. We asked a lot of Costa Ricans if they felt save in Nicaragua and everyone said we should go. In the end, I'm so glad we went! Because we were part of a tour and we stuck to tourist spots I didn't feel unsafe at all!

My Nicaraguan souvenirs:

Costa Rica Day 3

We went on an excursion to Palo Verde National Park. The Tempisque River is home to crocodiles, monkeys, bats, birds, iguanas and lots of other interesting animals!

 Our wonderful and knowledgable tour guide:

One thing I thought was interesting was that the tour guide knew exactly where the oldest and largest crocodile would be. Apparently crocodiles are very territorial so that particular crocodile is always in the same spot every morning. After about 10 boats come by to see him, he gets annoyed and moves somewhere else.

We got to see more white face monkeys. I guess they feel safe when the tour boats come close (protected from the crocodiles) so they take that opportunity to drink water. When we pulled up to the tree, our tour guide whistled and said "venga" and the monkeys would swing down and take a drink.

After the tour we went to a restaurant to try Costa Rican food. I loved the plantain chips! 

After that, we were very tired and ready to take a nap by the pool! We relaxed by the pool for about three hours! Time goes by so fast when you are so relaxed!

We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant. It was ok, I just had a quesadilla.