Costa Rica Pictures!

Miss Evie with all of our bags.

A walk along the beach.

Statuary at the Guesthouse.

A boy who LOVES the waves!

Chillin' on our verandah. Not particularly hard to do.

Sky out collecting fauna.

Someone who greeted us at our door one night.

Caribbean Chicken.

Lunch at Selvyn's, one of our favorite restaurants at Punta Uva.

A fish dish, red snapper, I think.

Our days were full (and mornings early).  A tired Mom and Seanie.

The Waves!

 The boys were thrilled, of course.  It was fun.

This boy had a smile on his face almost constantly.  I wonder if there was a soothing sensory component as well.

 Chillin' again.

Waiting for the local bus to take us into Puerto Viejo. Sean particularly thrilled by all of the electric meters out by the road.

Evie loved piling sand in pails.  (I brought the necessary equipment from home.

A little variety of what we found. A neighboring guesthouse had an excellent shell collection on display, put together by 2 biologists back in 2001-2003.  Sadly, many of the varieties that they found on this stretch of beach (from Playa  Chiquita to Manzanillo) are no longer being washed up, likely due to the reefs deterioration.....global warming?

Evie starts to enjoy the water again, with Daddy's help.

Somebody else just savouring the sand and salt.

 Boys and Dad out in the surf.

We had some great rollers.  They look more menacing than they really were though.  A boogie board would have been a lot of fun.  Yamu, from the Jungle Love restaurant, offered one to the boys to use, but we didn't find that out till our last evening.  Next time, Yamu!

 Thanks to Izzy for the sun/swimsuit.

Big brothers are tops for building sand castles with.

And Mommies for a cuddle when the boys are teasing too much.

 Showing off the foliage.

There were a couple of days in which Evie had little playmates down at our beach/creek.  (Yes this is THE creek; see last posting, Day 2 entry).  This little girl, Naja, is half French, half Costa Rican, living in the area on a farm.  Her mom had come to help with the food preparations for the wedding.  On another day, a Tican family's two little girls were down here too.  I didn't have the camera that day though.  Despite different languages, the girls played together really well.  It was quite interesting to watch.

 Skyler brought a sea urchin out from one of the tide pools to show Sean and Evie.  He had earlier stepped on one, got Sean to pee on it, and we pulled out the spines later.  It sounds a lot worse than it was.  Sean, of course, then wanted Skyler to pee on him, but that's just Sean.

This is why we do the work to get to these places...easy to find your own chunk of paradise.

Contemplating his future as a surfer/beach bum.  Not hard to do around here. 

 More Costa Rican wildlife.  The red-eyed frog, whose proper name I can't remember.  This was at the Animal Rescue Centre, and I was glad to see one here, because all of my searching along our jungle path to the beach didn't produce any.  (Butterflies, yes, but they're hard to photograph).  This little guy was so colourful.

 One of our early morning alarm clocks.  Not this particular howler monkey but a roving gang of them near our guesthouse.  They're small, but have big voices!

A 3-toed sloth.  Hard to see properly I know, but his head is up to the left.  Their fur is beautiful. 

 Head down at the bottom now, munching on leaves.

 One of the volunteers in the monkey enclosure.  They do take them out to the jungle once per day, and allow them to stay there if they want.  But most do come back to the centre.  They are very affectionate with humans.

A better picture of a sloth, with our guide.  He was very good, explaining how each animal had come to the centre (confiscated pets, found injured, etc.), and their plans for them.

 A cool limonada after our wildlife adventure.

 Lunch by the beach on the outskirts of Puerto Viejo.

The only family picture I could manage on this trip!  This is us with our donation of powdered goat milk to the Rescue Centre.  It isn't available in Costa Rica, so they encourage visitors to bring along cans from home.  They're used for feeding young ones.  I believe more info on the centre can be had by googling Jaguar Rescue Centre (sorry, no jaguars present currently) Playa Cocles, CR.  It's run by a couple of veterinarians.

 And back to the beach.

I found that bikinis are not good Wave Wear.  The movement of the sea, plus a little girl pulling at the straps is not conducive to modesty!

 Sadly, our last beach walk.

Alexander, setting up the beach for what was supposed to be a lovely shore dinner for the volunteers, but right after this, rain hit!

 Boys being boys.  Note how Skyler manages to simulataneously text as he plays with brother.

 Evie's new boyfriend, Charlie, from Barcelona.

 And her old boyfriend, Daddy.  Every now and then she'd get "the Daddies", and would stick to Bob like glue.  Not that he minds one bit.

Back in San Jose, at our apartment/hotel.  The puppets come from a little roadside stand at Playa Chiquita, and are handmade.  The kids loved them!  We ended up going back to buy a couple more.  (Then almost left them at the guesthouse, except for the nice Tico who changed the sheets and found them mangled up in Skyler's bed, and brought them out as we were waiting for our San Jose ride).

All in all, a lovely trip.