costarica11-08

On the ferry to Mal Pais, whoohoo!	Goodbye Puntarenas	hello Nicoya Peninsula	The front door of the aptly named Casa Azul	The back doors (we will stay here next time!)
What you see from the back doors	Pretty nice pool	I mean, really nice pool and really nice pool chairs	Of course there is a hammock	Decent view of the surf from the pool
Decent surf too...it's Playa Carmen	Our little room and our quiver	On the rocks at Montezuma	Off the rocks and into lunch	This lesser traveled road looks easy
Well, it looked easy	Like driving on the moon	Just your average river crossing	We made it through here too; thank heavens it wasn't raining	Pits big enough to swallow a car, or a girl
Sort of lonely out there too	We were a bit relieved to see the ocean again	Yeah, it's good to be at the ocean		Al and Bennie's dog was ripping it up
Hot doggin'	The twilight makes everyone look good	The new mini mall at Playa Carmen	A bank with ATM, pharmacy, surf shop, courtyard restaurant...what's not to like?	Party Pollo
Monkeys in the trees along the road	Mas monos	The beloved Point Break Cabinas are muertas	El Peňon	and what I suppose is El Peňonito
El Peňon es grande	The view south, into the rain	The view north towards Playa Hermosa	We love El Peňon	My new neighbor, in the hills above Playa Hermosa!
My neighbor's view of my property	Livestock in the road is very common	Our first night in at Casa Romantica in Nosara. The Ticos do strange things with the towels.	The food at Cafe de Paris is to die for	As are the umbrella drinks
We had room to stretch out at Casa Romantica	With handy towel drying hooks	and a temporary addition to our quiver	At Harbor Reef	Possibly the biggest umbrella drink ever
and one of the strongest margaritas	We splurged for our 18 month anniversary	I think Annette made the better choice	Another umbrella drink?	Raccoon in the pool!
Casa Romantica says it all	Awesome pool	Huge palapa with hammocks, should you ever need to get out of the sun	Quite an impressive structure	Did I mention hammocks?
No tan lines	Maybe a tan line...she isn't telling	Trying to break the hammock	Fantastic outdoor shower...One of four!	We LOVE free breakfast
It didn't last long with us around	especially since we usually weren't first at it	Really nicely landscaped grounds	Our little corner of paradise	The path to the path to the beach
The path to the beach	The gate to the beach	The other side of the path to the beach	Playa Pelada	Olga's at Playa Pelada. Annette likes her beer cold
Paul will drink anything	I smell pescado casado!	I think the pescado casado is up here	We only gave him a little, really.	More Playa Pelada
Even more Pelada	Back to Playa Guiones, a little bumpy but surfable	At high tide the longboarders come out	But it's still better on a shortboard	That drink won't last
Cafe de Paris is so Euro	We flew 3000 miles to watch Kraftwerk videos	After our morning session, Annette got a massage and I wandered back to the beach to take some photos.	It was, if anything, hollower than it had been in the morning	It was like this 5 out of our 7 days. Santa Teresa might have been bigger and hollower, ask AA
Sectiony you say? Well...	same wave	same wave	same wave	STILL the same wave
The Ticos were ripping it up	As they always do	Like I say, pretty hollow	Which led to some grief	Another Tico contemplates his future
It looks bleak	Nice wave though, if you're in the right spot	The wacked out Hotel Playas de Nosara	"The Winchester Mystery House of Costa Rica"	Lots of elaborate staircases
and peculiar interior spaces	which were (almost) wholly empty	The view north to Playa Pelada	Not sure if this spot is surfable	The real reason to stay at Hotel Playas de Nosara
Wake up and check the surf	Note the near total absence of surfers	Corduroy	We might stay there sometime.	The hills of Nosara are more populous than Santa Teresa
But the sunsets (and the waves) are comparable		This guy is missing a good sunset	So is this one	This one is taking a look
Here's Annette, clipped from a video I took...the only shot of either of us surfing	Surf fast while there's still light	What I usually saw just as I started paddling out	Blue sky was at a premium on this trip	But I'm not complaining
		Off the Nicoya Peninsula and on the road to Arenal	Somewhere around Playa Naranjo...it rained a lot on this drive.	Livestock in the road II. The caballeros' efforts were not successful.
Somewhere near Lake Arenal	Feliz Navidad!	Paul contemplating strange things with the strange towel formations	Who knew there was a tiki bar in La Fortuna?	The Lava Lounge
If there is an umbrella drink to be had, Paul and Annette will sniff it out	Did I mention that we love free breakfast?	Paul with his morning libations	Breakfast wasn't too crowded	Sitting out the rain
The ducks liked it though	Send me your best "ducks in a row" line	A few more people show up for dinner	One even held the camera	Quick! Sun! Let's go for a canopy tour!
Uh...no. We're staying here.	This was "here"	We made good use of the pool bar	The pool felt awfully cold after the hot springs
It was really warm in La Fortuna, when the sun came out!	Fortunately, hot springs work in the rain	The lowest pool is also the biggest	The hot water cascades down a series of cataracts
You could sit in some of the waterfalls	We couldn't tell if the rocks were real or fake	We still can't	Arenal/La Fortuna is less crowded than I'd expected	The high rollers can stay near the top of the hill, by the hot tubs
There are orchids everywhere	I mean everywhere!		Plus some weird species I'd never seen before	such as this one
And some I had, like these types of ginger	and this one	and palms of every description	and heliconias	Annette was exhausted from Paul's botanical lesson
We didn't have enough time to hike to the river	Plus it was sort of muddy	The zipline we didn't do either	It looks like it could have been fun. Next time	Giant Pandanus near our cabina
Cabina 108 rocks!	Annette rockin' the cabina	Paul trying to see the volcano	It is right there	Time to pack it up
Inflatable Santas waiting for a bus	We got lost in Ciudad Quesada	But we eventually made it to the airport bar	and onto the plane	Can't wait to get back into cold water again!

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