Day 6 Coco Beach

On our last full day in Costa Rica, we hopped into a small boat just off of the beach at our resort and took a 20 minute ride over to Coco beach. There isn't much to see there. It's an extremely small town with only one road. We did find about 20+ souvenier shops and managed to buy some Costa Rican coffee for Tom, a braclet made from exotic wood for me, and a wooden dump truck for Micah. For the rest of the 2 hour period we were there, we enjoyed ourselves at a couple restaurants.

Micah endured the ride while wearing the life jacket that day. Poor thing looks so uncomfortable.

Some of the homes along the coast near Coco beach

The center of town at Coco Beach

We kept Micah on a leash since we couldn't bring a stroller on the boat with us.

Here's one of the restaurants we stopped at. Tom liked it because the kitchen was inside the boat. Believe it or not, I made it an entire week without one Dr. Pepper. We did have an endless supply of Coke though. By the way, Tom bought me a can of Dr. Pepper in the Costa Rican airport for $5 while we were waiting on our plane to pick us up. Outrageous!

On the boat ride back to the resort, Tom was shielding Micah's face from the spray of the boat and the drizzling rain. In this picture you can see that Micah wanted to return the favor. How sweet!


After some lunch and a nap, we were back at the beach one last time.

Day 5 Palo Verde National Park

On Thursday (Day 5), we left the resort to ride down the river in this little boat to see some of the native wild life. We saw crocodiles, howling monkeys, iguanas, cows, bats and exotic birds.
But, before we got to this lovely boat, we had to endure an hour long bus ride through the middle of nowhere. And when I say the middle of nowhere, I mean nowhere. They didn't even have paved roads much less decent gravel roads. The rain the previous night left large gaping holes in the road, and our driver would swerve from left to right along the path to avoid the bumps when possible. I was very thankful to get to this boat!

Micah lasted about 10 minutes in the life jacket. I felt bad for him since it looked like it was choking him, and I let him free.


Looking closely at the bark of this tree, you will see a brown line down the center of the trunk. Just to the right of that brown line is a line of 9 bats hanging out.

Here are two baby crocodiles hanging out just at the edge of the water. The one at the top of the photo is a couple months old. The croc toward the bottom of the photo is about 3-4 weeks old.

This is a howling monkey. The tour guide said it was likely an outcast from the rest of the monkeys since it was alone. It was probably banished from the crowd due to a disease of some sorts. (So sad looking too)

That's an 8 foot croc hanging out just at the edge of the water soaking up the sun for energy and waiting on a snack to come running down for a drink of water.

An exotic bird...

An iguana with its original tail.

A cow.

This video shows how an old sugar cane press worked back in the old days.

Micah riding the bull that was running the sugar cane press. See, I told you he loves to ride animals.

Day 4 Continued

The next two videos make my heart happy!

...and after naptime we were back at the pool

For dinner we had reservations at the steak house again since it was so delicious the night before. The next few pictures were taken as a rain cloud started to roll in. As soon as we stepped foot into the restaurant, the bottom fell out of the sky. Good thing the resort provides an extra large umbrella to all of their guests.

(Believe it or not, this is the raw shot. No photo shop done on this one.)

Micah wouldn't let go of the umbrella, so we went with it... This is also the other of only 2 family photos we have from the trip.

That's all for Day 4!

Grandparents Visit & Day 4 Back At The Beach

My appologies for the brief hold up of our vacation posts. Around the same time we left for Costa Rica, my parents set out on an adventurous 2-week road trip from Mississippi to California and back in their Mini. After 5,000 miles of driving, touring, and experiencing, they arrived at our house for a few days before the last leg of their trip home. We love when Nana and Granddaddy stop by! (BTW, we miss you already.)
Nana and Granddaddy even babysat Micah so Tom and I could go out to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. (Thank you!)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Day 4 (Wednesday), we were back at the beach, and this time we were prepared for the sun. Micah was coated in 70 SPF every hour, and in addition to his swim trunks that were long enough to be considered pants, he was decked out in his rash guard and sun hat. That baby was gonna be sunburn free for sure!

Micah and his Da Da were at it again.

Micah and I took a run on the beach together.

I'll be back with more pictures from Day 4 soon. It's past my bedtime and I'm calling it a night! Toodles!

Day 2 The Beach Continued & Day 3

Here's a view of the entire beach from Day 2. Since it was the beginning of their rainy season it wasn't overly crowded.

Tom and Micah played in the sand pool one more time before lunch.

Well, this is the only picture I took that Monday afternoon. It was taken from our balcony as we were about to leave the room to go to the pool after nap time.

This picture was after we returned from the pool but before dinner.

We had dinner that night at the Italian restaurant at the resort. The food was great except we had to take our entrees to go since it was way past Micah's bedtime and he wasn't on his best behavior. We survived though and ended up getting to eat dinner in bed while watching tv.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Day 3 (Tuesday), we noticed that Micah's shoulders were a little too pink to go outside for the day. Apparently applying SPF 70 once every 3 hours wasn't enough to battle the Costa Rican sun. He wasn't uncomfortable, but Tom and I didn't want to jeopardize the rest of the trip by letting him get out there again too soon. To make the best of our day, we took Micah on a stroller ride around the resort grounds and toured the spa, and I scheduled my hour long massage on the beach for later that afternoon during Micah's nap. Boy, was that worth it! In order to be fair and not make Tom spend the entire day indoors babysitting, I let him go down to the beach for a while and play with the boogie boards in the waves, which is one of his favorite vacation pass times. That evening we had reservations at the resort's steak house. It was delicious.

This picture is Micah and Me right before dinner.

Uncle Chris, you should be proud of our taste in attire.

The steak house had a wild west theme and Micah really loves hats

Day 2 The Beach

We spent the entire second day outside on the beach and by the pool.


The sand in Costa Rica is very dark, almost black, due to volcanics. (...According to resident expert, Geologist Tom... I know for a fact that he makes up geological explanations and names sometimes just to look really smart :P, so you can take it or leave it.)

Digging in the sand with Da Da

...Still digging

A brief pause from digging to take a few pictures...

Happy

...And all of that digging led to this great Micah-sized pool to splash in.

After playing in the sand pool, we decided to check out the rocks before we went in for lunch.

To be continued...