Costa Rica 3~30~11

Wednesday morning we actually set the alarm for 5 am so we could order room service breakfast before we left on our excursion. Heck the sun was almost up when the alarm went off. We had booked our excursion through the guys on the beach so they had a SUV with a driver waiting for us at 6:00. We filled their cooler with water and beer we snuck from the resort. By the way, Imperial is the "beer of Costa Rica" and its very good. Jeffrey was our guide and he drove us about an hour and a half up a mountain to the Buena Vista park. I didn't mind the drive because it gave me a chance to take in the country. He spoke very good English and we chatted the whole way there. Since we left early, we beat the crowds and got a private zip line tour. That guy didn't speak much English but luckily I had ziplined before and knew the drill. The jungle was amazing. I could have zipped through the trees for hours but unfortunately there were only 10 lines.




Next up was horseback riding. Again we beat the crowds so it was just us and the guide. We rode the horses down a trail. The horses were very calm and knew exactly where to go without much need for us to direct them. Thank goodness because I have a small fear of horses. Not huge, but its there.

After about a 30 minute ride, we got off the horses to hike to a waterfall. Let's just say we burned some major calories this day so I didn't feel one bit guilty for indulging in food over the week. This was my first time seeing a waterfall this big. Although I would have liked to been all romantic and gone swimming under the waterfall, this creation of God was just breathtaking.

Next it was off to sit in a natural sauna and take a mud bath. After we rinsed the mud of our bodies, we had the chance to swim in the hot springs. There were 4 or 5 different pools ranging in temperatures of about 75 to over 100. The hottest one was too hot and the coldest one was too cold. In Goldilocks style, we found one that was "just right."


The last item on the agenda was a water slide. I should have been scared when they gave me a helmet and a leather diaper to protect myself. We hiked back up the mountain to get to the top. The waterslide was a little rough. I was actually thankful I was wearing the leather diaper because my bum would have been red after this ride.


The best part of this day was that Jeffrey, the tour guide, had our camera and followed us around all day taking our picture. The place provided lunch which was a lot of fresh fruit, gallo pinto, and talapia that was caught that morning. I've already said surely Houston has a good Central American restaurant that serves Costa Rican food. So pretty much all of this happened before noon. Naturally, we both fell asleep on the ride back to the resort. Once back, we carried on our afternoon tradition of taking a nap. Also made our daily trip to the pool for a Dirty Monkey. Swim-up bars might be the best invention ever. This is cheesy but we walked down the beach to see the sunset but of course forgot the camera. Trust me, it was gorgeous. We asked the Ticos on the beach about any nearby discoteques. They told us about one and were pumped to go dancing. Until after dinner, when we decided to be an old married couple and stay in. Perfect ending to a perfect day!