Costa Rica - Manuel Antonio

We have been here a full week now and I believe that we will never be the same!!  This week has been amazing and has opened our eyes to so many new things. We have settled into a great routine of school work after breakfast, morning swim, lunch and then heading out to explore.  We have had the pleasure of being entertained by the Titi monkeys and the White-faces monkeys pretty much daily on our deck and swinging in the trees. Super cool that our kids can hear the sounds in the forest now and know that the Titi's are near, or hear the loud screeching of the Scarlet Macaws and be able to identify their sounds.  We are also getting used to the huge iguana on our roof banging around!! haha

Wednesday and Thursday were spent around the house waiting for our internet guy to show up and for me to nurse my migraine that hit me.  Terrible timing, I was not impressed!! Thank goodness for Doug and his amazing helping hands in the kitchen and basically everything else around here. Woke up Friday feeling like a million bucks so out the door we went!! It had rained all night, well poured!!! Can't believe how hard the rain can come down here, and it can happen so quickly but then stop in an instant. We have basically realized you just need to be ready for it all times and understand that is just how it is! The weather report means nothing here, you have to just go with it and be prepared to get wet! Worse things in life!! No need for my hair straightener or my blow dryer I packed, seems ridiculous now!! Haha  Oh well!

Enough about the rain, Friday was BEACH DAY!! Couldn't wait to get there and it didn't disappoint! Bussed down to Manuel Antonio beach which is right outside of the National Park entrance, it was very easy to get to since we rode the bus the other day just to check things out.  Funny story, well not really, but nothing we can do about it now but laugh!! We stepped off the bus and we were instantly crowded by vendors trying to sell us items and tours. The sidewalk was very narrow and it was also lined with many items for sale, in Doug's attempt to walk down the stairs to the beach he kicked a small pot over and broke it.  They were very dramatic about it breaking and kept saying "you pay, you pay!" Well, of course Doug paid, $20 American, and my money is on that they have pulled this scam before!! It all seemed a bit too organized and we were the suckers of the day! lol

Found our way to an amazing shaded spot on the beach to settle in for the day, the views were spectacular!!

We all had a great day but we also had a scary reminder on how dangerous the ocean can be!! We had been watching the kids play in the waves all day and never letting them go out to far.  It was fun until we heard yelling and then whisltes blowing. Two people ran out into the water to help a group of people who went out to far.  They were followed by two guys on surfboards and a seadoo, it was unbelievable how quickly people pulled together to help out. |The people ended up being ok so that was so good to hear, but it sure shook up the kids, us too!!
Saturday is the farmer's market in Quepos so we got up and headed in, once the rain stopped.  Pretty cool to experience the market and all of its goodies. Spent around $20 and we filled up on fresh fruit and veggies for the week, so amazing and fresh!! It was a great day for the kids in the sense that I think they put a little more thought into how easy it is for us to shop at back home!The whole process of getting groceries today took about 3hrs by the time we bussed there, shopped, walked back to bus station hauling bags of groceries and then bussed home.  Not so simple as a Costco run!! Plus it was about +29, sweat was dripping down their faces and backs. Good experience for them though!!

Sunday was an amazing morning of watching the Whiteface monkeys and 3 Scarlet Macaws with our wonderful neighbor Paula.  She is the owner, along with her husband Clark, of the hotel beside our house, Jungle Creek. Vacations.  She is so kind and helpful to us, I can't imagine this trip without her guidance. She is full of amazing information and is so willing to share it all with us. THANK YOU Paula from the bottom of our hearts!!
The afternoon seemed like a great time to take a hike, another one of Paula's recommendations. Behind our house is a path, well kind of, that follows along a creek to a waterfall called El Salto. Majority of the hike is actually in the water so it was definitely a different type of hike! Super cool experience and it was so beautiful walking through the rainforest. The hike took about 30min and it was a bit challenging at times navigating through the water, rocks and trees. Kids were rock stars though!!

Here we thought the hike was so great, but we were not prepared for how awesome the waterfall was!! Seeing it was a Sunday afternoon there was many local kids there hanging out and jumping from the top.  This was great for us because now we knew where we could actually jump and they were very willing to help us out. Nate was having trouble climbing the rope to get back to the top but a teenage boy was quick to help him out, so nice of him! They knew no English, but there was a lot of smiles being passed back and forth!! Universal language. I have to say I was extremely impressed with the kids and how they just jumped!! No convincing them or anything, bravery took over and they were so excited to go! Doug was the big guy on campus as well, but I took pictures and videos, maybe next time! Or not.

I was hoping to post a few videos of the jumps but the internet is very slow right now, thinking because of the rain, and they won't upload. Maybe another day! We have had a busy week and are loving every minute of it. Feeling very blessed to be here and we are soaking it all up.  The kids are pushing themselves to do new things and to experience life here in Costa Rica. Attitudes are positive and they are full excitement everyday to see what the day brings. 

 Change is good, change changes you!!

PURA VIDA!!!