Costa Rica Dia 9

Happy 4^th of July! It’s weird spending such a big holiday in another country because you almost forget that it even IS a holiday.

The boys went snorkeling again this morning, but they decided to venture a little farther north along the rocks to see if that would be a little clearer in terms of water visibility. Turns out it was a very good call.

Spent the rest of the day just hanging out around the resort. It was by far the sunniest and warmest day we have had since we’ve been here. I think MB underestimated the sun since he got burned all over his back today.

We decided to go to the buffet for dinner tonight because they said they would be having a “big traditional American Independence Day meal”. So we thought: hot dogs, hamburgers, potato salad, etc. right? Ummm…not so much. This buffet had turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean and nut casserole, glazed carrots, and rolls. I think they got their American holiday meals mixed up J

Costa Rica Dias 7 & 8

Day 7 we slept in and mostly just hung out at the beach and pool all day. A nice lazy day. They did have beach bocce that afternoon, so we decided to partake. Due to the slope of the beach, it is much harder to play bocce in the sand as your ball will often roll right into the water if you don't throw at the right angle!

We had a beautiful, colorful sunset tonight so we decided to hurry up and get a few nice shots taken down by the beach before dinner.

Day 8 started off with kayaking in the morning. Directly across from the resort you cannot see the open ocean, just the rest of the Bay. However, if you kayak out a bit you can end up seeing through a small straight and that opens right into the Pacific Ocean. It's beautiful!

We took one pit stop on our kayaking adventure and that was to a nearby beach at a National Park. It had dark black sand beaches, although it may not look it in the pictures! TG got stung by a wasp while on the beach, so we didn't stay for long. We paddled back to shore and just hung out at the pool the rest of the day.

Compared to our very white feet, you can see the sand is very dark!

The sunset was great again, so tonight we tried to get more creative and do a time-lapse (see below).

Costa Rica Dia 6

More snorkeling this morning since TG didn't go the day before. Saw some new stuff today including a weird vertical fish, kind of like a trumpet fish, but flipped on its side. A few more poisonous puffer fish as well. One of the fun highlights was a blue starfish hidden within some sea urchins. Very fun!

                                                   But first, let us take a snorkel selfie!

Blue starfish just above the sea urchin farthest to the left.

After snorkeling we headed over to the spa for massages. It was a warm afternoon, but the cucumber water helped cool us off. They have these open air huts on the second story of the spa where you can get your massage (weather permitting). We worked out a lot of the snorkeling kinks too!

This was the first day it really rained....and it poured, so we watched the USA vs Belgium World Cup game in our hotel room. No English version of ESPN available (just ESPN Deportes), so we watched the game on Costa Rica's Channel 6 HD! 

After the game it was time for dinner with the Buckitos. However, we learned our lesson from last night....we applied bugspray heavily to every crevice of our bodies. ZP is very popular with the bugs here....she got over 30 bug bites in one sitting! The rest of us averaged about a dozen. Dinner was delicious though. They had crab cakes, tuna rolls, salmon with spicy mashed potatoes, and excellent cheesecake and carrot cake!

Costa Rica Dia 5

The boys were up bright and early today to go snorkeling. It's best to go early when the tide is lower so you can easily navigate around the rocks and cliffs. The resort has a great spot to snorkel located in the Culebra Bay, which limits the rough surf so you can snorkel at ease. Lots of interesting things to see: starfish, trumpet fish, puffer fish, and lots of sea urchins just to name a few.

Puffer fish

  

Spent the rest of the day at the beach, although we did go for a stroll along the beach to collect some black sand and seashells!

The sand is a very dark brown/black color all along the beach, except right by the water during low tide, which reveals a lighter sand color. 

There are butterflies everywhere! They will come right up to you and chill, as they did on ZP's finger below while sitting on the beach!

No pics of dinner tonight, but it was wonderful. Off to bed early so we can get some more snorkeling in tomorrow before some time at the Spa!