Saturday started off bright and early at 7:00. We ate our pastry and yogurt and headed to our sea turtle release. It was about an hour drive to a small seaside town.
A helpful attendant showed us where to park, because parking is often cattywampus, and then we took the worlds shortest water taxi, literally took all of 1 minute and $.50 each, to the other island (though it’s kind of a Solomon’s island kind of situation) where we waited for our land taxis to take us to the beach.
While we were there a big family showed up and we just knew they were members of our church. *our view from the other side
We struck up a conversation and got on to Matt speaking Spanish, and we made sure to tell them he learned it serving a 2 year mission for our church. *another view from the turtle side
They were like, oh what church? And when we told them they were like, us too! And we were like, yeah, we could tell.
While we waited and chatted we bought a chicken skewer that was delicious and then Chelsea and I got coconut water and jicama juice, both in bags, and the lady taught us how to bite off the end and drink it properly. Then we felt like real Costa Ricans.
So we took the sketchiest taxi truck ever out to the beach.
There was a bench right behind the cab that fit 3 people, and then another 5 were crammed into the bed of the truck.
Friends!
Over jenky roads and beaches!
So pretty!
It was pretty funny watching this jenky truck bopping along this wild dirt road and getting smacked in the head by palm fronds to boot.
When we got there we saw the baby turtles in their crate and they were the sweetest, tiniest little things!
We learned there were 97 hatched just that morning!
And then after we’d been there a few minutes, 1 more popped up and she carefully added him to the bunch. You can't really tell, but the babies hatch in this netted off area and we got to watch the daughter glove up and pick up the straggler and put him with the others.
We stood in a circle and they explained in Spanish all about their rescue and Matt translated with help from the German tourists that also spoke Spanish.
They said they started this volunteer rescue because the sea turtles are endangered and many people sell the eggs.
So many, that they started taking donations so they can buy the eggs to protect them, isn’t that the worst and also the best? They told us out of 1000 baby turtles they help, only about 24 survive to adulthood. Those are some grim odds.
So they released them and it’s very important that they travel the last 50 meters on their own so they can remember the smell and kind of imprint it to come back and lay their eggs.
They were so cute hustling down the way to the water!
And then there were a few stragglers who were hesitant or got turned around, and the leads made sure they were protected and made their way to the water.
I thought about them all day and wondered how many had survived. Sweet little things.
We talked a lot to our member friends who were actually from Richmond and also flew out of BWI on Thursday. And also the young’ish group that we shared the taxi with. Friends are a dime a dozen in Costa Rica. *primping for pictures.
A few last pics before we headed out. Do you like my prop? Coconuts abound!
We taxi’d back, truck and water.
This time Steve got the bench seat and the rest of us sat in the bed.
Then it was on to our next adventure for lunch and souvenir shopping. Only the souvenir prices were expensive American prices so we didn’t buy anything. They were filming for a commercial at Sharky's and it was fun seeing the magic happen.
We ate outside and our lunch was delicious, fish tacos for me and a huge pork burrito for Matt. There also was an airplane on display there that Matt and Steve loved. Bro shots.
Beautiful drives - all of them.
Next it was on to see the parrots. We stopped at a beach and Matt and I swam in the waves and they were big but also gentle and fun. And the parrots! We saw a few there, but at the picture stop we hiked down and there were so many! We grabbed a few pictures, and do you spy anything with your little eye? How about a large gecko?Matt was there ready to protect me if needed.
Jaco! I love the ocean! I love being in it and looking at it and smelling it and eating things from it.
We saw 16 parrots flying around at one point, cawing and pestering each other! Iphones don't make for the most impressive colors, but it was really cool.
We checked out the tide pools and collected some coral and tiny shells.
Next was the haunted El Miro Mansion. We paid $3 to park and then climbed about a kilometer long steepish paved road up to the abandoned mansion. There were these beautifully intricate walls carved and painted as we went up the hill. And they're obviously being mantained because the colors were fresh.
It was the weirdest thing. this partially built odd shaped half hotel.
We kept walking around trying to figure it out. Steve’s details were sketchy, so we were excited to come back and research some more.
I think the real story is a lot more boring than the haunted one. I think an eccentric rich person started building this, died halfway through, and whoever inherited his wealth was like, yeah, I'm outtie.
We were trying to get the big "Jaco" behind Chelsea and my heads, but timer shots are tricky.
I was actually impressed with us because I think we figured out the layout. We looked at where electrical outlets and bathrooms were to be, and figured out that one level were the rooms and they were in a circular shape, then an outdoor dining area, and living quarters on the other 2 levels.
The path. Someone in the 1990's spent a lot of time and money to create as much as is there!
Hola! One of me as we walked up...
And then me and my bae as we walked down.
And the 40th birthday boy (and my birthday twin!) Also, a poisonous dart frog! We saw another one of these bad boys the next day too!
We headed back to our hotel and since we were super sandy I jumped right into the pool and the crew joined me.
Since we had missed breakfast they hooked us up with free smoothies and they were delicious and the pool was comfortable and the day beautiful.
What a life.
We showered off and walked the beach where we had the prettiest sunset yet.
This is what we’d wanted for our horseback riding night, but better late than never. We were also on the lookout for souvenirs, but none were to be found on the beach.
So then we went to the main road that was very busy for Saturday night, but still not great souvies. Hoping tomorrow is promising! We walked forever and my sandy flops were getting so uncomfortable! I was so happy when we found a little Jaco alley with restaurants and shops and it had a fountain thing in the middle where I covertly dipped my feet and got the sand off. *So* much better after that!
We had chifrijo’s which is a bowl with rice and beans, a protein, (chicken for me and pork for Matt) pico de galo, avocado, and chips. Also, this helpful graphic for healthy bowels was on the bathroom door so I screen shotted it for later.
It was really good, but too much food and Matt and I should have shared like we talked about. We are still managing to eat sin verguenza (without shame) so that’s all that matters. 😂
We had a kilometer walk home and said good night friends and took our second showers of the day and are in bed by 9pm again. We went went went all day so I don’t feel bad about that at all. Even if we are old.
The girls are doing great! We had ordered them pizza for dinner tonight and they went shopping and watched a movie. Really loving their best big girl lives there! We talked to Steve and Chelsea about mom guilt and convincing ourselves that it’s ok that we left our kids for both of our second couples trips of the year because it’s important for kids to have happy parents and both sets of our kids have traveled a lot. This will probably be our last couples trip for awhile with our 3rd baby bird prepping to leave the house, so we’re enjoying it while we can!
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