{"id":2010,"date":"2011-02-03T03:46:17","date_gmt":"2011-02-03T10:46:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/silenceoftheclams.com\/blog\/?p=2010"},"modified":"2012-03-05T17:18:32","modified_gmt":"2012-03-06T00:18:32","slug":"beaches-rivers-and-sunsets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silenceoftheclams.com\/blog\/2011\/02\/beaches-rivers-and-sunsets\/","title":{"rendered":"Beaches, Rivers and Sunsets"},"content":{"rendered":"

You’re probably getting tired of my Costa Rican adventure… but there’s still so much more<\/em> to share!<\/p>\n

\"\"I promise that one day soon I’ll return to mundane posts about politics, the weather or what’s happening in my garden (yes, there are things happening!)<\/em><\/p>\n

But for now, I will continue to regale you with thrilling tales<\/em> of my adventures in Costa Rica. <\/p>\n

Lucky you<\/em>. (At least you’re not being forced to watch vacation slides in my living room \ud83d\ude42 )<\/p>\n

So, here is my report on days 9 – 11 <\/p>\n

Day 9 we relaxed<\/em>. And had the car serviced. And went to the farmers market<\/em>. So much fresh fruit!<\/p>\n

Day 10 – to the beach!<\/em>
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\"\"<\/a>We invited the Bustillos family to join us for a day at the beach – and, in turn, they took us to a great ‘locals’ beach – Do\u00c3\u00b1a Ana<\/em>.<\/p>\n

We made camp under an almond tree and enjoyed watching the flock of frigate birds circling the cliffs.<\/p>\n

We played in the water, built sand castles and turned Marie into a mermaid. <\/p>\n

The wet sand was very black<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>That evening, after dinner with the Bustillos, we ferried to the Nicoya Peninsula<\/em> and Guanacaste. <\/p>\n

The shoreline view and sunset were breathtaking…<\/p>\n

I must say that the roads on the peninsula leave something to be desired… <\/p>\n

We arrived after dark and made our way over very, very rocky roads to a cute little hotel Brandon had found on his iPhone. <\/p>\n

We checked in, and went for a refreshing night swim<\/em> – all alone in the beautiful pool. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Alone, that is, except for the swimming grasshopper<\/em>.<\/p>\n

After two rescues, only to have him jump back in the pool, we realized that he WANTED<\/strong> to swim. So we let him. He jumped in, swam around, crawled out, jumped in, swam around, then crawled out several times on his own. Once he’d had his fun for the night he hopped away into the bushes. It was pretty entertaining.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The girls enjoyed swimming the next morning after breakfast, and then we were off for a day filled with adventure… <\/p>\n

…including several hours on painfully rocky dirt roads and 4 rivers that we had to drive through<\/em>. <\/p>\n

Don’t try this without a 4-wheel drive vehicle. Or GPS<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This is one of the smaller<\/em> rivers we drove through… <\/p>\n

The last river we came to – just as it was getting dark – looked way too wide and too deep, as the tide had recently come in. Brandon was tempted to drive through it anyway, but I insisted he go wade out in it<\/em> to see how deep it was. He wasn’t thrilled about the idea – considering there could be crocodiles <\/em>in the river. But he did – and it was above his knees, just a few feet out. <\/p>\n

Needless to say, we backed up, turned around and found another way… still through a river, but not quite as deep (higher upstream). Even still, we barely made it through – the car almost got stuck about 10 feet from shore, and the car was a bit waterlogged the rest of the night. Whew!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>But those rocky roads and rivers took us to some awesome places<\/em>. <\/p>\n

We passed through the artsy town of Montezuma<\/em>… which reminded me a little bit of Hanalei on Kauai.<\/p>\n

We met some interesting people. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>There was a sign in front of a little shack house, out in the middle of nowhere, offering ice cream treats<\/em>. We needed a break from the rocky roads so stopped and got some – and visited with home\/ice cream shop owners\/farmers. He is originally from Quebec, and moved to Costa Rica to live in Montezuma – back when the only way to reach it was on horseback. Before it was ruined for tourists, he says. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>We visited some beautiful beaches. Saw little sandpipers running as fast as crabs along the sand.<\/p>\n

Ate some good food.<\/p>\n

And saw a glorious sunset.
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Still, I was very, very happy once we arrived back on paved roads with bridges. <\/p>\n

I took a lot more photos… you can view about 70 of them in the slideshow below, should you so desire – or here, if you can’t view the slideshow<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Lest you think that Costa Rica is pure perfection<\/em>, here are a list of the things that I didn’t <\/em>really love about it…<\/p>\n