Wow, time flies in Paradise!  No postings since August 17?



We had our first visitors over the last weekend in August.  Lisa and Brian, two of our friends from Michigan, came to Costa Rica.  Lisa found some insanely low price via Delta to fly out and booked it.  Lisa is a friend of mine from high school in Manistee, and Brian is her husband.  Lisa is also an attorney, like I formerly was in my past life.  They are the ONLY people I know who travelled more than Kurt and I did.  They also are obsessed with animals and have no children, so they are very similar to us. 



Anyway, Lisa and Brian flew into San Jose late, so they spent the night then headed over to Jaco in their rental SUV.  They stayed at Los Suenos, which I recommended since they are Marriott fans.  We got to see the pool area and their room and the place seemed very nice.  They also got a kickass rate because it is "low or green" season here.  Saturday they got here mid afternoon, and Kurt and I headed over on the scooter to find them.  Los Suenos has some killer speed bumps on the scooter!  Found Lisa and Brian by the pool so we laid there a bit and made a reservation online to do Jose's Crocodile Tour in Tarcoles at 4 PM.  We got a call seeing if we could come at 315 instead so we raced over there.  Got there, and the guy who owns the place goes to our gym!  Kewl we know somebody who runs a tour we really like.  The tour was awesome, saw lots of birds and crocs.  We saw this bird I have never seen that is pink, but not a flamingo.  Called a Spoonbill.  Click here to see a pic.  Mine came out blurry as they were far away and it was starting to get dark. 



After that, headed into town for dinner as Lisa and Brian were getting hungry after a long day.  We ate at Taco Bar that night and everyone had a great meal.  After that, stopped at the pharmacy as I needed some bandaids and Lisa needed sunscreen.  While there, we think we saw a prostitute with her pimp getting some medication for a medical "issue".  That was our interpretation anyway, haha.  Called it a night after that, as we knew we were getting up early the next morning.




Got up early Sunday to go to Manuel Antonio National Park and on a hike.  Drive there was easy, parked and paid for our entry ticket.  While in line, we were approached by a park ranger who offered to give us a private tour.  We hired him, and off we went.  He told Lisa if she did not see a sloth, we would get our money back.  This was perfect since seeing a sloth was the main thing Lisa wanted to do while in Costa Rica.  She also wanted to see a tapir, but those are in really remote areas we did not have time to get to this trip.  I have never seen a sloth at Manuel, so I was excited the guide said that!  We saw not only one sloth, but like 8!  It was sloth craziness!  We also saw both capuchin and squirrel monkeys, which was awesome, since squirrel monkeys are rare outside the Osa.  It was an awesome tour. 



Our Guide, Leo, also offered to do the Damas Monkey Island Tour with us the next day, so we set up a meeting place for that and left.  Left there and had lunch at this awesome place called El Avion, which my friend Kim recommended.  It was soooooo good.  I had a lobster burger, and shrimp soup.  Both superb and our view, from the best table in the place, was killer.  I also had a great banana drink.  That night for dinner, we ate at Los Amigos.  Awesome day.




Next day was the Damas Monkey Island Tour.  Had to get up insanely early for this one and met Leo in Quepos.  Headed to the river for the tour.  This tour, Lisa really wanted to see an anteater.  Leo said he would try and find one.  We were also guaranteed to see a crocodile or our money back.  First thing we saw were capuchin monkeys.  We pulled up to the mangroves and the monkeys were jumping all over us and the boat.  It was somewhat chaotic.  They really like bananas.  After that, we saw a boa and the anteater.  The anteater was not what I was expecting though.  It was a variety called the silky anteater, which is a lot smaller than the anteaters I have seen.  It is orange, and the one we saw was pregnant and high up in a tree sleeping, kinda like a sloth does.  Very kewl we saw one though.  The views in the mangroves were relaxing and stunning.  I love the mangroves. 



After the tour, we headed into town to have breakfast at another place with an amazing view.  I have a breakfast burrito that was incredible.  We decided to chill at the beach after that.  Parked and rented chairs.  Then this woman approached us and asked if we wanted massages.  Duh.  Everyone but Kurt got hour massages.  Walked some on the beach, Kurt and Brian drank a few rum and cokes, and Lisa and Brian ended up going parasailing for only $75 total!



 Lisa and I got offered free surf lessons too, but we turned them down since we were both wearing bikinis which are not what you wear to learn how to surf.  All of us got way too much sun.  No clue why I forgot sunscreen, but it was not bad and had faded by the next day.  Dinner that night was without Kurt as he had to co-host his one radio show, so we decided to try a place I have not been to called Pajara Pinta.  It was incredible.  They use all local, natural ingredients.  You can't even order a Coke.  I got this mahi wrap that was awesome.  We also ordered hummus for the table to share.  The lemonade I got was incredible as well.  It was so good I took Kurt there on Saturday night for date night a couple weeks ago.

Lisa and Brian left the next morning, but I would say the trip was a raging success!  Can't wait for more visitors.