Travel Day: Costa Rica to Medellin, Colombia Day 183!

On Thursday the 27th we left our airbnb at 7:30 and had a 3 hour drive to San Jose.  Our first stop was a FedEx store b/c we needed to ship home the shells I've collected over the past 2 months.  We have heard they are pretty strict in the Galapagos Islands and will search bags.  Konrad first looked up shipping costs and it was looking like it would be $300 and I was like well we will just have to hope they don't get confiscated.  But then I remembered that my BIL Richard gets really good FedEx deals through work and Konrad reached out too see if he could hook us up.  Richard figured it would be about $35 to ship a 5 lb box.  Much more doable!  

So glad Konrad was willing to go to all the trouble of making this work.  He walked around Quepos to find a box to use, asked our airbnb host to print the label for us, and walked in to mail it.  He's the best :)

I am fascinated by these freeway vendors.  So crazy to me!  Luckily they seem to only be around during traffic jams, so it's not super dangerous, but still.  We have seen them in quite a few countries in Central/South America

Cute sloth in the airport.  We had about 3 hours in the airport. 

It was a two hour flight and then we stood in line for immigration for 2.5 hours.  It was so long.  We all just read our books (Cam eventually went and sat on the side of the room while we weaved through 10 more turns).  We then got in an uber and had a 45 minute ride to the airbnb.  Part of that was through a 9KM tunnel...it was so crazy long!   When we got to our destination we realized it was not our destination.  We tried calling our airbnb contact but got a message that said she doesn't answer the phone after 5 and to contact through airbnb.  Eventually we got a hold of someone and had them talk to our driver.  Our driver got frustrated with the host (he told us later that he basically said he was stupid b/c the address should have taken us to the right place).  In the end we aren't sure if Konrad put in the wrong address or if leaving off a G was important, but our driver found the place by putting in the name of the apartment building and he drove us 20 more minutes to it.  We wanted to give him big tip but the app only allowed the equivalent of $1.25 US so I ran over and gave him  $20 US.  Hopefully he can exchange it at his bank.  We did make it in and the apartment is very nice.  

So in summary: 3 hour drive, 3 hours in the airport, 2 hour flight, 2.5 hours in line for immigration, 45+ uber ride to the apartment.  We are beat and ready to crash!  Luckily we had some food packed in our suitcases so it was tortilla with Nutella and/or protein bars and popcorn for dinner at 9:45 at night :) 

And the night time view was so pretty with all of the lights!

There is a pool but apparently you have to wear a swim cap to enjoy it.  I read that in the airbnb listing and forgot to talk to Konrad about and sure enough in a text we got it said make sure to bring your swim caps :). We were just about to go down and enjoy some sunshine (this morning we slept in (made pancakes for Konrad and Cam...yay for more suitcase food! (I'm fasting for my friend Becky who is really sick right now), then hit the grocery store, and then did math) but a huge storm just rolled in.  So windy and rainy.  Thunder and lightening.  People across the way have their windows and doors open and curtains are blowing like crazy.  I bet it will be soaking wet when they get home!  

So far we are loving the lower temps...it was 75 on our walk to the store today and when we got off the plane the air actually felt a little cool in our lungs.  The forecast is calling for thunderstorms each afternoon so we are going to have to get up and go do things b/c we do not want to be caught outside in one of these storms!

Its day 183 of our trip!!

Playa Manual Antonio {Quepos, Costa Rica}

Tuesday the 25th

We saw 2 giant iguanas on the beach, that was the first time we saw those there

the wiener dog was back at the beach this day

We could see the sloths claw

such a beautiful beach!

We saw all these lines in the sand and assumed it was the same little sea creature we found in Tamarindo drawing.  The Tamarindo one was more slug like, but this one had a hard shell like a hermit crab, but was so tiny.  Each of these lines is drawn by a different creature. 

so tiny!

Loved all the pelicans of course

We found a sand dollar that was alive 

We put it back in the ocean

We walked to the left side of the beach this evening and found a little river that had pretty birds, tiny jumping fish, and the possibility of crocodiles, but we didn't see those

Wednesday the 26th

Cam got a sunburn on Friday and it has been so weird.  I took this picture to send to Kimber to ask what we should do.  Kimber said Cam probably got 2nd degree burns and is now losing all of that skin (basically gave herself a chemical peel).  We did our best to keep her out of the sun these past few days and it's slowly looking better, but man poor kid.  She had sunscreen on that day (50spf) but had worn her snorkel goggles for a bit, but then stopped wearing them.  We think the goggles took off the sunscreen and then b/c she was in the water for over an hour the UV plus the water reflection was a bad combo.  The little scab on the top of her head is from Sunday when she put on a hat for our hike and it ripped the skin.  She's a trooper though and hasn't complained much.  She just wants the redness to go away!

One more afternoon at the beach:

She named him Percy and loved his ears :)

Saw his face again!

she loves wiener dogs!

We stopped and got some Thai food on the way home.  Wasn't my favorite Thai ever but it was still delicious!

That night was laundry and packing night.  We leave in the morning!  We really loved this area of Costa Rica and will for sure be back!

Another Day in Quepos {Costa Rica}

 I saw two giant iguanas on my walk today:

Konrad helping Cam with science:

Later in the afternoon we went to the beach.  We were sitting closer to the trees and restaurant which Cam loved b/c then we were closer to the monkey's.  She took off with my phone and took so many cute videos.  Here are some screen shots from them:

We could see the sloths face...there is a baby with her somewhere in there

They made really yummy Pina colada's and we got them each time we were at the beach.  2 drinks for $12 for happy hour :)

It looks like we each have one, but really Konrad and I just shared 1 :)

Today was a late afternoon shade day and we enjoyed our books and the animals

More monkeys:

While I was off on a walk Camryn saw a monkey steal a strawberry daiquiri off a nearby table and then run up a tree with it.  She ran and got Konrad's phone, luckily he was done using it with his drone, and took some cute videos of the monkey enjoying his treat.  She came running to tell me when I came back from my walk and was so sad that I missed this b/c she knew I would have loved it.  I told her she captured it for me so it was like I was there :)

We watched another beautiful sunset!

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I love how dense the tropical trees are to the beach on Manual Antonio

This was the first time I saw a sloth in a palm tree :)

We had driven past a restaurant that had an airplane in it and when we ended up leaving the beach dry we figured it was a good time to eat dinner there.  Konrad and I both loved our food...it was so nice to have something with different flavors and vegetables and stuff.  Our diet is pretty limited when trying to work with what we can find in the grocery store, what Cam will eat, what supplies we have in an airbnb kitchen, and what doesn't take 1,000 ingredients to make.  So eating out is a treat!  But it's so expensive we don't do it very often.  

Caught the tail end of the sunset!  Such a beautiful night!

This giant moth liked the condensation on my water bottle

standing under the wing.  The wing on the opposite side was used as a counter

There is a bar inside of the airplane

What you see from the street: