Six Days of Solid Smiles and Too Much Fun

I just returned from six ever-so-wonderful days of fun due to a much welcomed and appreciated visit from home. Sunday a little playing in the water with the surf boards, then off to the Rum Bar for live music, drinks, and pizza pool side along with a very pleasant Austrailian visitor that shared a cab to Dominical with Shane. Monday a motorcycle ride to Playa Ventanas, where we saw a family of Howler monkeys in the trees just up from the beach, and two natural caves that are about 250-feet long. You can see the waves come through the far end and resonate all the way through to the other end when the tide is just right. After observing the Howler Monkeys, we enjoyed the non-crowded beach and swam around in the bay for a while. Monday night, great Thai food at a restaurant owned by a couple with nine dogs - my heroes! Tuesday, a typical Tico platter for breakfast enjoyed riverside with the crocodile, and then off to stay in the beautiful town of Manuel Antonio, where I was horribly defeated by the waves at Playitas. No harm done though, and we enjoyed a nice sunset over the ocean and walk along the long beach of Manuel Antonio. Wednesday, woke up with a cold, and so hung around the cute hotel most of the day, until we decided to go run a couple of errands and have dinner and drinks at Barba Roja where we enjoyed one of the best sunset views around. Thursday, breakfast at Cafe Milagro followed by a sailboat tour with a group full of other happy tourists, including another couple from Utah (Kaysville and Ogden I believe), and two Canadian actors, one being the talented Peter Keleghan, who played Lloyd Braun on Seinfeld. Peter was in the episode where Lloyd Braun had a nervous breakdown when the David Dinkins election campaign for Mayor of New York City proved to be unsuccessful. Anyway, all very nice people on the tour with us. We saw flying fish, dolphins, and a killer sunset from the sail boat, and some tropical fish during the snorkeling portion of the tour, and of course, a big beautiful Costa Rican sunset to end the cruise off right. Hats off to our most charming and accommodating host, Minor, for serving up lots and lots of drinks, feeding the fish to attract them while snorkeling, and cracking us up with his hilarious femininity! Minor was a wonderful cruise director. This morning, we headed into the national park for the wildlife and more beautiful beaches, but were denied due to an obscure incident which no one cared to explain. However, one of the nice Tico national park workers who had to refuse our entry, led us over to a tree where a mother and baby three-toed sloth happened to be just hanging around just outside of the entrance. They couldn't have been more than 25-feet above our heads! They are such amazing creatures with horrid awful little hair-do's. We had so much fun watching every little deliberate movement while the baby hugged the mother sloth ever so tightly. It was a truly a moment to remember. After my sweet little visitor was swept away by the shuttle this afternoon, Cos and I checked out of the hotel, and Cos decided to chase a cat up the stairs to the second level, slide off the awning, and fall a good ten to twelve feet to the ground! The cat of course made the jump from the awning to the retaining wall without any problem, but Cos just stared up at the cat from the hard ground stunned and somewhat in shock. He'll never learn his cat lessons!