1st and 2nd night in Costa Rica

Hello!!

Costa Rica is BEAUTIFUL!

above: This (driving pic) was on the drive from San Jose to Quepos. Sun sets around 6pm.

above: Quepos during the day, Pacific Ocean sea wall to the right.

David brought his laptop and there is wireless connection at the house so here I am. The trip to get from San Jose to Manuel Antonio/Quespos was about 2-3 hours and on a winding, narrow road through the mountains. The roads here are insane, they are really bumpy, sometimes not even paved and very narrow. The money system is confusing because 1,000 colones is like $2.00 USD but when you hear someone say dos mil colones, it sounds like A LOT of money. It's also very poor here, it's weird, I didn't expect it to be like this. There areas that are very dirty and very poor.

Of course I am like the translator and mom would be happy that I am speaking spanish, terribly, but none the less speaking.

The view from the house is insane, we got in on Thurs night and it was raining the whole way, by 6pm its dark and pretty scary out. So when we got to the house, I could hear the ocean but couldn't see itt because of the torrential downpour. It was thundering and lighting so bad the first night. Then I woke up at 5:30 am to this incredible view!!

OMG It was crazy. On a mountain overlooking the Pacific ocean, it was literally breath taking. I woke up David and was like OMG OMG look outside!!These were 5am photos of the pool and sunrise.
This one was prob closer to about 8am.

We went into town yesterday and got some really strange groceries, they have weird stuff here. These are margarine.
These are squeeze packets of mayo, mustard, tomato paste/ketchup, etc.
These are large containers of Mayo and the Lizano Salsa which is "Tico" (native) to Costa Rica. It's sort of like a kicked up Mojo.

And then we drove down to Manuel Anotonio where the National park is and the beach. All these vendors are set up selling their crafts and trying to sell stuff to you. They say "try it on, try it on" It's like working at Origins, they say "take it now give me 1,000 colon and put it in your bag" HAHAHA.

Woke up yesterday morning to monkeys in the tree right outside and then later in the afternoon there was one male Howler monkey eating in the tree right next to the pool. He was great! He was putting on such a show for us, posing in positions, and hanging his little monkey balls all over the branches.
Meet "Balls" as David named him.

He was awesome. I took a ton of pictures of him.

It started raining yesterday around 3 or so but then stopped by like 6 or 7 and then it was nice the rest of the night. Unfortunately last night we left all the windows open, (the way this house is designed the living room is completely open to the outside, no AC except units in the bedrooms). We left the windows open last night because the weather was nice and that's what you do in Costa Rica (electricity is very expensive) I was being bit by mosquitos so I but some Burts Bee's bug stuff on my ears and around my hairline to keep them out of my face but unfortunately I woke up with huge whelts on my forehead and a swollen left eye. I look like Sloth from The Goonies. And again I woke up at 5:30. The sun comes up really early considering we are 9 degrees away from the equator, so it's pretty bright VERY early. So Laura put cold wet washcloths on my face and hand (also swollen) and I took a Benedryl and laid down. It sucks, my eye is puffed up like a baloon and my forhead looks like I was boxing. None the less the howler monkey's are howling across the jungle and the brids continue to sing.

Laura stepped on a wasp in the kitchen and got stung on the bottom of her foot. So yea we're doing great over here in this tropical wonderland! haha. The swelling on my face has gone down but I still look gnarly.

Ok well I'll try to post regularly or when I see more cool stuff.