What happens when it floods?

The last section of our hike through Manuel Antonio National Park was washed out pretty badly. Might've been recent rains, might've been high tide...might've just been a way for the locals to earn some money. Either way, they brought over their leaky boats, asked for a couple of dollars, piled us in, and WALKED us across the water.

Jamie loved it. Can you tell?

Animals with Attitude.

Ok, back to some Costa Rica posting!

At the entry of Manuel Antonio
ready to see some animals, yo!

CHECK OUT HIS TONGUE!

Road Camouflage!

Check it out!! IGUANA!

Whatchoo lookin' @, foo'?

Check it out!! Racoon Tourguide!

Keep your distance, punks.

Check it out. PETRIFIED FROG!

Mariposa = Butterfly

Jungle-icious.

During our stay @ the Tabacon Resort, we swung through some unpaved roads towards the Volcano Observatory Lodge. Our mission was to stop by the snake house and butterfly garden (which, as we found out soon enough, are in just about every major town in CR). This one was simple, clean, and very well labeled! They gave us a laminated flash card to help us identify the flapping bugs and had a series of 5-6 covered conservatories. All pretty simple in design, but nonetheless quite enjoyable. Full photo set here.

It's no MBG, but the colors were out of this world!

Once again, highlighting our level of maturity.
"Are those butterflies HUMPING??"
" Get a picture."

Pretty flower.

One of my favorite shots of the whole trip.
Jamie spent so much time trying to get a picture of one of them.
And yes, those are totally croc flipflops on my feet.*

*ok, i SWORE i would never EVER ever ever ever get a pair of crocs. i bought into doc martins , birkestocks, even LA gear hightops, and those sueded black vans that turned all of my socks purple. but crocs?? on MY feet? never. and then i picked up the biggest fork in the world and ate my words. sorry, katie!! jocelyn and annie have claimed the unheard of level of comfort that their crocs bring to their feets, the dang things are EVERYWHERE in hawaii, and i felt like i needed a pair of uber-waterproof, somewhat slip-proof flipflops to take on our trip. Boy, am i ever happy i did. these dang things saved my neck during some treacherous paths, loose stones and gravel covered in damp moss and algae. torrential downpours had nothing on my little slabs of blue rubber. on a buyer's remorse note, i now have zero idea when i'll ever use them again.

Food of Costa Rica Vacation.

I'm thinking of writing about this trip in separate categories to assist in vacation planning for others. Mostly because Debi's and Devon's posts were enlightening and certainly helped us in figuring out what to do for the 10 day trip. But also because I've clumped those categories in my brain already.

So, without further ado, here's some info about our dining experience in CR!

We went with bottled water or bottled soda (or beer) without ice for as much of the trip as possible. "Sin hielo" came in handy. Brushed our teeth with bottled water for 10 days to take extra precaution! Especially when I reread devon's post about Patrick + Montezuma. We stocked up on some Tums, Pepto, Immodium, and Levaquin (antibiotic). Ya, we HATE diarrhea. :)

Most of our foodstuffs were just ok and I feel lucky to not ever be tired of a sweet plantain "banana". Yummy, always, mmmmm.

Typical Costa Rican meal = Casado.
"Casado" literally means married.
As in this is the meal you'd be fed if married to a CR woman.

Another typical meal.
Arroz con Pollo = Rice with Chicken

A "vegetarian" casado = a hunk of cheese instead of meat.

Birthday breakfast.
Seeing a theme here?
Lots of beans+rice (gallo pinto).

Produce section in a grocery store.
There's chayote (yum), plantains (yum), yuca (yuck), and other unidentifiables.

My favorite chip brand, but I prefer the plantain chips by Liliana.
Also, my name in high school spanish class (liliana, not plantain).

And for future travelers!

La Fortuna (found zero dessert items that were tasty):

• Anch'io - woodfired pizza with fresh basil (albahaca). nice ambiance and adjoining one of the only european breakfast places we saw (crepes!). looked good. The pizza was thin and crusty and fresh. Great the next day too after an overnight jaunt in our hotel mini fridge. Not good banana cake. $$
  
• Los Tucanes @ Tabacon Resort - overpriced fine dining, but convenient and no need for reservation during green season. Gross dessert. $$$$
  
• Soda La Parada - Huge portions, cheap. Don't get the vegetarian casado here. $
  
• Restaurante Que Rico - "Specializes" in pasta aka spaghetti. I got the chicken fajitas and they were consumed rapidly. Jamie got the spaghetti bolagnese and it was too sweet for me. Disgusting coffee flan. $$
  
• Choza de Laurel - v. touristy spot with plenty of parking. We think tour buses must stop here too because of its enormity and "authentic" feel. Big chicken rotisserie that slow cooks the meat and bunches of plantains hanging from the rafters. Food was fine, prices were better. $
  

Monteverde:

• Restaurant De Lucia - Recommended by a co-worker. Isolated from central triangle of town, we were the only people here for dinner so we got pretty chummy with our server (fun!). They humored my broken Spanish and I was pleasantly surprised by my meal. Orange chicken for me and chicken lasagne for Jamie. No dessert. $
  
• Restaurant @ Hotel Fonda Vela - Creepy hotel ala the Hotel Wayne in Honesdale, PA. For non-camp people, this was the hotel the camp dumped off the fired staffers. For camp people, definitely click on the two links I provided above - kinda funny. Anyway, the breakfast here was fine and the restaurant was better than the rooms (although still creepy in its own right). $
  

Manual Antonio Area:

• El Avion - Big a$$ airplane that was involved in the Iran-Contra scandal, bought for $3000, and built into a 3 story restaurant. Weird, huh? Awesome chicken nachos that quelled our post-swim/beach hunger. Decent chocolate cake, but gross ice cream. Actually, I think the CR ice cream just doesn't suit my palate (too much sugar?). $
• Rico Tico Bar @ Si Como No Hotel - Listen to howler monkeys yelp and crash through the forest while grabbing some sandwiches and drinks at the swim up bar. I got the veggie club and Jamie enjoyed his grilled chicken on focaccia. Spend 5,000 colones (about $10) at the hotel and get free admission to the 8:30pm movie playing every night in the 47 seat movie "theater". They ran the Bourne movies when we were there - awesome! Perfectly fine breakfast buffet spread in the morning, included in some reservation rates. $$
  
• Cafe Milagro - More sandwiches and on Fridays, order 2 sandwiches and get a free issue of Tico Times (local paper). "Known" for their coffee roasting and successful exportation. I got the Mono Loco drink (crazy monkey) which was blended coffee, chocolate, and banana. Pretty good. $
  

Jaco + Esterillos Oeste:

• Lemon Zest (Jaco) - The chef here is TOTALLY full of himself, but his food kinda warrants it. Amongst the limited cuisine options that CR had offered so far, the meal we had here shot directly to the top of the list. Robert Lemon adds creative flair to the traditional CR meal and tops it off with a modern, more international twist. He ran a restaurant in Miami forever so some of his stuff is even Cuban by design. Yum-o. A group of us split the ahi sashimi, lobster soup, goat cheese salad, lobster quesadilla, pork chops, and chicken milenese (his wife's fave). Chocolate molten lava cake was small and just ok, but ice cream was much better. I'd certainly return here! $$$
  
• Los Amigos (Jaco) - Definite tourist trap, but 2 for 1 "bigass smoothies" and their black bean and chicken quesadillas were tasty. Jamie got a BBQ chicken wrap and enjoyed. Don't be fooled by the traveling musicians though! Once they play for you, it's 2,000 colones they request ($4) and they don't accept coins. $$
  
• Anfiteatro @ Villa Calletas Resort (Herradura) - Super expensive for what you get. Worth taking the detour for the Pacific Ocean view, but I certainly would select other restaurants before this one. $$$$
  
• Poolside @ Marriott Los Suenos Resort (Herradura) - Yummy pina coladas and strawberry smoothies. In-n-out style french fries accompanied the kid's hot dog and the chicken quesadillas were the best on the entire trip (and you know we ate a lot of chicken quesadillas). Decent prices. $$
  
• L'Almentria (sp? Esterillos Oeste) - Owned by friends of Jamie's brother. Run for about a year, specializing in caribbean style seafood. The ingredients are mostly shopped for each morning (fish, veggies, etc.) and Karen prepares a set number of each item so get there earlier in the evening for more selection. Decent prices. $$
  
• Apartmentos Iguanas (Esterillos Oeste) - Buddy up to the owners during your stay and they might have you join their ocean view veranda for some home-cooked meals in gigantic portions. Tasty, tasty dinners with local flair and amazing breakfasts (french toast, garlicky bkfst potatoes, latkes). Ok, so maybe they pulled out all the stops because this place is run by Jamie's brother's family and his in-laws. $ <--free! :)

Back from the Costa Rica

we caught the tailend of a tropical storm when we first got into the country.

unnecessarily feared bad weather for the rest of our trip.

Our vacation to Costa Rica definitely rocked. Highlights + future posting include:

• Ziplining (for SURE) + hot springs + seeing monkeys in the "wild". National parks count, right?
• Feeling like we scored with off-season discounts and unseasonably sunny weather.
• Seeing jamie's brother for the first time in a year and hanging out with the kids et al.
  
• Driving on + surviving those CRAZY roads. Yes, that's right, folks. I DROVE SOME OF IT. in the rain and on unpaved roads and all. Obviously, more on this later.

Guess where we're flying to tonight?

Ahhh...vacation.*
*picture stolen from the 'net.

As you read this, we'll be making our way down to Costa Rica for a little while. Hitting up lots of the same places devon+patrick and debi+ben did during their respective trips (thanks, blogs, for the easily traceable info!), plus putting in some time with Jamie's brother and his family.

This trip isn't as last minute as it seems, but we have both had an influx of work events and travel the past couple of months so much of our planning was done somewhat remotely or during late hours. Our flight and hotel reservations, for example, had to be made when either one of us were out of town for one reason or another. Can't wait to get away from it all!

There should be a few posts to occupy you in my absence. Finally got around to getting some photos off the ole camera and onto the ole computadora (see, i'm brushing up on mi espanol).

Sorry I didn't get a chance to call you this weekend, dev!