At the beach with the Wildcreas

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The boys were so excited to learn that one of their best friends from home, Peter, and his parents were going to leave the cold weather in St Paul and come down for a week-long visit during the first week of April. Unfortunately, their trip coincided with the first trimester's midterms. So, the boys buckled down and studied early so that they could play with Peter when he arrived This included introducing him to the various mascotas (pets) at our house. During the week, the boys took their tests while Peter and his family toured the volcanos. Then, for the weekend, we met them down at the beach.

We stayed at a great little place called the Pelican Hotel. The beach was flat and wide and stretched for miles and miles, with thankfully little development. We went body surfing, castle building, and shell hunting (including finding some sand dollars). The boys also enjoyed hanging out at the hotel pool. Peter and particularly Sam settled right back into their silly routines from home.

One of the mornings we drove down the coast to the famous Manuel Antonio National Park. We spotted white-faced capuchin monkeys, sloths, lots of iguanas, and (a first for us) a deer. It was clearly not spooked by people as it walked alongside us for a few hundred yards. We also hiked out to a vista point, an event that none of the boys found particularly fun (see the photo). But then it was down to the beach for more castle-building and swimming in the unbelievably warm water.

That night we ate at a fun little open-air pizza place run by a young couple (a guy from Chicago and his wife from Argentina). They projected a movie onto a big white sheet while we feasted on some really delicious pizza and beer, knowing we only had a 100 meter walk back to the hotel.

We returned home the next day and after a farewell tipico dinner, sadly said goodbye to our friends the next morning as they returned home to the frigid north.

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