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Published: October 25th 2009
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Greetings from Costa Rica!
Today was a beautiful day, hot but beautiful. I woke up around 6:45am, everyday it gets earlier and earlier. Before you know it i will be up to hear the rooster crow. When i was getting out of bed i figured Myles wouldn't be up for a while so i decided to be lazy and read out side in the hammock (again!). I got bored so at one point i walked around our property (again) and took pictures. By the time we come home i will have the whole place photographed from top to bottom. FINALLY around 9:00am Myles decided to get up. So, we had some breakfast: frosted flakes with milk, fresh sweet bread, and pineapple from the day before. It was yummy, and definitely different from the food i am used to (fruit in the morning, who would have guessed?). After our delicious meal we needed to take the bikes back to the place we rented them from yesterday, Banana Azual.
We headed up the dirt road to their location along the same street as us, just a little to the north. The guy at the front desk was so nice when we
were checking in our bikes, he invited us to come use the hotel pool when ever we want, and we plan to take him up on his offer. That was one of the things i was sad about with the place we got, that there was no pool. After dropping off the bikes we headed to the beach for a quick swim. I am still so surprised by the temperature of the water. Even though i know its nice and warm, when i dip my first tow in i expect it to the really cold. After our time at the beach we headed home to get ready for our first real adventure (besides making the trek from California to here.) We decided yesterday that we wanted to head to Finca La Isla's botanical gardens. They are right down the street from us and we keep seeing the sign every time we go to town.
We changed and headed out. As we were walking out of our gate, Myles spotted a green and black poison dark frog. We had seen one before, but it was too fast to get a pic of. I believe this one might have just finished
up eating because he was a little chubby, and was not moving as fast as the last one we saw. The walk to the gardens is out 10 minutes from our house. Today it was really sunny in the morning and the walk there was hot, but we were rewarded with some very interesting plants and animals. I really wanted to see a sloth, but no such luck (sorry Mary, no backpack today.) Right as we were entering the garden (we hadn't even paid the fee to get in yet.) we saw another poison dark frog. This time it was an orangeish red one with black spots. He was really cool looking and i managed to get a pretty good pic of him. After paying the entrance fee of $5 each ( we also bought a self guide book for $1) we started along the map to the main trail of the gardens. It was broken up into 9 different sections. One was a medicinal garden, one was a banana grove, one was a rubber tree area, there was another section with a fruit grove, there was a section where you got to walk into some 2nd growth rain forest.
It was really neat and i got a lot of cool pictures to show you guys. We even ran into this cute little animal eating some small yellow fruit off of the rain forest floor. I think it was called an agoutis. I took a picture of it but its really blurry. As we ended our trip into the garden, one of the owners Ashley, offered us some fresh lime juice (which was really tasty and refreshing after our long hike through the place) and gave us a small demonstration of the different uses of the plants and fruits in the garden. We got to eat star fruit, the queen of england's favorite fruit (we can't remember the name), kumquat, two fruits that are prized for their deep red coloring (which we use in Aveda products, but again the name escapes me.) , and at the end Ashley showed us how they harvest chocolate. We got to sample some of the locally grown chocolate beans, and then some finished chocolate that they sell in town. It was really yummy. Not at all like the chocolate here, it was more gritty and not as sweet, but it was really good (Myles
doesn't agree. lol.) Then she asked where we were staying, and through this discovered that she knows our landlord Hernan. She asked us to pass some fliers along to him about some events coming up for Halloween that his daughter might want to come to. This sparked us to ask her where might be a good place for us to go next week for that same holiday and she suggested a place called Oceanis or the Natural Cafe. She said both would have Halloween parties. We plan to check them out before and decide on Halloween where to go. We thanked her and headed into town to go to the store.
We had heard form Ashley that the local farmers market is held ever Saturday in town at around 7am. We missed it this week, but because of it when we went to the store they had a lot of fresh fruits and veggies. We were so excited because we planned on making fried rice with some leftovers. We bought some red peppers, Jalapenos, Bananas, carrots, water, onions, eggs, potatoes, tortillas, sausage, and some spices. Im so stoked on the eggs because i want to make breakfast burritos some
time soon. The walk home was exhausting, but worth it to have some much great food. We got home, dropped the food on the counter, and immediately turned on the water in the outside shower. I think that might have been the best shower i have ever taken. The humidity here kills, but the atmosphere is so amazing im willing to let it slide. After our shower i wanted to go to the beach again, but Myles wanted to relax, he was the one carrying the big water jug and i think it almost killed him. So we again sat on the porch reading until i was able to convince Myles that the beach would be amazing. We changed and headed down to the beach again where we took a dip and came back home.
It was finally time for Myles to cook this famous fired rice. After the market i had been so looking forward to it. We both made a drink and started cooking. I feel like we must have had added one of everything we had in the fridge into the rice, and it did not disappoint. Myles is a good cook, especially with me as
his assistant. We both ate on the front porch with the sound of the waves in the back ground. After dinner i did the dishes and we have been here sitting on the porch ever since. We are going to have another drink and then we are going to walk down the road to a restaurant/bar we saw earlier today. I think its called Play Negra Bungalows. We aren't sure if the bar there is open to the public of just the guests of the hotel, so we will seen. If not we will just relax at home. More on that adventure tomorrow.
Have a goodnight everyone. We miss you.
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