Beach trip and CR Independence day

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September 15th is Independence Day in Costa Rica when they celebrate their independence from Spain in 1821. Festivities consist of big patriotic parades and fireworks (sounds familiar). People dress in the Costa Rica flag colors as well as typical Costa Rican attire. The school celebrated on Friday and Grayson wore his red, white, and blue. Saturday they had a flag raising but we were unable to attend since we decided to travel to the beach for a little R&R. We traveled about 20 miles south of Jaco (which is located on the Pacific coast). We have visited Jaco before and were not interested in staying in the town again. We prefer to be a little more remote and Esterillos-Este suited our needs. To get to the Esterillos- Este you drive down a pretty tree lined street surrounded by farms then cross a dirt landing strip. We later learned that a skyjumping outfit once operated out of Esterillos-Este. Apparently the plane encountered a microburst that caused it to crash. The pilot went down with the plane while only one of the three jumpers was able to clear the tail. We landed at the Pelican Hotel which was a wonderful place to relax, get a good bite to eat and have some good conversation and at $65/night it is a bargain. Kilon met a fisherman who lived there four months out of the year (the prime fishing season) and has a yacht at Los Suenos. Maybe a fishing trip will be in his near future.

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Photos

Raelyn
models her Independence day celebration outfit she wore to school on Friday

Raelyn and Grayson
Raelyn asked Grayson if she was beautiful and Grayson nodded with a big smile on his face!

The Pelican
the hotel we stayed at was right on the beach.... the staff was very nice and we basically had the place to ourselves.

Independence Day Celebration
in Jaco

men on truck
playing instruments

Grayson poses
on a statue in the hotel

Scarlet Macaws
Were flying around the coastline in abundance....we were trying to capture a good shot

Kilon and Grayson
playing on the beach at low tide

tree lined driveway
to access Esterillos Este

Coastline view
near Jaco

Landing strip
You have to cross the landing strip to access the beach

warning sign
for cars and planes

Scarlet Macaw
tried to capture another shot

Hotel cat
This cat could be seen all over the hotel. Kilon woke to the tapping of his paw on our window around 3am.

Hotel dog
joined us for walks on the beach. The dog loved to chase bikes, motorcycles, four wheelers, etc. Pretty funny

Xandari
a beautiful boutique hotel a couple doors down from oru hotel. Wayyy out of our price range.

Lunch spot
We found this neat little hangout "Lowtide". It was a nice place for lunch. Grayson had a yummy banana milkshake. Kilon and I both had taco's which were pretty yummy.