Pura Vida

We are 4 days into another great vacation, Costa Rica has proven to be an amazing destination. We touched down in San Jose at 5:40am local time on Friday morning and after sleeping a good 3.5+ hrs we were ready to go. We walked about a block down the road to this random parking lot that opened up onto this little hidden hanger where our regional flight was supposed to leave from. We checked in and weighed in (ugh!)and were on our way to the coast. We flew in the tiniest 12 seater plane we felt every little wind current and wobbled our way to a nice cruising altitude. It was a bit scary but totally safe and a cool way to see the lush mountains and countryside. We touched down 20min later and were dropped at our little hotel. It was very comfortable with a pool, breakfast , within walking distance to the beach and monkeys "monos". We spent a couple days here trekking through the national Forrest, hanging at the beach and visiting all the funky restaurant/bar establishments. We have seen sloths, monkeys, tucans, coati, lizards, etc. The people are very nice and accommodating of our lack of Spanish. Laura is our resident expert and we always point at her and step back a little when people try to speak to us. We are now in Dominical where we'll be for a few more days before we move along. The house we rented is up in the hills. It requires a 4x4 car as the roads are steep and gravelly. It's all worth it because we're at the edge of the ridge and it opens up to this amazing house with infinity pool and a view of the valley down to the ocean. Bob and Bea are our hosts and they run a bit of a animal habitat rehab ranch so there are animals all around - we have two adopted dogs that keep us company while we're hanging out. Today we went surfing and all got up and had a blast. We were all exhausted after 1.5hr and grabbed lunch with all the hippies (Dominical apparently attracts them). Tomorrow were going to check out the national park in Uvita - whale tail. Loving the Ticos and their country!