Fun, sun, food, and Piňa Colada. What more could a girl ask for? Costa Rica
is a beautiful place to visit. I personally would like to move there! Of course, Dan preferred the Cerveza (beer), but he was just as content as I to lounge around the pool, swim in the Pacific ocean or fly like birds through the rainforest trees. What heaven. What a wonderful place to vacation.

We stayed at a place called Nakuti Papagayo. Nakuti means crab but we
only saw tiny crabs, no bigger than an inch or two. Honest!  
  

Dan and Fran on a day trip to the Combo Tour. We are going to fly through the canopy of the rainforest, ride horses, shoot a waterslide and cover ourselves in volcanic mud! Yum!!!

Nakuti poolside. Franny sits on the jacuzzi in the centre of the pool. At night it's lit up with rotating coloured lights. Very romantic.

Dan enjoys a cerveza while on a walk with Franny around the resort. It's only about 90^oF. Darn difficult to take a picture of the two of us with no one around to hold the camera. It was very serene and there were few cars passing by.

Franny enjoys a Piňa Colada (without rum believe it or not) poolside. The sun is so hot that it burns right through the 45 sunscreen cream. Time for a dip in the pool! I dipped often to cool down.

Dan brought me virgin Piňa Colada's, checking to make sure I was behaving myself. (NOT!)

My new buddy, Judy and her mother Sadie. Judy drank one or two Piňa Colada but her favorite was rye and coke. We took turns walking up the steps to the bar. (She went there more often than I did. I wonder if she noticed! LOL)

There were plenty of children at the resort but they were kept busy by three staff memebers. They played volleyball, tag and a ton more games. Much of the time they played in the jacuzzi and chatted with their sitters who spoke English well.

What's a pool without a nearby washroom. This little hut came in handy often!

In the distance you can see the ocean. We spent much of the day in the pool while the tide was out but went for swims in the ocean later in the day when the water was deeper. Some people ended up getting small stings from little jellyfish but there were no sharks or other dangerous creatures.

Low tide.
Due to the volcanoes, the beaches have grey and sometimes black sand.

Mountains  we saw as we toured.
There are 112 volcanoes, 6 of them active, in Costa Rica.

These beautiful pink birds were as large as a stork. Unfortunately I don't recall their name. They are truly angelic.

White faced monkeys. They and the Howler monkeys do not get along yet they can be as close as a tree away. They are very territorial. Inquisitive. They came right up to the boat on the riverboat tour. People used to feed them and they still remember.

All wildlife species in Costa Rica are protected by the government. After they realized that they weren't getting handouts, they disappeared back into the trees. Sorry guys!

The Great Blue Heron. This creature is familiar to Canadians. He can stand in one spot, motionless for hours, waiting for his prey. We saw lots of junior herons too. They were not as patient.

This heron was not so nice. It had a frog's leg held tight in it's beak. Now everyone knows that Franny loves frogs. That is just wrong! It was the off season for frogs and this was the only one we saw.

We did see many iguanas. This critter and I had a long conversation as I slowly moved in for a shot. (photographic that is) He bobbed his head up and down to show me that it was his territory. Either that or he was flirting with me. Hmmm.

This crocodile was sunning himself on the muddy bank. In a few hours the tide will be in and there will be three or four more feet of water for him to swim in.

This is the Jesus Christ Lizard. The guide said he is called that because he can walk on water. He moved pretty fast when we moved in for a shot. His feet are web-like and give him the leverage to move like he has wings for feet.

Tour Guide Rodrigo. Hubba Hubba! He was very knowledgeable about the flora and fauna. He took us on our COMBO TOUR of the canopy, horseback riding, water shoot and mud baths and hot water springs..
 

You can't see Niky's face unfortunately, but she was
a hoot the entire week as she kept an eye on us all.
She worked for SunWing booking the tours.

One of the drivers and Andreos,
 the rookie on the team.
He had to follow along and behave himself while we
could misbehave all we wanted! Sorry bud!
Very nice men.

This is Miguel and the boat driver from the Riverboat Tour. They had sharp eyes to point out the many creatures along the way.

Now, you can't tell me that the staff would pick on the rookie! Andreos had fallen asleep sitting up. He was like that for at least twenty minutes along a very bumpy section of road. Miguel and the driver were taking pictures of him sleeping with their cell phones.

On the right, more scenery. There were mountains upon mountains, upon mountains. I wondered if the little one was a baby volcano?

Dan's off on a run through the canopy. We had to hold on with two hands. One held the strap in front, the other acted as a break and held the cable behind the pulley.

Fran and Dan all geared up and ready to go.

Dan being attached to the cable.

One, two, three, and off he goes....bye honey!

My Carol Burnette style Tarzan call echoed through the tree tops. And here I thought I'd be afraid!
NOT! It was so much FUN!

So, I guess my brother is right. I have to try parachuting next.
I DON'T THINK SO!

The final run. We walked across the wire bridge
 to get to the final platform. Now it's time to
head for lunch and then the horses.

After a filling lunch in a restaurant, we saddled up for the next part of our journey. Imagine, a restaurant in the middle of nowhere and the food was excellent! The photographers had taken shots of us screaming as we raced through the trees and offered them to us for sale. Eek!        

Doesn't Dan look spiffy on his horse. He's the strong silent type and didn't say much on the trip. He told me later that his horse was nipping the butt of another horse, causing it to buck. The woman riding it was not  happy at all!

The horses were smaller than those in Canada and picked
their way among the rocks and branches without tripping.
I was totally impressed!

My little mount was freckled with brown spots. I kept apologizing to him/her for having such a big load.
(I never did figure out if it was male or female) When
I said 'endolé or yihaa he moved! Great horse!

A beautiful creek ran through the hot springs area beneath the platform where we stood. It was the perfect spa; peaceful and quiet. That is, until we all got there and started laughing and joking

After having a hot sauna we slathered volcanic mud all over our faces and bodies and stood out in the sunshine to dry.
The hot springs offered 5 or 6 different pools of varying temperatures from 106^◦F to  75^◦F.

A wooden bridge takes you from a mud bath to a hot tub. NICE! I only got out of the water because I got dizzy. If I hadn't, Dan would have had to pry me out.

Howler monkeys roamed over the roofs of the villas at around 5am each morning. (over Judy's and Sadie's place, not ours, thank goodness...tee hee) There is fruit in the tree the climbed on and rested before their trek back again.

Momma Howler climbs cautiously onto a branch with the
baby clinging to her back. The baby was so cute.
It didn't even have much in the way of hair.

Remember that game, Where's Waldo? Well, see if
you can find the howler monkeys in this shot. I had to
keep moving out of range for fear of getting fruit or
some unmentionable foreign object dropped on my
head while taking pictures.

Dan takes a pic with one of the many chicas. We were served meals by very friendly staff and our rooms were always kept tidy. Even language barriers didn't keep the smiles away.

This is Sadie. She's Judy's mom. The poor thing was ill the entire week but still came to dinner each meal and sat in the cool lounge with a glass of wine with us at night. She was very entertaining and had me in stitches more than once. I miss you Sadie.

Wined and dined, we had entertainment in the evenings. This trio played and sang for us, giving us a Caribbean flavor. The whole evening was wonderful.

Flags rested quietly on their poles in the sizzling afternoon air. There was no wind to lift them. This is the front gate. The security guards had a small open hut to protect them from the sun but no air conditioning.

Bougainvilla flowers. They come in many colours. We visited in January, during the dry season so there were few flowers. May through November is the rainy season where it rains for an hour each day and the grasses and trees are a lush green. More mosquitoes are out too. We only had a few bites from our trip to the forest. The purple bougainvilla below were beautiful.

Huts and homes were painted in many bright colours. I took a pic of this one for my favorite sister Karebear. (She's my only sister but still my favorite) She loves purple.

This chica works at the reception at Nakuti. She was always full of smiles and gave us the thumbs up when she left for home. Note, no one wore helmets when driving on the roads.

This cute little green house caught my eye. If Dan and I were to move to Costa Rica, I'd like a little place just like this. Out of the way, private,

And finally, we are on our way home. Fair well sweet paradise, hello blizzards and freezing cold. Is my tan peeling or did it freeze and just fall off....sigh....we'll see what next year brings.

Thank you for sharing our adventures with us.

Franny and Dan Armstrong

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Franny Armstrong & Karen Minnis-Guignard
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