Winding down

We had a truly lovely action-packed visit with our friends from California last weekend. We found Parque Nacional Diria with the help of a nice Tico man and his son on a motorcycle. They led the way through the unmarked dirt roads around Santa Cruz and we were rewarded with hiking along a remote riverbed where howler monkeys scared the crap out of our friends (we tried to warn them of the eerie noise but the real thing is sooo scary). Then the monkeys literally crapped on us! Rio said, "Hey, it's raining under this tree!" Ewww. We also finally got to see the famed basilisk lizards darting over the water. The guys got to surf and us gals got to chat. They were barely here before they were off to San Jose to fly home.

We then had a bonfire on the beach with the friendly Avellanas crowd. Now the fridge is empty, the floor hasn't been swept in awhile, and we're sooo tired. But all of the good times with friends have been a perfect ending to our trip. We leave Casa Maicol here in Costa Rica in less than a week and the days are flying by. There's only time for a few more walks to the beach, a few more evenings in the hammock, and a few more photos of this little country that has challenged and mystified us for the past nine weeks.

Around our cabina. We can walk to the beach for sunset.

A crack in the reef at low tide.

A forgotten turtle shell.